Swiss media landscape: mergers and acquisitions at a time of crisis

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Tamara S. Yakova

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor at the Chair of Foreign Journalism and Literature, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: t-yakova@mail.ru

Section: Foreign Journalism

Mergers and acquisitions during economic depression is in full swing. Mass me­dia integration in the hands of a few media business majors has led to obvious com­petition decline and significant restriction of pluralistic opinions. Today policy of media segment is generated by five media corporations: “Tamedia”, “NZZ Group”, “AZ Medien Group”, “Sudostsvaiz Medien” and “Ringier”. Two more foreign me­dia companies have expanded their scope of influence in western and central parts of the country: French “Group Ersan Media” and German “Axel Springer Verlag”. As a result of major deals in mass media segment monopolists have consolidated their positions in Swiss media market in practice taken over most of the editions or limited their audience significantly.

Keywords: integration, mergers and acquisitions, media market, media corporation, “Ringier”