No quarter in the midlands
Free Press: With the pricing structure of its new free newspaper, *News*, Tamedia is protecting *20 Minuten* while making sure it doesn’t miss a beat in the Mittelland. The newcomer is positioned to be attractive.
Free press With the rates of the new free newspaper News, Tamedia protects 20 Minuten, but leaves nothing to chance in the Mittelland. 20 Minuten is not only the daily newspaper with the highest reach in German-speaking Switzerland, but also the one with the lowest price per thousand readers (TLP). According to the current rate, this is 29.60 Swiss francs. But even if 20 Minuten raises its tariff by 9.8 percent from January, the commuter paper remains in pole position in terms of price. 1000 20 Minuten readers will then still be 50 centimes cheaper than with News, which starts on December 5. This shows that Tamedia is exposing 20 Minuten to new competition in the reader market, but in the advertising market the Zurich media group is not letting anything get close to its young cash cow. News is attractively pricedHowever, News' pricing policy makes one thing clear: the three participating publishers Tamedia, Espace Media Groupe and Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM) want to position the newcomer attractively in terms of price - in second place in terms of TLP. Provided that News can achieve its ambitious goal. Two contacts per distributed copy right from the start are no small feat - and that in an oversaturated free newspaper market.
Here, then, caution is also called for with regard to the promises made by publishers. In view of previous experience with free newspapers, it is more realistic to assume a 1.5 LpE (or less) in the first year. But that would bring the News TLP to 43.90 francs - which, incidentally, is exactly the price that .ch is also aiming for.
But back to the original specifications of the three publishers in Zurich, Basel and Bern: Here it is noticeable that News Zurich is not offered solo, this in contrast to News Basel and News Bern, which can also be booked alone. BZM and Espace Media are thus prepared to grant "their" local news edition a certain independence and to experiment with it - for the time being at least. Tamedia will not tolerate another independent title on the Zurich square, because that could get in the way of the Tagi split policy and also cannibalize the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich, which was newly launched a year ago. After all, the combination variants between News and Tagi have quite favorable TLPs. However, it should not be forgotten that one third of the Tagi readership is outside the home area, which can cause high scattering losses depending on the strategy.
All media planners who still remember the Metropool predecessor Swisspool (Tagi, BaZ, BZ, St. Galler Tagblatt and Neue Luzerner Zeitung) should also notice the News + Metropool module: These two titles together bring a larger circulation and a similarly high reach to the scales as Swisspool I in its last year (2004). Nevertheless, their TLP is a whole 18 francs cheaper than that of Swisspool at the time. This shows: Tamedia, BZM and Espace Media have learned from the past and avoid going for too high prices. On the other hand, they want to retain more advertising money because of the good economy.
Tagi, BaZ and BZ want the leadIt is not surprising that Tagi, BaZ and BZ want to position themselves together with News in the Golden Triangle in terms of price at the top ranks. Here, they clearly claim the lead, while for regional language advertising strategies, they certainly let Blick and heute have a go. In short, the three musketeers don't want to mess with Ringier.
But they know no mercy when it comes to the Mittelland Zeitung (MZ). They are also clamping down on it in terms of price, leaving it virtually no chance in the national market. Customers who previously booked the MZ with the Metropool will think twice in future, because with the News + Metropool combination they have a higher reach - and at a TLP that is 17 francs cheaper than before.
The same applies to customers who primarily want to cover the Mittelland: Although the News Mittelland module can hardly hold a candle to the MZ on its own, any combination - whether in the direction of Basel, Zurich or Bern - is more favorable and offers even more coverage than the MZ. This is only true if News also achieves its targeted figures. But the MZ has to dress warmly.
