Newspapers and magazines continue to lose readers

The four largest daily newspapers in German-speaking Switzerland are all reaching fewer readers. This is the result of the latest Wemf survey. With a reach of 1.57 million, the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten is still the most-read daily newspaper in the country - a slight drop of 4,000 readers compared to the last survey. Its counterpart Blick am Abend is still read by 747,000 people. This is 32,000 fewer than in the last survey. The most widely read paid newspaper, Blick, lost 15,000 readers and now has 705,000, while the Tages-Anzeiger still reaches 490,000 people (-14,000). For the most recent study, Wemf surveyed around 19,000 people from all parts of the country about their media usage between October 1, 2012 and October 6, 2013. The comparative figures were collected between April 2012 and April 2013.

Profits thanks to new composition

The Neue Luzerner Zeitung and the St. Galler Tagblatt have gained readers. However, the composition of these two titles has changed compared to the last study. The Neue Luzerner Zeitung now includes the Bote der Urschweiz, while the Werdenberger&Obertoggenburger, the Rheintalische Volkszeitung and the Liechtensteiner Vaterland are now also part of the St. Galler Tagblatt network. These three were previously part of the Südostschweiz newspaper group. This also puts their loss of 81,000 readers into perspective, which corresponds to a third of the previous readership.

Significant declines for magazines

With the exception of the Sonntagszeitung (+4000 to 655,000), the Swiss-German Sunday papers also lost ground. Schweiz am Sonntag recorded a particularly significant drop in readership. Compared to the last study, the newspaper lost around 15 percent of its readership (-72,000). Wemf states that it is not possible to compare Schweiz am Sonntag with the last study. However, only the name of the publication has changed. The circulation has not changed significantly as a result of the relaunch, AZ Medien said on request.

In French-speaking Switzerland, the figures for publishers are not exactly encouraging either: here, too, the number of readers has shrunk for most of the major titles - most noticeably for Le Matin with a drop of 26,000 (-8.2 percent). Of the ten most-read daily newspapers, only La Liberté (+2000) and Le Nouvelliste (+1000) were able to increase their readership. With the exception of Le Matin, Wemf does not consider the changes in reach to be significant for any of the newspaper titles listed. This is not the case for journals and magazines. Here, the Beobachter (-64,000), Schweizer Familie (-37,000) and Das Magazin (-46,000), for example, lost readers significantly.

Landliebe success story

Among the journals and magazines, only the Ringier publication Landliebe stands out from the widespread gloom. The magazine, which is dedicated to recipes from the country kitchen as well as home and decoration ideas, among other things, gained 82,000 readers compared to the last MACH study and now reaches 482,000 people. The publication is particularly popular with women: three quarters of readers are female. Ringier wants to transfer the success story of its Landliebe to other channels. LandLiebe Radio went on air in December and Landliebe TV was launched at the beginning of March.

20 Minuten readers are young and male

Wemf has also broken down reading habits by age and gender. Unsurprisingly, commuter newspapers are very popular with young people. The 14 to 34-year-olds make up 41 percent and 46 percent of the readership of 20 Minuten and Blick am Abend respectively, while their share of traditional daily newspapers only fluctuates between 17 and 30 percent. For most newspapers, the over 55s form the most important reader group. The readers of commuter newspapers are also predominantly male. 57 percent of 20 Minuten readers are men, while the figure for Blick am Abend is 55 percent. The readership of Blick (61 percent), Tages-Anzeiger (57 percent) and Neue Zürcher Zeitung (62 percent) is also predominantly male. (SDA)