Journalists associations
The biggest professional association is Impressum with 4,688 members. Since 2006, the association lost over 1000 members. Not only Impressum but also Syndicom and SSM have difficulties to maintain their professional and political political standing. Therefore, Impressum is working for more cooperation and collaboration within the professional associations and unions in media industry.
The ongoing crisis of the media industry also affects the publishers’ association and other employers’ associations of the media industry. The association Verband SCHWEIZER MEDIEN (VSM) has over 100 members with small and big publishing houses and media companies. VSM is a member of the Press Council, of the Lauterkeitskommission (for advertising), of ProLitteris as well as of the European newspaper publishers’ association ENPA and the WAN (World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers). Together with its sister associations Médias Suisses and Stampa Svizzera, the VSM is committed to safeguarding the interests of the commercial media companies against the authorities and the public broadcaster, whose dominant market position is strongly disputed by all the big publishing houses except the publishing house Ringier. Last year, Ringier, SBC and the biggest telecommunication company Swisscom have founded the marketing company Admeira, which employs over 280 people at its locations in Zurich, Berne, Lausanne, Geneva and Lugano. It is the largest marketing company in Switzerland and has a multimedial portfolio with advertising opportunities in around 80 media brands. In the eyes of this new big media marketing conglomerate, Admeira should be the Swiss answer to digital change and satisfy the new needs of the advertising industry. On the basis of the latest technology combined with data and marketing competence, Admeira will create new perspectives for innovative forms of advertising.
Beside the VSM, the commercial TV channels cooperate in Telesuisse (Verband der Schweizer Regional Fernsehen), while commercial radio stations are associated in the Association of Swiss Private Radios (Verband Schweizer Privatradios) for the German-speaking part and RRR (Radios Régionales Romandes for the French-speaking part respectively.