Virtual gravestones, real profits
Until now, obituary sections have been off-limits for newspaper marketing. The economic crisis and the Internet are changing that.
Up to now, classified obituaries were taboo for newspaper marketing. Riccarda Mecklenburg had the idea during her time at the Aargauer Zeitung. A storm of indignation broke out when there were problems with vacation redirection and some subscribers only received their paper three days late. The main reason: the temporary Exilaargauer wanted to know as quickly as possible who had passed away in their home canton and under what circumstances.Mecklenburg concluded that "the death of a person interests a wider circle than a regional newspaper can physically cover". As publishing director of Fricktaler Boten, she is now putting this insight into practice and offering the bereaved the digital preparation and distribution of their obituaries. These look exactly like the paper originals, but can also be viewed by homesick Fricktalers without a Boten subscription. According to Mecklenburg, the local newspaper, which has only been on the Internet since its relaunch at the end of August, is currently generating "more revenue with the new service than with banner advertising".
Which is why the Fricktal online service, which costs 50 extra francs, is soon to be expanded further, for example with acknowledgements and necrologies that can be linked to the obituary. The Jungfrau Zeitung, which has always been unorthodox in Internet and marketing matters, could serve as a role model. Its electronic gravestones are listed on the homepage under "Our deceased" and are intended to signal that they are intended to promote reader loyalty.
or (church) community building and not for the sake of filthy lucre.
Expansion to "Bereavement dossiers"
"Anyone who places obituaries in the Jungfrau Zeitung will receive a place in our virtual cemetery free of charge," assures its publisher Urs Gossweiler. For his heavily web-based newspaper, creating such "funeral dossiers" with a picture, curriculum vitae, obituary and acknowledgements hardly means any extra work. The local newspaper from the Bernese Oberland's archive of deaths, which now goes back to the year 2000, is probably unique in Switzerland. Gossweiler's declared aim is to create a digital place where the dead can rest for at least 50 years instead of the usual 25.
More conservative regional publishers observe the management of the taboo area of death with a mixture of skepticism and curiosity. After all, experience has shown that this probably oldest of all categories not only attracts the highest levels of attention, but is also relatively insensitive to economic fluctuations. The former also prove the immense reader loyalty effect of the black-bordered advertisement category. Private obituaries in particular are probably the ultimate sign of confidence in the Leibblatt and a correspondingly reliable indication of its local roots.
Indicator of anchoring
The Managing Director of Zuger Presse, Florian Hofer, knows this too. And accordingly has a problem with the fact that there is hardly any public mourning in his paper. In order to catch up with the local competition, "more emotional closeness to the people of Zug must be established" - through daily reporting and not via the Internet. Although the Zuger Presse adopted the Jungfrau Zeitung's online software some time ago, Hofer considers its virtual cemetery to be "macabre to irreverent" and in no way worth emulating.
The Zürcher Oberländer also rejects the idea. However, if the other classified ad markets shrink (even) further, publishing director Konrad Müller wants to "go over the books again". After all, the approximately three percent that the obituaries contribute to total sales is "nöd nüt". This does not, of course, include the 300,000 francs that Müller - like many other regional publishers - generates annually from the printing and distribution of obituary circulars alone.
Morbid advertising environment?
It is not just the proportion of advertising revenue accounted for by this type of advertisement that varies greatly, but also the level of discount traditionally granted by publishers in this sensitive area. While national newspapers such as the Tages-Anzeiger or NZZ usually offer 40 percent discounts, these are generally somewhat lower in the provinces, at around 30 percent for the Oberländer. The Schaffhauser Nachrichten discounts only 15 percent of its standard millimeter price. And this is only because, since last year, obituaries have only been accepted and printed in a five-column standard format. "As nobody wants to place commercial ads in this environment any more, we have to fill our five-column pages completely," says Marketing Manager Stefan Wabel, explaining the creation of this internal standard.
The fact that advertisers avoid paper cemeteries like the devil avoids holy water is one of the paradoxes of this genre, which is probably not only the most attention-grabbing among the older generation. In contrast, there is hardly any fear of contact on the Internet. For example, those who pay virtual visits to their deceased via Fricktaler Boten are also courted by Miele and Mitsubishi. And on the online service mortalino.ch, a banner from Zürcher Kantonalbank even asks (with probably unintentional tragicomedy) "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
The Mortalino death portal, which is financed purely by advertising, offers many practical tips on the number one social taboo topic as well as a cost calculator for calculating obituaries. Who knows, perhaps a virtual cemetery will soon round off the range of services. After Car4you and Homegate, this resourceful death service provider could then also become a takeover candidate for Tamedia (or another major publisher) ...
Peacefully united: In contrast to newspapers, obituaries on the Internet are lively advertisements.
A 100-million-franc marketHuman all-too-human things such as lust and grief are just as statistically taboo as they are socially. In any case, there is no official data on the quantitative development of obituaries - as there is for erotic and personal ads. Wemf's Advertising Index Switzerland, for example, only records the percentage share of the total classified advertising business in the press advertising volume. Between January and July 2004, this fell by a further 1.1 percent to 28.4 percent compared to the same period last year.
