This is what the latest reader research led by the REMP institute revealed for the period from April 2007 to March 2008. The latest figures, updated every six months, confirm that free dailies continue to grow, while nearly all paid-for dailies in French- and German- speaking Switzerland are experiencing 2-5% decreases in readership.

Le Matin Bleu is well ahead, with 524,000 readers (+54,000), compared to its competitor 20 minutes (470,000). The bestseller list of paid-for titles remains unchanged. Le Matin semaine is still the most-read paid-for daily with 283,000 readers (- 13,000), followed by 24 Heures (230,000) and Tribune de Genève (150,000). Le Temps is the only one to have increased its readership (+ 4,000 readers) with Le Nouvelliste (+2,000). The strong performance of the weekly Terre&Nature is worth noting, as it reached 105,000 readers (+ 10,000).

In parallel, the websites for Edipresse’s titles experienced rapid audience growth. Matin.ch comes in first, followed by tdg.ch, 24heures.ch and the magazine websites.

The development of the media landscape reflects the profound change in the market and the paid-for newspapers’ repositioning due to free dailies and the Internet.

In terms of the Sunday newspapers, Le Matin Dimanche showed the greatest national market penetration (39.5% or 544,000 readers) compared to 21% by Sonntags-Blick, 17.7% by Sonntags-Zeitung and 10.8% by Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) ‘Sunday version’. While the readership of Matin Dimanche remains stable, only the NZZ grew in readers (+7,000). The other German-speaking Sunday newspapers are decreasing.

In the French-speaking magazine segment, L’Hebdo has fallen slightly (213,000 readers, - 1.8%), as has Femina (442,000, - 1.1%). L’Illustré is stable (349,000). Looking at business magazines, PME reached 62,000 readers (+ 7,000), and BILAN hovered close to 100,000 readers (- 2,000).

The German-speaking paid-for dailies also lost readers: - 29.000 for Tages-Anzeiger, - 22,000 for Blick, and - 6,000 for Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In terms of the free dailies, 20 Minuten alone reached 1.3 million German-speaking readers (+ 52,000).

For further information:

Théo Bouchat

CEO Edipresse Switzerland