Boundless media
Media: The Basel region and neighboring countries are gradually growing closer together. New media ideas are in demand.
Media The Basel region and neighboring countries are slowly growing together. New media ideas are in demand. In 2001, after ten years, the Basler Zeitung buried an ambitious experiment with the Basler Agenda. Under the title 3Land, a magazine was initially published on Fridays, later on Thursdays, which mainly dealt with cultural topics and covered the neighboring regions in southern Germany and Alsace. Since then, there has been a lack of a media product that takes account of the tri-national region on the Upper Rhine. "We were probably too early with the idea," says BaZ editor Peter Schenk, who was involved from the very beginning and, looking back, considers 3Land to be a challenging project. After all, it had an editorial team of around seven journalists with a branch office each in Freiburg im Breisgau and Mulhouse in Alsace and a respectable budget. 3Land was always included with the BaZ, but could also be subscribed to separately and attracted the attention of 3,000 to 3,500 readers in the surrounding countries.
What went wrong? On the one hand, the paper did not find enough advertisers, on the other hand, the interests of the populations of the three countries drifted too far apart. The healthcare system, tax system and unemployment insurance are perceived differently on both sides. Language differences, especially with the French neighbor, seem to be a real obstacle, despite the fact that around 30,000 French people commute to the metropolis on the Rhine every day.
"There have already been numerous attempts," says BaZ publishing director Otto K. Walter, alluding to the discontinued editorial cooperation between Badische Zeitung and BaZ. However, Walter is convinced that borders are playing an increasingly less important role and that the topic of cross-border media could also become commercially interesting. This is because the region is continuing to develop. What began much earlier in the canton of Zurich, for example, with the S-Bahn network, is also taking shape on the Upper Rhine with rail connections and the extension of the streetcar lines to Lörrach, Weil and Alsace, which is currently underway. The region is growing closer together economically and socially.
Trinational media projectsOn the Swiss side, the Regio Basiliensis association, which regularly organizes congresses and dedicated the 2004 congress to media and communication on the Upper Rhine, is leading the way in cooperation efforts on the Upper Rhine. For the first time, a considerable number of cross-border media projects, cooperation and collaboration models were listed. These included colloquia for journalists, tri-national media round tables, regular journalists' meetings, the Dreiland newspaper, online archive exchanges, regular meetings of publishers and editors-in-chief, the founding of a press agency for the Upper Rhine, joint radio and television broadcasts and even cable network links and the streamlining of broadcasting frequencies.
What has remained? Initially, media representatives and politicians met regularly at the round table to discuss media-specific projects. At the suggestion of the Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate, an internet newspaper for the Upper Rhine was also created. "The idea of cooperation has existed since 1963. It is a continuous process and the cross-border identity is growing," says Manuel Friesecke, Deputy Managing Director of Regio Basiliensis. As the region develops, so do the opportunities for media companies, which - Friesecke is convinced - must increasingly focus their projects on the population.
There should be no shortage of topics. For example, editor Nicole Bertherin from Radio X remembers the cross-border launch of the topic of cannabis prevention in collaboration with the canton of Basel. Radio X has a larger project up its sleeve together with the Alsatian alternative station Dreyeckland. The course is to be definitively set next fall for a joint broadcast under the title "Rheinkultur". There is also cooperation in the area of training with local stations close to the border and efforts are being made to establish media partnerships in the context of cross-border events.
The situation is similar for local television. Tele Basel cooperates with Alsatic and TV-Südbaden to produce the monthly magazine "Triregio", which focuses on culture and everyday life in the Upper Rhine region. The exchange of topics is also the rule for current events, such as the recent riots at the Zurich-Basel championship match. There are also plans to link the existing cable networks and feed in joint formats from the three broadcasters. There are also plans to involve a Swiss partner in the monthly TV magazine "Vis à vis", which is produced by FR 3 Alsace and Südwestfunk (SWR) Freiburg and contributes to intercultural understanding with everyday topics.