The chart shows that this is hardly due to the comparatively cyclically resistant
death market. The number of deaths in Switzerland has risen steadily over the last 40 years, but has gradually reached a ceiling despite the ageing population. According to Otto Meier, the same is also likely to apply to the number of advertisements and the turnover they generate. The Publicitas Director General currently estimates the print business with obituaries, necrologies and acknowledgements at "a good 100 million francs a year". (oc)
Oliver Classen
Which is why the Fricktal online service, which costs 50 extra francs, is soon to be expanded further, for example with acknowledgements and necrologies that can be linked to the obituary. The Jungfrau Zeitung, which has always been unorthodox in Internet and marketing matters, could serve as a role model. Its electronic gravestones are listed on the homepage under "Our deceased" and are intended to signal that they are intended to promote reader loyalty.
or (church) community building and not for the sake of filthy lucre.
Expansion to "Bereavement dossiers"
"Anyone who places obituaries in the Jungfrau Zeitung will receive a place in our virtual cemetery free of charge," assures its publisher Urs Gossweiler. For his heavily web-based newspaper, creating such "funeral dossiers" with a picture, curriculum vitae, obituary and acknowledgements hardly means any extra work. The local newspaper from the Bernese Oberland's archive of deaths, which now goes back to the year 2000, is probably unique in Switzerland. Gossweiler's declared aim is to create a digital place where the dead can rest for at least 50 years instead of the usual 25.
More conservative regional publishers observe the management of the taboo area of death with a mixture of skepticism and curiosity. After all, experience has shown that this probably oldest of all categories not only attracts the highest levels of attention, but is also relatively insensitive to economic fluctuations. The former also prove the immense reader loyalty effect of the black-bordered advertisement category. Private obituaries in particular are probably the ultimate sign of confidence in the Leibblatt and a correspondingly reliable indication of its local roots.
Indicator of anchoring
The Managing Director of Zuger Presse, Florian Hofer, knows this too. And accordingly has a problem with the fact that there is hardly any public mourning in his paper. In order to catch up with the local competition, "more emotional closeness to the people of Zug must be established" - through daily reporting and not via the Internet. Although the Zuger Presse adopted the Jungfrau Zeitung's online software some time ago, Hofer considers its virtual cemetery to be "macabre to irreverent" and in no way worth emulating.
The Zürcher Oberländer also rejects the idea. However, if the other classified ad markets shrink (even) further, publishing director Konrad Müller wants to "go over the books again". After all, the approximately three percent that the obituaries contribute to total sales is "nöd nüt". This does not, of course, include the 300,000 francs that Müller - like many other regional publishers - generates annually from the printing and distribution of obituary circulars alone.
Morbid advertising environment?
It is not just the proportion of advertising revenue accounted for by this type of advertisement that varies greatly, but also the level of discount traditionally granted by publishers in this sensitive area. While national newspapers such as the Tages-Anzeiger or NZZ usually offer 40 percent discounts, these are generally somewhat lower in the provinces, at around 30 percent for the Oberländer. The Schaffhauser Nachrichten discounts only 15 percent of its standard millimeter price. And this is only because, since last year, obituaries have only been accepted and printed in a five-column standard format. "As nobody wants to place commercial ads in this environment any more, we have to fill our five-column pages completely," says Marketing Manager Stefan Wabel, explaining the creation of this internal standard.
The fact that advertisers avoid paper cemeteries like the devil avoids holy water is one of the paradoxes of this genre, which is probably not only the most attention-grabbing among the older generation. In contrast, there is hardly any fear of contact on the Internet. For example, those who pay virtual visits to their deceased via Fricktaler Boten are also courted by Miele and Mitsubishi. And on the online service mortalino.ch, a banner from Zürcher Kantonalbank even asks (with probably unintentional tragicomedy) "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
The Mortalino death portal, which is financed purely by advertising, offers many practical tips on the number one social taboo topic as well as a cost calculator for calculating obituaries. Who knows, perhaps a virtual cemetery will soon round off the range of services. After Car4you and Homegate, this resourceful death service provider could then also become a takeover candidate for Tamedia (or another major publisher) ...
Peacefully united: In contrast to newspapers, obituaries on the Internet are lively advertisements.
A 100-million-franc marketHuman all-too-human things such as lust and grief are just as statistically taboo as they are socially. In any case, there is no official data on the quantitative development of obituaries - as there is for erotic and personal ads. Wemf's Advertising Index Switzerland, for example, only records the percentage share of the total classified advertising business in the press advertising volume. Between January and July 2004, this fell by a further 1.1 percent to 28.4 percent compared to the same period last year.
The chart shows that this is hardly due to the comparatively cyclically resistant
death market. The number of deaths in Switzerland has risen steadily over the last 40 years, but has gradually reached a ceiling despite the ageing population. According to Otto Meier, the same is also likely to apply to the number of advertisements and the turnover they generate. The Publicitas Director General currently estimates the print business with obituaries, necrologies and acknowledgements at "a good 100 million francs a year". (oc)
Oliver Classen
