Well-lifted to the Untersee

With its Thurgau split, the St.Galler Tagblatt also wants to conquer SteckbornBy Markus Knöpfli On September 28, the St.Galler Tagblatt will be changing a lot and introducing a lot of new things: it is getting a new look and will be published with only eight split editions instead of nine. At the same time, the newspaper's circulation area in the canton of Thurgau is expanding.
Previously, the St.Galler Tagblatt (SGT) had nine regional editions, which appeared under eight different titles in the four cantons (St.Gallen, Thurgau, both Appenzell). It will now be delivered to letterboxes with eight splits, two of which will change their names: In Thurgau, the Mittelthurgauer Tagblatt (MTT) with currently 1500 subscribers and the Bodensee Tagblatt (BT) with 13500 subscribers will merge into one edition and simply be called "Tagblatt" with the addition "Ausgabe für den Thurgau". And the Wiler Zeitung/Volksfreund will be renamed Wiler Zeitung, with Volksfreund now only appearing in the subtitle.
The bundle sequence is also new. The first fascicle with foreign, domestic and two pages of background information is followed by the Eastern Switzerland bundle, which was previously only inserted in fourth place. The Bund is divided into the cantonal pages of St.Gallen, Thurgau and Appenzell, the order of which can be aligned with the subscriber's canton of residence thanks to the new printing center that has just gone into operation. "We clearly see ourselves as a regional newspaper," says publishing director Daniel Ehrat.
Business and culture follow in the third, sport and service in the fourth fascicle. The fifth and sometimes the sixth fascicle will feature local reporting. With one exception: the Thurgau edition will be the only split with seven fascicles: The fifth covers Upper Thurgau (Arbon, Amriswil), followed by that for the Thur Valley (Bischofszell, Weinfelden, Frauenfeld) and finally the Lake Bund (Kreuzlingen, Untersee). The Steckborn district in particular is to be developed with this last bundle because, according to Ehrat, it is strongly oriented towards Kreuzlingen.
Matter & Partner is once again promoting the SGT
In this district, with around 7000 households, the Thurgauer Zeitung is the market leader with a reach of 50%, followed by the Boten vom Untersee (42%). However, the market will not be cultivated "very aggressively", but will start with the current circulation of 15,000 copies in Thurgau and will only increase this to around 22,000 copies for a week after the fall vacations - in order to briefly serve the households of Steckborn free of charge, explains Ehrat. "I don't expect us to shake up the market there enormously. If we gain 300 to 500 subscriptions in Steckborn in the medium term, that would be very good." This would at least more than compensate for the current slight decline in circulation in the existing BT area.
Ehrat is hoping for "massive growth" in Central Thurgau - primarily due to the three bundles of local coverage. This is also the USP that will be used to advertise on posters and with mailings in Thurgau parallel to the relaunch. In the rest of the Tagblatt distribution area, there will be an otherwise uniform campaign designed by the Zurich agency Matter & Partner.
More color displays will be possible in the future
The St.Galler Tagblatt has already worked with the advertising agency Matter & Partner in the past, but the agency was again chosen as the communications partner following a pitch. "We invited Matter & Partner and two others to give a presentation and then opted for the previous one again," says Ehrat.
Little else has changed in terms of the concept and the layout revised by Katja Hösli (Gais AR), says Ehrat. The Tagblatt now has a six-column layout without a wide column. In future, more color pictures and, above all, more color advertisements will be possible.
In terms of content, there will be more comments and a graphically modified opinion page. However, practically everything will remain the same in terms of personnel. Even the existing editorial offices in Thurgau (Arbon, Amriswil, Frauenfeld, Kreuzlingen and Weinfelden) will continue to be staffed, with only one part-time position in Bischofszell being cut. However, staff transfers from one location to another cannot be ruled out.
Cleverly building on tradition

By renaming its split in Thurgau "Tagblatt", the SGT is preventing other newspapers in Thurgau from using this word in their names in future. This is not insignificant in Thurgau, where until recently there was the traditional newspaper Thurgauer Tagblatt, which was called "sTagblatt" until the SGT entered Thurgau. One and a half years ago, however, this was merged with other papers into the Thurgauer Zeitung - die Neue (Huber & Co.). Now SGT is reviving the past, at least in its name, with its simple Tagblatt - and is even creating the image of a long-established newspaper.
The SGT had already tried something similar a year and a half ago, but without success. At that time, it wanted to launch what is now the Mittelthurgauer Tagblatt under the name Neues Thurgauer Tagblatt. This was provocative and was promptly prohibited by the courts.
Overall, radio consumption is constant

28/02: Media - A severe case of tinnitus
I would like to explain below why the radio audience figures have not fallen, as Mr. Knöpfli has interpreted.
The fact is that radio usage was above average on the afternoon of September 11, 2001, precisely because of the news coverage. This was ultimately also reflected in the average daily reach.
It should also be noted that the market share of private radio stations has generally increased. This is primarily due to listening time and not, as Mr. Knöpfli recognizes, to the number of listeners. Of course, the number of listeners is also an element that has an impact on market share. But this is negative, as the number has fallen. Nevertheless, the market share has increased.
If the listening time for radio stations increases and listeners stay with their program longer, the switching rate decreases. There are fewer radio zappers, and so double listeners disappear. If there are fewer double listeners, listeners are only recorded on one radio station instead of two or more, as was previously the case. As a result, the absolute number of listeners to a single radio station falls (incidentally, this is confirmed by the total number of listeners to all radio stations in the same broadcasting area, as it is higher than the number of inhabitants).
Radio consumption is actually constant, and radio remains the most widely used medium. The only impact it has had on advertising is that you can no longer count on so many listeners zapping an advertising campaign.
Christian Stärkle
Ex-CEO Belcom AG