Of spring shoots and hardy leaves

Column The leaves are sprouting like rarely before in spring. But only products with a profile will survive the coming fall.
badly shaken - massive slump in readership and advertising market
shake the industry. The print media are coming out of the negative
spiral. An end to the concentration process is not
foreseeable, the publishing houses are fighting hard among themselves
for territories in the market. The first impression suggests a bloody
The battle of position, from which even today's victors cannot emerge without
losses and will quickly become the losers of tomorrow
could.

However, the spring awakening is on the horizon if you look at the
many fresh leaves sprouting up everywhere. In the media houses
trust in print has apparently not been shaken: the news from the
industry are reporting revivals of original forms of the press, such as the
good old evening newspaper. With Heute, Ringier wants to make the evening
revitalize. Old recipes for press titles are booming. These are
The advertising campaigns are geared towards clearly defined readerships and advertising markets.
Regional offers are evidently attractive again, be it with
Newspapers from the city that want to conquer the country, or be it with
various forms of participation and cooperation. In the
The Graubünden region also wants to distance itself from the media dominance of the
Liberating Zurich. With Südostschweiz am Sonntag, Hanspeter
Lebrument to set off for the Alps.

Multimedia and cross-media are only mentioned in passing. The
traditional companies communicate more newspaper projects than new ones
electronic offerings and platforms with independent
journalistic profiles. Crossmedia, on the other hand, is an important
Topic. Products that are editorially and commercially integrated
such as the AZ Media Group's Everyday Life campaign are an interesting
Rarity. New radio and television offerings are mainly created by newcomers.
announced.

Commuter newspapers have brought unrest to the press. Their
However, success also proves that ultimately it is not the form of the media,
but the way in which they offer what and when to users.
is crucial for market success. Despite the many
mobile electronic information options, paper can obviously
with particularly attractive attractions. On a bumpy bus or
a well-layouted newspaper is more pleasant to read in a gloomy streetcar
than a text on a larger or smaller screen. A
newspaper that can be skimmed in two minutes, even if it's for twenty minutes.
minutes of reading material, brings together important and secondary
Brevity. And a newspaper that can be read in twenty minutes and for
two hours of reading material can only deepen, surprise
and open up new perspectives.

It is to be hoped that, in the longer term, readers will become
winners of the Print Spring. The successes of the
Publishers can perhaps be quantified in the short term.
However, it is not possible to achieve high circulation and reach in the long term.
done. Junk food is consumed carelessly and thrown away. From the
The quality of the content ultimately also depends on the quality of contacts with
the medium. The competition should also drive editorial ambition.
incite. Publishers should now be able to recruit competent journalists.
journalists and qualified media professionals in the
a wide variety of projects. In the advertising industry
Time to pay more attention to print. And when the energy
of spring lasts throughout the year, then in the fall with a few
evergreen leaves that will survive the next harsh winter.
will certainly survive.

> Josefa Haas is head of the Media Institute.