The experts agree that there is a functioning advertising market in the Triangle region, where new print products are certainly conceivable. "It's a highly competitive market where only a broad-based publication has a chance," says Manuel Friesecke. At Basler Zeitung, plans are moving in the direction of cross-media. "There are a lot of ideas about this, but they are still in the development phase," says Beat Meyer, CEO of BaZ. But times are getting better and better on the Upper Rhine.
René Worni
What went wrong? On the one hand, the paper did not find enough advertisers, on the other hand, the interests of the populations of the three countries drifted too far apart. The healthcare system, tax system and unemployment insurance are perceived differently on both sides. Language differences, especially with the French neighbor, seem to be a real obstacle, despite the fact that around 30,000 French people commute to the metropolis on the Rhine every day.
"There have already been numerous attempts," says BaZ publishing director Otto K. Walter, alluding to the discontinued editorial cooperation between Badische Zeitung and BaZ. However, Walter is convinced that borders are playing an increasingly less important role and that the topic of cross-border media could also become commercially interesting. This is because the region is continuing to develop. What began much earlier in the canton of Zurich, for example, with the S-Bahn network, is also taking shape on the Upper Rhine with rail connections and the extension of the streetcar lines to Lörrach, Weil and Alsace, which is currently underway. The region is growing closer together economically and socially.
Trinational media projectsOn the Swiss side, the Regio Basiliensis association, which regularly organizes congresses and dedicated the 2004 congress to media and communication on the Upper Rhine, is leading the way in cooperation efforts on the Upper Rhine. For the first time, a considerable number of cross-border media projects, cooperation and collaboration models were listed. These included colloquia for journalists, tri-national media round tables, regular journalists' meetings, the Dreiland newspaper, online archive exchanges, regular meetings of publishers and editors-in-chief, the founding of a press agency for the Upper Rhine, joint radio and television broadcasts and even cable network links and the streamlining of broadcasting frequencies.
What has remained? Initially, media representatives and politicians met regularly at the round table to discuss media-specific projects. At the suggestion of the Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate, an internet newspaper for the Upper Rhine was also created. "The idea of cooperation has existed since 1963. It is a continuous process and the cross-border identity is growing," says Manuel Friesecke, Deputy Managing Director of Regio Basiliensis. As the region develops, so do the opportunities for media companies, which - Friesecke is convinced - must increasingly focus their projects on the population.
There should be no shortage of topics. For example, editor Nicole Bertherin from Radio X remembers the cross-border launch of the topic of cannabis prevention in collaboration with the canton of Basel. Radio X has a larger project up its sleeve together with the Alsatian alternative station Dreyeckland. The course is to be definitively set next fall for a joint broadcast under the title "Rheinkultur". There is also cooperation in the area of training with local stations close to the border and efforts are being made to establish media partnerships in the context of cross-border events.
The situation is similar for local television. Tele Basel cooperates with Alsatic and TV-Südbaden to produce the monthly magazine "Triregio", which focuses on culture and everyday life in the Upper Rhine region. The exchange of topics is also the rule for current events, such as the recent riots at the Zurich-Basel championship match. There are also plans to link the existing cable networks and feed in joint formats from the three broadcasters. There are also plans to involve a Swiss partner in the monthly TV magazine "Vis à vis", which is produced by FR 3 Alsace and Südwestfunk (SWR) Freiburg and contributes to intercultural understanding with everyday topics.
The experts agree that there is a functioning advertising market in the Triangle region, where new print products are certainly conceivable. "It's a highly competitive market where only a broad-based publication has a chance," says Manuel Friesecke. At Basler Zeitung, plans are moving in the direction of cross-media. "There are a lot of ideas about this, but they are still in the development phase," says Beat Meyer, CEO of BaZ. But times are getting better and better on the Upper Rhine.
René Worni
