20 Minuten
www.20min.ch
Managing Director: Bernhard Brechbühl
| in CHF mn | 2023 | 2022 | Change | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising revenue 1 | 107.4 | 105.7 | 1.7% | |||
| Classifieds & services revenue 1 | 4.3 | 4.4 | –1.4% | |||
| Other operating revenue 1 | 6.5 | 4.8 | 37.6% | |||
| Other income 1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | –42.8% | |||
| Revenues | 118.4 | 115.0 | 3.0% | |||
| of which organic revenues 2 | 118.4 | 115.0 | 3.0% | |||
| Operating expenses 3 | (105.8) | (101.2) | 4.5% | |||
| Share of net result of associates / joint ventures | (2.5) | (5.5) | –53.6% | |||
| Operating income / (loss) before depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) | 10.1 | 8.3 | 21.5% | |||
| Margin 4 | 8.5% | 7.2% | 1.3%p | |||
| Depreciation and amortisation | (1.0) | (0.9) | 11.9% | |||
| Operating income / (loss) before effects of business combinations (EBIT b. PPA) | 9.1 | 7.4 | 22.6% | |||
| Margin 4 | 7.7% | 6.5% | 1.2%p | |||
| Depreciation and amortisation resulting from business combinations | (2.1) | (2.2) | –1.6% | |||
| Operating income / (loss) (EBIT) | 7.0 | 5.2 | 32.8% | |||
| Margin 4 | 5.9% | 4.6% | 1.3%p | |||
| Normalisation 5 | 5.7 | 10.0 | –42.9% | |||
| Operating income / (loss) (EBIT adj.) | 12.7 | 15.3 | –16.9% | |||
| Margin 4 | 10.7% | 13.3% | –2.6%p | |||
| Number of employees (FTE) 6 | 313 | 322 | –2.7% | |||
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1 Includes third-party revenue and revenue vis-à-vis other TX segments.
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2 Includes only companies and activities that were included in the scope of consolidation for the entire reporting period 2023 and 2022. There were no changes in the 20 Minuten segment.
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3 No IAS 19 pension costs (as in segment reporting).
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4 The margin relates to revenue.
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5 Normalisation effects:
– Impairment of the associate Ultimate Media Beteiligungs- und Management GmbH (2023: CHF 3.6 million; 2022: CHF 7.8 million). – Amortisation resulting from business combinations (2023: CHF 2.1 million; 2022: CHF 2.2 million). |
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6 Average number of employees, excluding employees in associates / joint ventures.
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Launched at the end of 1999 for a young, urban target group, the free newspaper 20 Minuten has developed into the Swiss media brand with the widest coverage and has a presence in eight regions across German-speaking Switzerland, western Switzerland and Ticino. News from Switzerland and around the world, entertainment and inspiration: 20 Minuten tells stories that get people talking. The journalism of 20 Minuten is reliable, compact, responsible, free from ideology and available at no cost to all. 20 Minuten offers a wide range of multimedia content on both digital channels and social media. 20 Minuten also has investments in the free newspaper Heute and heute.at in Austria as well as in L’essentiel in Luxembourg.
2023 was an extremely challenging year for the media industry as a whole, including 20 Minuten. One positive development was the growth in advertising revenue, with overall revenues at the 20 Minuten Group also increasing on the previous year. However, structural change and the migration of digital advertising money towards the major international tech companies remain a challenge. Consequently, savings measures had to be introduced in the reporting year to facilitate adjustment to the new realities. The costs for the social plan have already been recognised, but the measures will not have a positive effect on results until 2024. The results of 20 Minuten also suffered in 2023 on account of a write-down involving the print edition of Heute as well as a decline in revenues at heute.at. By contrast, the results of L’essentiel in Luxembourg showed a very positive trend.
In Switzerland, 20 Minuten restricted its focus to the core business of journalism in the reporting year. For example, the editorial team adopted a cross-functional approach in German-speaking Switzerland, and traditional news vehicles were strengthened too. Following a significant decline in user figures in the first half of 2022, the negative trend was halted in 2023 and user figures stabilised. The number of registered users also increased significantly: logins are important in terms of developing a better understanding of user behaviour and appealing directly to target groups with content and advertising. On social media, 20 Minuten is Switzerland’s leading private media brand in terms of user engagement. Follower numbers remained stable in 2023, based on a total in excess of 3.5 million across all social media channels in German-speaking and western Switzerland. More success is also being achieved in terms of attracting young social media users to the digital platforms of 20 Minuten (web, app).
WhatsApp channel
20 Minuten is already introducing the new WhatsApp channels in Switzerland, becoming the first Swiss news medium to relay its stories via a WhatsApp channel. The offering is making an impact, attracting over 100,000 subscribers in just seven weeks. More themed channels for sport, weather and finance are set to follow. By the end of the year, over 140,000 people were subscribed to one of the channels.
The channel is also of considerable interest within the advertising market, with 20 Minuten set to launch a sponsored content format for WhatsApp in the very near future. The successful concept is also being adopted at L’essentiel in Luxembourg (20,000 subscribers) and Heute in Austria (35,000 subscribers).
20 Minuten is aiming to consolidate its leading position within the user market. There are also plans to further optimise the cross-media offering for the advertising market and show greater innovation in this area. Various strategic initiatives are being promoted with a view to achieving this, such as in the area of digital story telling and digital products, community and AI.
1 Readership: number of readers of print editions in Switzerland (source WEMF MACH Basic 2023-2).
2 Daily figures for IDs: daily average for all cookies / browsers / device IDs on the digital platforms of 20 Minuten (whole of Switzerland, excluding Ticino (TicinOnline)) per day (Source: Mediapulse Online Data (April 2022 to December 2023), internal data (January 2022 to March 2022)) or on the digital platforms of heute.at in Austria per month (source: Österreichische Webanalyse).
3 Daily figures for visits: daily average for visits to the digital platforms of 20 Minuten in Switzerland (excluding Ticino (TicinOnline)) (source: Mediapulse Online Data (April 2022 to December 2023), internal data (January 2022 to March 2022)).
4 Registered users: number of users registered on the platforms of 20 Minuten in Switzerland (own figures).