The holy duality
Oliver Classen on SWA rituals and advertisers who (want to) play publisher.
Oliver Classen on SWA rituals and advertisers who (want to) play publisher.
It was that time again at last week's annual meeting: the President of the Swiss Advertisers' Association (SWA), Gérald Stalder, once again proclaimed his mantra that the major publishers "exploit their oligopoly for a shameless advertising pricing policy". This was followed by the obligatory - and competition commissioner-style - call for more print diversity, and Stalder was delighted with the guest speech by a representative of the World Federation of Advertisers. He expressed the view (and hope?) that in ten years' time, the major trading houses will also be the most important media companies in their respective home markets. A bold thesis! The two big players are already prominently represented in our press landscape with Migros-Magazin and Coop-Zeitung. But as the Magalog example of Migros subsidiary Globus shows (see page 20), there is still potential in Switzerland, especially in the family, women's and lifestyle sectors.
Retailers undoubtedly have in-house expertise, perfect distribution networks and - more importantly - brand-based credibility. However, it is doubtful that this could be big enough to sustainably compete with the magazines in these segments - even if some
Corporate publishers claim the opposite.
So it's nice when Switzerland's biggest advertisers occasionally invest their money in their own journalistic experiments. After all, innovation is in short supply in the print market. In principle, however, Migros & Co should stick to their guns and respect and continue to support the sacred duality on which our organically grown press system is based. Otherwise, not only the finely balanced relationship of dependency between publishers and advertisers will collapse, but possibly also SWA President Stalder, who would then soon have nothing left to complain about.
> Oliver Classen, Editor
It was that time again at last week's annual meeting: the President of the Swiss Advertisers' Association (SWA), Gérald Stalder, once again proclaimed his mantra that the major publishers "exploit their oligopoly for a shameless advertising pricing policy". This was followed by the obligatory - and competition commissioner-style - call for more print diversity, and Stalder was delighted with the guest speech by a representative of the World Federation of Advertisers. He expressed the view (and hope?) that in ten years' time, the major trading houses will also be the most important media companies in their respective home markets. A bold thesis! The two big players are already prominently represented in our press landscape with Migros-Magazin and Coop-Zeitung. But as the Magalog example of Migros subsidiary Globus shows (see page 20), there is still potential in Switzerland, especially in the family, women's and lifestyle sectors.
Retailers undoubtedly have in-house expertise, perfect distribution networks and - more importantly - brand-based credibility. However, it is doubtful that this could be big enough to sustainably compete with the magazines in these segments - even if some
Corporate publishers claim the opposite.
So it's nice when Switzerland's biggest advertisers occasionally invest their money in their own journalistic experiments. After all, innovation is in short supply in the print market. In principle, however, Migros & Co should stick to their guns and respect and continue to support the sacred duality on which our organically grown press system is based. Otherwise, not only the finely balanced relationship of dependency between publishers and advertisers will collapse, but possibly also SWA President Stalder, who would then soon have nothing left to complain about.
> Oliver Classen, Editor
