Goodbye wallflower
TVtäglich Strikes Fear into the Hearts of TV Programmers
TVtäglich teaches the program press to fearBy Daniel Schifferle The TV press is clearly feeling the pinch of tighter wallets. But car magazines also seem to be feeling the effects of the public's new desire to save money.
Many readers currently seem to be satisfied with the narrow fare when it comes to reading TV programs. This is the only way to explain the unexpected take-off of the TV program supplement TVtäglich. However, the 216,000 additional readers (+23%) should not be taken as full value, as a significant part of the striking increase must be accounted for as the effect of a modified survey (see box).
Even after deducting a generous malus, the free magazine still has a considerable gain in readership. This can also be seen in the paid-for titles among the program guides. Without exception, all TV titles were in decline in German-speaking Switzerland. The worst affected was Tele, which lost 37,000 readers (-5.2%).
followed by TV-Spielfilm
with 33,000 fewer readers (-10.1%) and TR7, which has 21,000 fewer readers (-5.2%) than in the previous year. The extent to which Rüdiger Hahn's TV 4 was partly responsible for the crumbling readership remains to be seen. The four-week program title, which is soon to be followed by a two-week title, does not participate in readership studies or circulation surveys.
Car magazines are experiencing difficult times
In addition to the TV press buying titles, another entire group of titles has fallen into difficulties: The automotive press in German-speaking Switzerland was in reverse gear across the board. The losses were equally high for all of them: Auto Motor und Sport lost 26,000 readers (-11.4%), Auto Illustrierte lost 25,000 readers (-11.7%) and Automobil Revue slipped by 21,000 readers (-8.7%). It seems that readers are spending less money on hedonistic pursuits at the moment and are therefore foregoing the corresponding reading. This could also explain the drop of 17,000 readers (-11.0%) in the furnishing magazine Ideales Heim.
Du also has a serious problem, having once again lost a significant proportion of its readership with a loss of 13,000 readers (-9.4%). The as yet undecided successor to Editor-in-Chief Marco Meier will have to implement many good ideas if the magazine is to get back on track one day, as the unsatisfactory figures make clear.
K-Tipp "overthrown" - Observer back on top
The fall of K-Tipp appears to be home-made. After years as the leader in terms of reach among Swiss-German magazines, it has now had to cede the top spot back to the Beobachter. The reason for this is a loss of no less than 93,000 readers (-8.4%) - no other magazine or newspaper has lost anywhere near as many readers in this year's Mach Basic. This is a clear case of cannibalization, as the competition gnawing away at K-Tipp, its sister magazine Saldo, also comes from KI Konsumenteninfo AG. However, it remains to be seen how many additional readers Saldo attracted, as the ad-free magazine does not take part in the readership study. One consolation remains for K-Tipp either way: Bon à Savoir, its counterpart in French-speaking Switzerland, gained a total of 29,000 readers (+10.6%).
For Ringier, the French-speaking Swiss market brought nothing but good news. In addition to the Sunday title Dimanche.ch, the women's magazine Edelweiss also sailed comfortably upwind with 11,000 additional female readers (+18.6%). Beyond that, however, there are only two other magazines that can also boast significant gains. They also belong to Ringier: GesundheitSprechstunde and Glückspost. The title for the TV program of the same name attracted 39,000 new readers (+7.9%). However, the result for Glückspost, which had lost readership significantly in previous years and was in urgent need of a turnaround, was particularly satisfying. With 22,000 new readers (+5.1%), this has been achieved, at least for the time being.
The negative result of the Swiss Family, which according to Mach Basic lost 22,000 readers (-3.7%) in 2002, turns out to be a minor blemish. However, this drop has now been more than compensated for by the subscribers who were taken over by the discontinued Meyers. The Swiss family has inherited a total of 35,000 subscriptions, says publishing director Roland Wahrenberger. He estimates that this figure corresponds to around 100,000 additional readers.
The question of how the newest magazine in German-speaking Switzerland, Weltwoche, has developed to date remains unanswered. It is true that the newspaper's current Mach Basic figures are roughly on a par with the previous year. But these are of no interest to anyone today. It is now eagerly awaited whether the magazine format will actually generate additional readers, as is assumed. The new Weltwoche has announced its first readership figures for November.
TVtäglich growth is too optimisticThe survey for the TVtäglich title was expanded for the current Mach Basic. Here's how: As a reminder aid, this time additional carrier titles were mentioned in the survey to which TVtäglich is attached; there are now ten of them. This extended reminder aid also led to additional mentions - a familiar mechanism that nobody disputes in the case of TVtäglich. However, it is not possible to quantify the extent of the distortion of the results caused by the change in the survey (dse).
