At PubliGroupe's annual press conference a year ago, CEO Hanspeter Rohner reported that Publicitas (P) had adjusted its business model and "extended almost all of its partnerships with Swiss publishers on this basis" as of January 1, 2011. But shortly thereafter, Werbewoche revealed something else: For the first time, two in-house newspaper publishers, W. Gassmann (Bieler Tagblatt/Journal du Jura) and Mengis Druck und Verlag (Walliser Bote), decided not to cooperate with P. The reason: they could not agree on the new P pricing model, which bases placement agreements on a fixed base amount per placed ad plus a commission based on sales. The consequence of the break: P announced that it was deleting the titles mentioned in its system and would no longer place ads for them, not even at the express request of the customer. In short: P broke with the universal agency.
In the meantime, the situation has become more acute: In the last six months, Basler Zeitung Medien and Ziegler Druck (Der Landbote and Winterhurer Stadtanzeiger) have also terminated their cooperation with P. Now Werbewoche wanted to find out more. Now Werbewoche wanted to know more about this and asked 40 direct and in-house publishers what their contractual relationship with P was like. The result: 15 of the publishers questioned will remain under Publicitas management in 2012, but in one case the contract has been terminated. All the other publishers contacted are independent publishers, but only seven of them have a new contract with P - five with and two without (!) a basic amount per advertisement. Four publishers are currently in the middle of renegotiations, four are without a contract, as mentioned above, and the P has not yet made any representations to nine others. And in one case (Migros Media) Werbewoche received no information.
15 publishers are in P-direction
The 15 publishers that will remain under P management in 2012 are essentially known: In addition to the NZZ Group with St. Galler Tagblatt and Neuer Luzerner Zeitung, these are Anzeiger Region Bern, Touring, Le Temps, Le Nouvelliste, La Liberté, the Hersant titles Express, Impartial and Le Quotidien Jurassien as well as the Ticino newspapers Corriere del Ticino, La Regione Ticino and the Giornale del Po¬polo. Werbewoche has no information on the duration of the contracts or whether the (newer) management contracts also provide for basic amounts for advertisements. The only thing that is clear is that changes are imminent at the Neue Fricktaler Zeitung. "We have terminated our management contract with the P, and negotiations about further cooperation are underway," said publisher Walter Herzog. He left open the direction in which things will go.
More moderate performance in the second half of 2011?
It is also known that the large independent publishers Tamedia, Edipresse, Ringier and Axel Springer Switzerland concluded new contracts with P as of 2011 and also accepted the new price model including a base amount per advertisement. Zehnder Verlag in Wil (SG) has apparently also agreed to this. Publisher Rolf Zehnder indicated that he had recently renegotiated the contract and found the new pricing model including the base amount "reasonable" for his 25 free titles, but had difficulties with P's price expectations.
The fact that four publishing houses in Basel, Winterthur, Biel and Visp broke up within a short space of time in 2011 did not seem to leave P cold. At the end of the year, it began to adopt a more moderate approach. In December, it was also able to announce a new contract with AZ Medien, albeit with one major difference: AZ Medien did not agree to the P model with the basic amount. "We have jointly developed a fair model that offers good value for money," says CEO Christoph Bauer on request.
This is consistent with the experience of FMM Fachmedien Mobil. The publishing house, which publishes Automobil Revue and Revue automobile, was spun off from Tamedia last summer. As a result, a new contract was needed. However, as Werbewoche knows from a confidential source, there is now a pure commissioning contract which - in contrast to the contract with Tamedia - no longer includes a basic amount for advertisements!
Five are in negotiations, some of which are difficult...
It is also interesting to note that five independent publishers are only now deciding whether and how they want to use the P in future. Freiburger Nachrichten has been negotiating for months. Although the publisher does not wish to comment at present, it has previously expressed criticism of the new pricing model. Kimedia, which markets nine Konsumenteninfo AG magazines (including K-Tipp), has been in discussions with P for two years. "We are still interested in working with P, but not on their terms," says management board member Peter Salvisberg, referring to the base amount and commission rate. In any case, Kimedia is "not dependent on P for better or worse". The expired commission contract with the Geneva-based business newspaper Agefi (own management) was extended by one year. Renegotiations are therefore due in 2012. "But I'm not interested in the basic amount," says Martin Schaedel, Head of Sales. The situation is special for the independent title Schaffhauser Nachrichten, which has been more closely aligned with the St. Galler Tagblatt (under P management) since the new year: there are still some unanswered questions regarding the relationship with P, according to the Munot town. The same probably applies to the Olten Tagblatt, which switched to its own management in 2011 and concluded a one-year commissioning contract with P - without a basic amount. This has now been extended by one year.
Nine still know nothing
P has not even made any representations to a whole series of other independent publishers: "We have a contract with Publicitas under the old model. I have no intention of changing this," writes Konrad Müller, publishing director of the Zürcher Oberländer. Zürichsee Werbe AG, which markets a good 30 magazines, the weekly WoZ, Zeitlupe, Zofinger Tagblatt, Weltwoche, CoopZeitung and Verlag Medien & Medizin, which also publishes Werbewoche, have also "not yet heard anything about the P". According to advertising manager Thomas Stuckert, there is no de facto contract with the latter anyway; P is simply paid the standard industry commission of 5 percent. It is also worth noting that even Irmgard Ritz from the management of Südostschweiz Publicitas "does not know the new P model in detail" - after all, P holds a 50 percent stake in the Chur-based advertising company. Either way, it is clear to Ritz: "We see no need for action to adopt the new rate model."
Far from your own goal
Conclusion: Even today, P is a long way from what it sold as "done" just under a year ago. In addition, one gets the impression that it has been less brash since fall 2011; the base amount per advertisement no longer seems to be a mandatory component of a new contract. Officially, however, P does not want to know anything about this. It did not respond to a request for an interview. Beat Werder, Head of Corporate Communications at PubliGroupe, simply commented as follows: "The tariff model presented will be applied. We cannot comment on specific contractual details. From our point of view, there is no need for further details."
Markus Knöpfli
Mediated to publishers without a contract
Some media agencies traditionally process (large) parts of their print orders - including those for their own titles - via Publicitas Publimedia. The advantage for agencies and customers: less effort and a collective invoice. As long as P acted as a universal intermediary, this ran smoothly. However, this has been a thing of the past for a year now. However, as the OMD, ZipMedia and m&m agencies surveyed all agreed, the consequences for them have so far been minimal, as P continues to pass on all orders, including those to independent publishers with whom it no longer officially cooperates and from whom it no longer receives commission. The only disadvantage is that some of these orders no longer appear on the collective invoice, but are often invoiced separately by P. In some cases, the agencies have therefore switched to booking such orders directly. (mk)
(Teaser image: Keystone)
