New free newspaper .ch aims to oust 20 Minuten from first place

 
At Tuesday's noon press conference, Sacha Wigdorovits gave the final details about the first publication of the free newspaper .ch announced for Wednesday. As announced, the circulation will be 435,000 copies, 70 percent of which will be distributed by home delivery and 30 percent by public transport. It is planned to serve 50,000 properties in six German-speaking cities in Switzerland, 20,000 of which will be served by means of specially designed newspaper stands. In the remaining properties, distribution will take place via existing infrastructure or the newspapers will be deposited in the building entrance. The fact that the stands are not theft-proof is accepted by the .ch makers: "The stands are an advertising gift," Wigdorovits thought. Around this kind of the distribution some fuss arose in the last time. Now the initiator of the new newspaper said that the stands were "not vital" for the distribution, one could distribute the sheet also in other way in the properties. The first issue will have 44 pages, 14 of which will contain advertisements. From the second issue on, it will revert to the normal 32 pages with 6 pages of advertising. The .ch website will be designed by Wirz Werbung.
With regard to the competitive situation, Wigdorovits said the goal is to oust 20 Minuten from first place as a free newspaper by three years. He does not give the already existing free evening newspaper Heute and the commuter newspaper News announced by Tages-Anzeiger, Berner Zeitung and Basler Zeitung any chance of survival in this cut-throat battle. The new product is expected to break even within three to six years. Regarding the total investment costs of 50 to 60 million Swiss francs mentioned by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Wigdorovits said he did not contradict the NZZ.
The aim of .ch is to offer readers guidance, Wigdorovits explained. The newspaper is a value-free reporting news, sports and service newspaper, he said. 10 pages are set aside daily for news from regional, national and international politics and from the economy. In addition, there are 5 to 6 pages of service, lifestyle and society. The sports section is at the end of the paper and is also to comprise 5 to 6 pages, with 8 to 10 pages on Mondays. Commentaries will be provided by numerous columnists, the list currently includes 21 people. The newspaper also has an online presence: the website includes the newspaper content and regional information. Wigdorovits assured that there is "no hesitation" in linking to websites of other providers if this is useful to the users.
.ch is printed decentrally in the print shops of the Austrian media house Schwarzenbach, Zehnder Druck in Wil (St. Gallen), Ztprint in Zofingen and at AZ Print in Subingen.
The entire Board of Directors was present at the press conference: President and entrepreneur Hans Ziegler, Sacha Wigdorovits, attorney Ernst Buob, Michael Grabner, formerly with the Holtzbrinck publishing group, printing entrepreneur and publisher of the Vorarlberger Zeitung Eugen Russ, Phonak CEO Andreas Rihs and HSG lecturer Werner Bonadurer. They are those investors in .ch who are known. Wigdorovits did not want to mention the names of the other shareholders; they are private individuals who are not known to the public. According to Rihs, the shareholders have roughly equal stakes.

 
Michael Koller and Carole Scheidegger