Staying young
Othmar Beerli surprises the industry with a comeback of his legendary Musenalp Express.
Othmar Beerli surprises the industry with the comeback of his legendary Musenalp Express When he does something, he does it right. That was also the case just before Christmas. Othmar Beerli wanted to design a flyer to make his new internet portal www.musenalp.com better known to Swiss schools. He recently launched the website as a replacement for his youth magazine Musenalp Express, which went online 15 years ago. Since Beerli took the opportunity to explain the purpose of his multimedia forum by young people for young people at a congress for 1700 German teachers from all over the world, interested people from over a hundred countries have been regularly clicking on the Alp. In order to present his idea comprehensively, the A5 flyer finally became a folded double sheet, a few hours later a maquette with several A5 pages, then he switched to A4, until it suddenly became clear to the retired publisher: "I have to make a real booklet again."
Beerli immediately phoned Jorge Chaves. After a long odyssey through various companies, the original Musenalp Express finally ended up with this publisher of six magazines in St. Gallen. The legendary youth title became the trend magazine MEX. An opportunity for Chaves to enter into a promising cooperation with Beerli. "Our collaboration makes the relaunch of Musenalp Express possible. This should also lead young readers to the trend magazine MEX later on as adults," reveals Beerli.
The comeback of the Musenalp Express with a circulation of
330000 free copies have been announced for March 1. Even before the advertising deadline on February 15, it is becoming apparent that the magazine will be longer than the 64 pages announced last week. "The concept of resurrecting the magazine in exactly the same way as the original has triggered many enthusiastic reactions." Swiss Post, Swisscom and SBB are already back as partners. The color page for 12800 francs is also arousing great interest among other providers of youth products. The owner of a distribution company has made a pilgrimage to Othmar Beerli in Ennetbürgen to discuss the installation of an electronics store in the Musenalp Express. CD dealers want to join in with percentage offers, as do photo labs. What is new is that Beerli no longer wants to be a mail-order retailer himself. "I became a mail-order retailer against my will because the retailers didn't want to give a training discount." In the new magazine, he only arranges contacts.
In the old system, 80000 parcels were sent annually. 250,000 customers were on the Musenalp Express card index. In 1989, the discount mail order service for young people still generated a turnover of 25 million francs. This prompted the bank to bring a financially strong partner into the picture. However, after a capital increase, this partner took over the majority of shares. Today, Beerli says that his life's work was "stolen" from him. As a minority shareholder, the founder could no longer avoid the sale. Beerli still had the Musenalp magazine with 1.25 million copies in Germany, and he was already negotiating the launch of a Musenalp Forum in the GDR. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, however, his most important partners in the reunited Germany, the post office and the railroads, suddenly had completely different priorities than the development of a youth magazine. During negotiations with a printing company in Leipzig, the Swiss publisher met his future wife.
Looking back nostalgically, it seems rather coincidental that Beerli became the publisher of Switzerland's most successful youth magazine. He first worked as an accountant and later ended up as secretary at a youth organization in Lucerne. There he created a discount card for apprentices and schoolchildren, which they could use to buy goods at a reduced price. Because the traders didn't want to play along, Beerli bought a few items himself and publicized them by leaflet at the schools. "Why not enrich these leaflets with a few texts written by the pupils themselves?" was soon the question. Even after the first appeal, the Musenalp Express was inundated with texts on the sensitivities of young people at the time.
Beerli also believes that there is a great need for an open platform for the youthful zeitgeist in his new project.
Othmar Beerli, the retired publisher, "has to make another magazine".
Andreas Panzeri
Beerli immediately phoned Jorge Chaves. After a long odyssey through various companies, the original Musenalp Express finally ended up with this publisher of six magazines in St. Gallen. The legendary youth title became the trend magazine MEX. An opportunity for Chaves to enter into a promising cooperation with Beerli. "Our collaboration makes the relaunch of Musenalp Express possible. This should also lead young readers to the trend magazine MEX later on as adults," reveals Beerli.
The comeback of the Musenalp Express with a circulation of
330000 free copies have been announced for March 1. Even before the advertising deadline on February 15, it is becoming apparent that the magazine will be longer than the 64 pages announced last week. "The concept of resurrecting the magazine in exactly the same way as the original has triggered many enthusiastic reactions." Swiss Post, Swisscom and SBB are already back as partners. The color page for 12800 francs is also arousing great interest among other providers of youth products. The owner of a distribution company has made a pilgrimage to Othmar Beerli in Ennetbürgen to discuss the installation of an electronics store in the Musenalp Express. CD dealers want to join in with percentage offers, as do photo labs. What is new is that Beerli no longer wants to be a mail-order retailer himself. "I became a mail-order retailer against my will because the retailers didn't want to give a training discount." In the new magazine, he only arranges contacts.
In the old system, 80000 parcels were sent annually. 250,000 customers were on the Musenalp Express card index. In 1989, the discount mail order service for young people still generated a turnover of 25 million francs. This prompted the bank to bring a financially strong partner into the picture. However, after a capital increase, this partner took over the majority of shares. Today, Beerli says that his life's work was "stolen" from him. As a minority shareholder, the founder could no longer avoid the sale. Beerli still had the Musenalp magazine with 1.25 million copies in Germany, and he was already negotiating the launch of a Musenalp Forum in the GDR. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, however, his most important partners in the reunited Germany, the post office and the railroads, suddenly had completely different priorities than the development of a youth magazine. During negotiations with a printing company in Leipzig, the Swiss publisher met his future wife.
Looking back nostalgically, it seems rather coincidental that Beerli became the publisher of Switzerland's most successful youth magazine. He first worked as an accountant and later ended up as secretary at a youth organization in Lucerne. There he created a discount card for apprentices and schoolchildren, which they could use to buy goods at a reduced price. Because the traders didn't want to play along, Beerli bought a few items himself and publicized them by leaflet at the schools. "Why not enrich these leaflets with a few texts written by the pupils themselves?" was soon the question. Even after the first appeal, the Musenalp Express was inundated with texts on the sensitivities of young people at the time.
Beerli also believes that there is a great need for an open platform for the youthful zeitgeist in his new project.
Othmar Beerli, the retired publisher, "has to make another magazine".
Andreas Panzeri