Many readers currently seem to be satisfied with the narrow fare when it comes to reading TV programs. This is the only way to explain the unexpected take-off of the TV program supplement TVtäglich. However, the 216,000 additional readers (+23%) should not be taken as full value, as a significant part of the striking increase must be accounted for as the effect of a modified survey (see box).
Even after deducting a generous malus, the free magazine still has a considerable gain in readership. This can also be seen in the paid-for titles among the program guides. Without exception, all TV titles were in decline in German-speaking Switzerland. The worst affected was Tele, which lost 37,000 readers (-5.2%).
followed by TV-Spielfilm
with 33,000 fewer readers (-10.1%) and TR7, which has 21,000 fewer readers (-5.2%) than in the previous year. The extent to which Rüdiger Hahn's TV 4 was partly responsible for the crumbling readership remains to be seen. The four-week program title, which is soon to be followed by a two-week title, does not participate in readership studies or circulation surveys.
Car magazines are experiencing difficult times
In addition to the TV press buying titles, another entire group of titles has fallen into difficulties: The automotive press in German-speaking Switzerland was in reverse gear across the board. The losses were equally high for all of them: Auto Motor und Sport lost 26,000 readers (-11.4%), Auto Illustrierte lost 25,000 readers (-11.7%) and Automobil Revue slipped by 21,000 readers (-8.7%). It seems that readers are spending less money on hedonistic pursuits at the moment and are therefore foregoing the corresponding reading. This could also explain the drop of 17,000 readers (-11.0%) in the furnishing magazine Ideales Heim.
Du also has a serious problem, having once again lost a significant proportion of its readership with a loss of 13,000 readers (-9.4%). The as yet undecided successor to Editor-in-Chief Marco Meier will have to implement many good ideas if the magazine is to get back on track one day, as the unsatisfactory figures make clear.
K-Tipp "overthrown" - Observer back on top
The fall of K-Tipp appears to be home-made. After years as the leader in terms of reach among Swiss-German magazines, it has now had to cede the top spot back to the Beobachter. The reason for this is a loss of no less than 93,000 readers (-8.4%) - no other magazine or newspaper has lost anywhere near as many readers in this year's Mach Basic. This is a clear case of cannibalization, as the competition gnawing away at K-Tipp, its sister magazine Saldo, also comes from KI Konsumenteninfo AG. However, it remains to be seen how many additional readers Saldo attracted, as the ad-free magazine does not take part in the readership study. One consolation remains for K-Tipp either way: Bon à Savoir, its counterpart in French-speaking Switzerland, gained a total of 29,000 readers (+10.6%).
For Ringier, the French-speaking Swiss market brought nothing but good news. In addition to the Sunday title Dimanche.ch, the women's magazine Edelweiss also sailed comfortably upwind with 11,000 additional female readers (+18.6%). Beyond that, however, there are only two other magazines that can also boast significant gains. They also belong to Ringier: GesundheitSprechstunde and Glückspost. The title for the TV program of the same name attracted 39,000 new readers (+7.9%). However, the result for Glückspost, which had lost readership significantly in previous years and was in urgent need of a turnaround, was particularly satisfying. With 22,000 new readers (+5.1%), this has been achieved, at least for the time being.
The negative result of the Swiss Family, which according to Mach Basic lost 22,000 readers (-3.7%) in 2002, turns out to be a minor blemish. However, this drop has now been more than compensated for by the subscribers who were taken over by the discontinued Meyers. The Swiss family has inherited a total of 35,000 subscriptions, says publishing director Roland Wahrenberger. He estimates that this figure corresponds to around 100,000 additional readers.
The question of how the newest magazine in German-speaking Switzerland, Weltwoche, has developed to date remains unanswered. It is true that the newspaper's current Mach Basic figures are roughly on a par with the previous year. But these are of no interest to anyone today. It is now eagerly awaited whether the magazine format will actually generate additional readers, as is assumed. The new Weltwoche has announced its first readership figures for November.
TVtäglich growth is too optimisticThe survey for the TVtäglich title was expanded for the current Mach Basic. Here's how: As a reminder aid, this time additional carrier titles were mentioned in the survey to which TVtäglich is attached; there are now ten of them. This extended reminder aid also led to additional mentions - a familiar mechanism that nobody disputes in the case of TVtäglich. However, it is not possible to quantify the extent of the distortion of the results caused by the change in the survey (dse).
