Publisher and Chairman of TX Group, Pietro Supino, has announced a strategic move. Now the media group seems to be venturing into a new era.
For a long time, people in many places rubbed their eyes at how much Tamedia and the renamed TX Group clung to the past.
Even ‘old aunt’, i.e. the “NZZ”, had made the strategic decision to close its printing plant and hand over newspaper printing to Tamedia.
Paper tiger soon gone
Those responsible there were pleased because the capacity utilization of the printing plants, which were being used less and less, became higher again with the “NZZ” editions. However, the signs of the times are moving in the direction of going paperless and digital.
And in the meantime this is precisely what must have dawned upon those responsible at the TX Group. The days of printed newspapers are numbered.
Now, with rising paper prices and the energy crisis, the TX media group is acting around the “Tages-Anzeiger”, “20 Minuten” & Co. and is introducing another division into its holding company, as the company announced on a strategy day on Tuesday.
Casting off ballast
In future, the real estate will be developed in a separate profit-oriented business unit at Group level.
The portfolio with three printing centers in Zurich, Berne and Bussigny as well as four office buildings in Zurich and Berne in attractive locations offers sufficient potential for independent development, it was said of the realignment.
The TX Group is even responding to the trend that fewer and fewer offices are needed for employees. Non-essential ballast is being thrown overboard. The “NZZ” media group also sold off real estate piece by piece.
Open ended
However, various possibilities for the optimal ownership structure are still being examined at the TX Group for the new business division, Supino’s management announced in a cryptic way. Actually, however, this means that a sale could also be conceivable.
At a presentation to the media and financial analysts on Tuesday afternoon, it was said that nothing had been decided yet. However, it is clear that the printing and office buildings in the group will not continue as in the past.
Flexible structure
In any case, the three traditional companies Tamedia (paid media), 20 Minuten (free media) and Goldbach (advertising marketing) are already managed and decentralized – each with a CEO and its own board of directors.
This allows the TX Group absolute flexibility and the Group can also quickly divest itself of activities where necessary.
“Journalism, marketing and market places are the future,” Supino outlined the strategy succinctly on Tuesday. A lot can be shaped under that.
Spreading venture capital
At the same time, however, the former Tamedia is doing much more than restructuring declining business activities. The TX Group also wants to be at the forefront of innovative businesses and to expand that field.
Therefore, TX Ventures will be equipped with its own 100 million Swiss franc fintech investment fund. With this, the media group wants to continue its successful diversification by using the money to expand its geographic expansion in Europe with a focus on the ‘umbrella’ region.
So there, too, the organization is being made fit for the future.
Greater transparency
And last but not least, the TX Group wants to make one more innovation. In the future the Group also intends to publish margin targets for its individual business units.
However, the Group does not want to announce revenue targets due to the external determination of revenues by customers in the highly-fluctuating print and advertising market.
But … Rome wasn’t built in a day. And sometimes a publisher like Supino just needs longer.
06.12.2022/kut./ena.
