Web TV in the microcosm
Local Press: The Jungfrau Zeitung is focusing more on its region and, among other innovations, is launching Mikro TV.
Local press The Jungfrau Zeitung is focusing more strongly on its region and is launching, among other innovations, Mikro TV After three years of intensive searching for suitable partners for his micro-newspaper concept, both among the large and less important regional newspaper houses in German-speaking Switzerland, Urs Gossweiler, CEO of Gossweiler Media in Brienz and a busy promoter, has given up. The search has failed, as he explains in an interview. Meanwhile, the movers and shakers on Lake Brienz have turned their attention to their own region, which is particularly strongly influenced by the international tourism industry. From next January, they are relaunching their newspaper as Jungfrau Zeitung 2.0 with a few changes. The addition, borrowed from the term Web 2.0, stands for more interactivity.Web TV with commercialsThe most obvious innovations - not least inspired by community sites such as You Tube - are small Flash films in Mpeg4 format on the website. The whole thing is called Mikro TV. The films are an additional service provided by the editorial team, with journalists using the simple film function of their digital cameras and obtaining additional original sounds and images for their reports. So far, the quality of the films has left a lot to be desired, especially in terms of sound quality.
"Not everything is perfect yet," says Stefan Regez, the former editor-in-chief of the Jungfrau Zeitung, who is temporarily coaching the new features of version 2.0. Technical solutions are needed. But the editorial team has no reservations about the medium of film: "They are all young people who came to journalism via the Jungfrau Zeitung."
Mikro TV also offers companies the opportunity to place advertising spots in the films. Apparently the idea appeals, as Migros and Jungfrau Railways have already booked commercials, which is why Mikro TV has been running since December 4. "Jungfrau Railways even placed their MTV commercial with us a month earlier," says Regez happily. The application works without additional programs and plugins, is part of the website and is easily accessible.
More power for the editorial teamThe layout of the event and nightlife supplement 7Tage has also been adapted. The event notices to which advertisers at Gossweiler Media are entitled have been removed from the parent publication. A newly launched real estate and jobs supplement "Marktplatz", a tabloid printed in four colors throughout, also creates more space in the paper. At the same time, the editorial team was increased by 140 full-time equivalents. A two-person team is now responsible for editing and proofreading. "This significantly relieves the editorial team of official tasks," explains Regez. Thanks to the supplements, it will also be possible to use larger images in the paper. Nevertheless, it will not be colorful. Brienz is taking a more restrained approach and is following the example of the NZZ in its use of images.
The Jungfrau Zeitung 2.0 also wants to completely dispense with community elements in the entertainment area. Readers will not be asked to send in their pictures and films, let alone act as citizen journalists. "I don't believe in a medium that isn't made by journalists, because without them the content is just a shell," says Urs Gossweiler.
As an important further development, the editorial team now also has a new working tool, the so-called Publisher, which functions as an interface between the editorial team and production. Writers can feed their texts directly into the layout at any time from anywhere via the intranet.
User-friendlyAll texts in the Jungfrau Zeitung now have an identification number that allows readers to find them easily on the website and directs them to further texts or enables them to carry out research. On the website, which is continuously updated after receipt of the texts in several versions, networking is as total as possible. The main page lists the most read articles. "This can sometimes trigger the ambition to make it there with a text," says Regez. For example, just one hour after the presentation of the Newcomer Swiss Gastro Award winner, the report plus film was already online.
The Jungfrau Zeitung is also one of the first media outlets to operate a virtual cemetery. In addition to current obituaries and acknowledgements, obituaries dating back to 2001 can also be accessed there. According to Regez, even people who are getting on in years can handle it very well. The paper's architecture with its political, social, economic, cultural and sports sections has not been touched. An English version of the Jungfrau Zeitung is also to be launched in mid-2007. This will take account of the international audience and corresponding advertisers. The micro-newspaper should work everywhere, which is why regional features such as the tourist hotspot of the Jungfrau region had previously been ignored. Now the paper will be even more distinctive and no longer conform to the strict grid of a micro-newspaper.
