Zero round for major customers

 
Advertisements In 2008, large advertisers are being pampered by publishers, while small advertisers are being fleeced. 
In Germany, the majority of advertising rates for 2008 were already fixed at the beginning of September, whereas in Switzerland no tangible advertising trend can yet be identified. By the Publimedia Forum on September 26, the industry meeting at which the first trends are announced, not even half of the titles had reported their rates. Publishers with large-circulation titles in particular are dragging their feet. Only two were exemplary: the NZZ Group and Südostschweiz. While Südostschweiz and St. Galler Tagblatt are maintaining their current rates in 2008, this only applies to a limited extent to NZZ, NZZ am Sonntag and Neue Luzerner Zeitung. Although they are keeping the price for a 1/1 page in four colors at the current level, they are raising the millimeter rate by two to seven centimes. Small advertisers are therefore footing the bill. The Landbote, L'Express and the Thurgauer Zeitung are adopting the same approach, with the Quotidien Jurassien and the Zürcher Landzeitung applying the same philosophy in a slightly different way: they are retaining their millimeter price but reducing the page rate: the Quotidien by a full 11 percent, the Züriland-Zeitung by 1.5 percent (only for normal circulation). There also appears to be a quiet price round for magazines. Large-circulation titles such as Migros-Magazin, Touring and Gesundheit Sprechstunde are keeping their rates unchanged, with only K-Tipp and Gesundheitstipp reducing their prices by 2 percent.
And what is happening with the new rate system? According to Rainer Sauser, Marketing Director at Publicitas, a number of titles are again venturing to make the switch this year. With the exception of the three Ticino newspapers, all of the major daily newspapers have now adopted at least some elements such as color millimeter prices and fixed formats, and around 75 percent of the medium-sized newspapers have done so. The smaller titles, on the other hand, still need some time. Sauser reckons it will be two to three years before the majority of them are ready. (mk)