Confidence thanks to safety net
IT Media: Despite a slump in advertising revenue, the newly revamped Computerworld is venturing into uncharted territory—not least thanks to the international IDG network.
IT media Despite a slump in advertising, the freshly revamped Computerworld ventures into new territory - not least thanks to the international IDG network. Since January 31, and just in time for the Internet Expo, Computerworld (CW) has been appearing in a more airy dress. The redesigned paper is already more colorful at the top and radiates something like confidence. But the euphoria of the Internet hype has given way to a calmer layout and softer headlines. The main thing, however, "was to take account of the convergence of the Internet and communications and to gear the paper more strongly to the Swiss market," says Gebhard Osterwalder, founder and Vice Chairman of IDG Communications (Switzerland), a wholly owned subsidiary of IDG Boston.Two things, however, were not changed: The CW, the "Swiss newspaper for information technology, telecommunications and the Internet," remains the only IT title in a newspaper format. The weekly publication frequency was also not up for discussion. "The CW has been a brand for 18 years, I don't think such changes would have made any difference," says Osterwalder.
Four new specials
Rather, he continues to expand the brand. Twice. This year, for the first time, four CW specials will appear instead of just two. Osterwalder wants to expand it to six starting in 2004 and make it independent as a line extension. "But that's not definite yet and depends on the advertising market," he says. The second expansion is to launch a seminar offering: The first CW symposium will be held in April on the subject of security, the current hot topic in the IT industry.
That's surprising, because the industry's problems are not bypassing CW. "The job market in our industry is dead," says Osterwalder. A look at the CW confirms this. The rest of the ad
volume has slumped by up to 50 percent. As a result, IDG (Switzerland) had to cut around three jobs. Unemployed IT specialists are also putting pressure on paid circulation. The CW was able to slightly increase the number of subscriptions in 2001, but only at the expense of retail sales. The CW regularly appears at trade shows and events with increased circulation. In addition, around 3000 copies are distributed free of charge to members of the Wiss.
But what makes Osterwalder so "confident about the future? Three things in particular: According to a Link study, the CW still reaches 50000 readers, almost two-thirds of all Swiss "hardcore IT professionals. And according to Wemf's MA IT-Business 2000, the CW, which does not report more up-to-date official readership figures, is number one in large IT companies. But the IDG network, with over 300 computer titles worldwide, provides the most security. Not only can technical articles be obtained there, the network also represents an international advertising combination. About 50 percent of the 2002 ad volume in the CW came from this pool. That's why the CW gained market share last year, despite a slump in advertising; last August, it alone accounted for 47 percent.
Gebhard Osterwalder, founder of IDG Communications (Switzerland): 50000 IT readers per week.
Thinned-out Swiss marketA good dozen mainly German titles are pushing their way into the Swiss computer magazine market. The most important: Chip, CT Computertechnik and IT Reseller. New Swiss titles, on the other hand, are rare, with Netzwoche being the only one. In contrast, titles such as Output, Computermarkt, Informatik, Macintouch, ibt and Bug 2000 have disappeared - including the Internet Standard from IDG. Others face similar threats: Sysdata and Infoweek have already reduced their publication frequency because of the advertising slump. Since the beginning of the year, Sysdata (Binkert Medien) has been published only six times a year instead of ten, with a tighter print run (10,000 instead of 15,000 copies). Infoweek (Compress Information Group), which had only changed from a monthly magazine to a weekly title in 2000, has changed to a fortnightly publication. (mk)
"We are quite confident "WW "PC market at diving station", "Internet-Expo with exhibitor low" - do these front stories of the freshly launched Computerworld (CW) reflect the mood in the industry?
Karlheinz Pichler: The mood is still bad. And yet it is better than it was a year ago. Because banks and insurance companies, the locomotive of the infotechnology industry, have been holding back heavily on investments for two years, it is obvious that something has to go again now.
The Swiss PC market shrank by 15.6 percent to CHF 5.4 billion in 2002. How does this affect advertising investment in this industry?
These have also slumped. But there are differences. In the B2B sector, where CW is positioned, very little is happening, partly because saturation has been reached in Switzerland. The consumer market is different: The penetration of society with IT technology is only just beginning, and the future potential is enormous. This is also reflected in the volume of advertising. The IDG consumer title PC-Tip, for example, had more advertisements from October to December than in the same period in 2001.
"In times when people are screeching back, we are going on the offensive," you wrote in the CW. Is that more than just optimism?
We have a basic optimistic attitude, and we believe that things will pick up again in the third or fourth quarter. That's why we revised our products during the lull. Now we are quite confident.
Where do you see bright spots?
I only see them in isolated cases, but there are some large companies in the industry, such as the network company Cisco, that are posting quite good figures again. Sales are rising only in isolated cases, but after restructuring, the companies are at least operating profitably. It remains to be seen whether UMTS can actually become a new locomotive.
