SMZ is integrated into the NZZ Group

The Schweizer Musikzeitung (SMZ) was not spared from the general decline in the volume of advertisements in print media and is struggling with financial problems. The members of the Schweizer Musikzeitung association no longer saw themselves in a position to absorb the impending deficits. They therefore proposed in mid-September to discontinue the printed version at the end of the year and to save the Schweizer Musikzeitung online brand from disappearing.

However, a new publishing model now ensures that the SMZ can continue to be published on paper. At the same time, the members of the Schweizer Musikzeitung association will be relieved of the publishing risk. The SMZ will be transferred to NZZ Fachmedien AG, a new subsidiary of the NZZ Media Group, which will be created on January 1, 2015 from the merger of the specialist publishing houses of St. Galler Tagblatt AG and Multicolor Print AG. SMZ will now be published nine times a year instead of eleven.

The Assembly of Delegates decided today to appoint NZZ Fachmedien AG as both editor and publisher of SMZ from January 1, 2015. Verein Schweizer Musikzeitung is thus relinquishing its rights to the title. This renders the actual purpose of the association obsolete; the Assembly of Delegates has therefore decided to liquidate the association.

Photo from left: René Roshardt (EOV), Hans Peter Völkle (SMV), Katrin Spelinova (Editor-in-Chief), Andreas Weidmann (VMS), Hans Brupbacher (President) and David Sonton (STV), missing: Pascal Müller (SMPV)