Clever things from Meier and Meyer
Advertising PubliGroupe can expand its agency contract with Basler Zeitung Medien, but in the future, it will have to live with a thorn in its side as a result.
with Basler Zeitung Medien and is thus gaining ground, but
In future, it will have to live with a thorn in its own flesh in return.
and with a delay of almost a year to the original timetable is
the partnership between Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM) and PubliGroupe
came to fruition after all. At first glance with a
points for PubliGroupe. Because it not only retains the
exclusive lease of the Basler Zeitung (BaZ) and the four companies belonging to the
local newspapers Allschwiler Wochenblatt and Birsfelder Anzeiger,
Muttenzer & Prattler Anzeiger and Reinacher Zeitung, but they
the free newspaper, which is published five times a week
Baslerstab, which previously only had a national marketing
had a management contract with P, including local sales staff and
take full responsibility for their sales promotion duties.
In addition to directing, BZM and P also have their
shareholder relationships "firmly confirmed in the long term", as stated in the
Press release reads. "Good things take time," commented
Otto Meier, General Manager PubliPresse, the new contract
self-confident. In fact, the P-position in Basel appears to have been consolidated.
All the more so as the BZM has been "also thinking about
had flirted with freeing himself from the P-embrace and creating his own
marketing organization", as the Klein Report reported last
Friday and then quoted Otto Meier as saying: "This
The issue is now off the table."
In-house advertising agency
Perhaps not. Because what Meier knew but didn't say: since
BZM has had its own BZM website for six months.
marketing organization, which will continue to exist. It is called
Key Media, is a 100 percent BZM subsidiary and was founded in July 2005.
initially founded unsuspiciously as an advertising agency. That certainly fits into the
BZM's all-media concept. Two months later, Key Media became the
advertising agency. The Chairman of the Board of Directors is BZM CEO Beat
Meyer, Roland Steffen, the new head of the company, is also on the Board of Directors.
publishers of BZM, and Harry Zaugg acts as Managing Director.
By the way: all Key Media employees - like Steffen
and Zaugg - from the P branch in Aarau.
Key Media is an interesting entity. Its official task is,
to acquire BZM's cross-media offerings (print, radio, online, TV),
but according to Beat Meyer, it is possible that customers who do not
want to book via the P at the BZM titles, advertisements solo
receives. Key Media then forwards these to the P and collects
- notabene as a BaZ subsidiary - the mediation commission! That is not
everything: Key Media is also a media agency. It manages the media budgets
from at least three major advertising clients, including Otto's
merchandise items. On their behalf, Key Media not only books with the
BaZ titles, but also in titles from other publishers and even in
other types of media. How large these budgets are, neither
Meyer nor Steffen say.
The combination of a nationally active media agency and the publisher's own
agency (despite full P lease) is unique in Switzerland.
Otto Meier also confirms this. He also knows how Key Media came to this
Steffen and Zaugg were already looking after the major customers in question.
at P Aarau, based on a personal relationship of trust.
When they then switched to BZM, these customers went with them - and away from
Beat Meyer says openly that in conversations with Steffen
suddenly realized what a unique opportunity the BZM was opening up.
would. He seized the opportunity and introduced Steffen as Head of Publishing
and the then BaZ publishing director Daniel Sommer. The
The rest is history.
Meyer refrained from separating from the P, as it would only be
half a share, as P holds a 37 percent stake in BZM.
But the P has to swallow the Key Media toad. "With the current
Key Media has nothing to do with the contract, but it is possible,
that a competitive relationship could arise," says Otto Meier. "That
undoubtedly results in competition," confirms Beat Meyer. And he adds
added: "That's only right for me."
Therefore, the topic of detachment does not necessarily have to be off the table -
on both sides. Because who knows, perhaps the new long-term
contract contains a clause for early termination under certain conditions.
Conditions. From BZM's point of view, for example, in the event that the main
sales no longer directly via the P, but initially via other
intermediaries should come. Then the P-lease would become a block for BZM
on the leg. From P's point of view, the termination of the partnership would then be
if the BZM receives a message via key media.
should offer "direct booking compensation" for media agencies - like
Tamedia. But this is just speculation. The content of the contract is
nothing, both sides are keeping quiet about it.
Markus Knöpfli