So much confidence makes one skeptical. Doesn't the CW actually suffer from a loss of confidence today?
We tend to be accused of being too critical - just think of the headlines quoted at the beginning. There are even companies that don't book ads with us because of this. The Internet was also an issue for us, but we were primarily interested in the technical side, so CW tended to stay on the ground. Interview: Markus Knöpfli
Karlheinz Pichler: Editor-in-Chief of Computerworld
Markus Knöpfli
Four new specials
Rather, he continues to expand the brand. Twice. This year, for the first time, four CW specials will appear instead of just two. Osterwalder wants to expand it to six starting in 2004 and make it independent as a line extension. "But that's not definite yet and depends on the advertising market," he says. The second expansion is to launch a seminar offering: The first CW symposium will be held in April on the subject of security, the current hot topic in the IT industry.
That's surprising, because the industry's problems are not bypassing CW. "The job market in our industry is dead," says Osterwalder. A look at the CW confirms this. The rest of the ad
volume has slumped by up to 50 percent. As a result, IDG (Switzerland) had to cut around three jobs. Unemployed IT specialists are also putting pressure on paid circulation. The CW was able to slightly increase the number of subscriptions in 2001, but only at the expense of retail sales. The CW regularly appears at trade shows and events with increased circulation. In addition, around 3000 copies are distributed free of charge to members of the Wiss.
But what makes Osterwalder so "confident about the future? Three things in particular: According to a Link study, the CW still reaches 50000 readers, almost two-thirds of all Swiss "hardcore IT professionals. And according to Wemf's MA IT-Business 2000, the CW, which does not report more up-to-date official readership figures, is number one in large IT companies. But the IDG network, with over 300 computer titles worldwide, provides the most security. Not only can technical articles be obtained there, the network also represents an international advertising combination. About 50 percent of the 2002 ad volume in the CW came from this pool. That's why the CW gained market share last year, despite a slump in advertising; last August, it alone accounted for 47 percent.
Gebhard Osterwalder, founder of IDG Communications (Switzerland): 50000 IT readers per week.
Thinned-out Swiss marketA good dozen mainly German titles are pushing their way into the Swiss computer magazine market. The most important: Chip, CT Computertechnik and IT Reseller. New Swiss titles, on the other hand, are rare, with Netzwoche being the only one. In contrast, titles such as Output, Computermarkt, Informatik, Macintouch, ibt and Bug 2000 have disappeared - including the Internet Standard from IDG. Others face similar threats: Sysdata and Infoweek have already reduced their publication frequency because of the advertising slump. Since the beginning of the year, Sysdata (Binkert Medien) has been published only six times a year instead of ten, with a tighter print run (10,000 instead of 15,000 copies). Infoweek (Compress Information Group), which had only changed from a monthly magazine to a weekly title in 2000, has changed to a fortnightly publication. (mk)
"We are quite confident "WW "PC market at diving station", "Internet-Expo with exhibitor low" - do these front stories of the freshly launched Computerworld (CW) reflect the mood in the industry?
Karlheinz Pichler: The mood is still bad. And yet it is better than it was a year ago. Because banks and insurance companies, the locomotive of the infotechnology industry, have been holding back heavily on investments for two years, it is obvious that something has to go again now.
The Swiss PC market shrank by 15.6 percent to CHF 5.4 billion in 2002. How does this affect advertising investment in this industry?
These have also slumped. But there are differences. In the B2B sector, where CW is positioned, very little is happening, partly because saturation has been reached in Switzerland. The consumer market is different: The penetration of society with IT technology is only just beginning, and the future potential is enormous. This is also reflected in the volume of advertising. The IDG consumer title PC-Tip, for example, had more advertisements from October to December than in the same period in 2001.
"In times when people are screeching back, we are going on the offensive," you wrote in the CW. Is that more than just optimism?
We have a basic optimistic attitude, and we believe that things will pick up again in the third or fourth quarter. That's why we revised our products during the lull. Now we are quite confident.
Where do you see bright spots?
I only see them in isolated cases, but there are some large companies in the industry, such as the network company Cisco, that are posting quite good figures again. Sales are rising only in isolated cases, but after restructuring, the companies are at least operating profitably. It remains to be seen whether UMTS can actually become a new locomotive.
So much confidence makes one skeptical. Doesn't the CW actually suffer from a loss of confidence today?
We tend to be accused of being too critical - just think of the headlines quoted at the beginning. There are even companies that don't book ads with us because of this. The Internet was also an issue for us, but we were primarily interested in the technical side, so CW tended to stay on the ground. Interview: Markus Knöpfli
Karlheinz Pichler: Editor-in-Chief of Computerworld
Markus Knöpfli
