“In March 2020, Covid hit us like a sledgehammer,” recalls Tarcisi Hendry, CFO of Somedia AG, thinking back to the start of the pandemic. Like all media companies, the latter saw its advertising revenue plummet dramatically. However, by taking advantage of every available option (from a freeze on investment and hiring through to short-time working and making full use of all the government aid payments on offer) the company has weathered the last two years relatively well and is generally optimistic about the future – even though other major challenges lie ahead.

“The main challenge that we’re facing is the shift from traditional to digital media,” says Tarcisi Hendry. He explains that the decline in newspaper subscribers has been ongoing for several years, despite stabilisation, or even a slight increase, during the pandemic, when well-researched content was in greater demand again. The trend remains, however, and Hendry states that replacing this lost revenue with new sources is a lengthy process, unless large companies are acquired. “The fact is that we’re currently still making our money from printed newspapers, not digital ones. Many readers still like to get an early-morning newspaper in their letterbox,” says Somedia’s CFO.

Somedia AG has set up several agencies in preparation for the digital future and to tap into new business segments. “In Zurich, we have <Somedia Learning>, a digital learning media agency, which is already operating very successfully,” explains Tarcisi Hendry. With Speed U Up Suisse AG, a digital agency specialising in Alpine tourism, and Think11 Switzerland AG, a marketing and advertising technology agency founded last spring, the media company is continuing to build up in-house digital know-how. Not on a grand scale though: “We’re a regional media company and don’t have the same budget as the biggest Swiss media enterprises. We have to manage our resources wisely, and at the moment we’re on the right track,” says Hendry.

The question remains as to which direction the media world is heading in. What will the situation look like in a few years? Will print products be able to hold their own? Tarcisi Hendry risks a glance at the crystal ball: “We believe that printed newspapers will still be around in ten years’ time.” Alongside two partners, Somedia AG has a stake in a printing centre in Haag SG, where it produces its newspapers. Here, Hendry is Chair of the Board of Directors and he recently put a new printing press into operation: “It’s going to have to last at least ten years,” he says with a laugh.

In the morning, Tarcisi Hendry naturally starts by reading the Graubünden edition of Südostschweiz, as well as La Quotidiana, the only daily Romansh-language newspaper – and he does so online. On the other hand, he later reads the printed editions of the two major Zurich newspapers. He sees digital newspapers as a good addition, as they allow him to read the paper anywhere and at any time. Hendry says that the current technology-savvy generation shows hardly any interest in newspapers in any format at all, either digital or printed, and that this is indicative of the challenge that media companies have in continuing to make money from newspapers, especially as willingness to pay for digital content remains very low.

Tarcisi Hendry has been working for the company for three decades. “The great trust that the owner family places in me and my colleagues on the management team is the main reason why I’m here. I’m privileged to lead a great team with diverse working cultures. An agency, for example, operates quite differently to an editorial office or the IT department. A job like this will probably never come along again. I like that,” says the man from Graubünden.

The CFO also appreciates the benefits of working in a family business: “It makes for very short decision-making processes. We’re flexible and can react quickly to the unexpected, which is a huge advantage.” Two members of the owner family, children of publisher Hanspeter Lebrument, are on the five-member management team. “Things are still very family-like here,” says Tarcisi Hendry. He has noticed a change though, since the younger generation stepped in: “There used to be one boss, who had sole responsibility and decided virtually everything on his own. That’s no longer the case today. The management team now makes decisions together.”

La Quotidiana is the only daily newspaper in the Romansh language. Founded in 1997 by Somedia publisher Hanspeter Lebrument, it receives support from Fundaziun Medias Rumantschas (Romansh Media Foundation, the organisation that succeeded the Romansh News Agency). The reporting from Romansh-speaking regions is generally in the five dialects (Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Puter and Vallader), while supra-regional topics are mostly covered in Rumantsch Grischun, the unified version of the language. La Quotidiana has a circulation of around 4,000.