Magazine Illustrazione Ticinese, a monthly magazine distributed free of charge, has held its own in the southern Swiss market for 75 years thanks to its thematic diversity.
that has the ambition to cover all households in a region.
to cover? It must be neither dusty nor avant-garde, it must be
must be both contemporary and exude a touch of nostalgia.
This is exactly the recipe from Illustrazione Ticinese (IT), a free
distributed family magazine in Ticino. Published twelve times a year
magazine comes across as petty bourgeois and almost a little staid,
In any case, unobtrusive and with a positive attitude. Politics
is only ever included in the average eight-page peoplestory,
there, however, usually only in portraits of female politicians from Ticino.
and politicians, which are in line with those of artists, sportsmen and women,
musicians or TV presenters from southern Switzerland.
For mom, nonna and bambini
IT also offers something for almost every member of the family: the
Housewife recipes, the Bambini a handicraft page and a children's survey,
excerpts from advertisements from the old days, the townspeople Wellness
and gastronomy, the men cars and motorcycles and the senior citizens
Explanations about the Internet and digital TV. Of course
Not horoscopes, travel and sport. The magazine has a good 20
sections - mostly with a clear reference to Ticino. Youth topics, on the other hand
hardly ever occur.
IT's pattern may be simple, but the title is solid
both editorially and in terms of layout. The fact that the paper
The readership figures show that the magazine manages the balancing act: It comes down to
a good one reader per copy. Men and women speak to the magazine
The same applies to the different age groups. Only the
Youth falls off somewhat - probably a consequence of the aforementioned shortcoming.
When it comes to young people, however, Ticino 7, the weekly magazine of the three
Daily newspapers La Regione, Corriere del Ticino and Giornale del Popolo,
slightly better - probably not least thanks to the integrated TV program.
However, this is part of the neck-and-neck race between Ticino 7 and IT
for years: The reach of the two titles is around 56
percent. The weekend supplement of the Ticino daily newspapers achieves this
with just under two readers per copy, the free title with one
one hundred percent household coverage (including Misox, but excluding
vacation homes) - thanks to distribution via AWZ and Swiss Post. Competitive titles
from Italy do exist in the Swiss sunshine region, but since the
Italian press hardly knows any subscriptions, the two Ticino titles are the
the only high-circulation magazines with home delivery.
Although a free title, Illustrazione is not full of advertisements.
With a share of two thirds, the editorial content clearly has the
Priority. "This is definitely a concept and not cyclical",
says publisher Matthias Weder. In the last six years, the magazine has
did not experience a slump, but rather advertising revenues of around 1.6 million
francs per year. The main share comes from national
campaigns, the local market (including a few gastronomy and food service outlets)
travel advertisements from Italy) contributed a maximum of one fifth.
At
German-speaking Swiss market, IT works with the Grütter advertising agency
& Mediaberatung in Roggwil. Its owner Erhard Grütter has been marketing IT for 30 years. "Alongside
of the complete budget coverage, we particularly emphasize the thematic
width of the magazine: The advertisements can be placed with IT in the
be placed in a suitable editorial environment," he says.
A publishing coup at the start
As appealing as IT may seem today, it was launched 75 years ago.
with a political bang: its founder, a journalist named
Fontana, offered the anti-fascist Erich Maria Remarque, whose
Anti-war work "Nothing New in the West" in regular episodes in advance
because no Italian publisher could be found.
"That was a coup at the time," says publisher Werder.
But the Illustrazione
was never a fighting paper, it always saw itself as a
Family magazine. It was originally a subscription magazine: In the first
years, accident insurance was still included in the subscription price. The
The switch to free distribution took place in the sixties, when
a rival publisher launched a large-circulation free magazine. After
After several changes of publisher, the magazine came into the hands of Matthias
Werder, who has lived in Ticino since 1968 as a journalist, PR specialist and
concept developer. Before Werder IT took over the publishing house
Tredicom, he had led the IT editorial team for several years as
Freelancer led.
Illustrazione from the Publimedia perspective
IT receives part of the advertising volume from Publimedia. How much,
Othmar Fischlin, Head of the Media and Research Department, wants to
cannot say. But how does he rate Ticino 7's competitor, the
is marketed by Publicitas with its three carrier titles? "From
In terms of content structure, IT with its reports and
general social issues certainly appeals to its target audience
and correctly positioned," says Fischlin. IT also belongs
one of the print products with the widest reach in southern Switzerland and
is often taken into account thanks to its high budget coverage. With
a thousand-reader price of over 70 francs, however, IT is in the
upper segment of the nationally comparable title groups, which
However, the tight market structure in Ticino puts this into perspective.
As "certainly not conducive to the position in the advertising market"
is how Fischlin describes the twelve publications of the title.
This allows for the flexible use of the system in longer-term campaigns.
also made more difficult when a short-term increase in reach or a
rapid contact accumulation is the goal. "In this case
probably in practice often encounter competing
We've switched to a wide-ranging title with a weekly publication," says
Fischlin, probably with a view of Ticino 7.
Markus Knöpfli
