Secret surcharges are in fashion

Of the more than 150 titles listed here, only a quarter are changing the rates for entire advertising pages: 31 titles - mainly newspapers - are increasing the page rate, 17 are reducing it. The 7 supplements are making no changes at all. And there are hardly any adjustments in French-speaking Switzerland: There, only four titles (Revue automobil, Coopération, La Liberté, La Gruyère) are raising their rates, while two (Vista f and La Côte) are lowering them significantly.

Gross display tariffs (PDF)
Continuation (PDF)

TagesWoche finally corrects the price

Axel Springer Switzerland's (ASS) TV guides are making the steepest price cuts: They each reduced the page price by around a quarter. This is understandable in the case of TV Star, which has lost exactly the same number of readers. Tele, on the other hand, is lowering its rate much more (-27%) than would be appropriate based on the current loss of reach (-18%). In the case of TV2 and TVvier, which do not report readership figures, the price reduction is not unreasonable, at least in view of the circulation trend. Another paper with a large price reduction is TagesWoche, which is cutting its advertising price by 22 percent. The reason: last February, the weekly newspaper was found to be giving away most of the more than 22,000 reported "subscriptions" free of charge simply as countertrade at airports. It has since stopped this, and today - with a circulation similar to that of a year ago - it still has just under 5700 paid subscriptions, with the rest being distributed largely free of charge. The advertisers will have to decide whether the price reduction is sufficient in view of this low subscription base. On the other hand, the 12 percent reduction made by La Côte is rather surprising, as its readership has remained stable.

Other titles choose the standard rate

The biggest price increases were made by the magazines Revue automobil (+28%), Plädoyer (+17%) and Automobil-Revue (+14%) - but only for the black-and-white rate, as the three titles are now introducing the standard rate. The young Ostschweiz am Sonntag is also clearly moving in this direction. It has reduced the four-color price, which is why the difference to the black-and-white side is now only 60 francs. Landliebe and Thurgauer Zeitung (TZ) are the two newspapers with the biggest increase in the four-color rate: although Landliebe increased its readership by 35 percent, it only added 13 percent, while TZ increased its price in exact proportion to its increase in reach (+10%). At 20 minuti in Ticino, readership growth (8%) and price increase also match in percentage terms.

Many hidden surcharges in 2015 too

It goes without saying that the current round of price increases is once again accompanied by hidden tariff increases - possibly more than ever before. The extent of this can be illustrated with a few figures: Of the 150 or so titles, 119 reported reach figures in MACH Basic 2014-2. 84 of them recorded a decline in readership compared to 2013, which is often significant. However, only six titles have also reduced their page price for next year - including the aforementioned TV titles from ASS as well as Vista and Beobachter Natur. Most, on the other hand, have left the price at the previous level, which of course represents a hidden price increase. Particularly brazen: although Anzeiger Thurgau has 31 percent fewer readers, it continues to charge the same price per page as before. The same applies to Kulturtipp (27% fewer readers), the French edition of Reader's Digest (-23%), Handelszeitung (-22%) and Film imnächst (-20%). But that's not all: some titles are even increasing their advertising rates, despite a sharp decline in reach. These include Schweiz am Sonntag and Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich, which have lost 20 percent and 17 percent of their reach and are still charging 0.2 and 2 percent more for their advertising pages. The Coop-Zeitung is doing comparatively moderately, losing 2 to 5 percent of its readers depending on the language region, but only raising its page price by 2 percent.

Massively higher TLP in many places

This leads us to the thousand-reader price (TLP), which is now comparable with the previous year in the second year of the MACH 3 readership study. 16 free newspapers have a higher CPR in 2015 than a year ago, with Anzeiger St. Gallen and Anzeiger Thurgau leading the way with +44% and +30% respectively. Among the magazines, 22 titles have a higher TLP than in 2014 - led by Kulturtipp with +36 percent. Among the newspapers, there are 18 papers with a higher TLP, with Handelszeitung taking the cake with an increase of 28%, followed by Schweiz am Sonntag with 26% and Il Caffé with 22%. Among the supplements and free magazines, Film imnächst stands out in particular, with a 25 percent increase in TLP. However, the reverse is also true: Titles that are massively reducing their TLP, albeit not to the same extent as in the case of supplements - and far less frequently. The Journal du Jura and Anzeiger Region Bern are likely to please advertisers the most, as their TLPs are 17 percent lower in 2015 than in 2014. That of PME Magazine is also down by 13 percent.

Millimeter prices rise here and there

Hidden rate increases also occur at another level: in newspapers that leave the page price unchanged but increase the price per millimeter. This makes small-format advertisements more expensive. In the current price round, however, this is relatively rare and moderate, for example at Liechtensteiner Vaterland, Zürcher Regionalzeitungen and Berner Zeitung: they are leaving their page price unchanged, but raising the millimeter price by 3 percent, at Metropool and Freiburger Nachrichten the millimeter price is increasing by 2 percent and at Finanz und Wirtschaft and Glarner Woche by 1 percent. Hidden price reductions only occur twice, but all the more clearly. The Olten local section of Schweiz am Sonntag is lowering its color millimeter rate by 11 percent, as is Ostschweiz am Sonntag.

The SonntagsBlick magazine is implementing a hidden price increase of a different kind: It will now be integrated into the newspaper as a third bundle and will take over the newspaper's rates, which are around CHF 4,000 higher.

Markus Knöpfli

Some tariff specialties

- The standard rate has long been the norm for magazines. But there are exceptions. For example, Migros Magazin and Touring and their
French- and Italian-language editions still have different b/w and 4c prices. From June 2015, Migros Magazine
stand alone with this specialty, because then Touring becomes a magazine.
- The Oltner Tagblatt has the highest reported newspaper TLP in German-speaking Switzerland in 2015 - CHF 220.83. On the
The Zofinger Tagblatt (CHF 209.44) and the Liechtensteiner Vaterland (CHF 205.-) follow in second and third place. In French-speaking Switzerland, La Côte
The highest CPM was CHF 296.58, followed by Le Courrier (CHF 280.84) and L'Impartial (CHF 255.88). Among the magazines, Bolero with
with a TLP of CHF 215.17, followed by Edelweiss (CHF 167.26).
- Large free magazines have the lowest reported TLP: The Coop-Presse (whole CH) costs only 16.37 francs per 1000 readers, the
Migros magazine KoMMBi (CHF 18.52) and the Drogistenstern (CHF 19.10) is in third place. The paid-for titles are also led by
high-reach titles, such as the K-Tipp (Fr. 24.16), the Gesundheits-Tipp (Fr. 27.98), the Beobachter (Fr. 28.34) and the Saisonküche (Fr. 28.53).
- The steepest page price increase since 2008 - the year before the crisis - was implemented by 20 minutes: Its page price costs 131 percent more
or a good twice as much as six years ago. The same applies to Blick am Abend, which costs 112 percent more than the former
predecessor title "heute". Among the paid titles, Metropool came out on top with 27%, Magazin with 26% and Bon à savoir with 23%.
percent the most.
- By contrast, the TV2 and TV vier program guides (-58%) saw the biggest reduction in page prices since 2008, followed by the
cinema magazine Avant Première (-45%), the German-language edition of the supplement Vista (-43%) and TV Star (-41%).