Swiss newspaper decline puts early-morning delivery jobs at risk

Falling print newspaper circulation is putting early-morning delivery jobs under pressure across Switzerland, SRF reports. The planned closure of the Sunday newspaper SonntagsBlick at the end of the year is already prompting staffing changes at delivery companies.

Presto, the Swiss Post subsidiary and the country’s largest early-morning delivery company, expects up to 70 employees to lose their jobs. Almost 500 others will receive new contracts with a different delivery area or workload. The changes affect nearly one in eight of Presto’s roughly 4,400 employees.

The end of SonntagsBlick will also affect smaller delivery firms. Its replacement, the Saturday paper Blick fürs Wochenende, will shift some delivery work to Saturdays. Among the companies surveyed by SRF, only Schaffhausen-based Schazo ruled out job cuts. CH Media’s delivery companies said they aim to keep staffing as stable as possible, while Somedia Distribution is still assessing the effects.

The two other Sunday newspapers, NZZ am Sonntag and SonntagsZeitung, will continue to publish on Sundays. Swiss Post says Presto’s Sunday delivery will also continue, though printing and distribution costs for the remaining Sunday papers may rise as they are shared among fewer publishers.

Many newspaper carriers work part-time, often between 10 and 20 percent. But Urs Zbinden of the Syndicom union said the income is important to people whose pensions are insufficient or who combine several jobs. Losing delivery work can therefore create financial difficulties, he said.

The federal government currently subsidises newspaper delivery through the regular postal service. From next year, early-morning delivery is also due to receive support. Presto says its order volume has fallen by about 30 percent over the past decade as print circulation declined, and it is adjusting routes and operations to improve efficiency.