Movement in the Sunday market
Two new editors-in-chief, two new supplements, various apps and an expansion in Basel: after three years of stagnation, the Sunday market is on the move again. One publisher is also launching a purely digital Sunday edition.
For a long time, there were only two Sunday titles in German-speaking Switzerland, Tamedia's SonntagsZeitung and Ringier's SonntagsBlick - until 2002, when the NZZ Group launched its NZZ am Sonntag. Four years later, some regional publishers also sensed a Sunday goldmine: Südostschweiz am Sonntag was launched in 2006, followed by AZ Medien's Sonntag in 2007 and Zentralschweiz am Sonntag, the seventh edition of the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, in 2008. Then came the crisis years, which meant that Sundays became quiet again. No wonder, as most Sunday titles also lost advertising volume: while the Sunday press (Switzerland as a whole) still generated advertising revenue of CHF 210.5 million in 2008, this fell to just CHF 154 million in 2010 (-26%). Some titles, such as SonntagsZeitung (SoZ) and NZZ am Sonntag (NZZaS), even lost 30 percent of their advertising volume (only commercial advertisements, excluding classified ads). As a result, staff and quality were cut everywhere. In any case, readership figures also began to fall with the crisis. Only Südostschweiz am Sonntag (SOSo), which steadily expanded its early delivery area, and Zentralschweiz am Sonntag (ZaS), the youngest Sonntagsblatt, made marginal gains.
Saturated Sunday market
All this shows: The Sunday market in German-speaking Switzerland is stagnating. "The Sunday market is undoubtedly saturated," said Caroline Thoma, Managing Director of the Blick Group. SoZ publishing director Diego Quintarelli also speaks of a "competitive environment". "The Sunday euphoria is on the wane," notes Andrea Masüger, CEO of Südostschweiz Medien. That's why every publisher now wants to put its Sonntagsblatt in pole position. Accordingly, investments are once again the order of the day after the years of austerity: SoBli and SoZ appointed new editors-in-chief - Carsten Witzmann and Martin Spieler - last year, SoZ launched the luxury supplement "Finest" in spring, SoBli changed the face and concept of its magazine, and Sonntag gave itself a new layout in May. Two newspapers also announced new features for this fall: NZZaS will transform its previous lifestyle bundle into a magazine supplement called "Stil" at the end of August, and Sonntag plans to launch a seventh for the canton of Stadt-Basel in addition to its existing six regional bundles from mid-September. The digital age is also being entered everywhere: SoZ, which generally relies on paid content, was the first Sonntag title to launch a paid iPad app back in summer 2010. "Every Sunday we are the top-selling print media app in the App Store," says Quintarelli proudly. Sonntag and Südostschweiz recently followed suit, as did the Blick Group, which had already released iPhone apps in the past. The NZZaS, on the other hand, is working on a Lifepaper, an animated version of the EPaper. According to Editor-in-Chief Felix E. Müller, this is planned for the first quarter of 2012 and should then also facilitate NZZaS distribution abroad.
SonntagsBlick remains number 1
It remains to be seen what effect these activities will have. However, upheavals are not to be expected. Not even the crisis and new regional competition have been able to completely turn the Sunday market upside down. However, they have left their mark. With a paid circulation of 238,178 copies and 873,000 weekly readers, SonntagsBlick (SoBli) remained the largest Sunday title - and the only one in tabloid format. It also continues to have the lowest thousand-reader price (TLP) and the largest advertising volume. It has even been able to keep its market share of commercial advertisements constant at 27 percent since 2008. However, it has felt the effects of the new regional competition particularly keenly in the user market: while it still had one million readers in 2007, it has lost a significant 13 percent since then. Circulation has fallen by a similar amount. Interestingly, although the publisher has promoted subscriptions and Sunday early delivery, the SoBli still sells almost half of its circulation in single copy sales. The SoZ also remained number two in terms of reach, circulation and TLP, continues to have the largest editorial team (70 people) and, with four readers per copy, is read more intensively than its competitors. However, of all the Sunday titles, the SoZ suffered the most financially from the crisis and its regional competitors: in 2008, it generated almost as many advertising pages as the SoBli and also had a 27 percent market share in commercial advertising at the time, but in the first half of 2011 it only achieved a market share of 21 % and even fell to third place behind the NZZaS (market share: 23 %).
Sunday remains regionally blocked
Conversely, it is still unclear whether the nine-year-old and third-placed NZZaS has already reached its limits. Although there was a slight erosion in reach last year (-3.7 %), circulation has continued to rise steadily, even though the NZZaS charges the highest prices for subscriptions and at newsstands. But even Editor-in-Chief Felix E. Müller, who last year was still aiming for 550,000 readers and 130,000 copies, has become more cautious. "The circulation target still seems achievable, but the reach target was probably too ambitious," he says. Of the regional Sunday editions, the Aargauische Sonntag is undoubtedly the most important, but it is caught in a dilemma: in terms of content, it has a national claim and can certainly hold a candle to the SoBli, SoZ and NZZaS: It is often quoted and generally praised as "well done". However, its circulation area has always been limited to the Mittelland, Zurich and north-western Switzerland. This is why it was never able to achieve its declared goal of becoming the second-largest Sunday title. In terms of circulation, it is now only the third-largest paper, and in terms of reach and CPM, it is only in fourth place. Circulation and reach are also declining. The "potential of 500,000 readers" that was mentioned at the launch was never even close to being exhausted (peak in 2010-1: 371,000 readers). As a result, its advertising market share has always hovered around 13%. SOSo and ZaS, the two other Sunday editions, are smaller and clearly regionally positioned, but - despite their high TLP - still have a combined advertising market share of 17%. It remains to be seen whether these shares were generated by the Sunday editions themselves or whether volumes were simply shifted from the respective daily newspapers to the weekend. According to Andrea Masüger, there was no substantial shift in advertising for his title. "With the launch of SOSo, we were able to tap into an additional market, which was worthwhile for us," he says.
Markus Knöpfli
Experiment on Sunday
In September, the small Schaffhauser Nachrichten (circulation: 22,868 copies) is launching a fourth regional Sunday edition, but "only" digitally with apps for all types of tablets and smartphones. "We want to fill the gap on Sundays, but also generate additional revenue," says publisher Günter Neininger. A production team will prepare reports for Sunday that are already being processed in the in-house radio, TV and newspaper media. They will start with a few tablet pages and then gradually expand. The app will be free of charge until the end of the year and will become chargeable from 2012. In terms of advertising, the aim is to break new ground and be highly interactive. The project should break even as early as 2012. However, Neininger sees the project primarily as an experiment. "It's ideal to be able to try it out like this. It would never have been possible with a print edition," he says. Although a paper edition is definitely an option for Neininger - "depending on how the economy develops". (mk)