Crisis-resistantThe Jungfrau Zeitung concept
dovetails online and print virtually seamlessly and rigorously focuses its content on the so-called Jungfrau microcosm in the Bernese Oberland. Now in its seventh year, the paper is published online and in print on Tuesdays and Fridays on newsprint. The Jungfrau Zeitung has established itself in the market with 67 percent of the region's 50,000 inhabitants and proved to be crisis-resistant in comparison during the most difficult years of the print industry. The basic idea behind the micro-newspaper concept was to divide the whole of Switzerland into microcosms with local newspapers and associated websites, all of which would work with the editorial system developed by Gossweiler. René Worni
"Not everything is perfect yet," says Stefan Regez, the former editor-in-chief of the Jungfrau Zeitung, who is temporarily coaching the new features of version 2.0. Technical solutions are needed. But the editorial team has no reservations about the medium of film: "They are all young people who came to journalism via the Jungfrau Zeitung."
Mikro TV also offers companies the opportunity to place advertising spots in the films. Apparently the idea appeals, as Migros and Jungfrau Railways have already booked commercials, which is why Mikro TV has been running since December 4. "Jungfrau Railways even placed their MTV commercial with us a month earlier," says Regez happily. The application works without additional programs and plugins, is part of the website and is easily accessible.
More power for the editorial teamThe layout of the event and nightlife supplement 7Tage has also been adapted. The event notices to which advertisers at Gossweiler Media are entitled have been removed from the parent publication. A newly launched real estate and jobs supplement "Marktplatz", a tabloid printed in four colors throughout, also creates more space in the paper. At the same time, the editorial team was increased by 140 full-time equivalents. A two-person team is now responsible for editing and proofreading. "This significantly relieves the editorial team of official tasks," explains Regez. Thanks to the supplements, it will also be possible to use larger images in the paper. Nevertheless, it will not be colorful. Brienz is taking a more restrained approach and is following the example of the NZZ in its use of images.
The Jungfrau Zeitung 2.0 also wants to completely dispense with community elements in the entertainment area. Readers will not be asked to send in their pictures and films, let alone act as citizen journalists. "I don't believe in a medium that isn't made by journalists, because without them the content is just a shell," says Urs Gossweiler.
As an important further development, the editorial team now also has a new working tool, the so-called Publisher, which functions as an interface between the editorial team and production. Writers can feed their texts directly into the layout at any time from anywhere via the intranet.
User-friendlyAll texts in the Jungfrau Zeitung now have an identification number that allows readers to find them easily on the website and directs them to further texts or enables them to carry out research. On the website, which is continuously updated after receipt of the texts in several versions, networking is as total as possible. The main page lists the most read articles. "This can sometimes trigger the ambition to make it there with a text," says Regez. For example, just one hour after the presentation of the Newcomer Swiss Gastro Award winner, the report plus film was already online.
The Jungfrau Zeitung is also one of the first media outlets to operate a virtual cemetery. In addition to current obituaries and acknowledgements, obituaries dating back to 2001 can also be accessed there. According to Regez, even people who are getting on in years can handle it very well. The paper's architecture with its political, social, economic, cultural and sports sections has not been touched. An English version of the Jungfrau Zeitung is also to be launched in mid-2007. This will take account of the international audience and corresponding advertisers. The micro-newspaper should work everywhere, which is why regional features such as the tourist hotspot of the Jungfrau region had previously been ignored. Now the paper will be even more distinctive and no longer conform to the strict grid of a micro-newspaper.
Crisis-resistantThe Jungfrau Zeitung concept
dovetails online and print virtually seamlessly and rigorously focuses its content on the so-called Jungfrau microcosm in the Bernese Oberland. Now in its seventh year, the paper is published online and in print on Tuesdays and Fridays on newsprint. The Jungfrau Zeitung has established itself in the market with 67 percent of the region's 50,000 inhabitants and proved to be crisis-resistant in comparison during the most difficult years of the print industry. The basic idea behind the micro-newspaper concept was to divide the whole of Switzerland into microcosms with local newspapers and associated websites, all of which would work with the editorial system developed by Gossweiler. René Worni
