Publishers as stirrup holders

Two and a half million Swiss people are active on the social media platform Facebook, where they have gathered their circle of friends and acquaintances and spend a large part of their online activities. Now more and more companies are setting up Facebook pages that followers of their products can join as fans and thus be provided with relevant news. This opens up advantages ranging from customer loyalty to sales, which appear particularly tempting for media companies: they can get in touch with their readers and listeners, who not only contribute content, but above all help to increase the reach of the media websites by clicking on messages.

As an overview by Werbewoche (see table) shows, almost everyone who is anyone in the Swiss media landscape is represented on Facebook and Twitter. Because radio stations can respond immediately to reactions from the audience, social media channels are particularly well suited to responding to listeners and at the same time retaining their loyalty to the station. Radio Energy in Zurich and Bern and DRS3 as well as Radio Pilatus, Argovia and Basilisk are leading the way. Among the print titles, 20 Minuten is well in the running, while traditional titles are far behind, have only just been launched or are hard to find.

A survey of leading editorial offices shows that although much is still in the trial-and-error phase, using social media channels is increasingly becoming part of everyday life for many editors and journalists. More and more editors are paying attention to how their articles are received on social media platforms (likes, re-tweets) and are consciously aiming for such reactions. The approaches differ: at DRS3, the status updates are written by those who appear as authors, while at 20 Minuten the main Facebook page is primarily managed by the community manager and at NZZ such a position will be filled from March 1. At the Berner Zeitung, the online editorial team and the BZ Forum (responsible for reader dialog in print and online) publish articles and deal with reader contributions.

However, those who get involved on social media platforms primarily help the respective operators to generate more income from the sale of advertising space and - in the case of publishers - help burgeoning competitors. Publishers benefit from additional traffic on their websites (for example, 7.4 percent of 20 Minuten's traffic in November came from Facebook), can strengthen their brands (which is difficult to measure) and receive one or two tips from the public about stories worth publishing and can hope to reach new readers. On the other hand, the additional effort and loss of reader comments, which are increasingly taking place on social media platforms instead of publishers' websites, must be taken into account. As a result, publishers' websites are not only losing (advertising-relevant) reach, but also the increasingly valuable profile data of their users (see Werbewoche 21 of December 2, 2010, p. 29 ff). Because users of social media services create a profile of their interests by selecting their contacts, advertising messages can be played out in a very targeted manner, which is rewarded by advertisers with better prices.

Facebook has long since established itself as a new advertising giant in the USA, but also in Germany. According to a report by the online marketing service provider Comscore for the third quarter, almost one in four online advertising banners in the USA now appears on Facebook (see Werbewoche 20, November 18, 2010, p. 25). In Germany, Facebook delivered 15.6 billion online display ad impressions in the third quarter, more than any other online publisher, accounting for 8.3 percent of all impressions delivered. In the second quarter, Facebook was still in second place, which clearly shows the pace of development. The second and third places are also occupied by social media sites: The German publishing group Georg von Holtzbrinck, which includes the social networks Schuelervz.net, Studivz.net and Meinvz.net, ranks second with 8.7 billion online display ads delivered (equivalent to a market share of 4.6 percent), followed by Jappy GmbH with 8.2 billion ad impressions (4.4 percent). As a look at foreign markets shows, Facebook's advertising revenues are growing faster than the overall online advertising market, which means that the market is being squeezed out rather than expanded.

In Germany, the publishers' association VDZ pointed out the growing importance of Facebook last June and demanded that publishers should receive a share of the advertising revenue generated by Facebook in connection with their content. Among Swiss newspaper publishers, Norbert Neininger from the Schaffhauser Nachrichten in particular has so far clearly articulated the publishers' attitude towards news-gathering newcomers from the digital world and demanded compensation from Google in advance. When asked, he admits that the publishers have not succeeded in defending their rights against Google. It is now "high time" to do so and the issue must be resolved in principle and not with regard to one of the companies. He refers to the postulate for an ancillary copyright that he launched last summer. From Facebook, as well as from Google, he demands that publishers "receive a fair share of the revenue" generated by their content on these platforms.

As a regulation for an ancillary copyright is controversial and therefore a long way off, publishers are likely to rely on the goodwill of the digital dominators with their requests. And they will probably first point out that publishers benefit from their offers and could make use of them themselves voluntarily (as with Facebook) or prevent them (as with Google). However, those who offer their content for free online will hardly be able to do without the reach that comes from these channels.

A look at Germany shows that publishers' own alternatives hardly stand a chance in this situation: although Facebook was late to launch in Germany, the Americans have caught up mightily and overtaken their local competitors, the VZ networks (StudiVZ and others) belonging to the Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group. Thus, in the epic of the decline of the publishing kings, the episode will be added that they could not help but contribute to their own downfall for the sake of short-term advantages.
Christoph J. Walther

Great variety

Facebook: With Facebook, the main focus is on personal communication with friends and acquaintances. Unlike in foreign markets, Facebook does not yet play a dominant role in online advertising in Switzerland. For public communication by personalities, companies and organizations, there are Facebook pages that you join not as a friend but as a fan.
Twitter: The micro-blogging service (messages are limited to 140 characters) is increasingly replacing the news ticker among heavy users, as news naturally spreads very quickly here and is often the first to be read. On the other hand, reliable user figures are hard to come by; a recent survey for the entire German-speaking region indicates around 20,000 active users in German-speaking Switzerland. Twitter is currently in the process of expanding its offerings for advertisers.
YouTube: Google's video service is the best-known example of sharing, linking, searching and commenting on visual media content.
Other: Social networks in the professional sector such as Xing or Linkin or social bookmarking services such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon or purely German-language services such as Linkarena and Oneview are also popular. Mister Wong.