The future does not come by itself
Columns in e-papers lead a bleak existence. Why, then, do publishers still refrain from actively promoting them?
Column E-papers eke out a dreary existence. Why do publishers still refrain from aggressively promoting it? It's been drilled into our heads ad nauseam: The Internet is the great challenge for printed newspapers. Almost two-thirds of Swiss households are now networked. So there should - one imagines - be a rapidly growing demand for the electronic versions of daily newspapers. Most of the larger papers now actually hold e-paper subscriptions that go far beyond simple PDF editions of the printed newspaper. The industry standard is the complete online edition of the printed newspaper in the familiar newspaper structure and layout. It is possible to browse through the e-paper on the screen, enlarge the desired articles, print them out, and select, file and download individual pages.
By marking an article or a picture, it is possible to enlarge and print any section of any page. The usage process takes some getting used to, but the prices are attractive. The Basler Zeitung, for example, offers the electronic subscription for 30 francs per month or 260 francs per year. Those who subscribe to the print version get the password for free. The Tages-Anzeiger even costs only Fr. 176 per year electronically (the print annual subscription Fr. 320); this price, by the way, has remained unchanged since summer 2004. The echo remained weak.
According to a statement from the BaZ publishing house, only 214 customers held e-paper subscriptions in November 2006. The response among subscribers to the regular paper edition was strikingly stronger. No fewer than 31,000 - just under a third - took advantage of the free password offer. On average, 12,000 readers per day make use of the option to download the newspaper to their computer.
Similar figures are obtained from the other houses. According to Wemf's circulation bulletin, the Tages-Anzeiger has 80 subscriptions, Blick 193, the NZZ 449 and the record holder Südostschweiz 1325 eligible e-paper subscriptions. Most of the customers who use the offer live abroad, where obtaining the printed edition is too expensive and too slow for them, or they save themselves the cumbersome procedure with the vacation detour.
There must be deep-rooted reasons for this surprising reluctance to take advantage of an offer that is attractive and convenient in itself. Is it unreasonable to attribute it to a cultural inhibition to screen reading that is peculiar at least to today's adult generation, which is still literate with paper media? Again, a "soft factor" that makes the margin between technical feasibility and economically viable user volume incalculable. If people don't even want such a convenience item as a gift, surely there must be some underlying cultural resistance to "paperless reading."
What is also surprising is how discreetly most of the leading newspaper publishers are promoting this attractive form of offering. Resignation reigns at the publishing houses, as one manager put it: "The e-papers are actually eking out a dreary existence because they are little used. Displaying a print edition on the screen is not very user-friendly. So it's mainly the Swiss abroad/home who use the e-papers."
A brave new media world in everyday practice: In some places, you have an attractive form of offering, and you have even invested quite a bit in technical provision - and yet you fail to take offensive advertising measures, and you don't even provide interested customers with low-threshold access to existing offerings on your own website.
Does this reflect the old inertia of newspaper publishers who are used to success, or a certain lack of seriousness in their competitive behavior? We haven't even mentioned the potential savings from the possible elimination of unprofitable forwarding orders for vacation or military service redirections. One could get the idea that in the newspaper business, people often and gladly talk about
Internet applications and all sorts of progressive new uses debated, but in practice very conservative marketing.
Karl Lüönd is a publicist, book author, supervises mandates in corporate publishing and lectures at the HWZ Zurich and at the MAZ ("Verleger sein - Öffentliches Nachdenken über Menschen und Märkte" will be published by Huber in spring 2007).
By marking an article or a picture, it is possible to enlarge and print any section of any page. The usage process takes some getting used to, but the prices are attractive. The Basler Zeitung, for example, offers the electronic subscription for 30 francs per month or 260 francs per year. Those who subscribe to the print version get the password for free. The Tages-Anzeiger even costs only Fr. 176 per year electronically (the print annual subscription Fr. 320); this price, by the way, has remained unchanged since summer 2004. The echo remained weak.
According to a statement from the BaZ publishing house, only 214 customers held e-paper subscriptions in November 2006. The response among subscribers to the regular paper edition was strikingly stronger. No fewer than 31,000 - just under a third - took advantage of the free password offer. On average, 12,000 readers per day make use of the option to download the newspaper to their computer.
Similar figures are obtained from the other houses. According to Wemf's circulation bulletin, the Tages-Anzeiger has 80 subscriptions, Blick 193, the NZZ 449 and the record holder Südostschweiz 1325 eligible e-paper subscriptions. Most of the customers who use the offer live abroad, where obtaining the printed edition is too expensive and too slow for them, or they save themselves the cumbersome procedure with the vacation detour.
There must be deep-rooted reasons for this surprising reluctance to take advantage of an offer that is attractive and convenient in itself. Is it unreasonable to attribute it to a cultural inhibition to screen reading that is peculiar at least to today's adult generation, which is still literate with paper media? Again, a "soft factor" that makes the margin between technical feasibility and economically viable user volume incalculable. If people don't even want such a convenience item as a gift, surely there must be some underlying cultural resistance to "paperless reading."
What is also surprising is how discreetly most of the leading newspaper publishers are promoting this attractive form of offering. Resignation reigns at the publishing houses, as one manager put it: "The e-papers are actually eking out a dreary existence because they are little used. Displaying a print edition on the screen is not very user-friendly. So it's mainly the Swiss abroad/home who use the e-papers."
A brave new media world in everyday practice: In some places, you have an attractive form of offering, and you have even invested quite a bit in technical provision - and yet you fail to take offensive advertising measures, and you don't even provide interested customers with low-threshold access to existing offerings on your own website.
Does this reflect the old inertia of newspaper publishers who are used to success, or a certain lack of seriousness in their competitive behavior? We haven't even mentioned the potential savings from the possible elimination of unprofitable forwarding orders for vacation or military service redirections. One could get the idea that in the newspaper business, people often and gladly talk about
Internet applications and all sorts of progressive new uses debated, but in practice very conservative marketing.
Karl Lüönd is a publicist, book author, supervises mandates in corporate publishing and lectures at the HWZ Zurich and at the MAZ ("Verleger sein - Öffentliches Nachdenken über Menschen und Märkte" will be published by Huber in spring 2007).
