{"id":2467,"date":"2025-04-21T12:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T12:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/?p=2467"},"modified":"2025-07-04T07:21:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T07:21:05","slug":"medias-le-nouveau-troisieme-pilier-de-financement-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/fr\/medias-le-nouveau-troisieme-pilier-de-financement-2\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u00e9dias : le nouveau troisi\u00e8me pilier de financement"},"content":{"rendered":"
L\u2019ancien directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral de la SSR, Gilles Marchand, dirige \u00e0 l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Gen\u00e8ve un nouveau domaine de recherche sur la philanthropie et les m\u00e9dias. En tant que source de financement suppl\u00e9mentaire, la philanthropie gagne \u00e9galement en importance dans le paysage m\u00e9diatique suisse. Article traduit de l\u2019allemand, paru dans le magazine Schweizer Journalist:in sous la signature d\u2019Eva Hirschi. Schweizer Journalist:in<\/em> under the byline of Eva Hirschi.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Foundations supporting journalism\u2014including in Switzerland\u2014are increasingly common. The topic attracted particular attention last July with the launch of the Media Forward Fund<\/em>, an initiative uniting ten organizations from Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. This fund brings together several million francs from various foundations, with the aim of strengthening journalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is now widely recognized, even outside the media world, that funding from the state or the market\u2014that is, from readers and advertising\u2014is no longer sufficient. And this financing crisis could ultimately threaten democracy. More and more foundations, organizations and benefactors are therefore investing financial resources in the media,\u201d explains Gilles Marchand. Since March, the former SRG Director General has been heading the new Media and Philanthropy Initiative<\/em> at the University of Geneva\u2019s Center for Philanthropy. This initiative aims to take a closer look at philanthropic engagement in the media sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A critical look at funders<\/strong>
The goal of the Geneva center is not to seek new funding sources itself: \u201cFrom our position, we are not looking for direct financing but want to spark interest in this subject and clarify the criteria for philanthropic engagement. It is important to us to offer a neutral, external perspective, thus contributing to democracy,\u201d says Nicolas Duvoux, Director of the Center for Philanthropy. \u201cIn Switzerland, there are a great many foundations, and philanthropic actors play an essential role. They contribute to democratic vitality, support the associative fabric, encourage innovative initiatives, and strengthen the economic structure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2017, the center has been studying philanthropy and related topics such as social entrepreneurship, foundation governance, and impact investing. To this end, it collaborates with major international philanthropic foundations such as the Rothschild Foundation, the Leenaards Foundation and Mercator. The new focus on media arose as part of the center\u2019s work on interactions between philanthropy and democracy. \u201cIn North America, but also in Eastern Europe, we are seeing significant influence from philanthropic funding\u2014sometimes coming from oligarchs with their own foundations. We want to gather and analyze all these experiences,\u201d says Duvoux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the well-known examples of influential foundations are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and George Soros\u2019s Open Society Foundation. The latter has around $22 billion in assets and, in 2021 alone, distributed approximately $1.5 billion to political figures, NGOs, and organizations around the world\u2014including media outlets. This has also drawn criticism. The foundation\u2019s aim is to promote freedom of expression, transparency, justice, and equality. At the same time, George Soros has faced accusations of wielding undue influence, even fueling conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a replacement but a complement<\/strong>
Gilles Marchand, together with a team of postdoctoral researchers, will dedicate himself to exploring the relationship between philanthropy and the media. This will involve both scientific studies on media as a public good and a collection of concrete case studies of media outlets funded partially or entirely by philanthropic sources, particularly in North America and Europe. The University of Geneva is working in partnership with HEC Montr\u00e9al business school. \u201cIn the United States, Canada, and Scandinavia in particular, philanthropy has long been part of the media funding model,\u201d says Marchand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The center will also accompany foundations wishing to support media. However, the idea is not for philanthropic means to become the media\u2019s new business model, but rather to help them eventually become economically sustainable on their own. Media organizations, however, need time to adapt to this structural transformation. \u201cPhilanthropic funds can enable innovations and investments so that the media can reinvent themselves and find a new economic balance,\u201d Marchand says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cantons as new players<\/strong>
Typically, foundations are the ones supporting media. In Switzerland, a newspaper was even acquired by a foundation for the first time in 2020: the French-speaking daily\u00a0Le Temps<\/em>\u00a0was taken over by Aventinus, backed by the Wilsdorf Foundation, the Jan Michalski Foundation, the Leenaards Foundation, and Geneva-based benefactors. \u201cThe Aventinus Foundation paved the way. This happened at a decisive moment\u2014otherwise,\u00a0Le Temps<\/em>\u00a0might not even exist today,\u201d according to Marchand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From his perspective, cantons could also become interesting philanthropic actors in Switzerland. Several French-speaking cantons have already provided funds to support media outlets. Their approaches, however, vary widely. \u201cFor the cantons, as for other actors, the question of independence is essential. This is an area where we want to contribute,\u201d says Marchand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concretely, the center intends not only to conduct research but also to develop tools and processes, particularly in the fields of governance and sustainable financing. \u201cWe specifically want to draw up a charter setting out rules for good governance\u2014not only for foundations but also for media outlets\u2014to ensure they remain independent,\u201d Marchand says. Only in this way, he argues, can trust in the media be rebuilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies also have a role<\/strong>
But philanthropic support for media can also come from wealthy individuals, organizations, or companies\u2014even banks, Marchand notes: \u201cIn principle, this concerns all funders who are not seeking a high return on their capital.\u201d\u00a0Journafonds<\/em>, a fund supporting investigative journalism in Switzerland, has in the past received occasional donations of CHF 10,000 each from Swiss Post and Google. But it is still very difficult to motivate Swiss companies to offer support, explains its Secretary-General Jean Fran\u00e7ois Tanda: \u201cAs corporate citizens\u2014which companies are\u2014we would like to see broader support for journalism and therefore for democracy, especially as part of their social responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Gilles Marchand, this could change: \u201cEven large corporations are realizing that a functioning media system is in their interest.\u201d He does not see philanthropic funding as a passing trend: \u201cThe quality and diversity of media are an essential pillar of a well-functioning democratic society. Switzerland, in particular, with its linguistic and cultural diversity, needs a varied media landscape,\u201d he says. \u201cNew forms of funding are therefore essential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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L\u2019ancien directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral de la SSR, Gilles Marchand, dirige \u00e0 l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Gen\u00e8ve un nouveau domaine de recherche sur la philanthropie et les m\u00e9dias. En tant [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-2467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualite","tag-test"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legitima.ch\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}