Markus Knöpfli
The basis for this comparisonActually, we should have made the present comparison
would have liked to use the 2008 rates, but since Basler Zeitung and Metropool have not yet published their new prices, we are using the 2007 rates that are still valid here. However, we have then calculated the per thousand reader prices (TLP) - where available - on the basis of the current services from Mach Basic 2007-2.For News, Cash Daily and .ch
the contact figures are also based on publisher data. It should be noted that Ringier assumes 1.3 readers per distributed copy for Cash daily and also adds 12,000 e-paper contacts. For News, the participating publishers (somewhat grandiloquently) assume two contacts per copy, while .ch initiator Sacha Wigdorovits calculates a more modest 1.5 readers per copy (LpE) for his paper. For comparison: Blick comes to 2.9 LpE, 20 Minuten to 2.7 (without circulation increase in September), Tages-Anzeiger to 2.4, Mittelland Zeitung to 2.3, Basler Zeitung to 2.0, Berner Zeitung to 1.9 and today to 1.1 LpE. (mk)
Here, then, caution is also called for with regard to the promises made by publishers. In view of previous experience with free newspapers, it is more realistic to assume a 1.5 LpE (or less) in the first year. But that would bring the News TLP to 43.90 francs - which, incidentally, is exactly the price that .ch is also aiming for.
But back to the original specifications of the three publishers in Zurich, Basel and Bern: Here it is noticeable that News Zurich is not offered solo, this in contrast to News Basel and News Bern, which can also be booked alone. BZM and Espace Media are thus prepared to grant "their" local news edition a certain independence and to experiment with it - for the time being at least. Tamedia will not tolerate another independent title on the Zurich square, because that could get in the way of the Tagi split policy and also cannibalize the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich, which was newly launched a year ago. After all, the combination variants between News and Tagi have quite favorable TLPs. However, it should not be forgotten that one third of the Tagi readership is outside the home area, which can cause high scattering losses depending on the strategy.
All media planners who still remember the Metropool predecessor Swisspool (Tagi, BaZ, BZ, St. Galler Tagblatt and Neue Luzerner Zeitung) should also notice the News + Metropool module: These two titles together bring a larger circulation and a similarly high reach to the scales as Swisspool I in its last year (2004). Nevertheless, their TLP is a whole 18 francs cheaper than that of Swisspool at the time. This shows: Tamedia, BZM and Espace Media have learned from the past and avoid going for too high prices. On the other hand, they want to retain more advertising money because of the good economy.
Tagi, BaZ and BZ want the leadIt is not surprising that Tagi, BaZ and BZ want to position themselves together with News in the Golden Triangle in terms of price at the top ranks. Here, they clearly claim the lead, while for regional language advertising strategies, they certainly let Blick and heute have a go. In short, the three musketeers don't want to mess with Ringier.
But they know no mercy when it comes to the Mittelland Zeitung (MZ). They are also clamping down on it in terms of price, leaving it virtually no chance in the national market. Customers who previously booked the MZ with the Metropool will think twice in future, because with the News + Metropool combination they have a higher reach - and at a TLP that is 17 francs cheaper than before.
The same applies to customers who primarily want to cover the Mittelland: Although the News Mittelland module can hardly hold a candle to the MZ on its own, any combination - whether in the direction of Basel, Zurich or Bern - is more favorable and offers even more coverage than the MZ. This is only true if News also achieves its targeted figures. But the MZ has to dress warmly.
Markus Knöpfli
The basis for this comparisonActually, we should have made the present comparison
would have liked to use the 2008 rates, but since Basler Zeitung and Metropool have not yet published their new prices, we are using the 2007 rates that are still valid here. However, we have then calculated the per thousand reader prices (TLP) - where available - on the basis of the current services from Mach Basic 2007-2.For News, Cash Daily and .ch
the contact figures are also based on publisher data. It should be noted that Ringier assumes 1.3 readers per distributed copy for Cash daily and also adds 12,000 e-paper contacts. For News, the participating publishers (somewhat grandiloquently) assume two contacts per copy, while .ch initiator Sacha Wigdorovits calculates a more modest 1.5 readers per copy (LpE) for his paper. For comparison: Blick comes to 2.9 LpE, 20 Minuten to 2.7 (without circulation increase in September), Tages-Anzeiger to 2.4, Mittelland Zeitung to 2.3, Basler Zeitung to 2.0, Berner Zeitung to 1.9 and today to 1.1 LpE. (mk)
