Print The St. Galler Tagblatt is responding to Tamedia's expansion in Thurgau with two newspapers from its network, and when the shareholders of the Thurgauer Zeitung
(TZ) announced at the beginning of September the sale of its publishing house to Tamedia, the
publisher of the Tages-Anzeiger, announced that the anger at the
St.Galler Tagblatt (SGT) is big. Because the major St. Gallen publishing house,
a subsidiary of the NZZ Group, had discussed cooperations with TZ in the
print and advertising area and later even via integration into the
SGT header blade system was negotiated. "The contract was finally awarded to
surprisingly received the Zurich applicant - but not for a
cooperation model, but for a complete takeover," explained
the SGT on September 9, one day after the deal was announced,
without understanding. In the same issue, Hans-Peter Klauser,
Chairman of the Executive Board, announced that his publishing house "now has the
expansion in the neighboring canton in a different way: by expanding the
and a more prominent presence for Thurgau's
Topics".
A month and a half after the disappointment, St.Gallen is now getting ready to
to implement the ideas outlined. This is done in accordance with
SGT publishing director Daniel Ehrat in two phases: The first begins on 28.
October and includes a series of immediate measures. For the second phase,
which involves longer-term activities, requires higher amounts of money
and 2006 at the earliest, several scenarios were developed.
Spreading densities over 60 percent
In order to understand what is already realized in the first phase, it is necessary to
It is important to keep the initial situation in mind: Today, the
Thurgau, there are two sides with different strengths: The
Thurgauer Zeitung is strong in the west, with a presence in five of the
eight districts have litter densities of over 40 percent, in some cases even over 60
percent. In contrast, the Tagblatt has its readers primarily in
the eastern districts of Arbon (distribution density 44 percent) and Bischofszell (27 percent).
percent), in the other regions it reaches less than 10 percent
of households. The current TZ standard circulation in WG 44 is 69,000
readers, 21,000 fewer than after the merger with the
Ruckstuhl sheets in 2001. The Tagblatt shows in the same area
33,000 readers, 11,000 fewer than after the previous peak in the
However, south of Thurgau, in Wil, there is also a third
newspaper, the Wiler Zeitung, which is published by the Flawil printing plant.
and is also part of the SGT system. Already today, this
under the fence into Thurgau, where they are located in the district of
Münchwilen reached 9 percent of households.
On October 28, both the Tagblatt für den Kanton Thurgau
and the Wiler Zeitung jointly launched a two-front offensive against
the Thurgauer Zeitung. In both cases, the existing
newspapers even more "thurgauized" than before, as Ehrat calls himself.
expresses. The Tagblatt for the canton of Thurgau, for example, is the only
SGT front page with its own topics and images
be able to equip it. "The front must have a Thurgau look and feel",
says Editor-in-Chief Gottlieb Höpli. In addition, the Ostschweiz-Bund
for Mostindien has been changed so that it now has a two-sided
Thurgau kick-off opened. In the See, Thurtal and Thurgau regions
Oberthurgau, local journalism will be slightly expanded and, above all
reporting from the cantonal capital.
Höpli emphasizes that qualitative rather than quantitative efforts
are necessary: "Within the SGT network, Thurgau is already
the region for which we provide the greatest editorial service."
The Thurgau editorial team will therefore remain at 20 people. The
However, the newspaper needs to focus even more on the readers of Thurgau.
be aligned.
The Wiler Zeitung is also expanding its Thurgau section: Instead of one page
Hinterthurgau as before, there will be two of them in the future, newly supplemented by
by a page on the canton of Thurgau as a whole.
This editorial focus is supported in terms of marketing with a
Poster campaign and mailings in the five districts of Arbon, Bischofszell,
Weinfelden, Kreuzlingen and Münchwilen. The 25,000 potential
Tagblatt subscribers can choose between a six-week
free subscription or an annual subscription at half price - at the same time take
they took part in the prize draw for a zeppelin flight. "We did that in
never done anything like this before," says Ehrat. He hopes that this will
2000 trial subscriptions by the end of this year and then at least 800
longer-term subscriptions.
Free obituaries
Ehrat is also pulling out new strings in the advertising sector: the
Thurgau obituaries, with which the Tagblatt has so far done more
was more than well stocked, from October 28 "and certainly until the end of 2006"
offered free of charge. "Obituaries indicate the extent to which a title
is established. That is why we are pushing this area by also
municipalities and funeral homes," says the publishing director.
Ehrat also wants to expand on another level: with the
community pages, a vessel in which, for a small fee, each
Municipality publishes its municipal council and association notices once a week
can publish unedited. On the days when the site
the Tagblatt is published in the communities concerned like a
official publication organ. So far, however, only three
municipalities make use of this offer.
More arrows in the quiver
On the other ideas that will be presented to the Board of Directors,
Ehrat can only elicit so much: The scenario package includes
Among other things, a fully calculated large print run, such as the
Thurgauer Zeitung, then a name change to Thurgauer Tagblatt,
However, for legal reasons this will not be possible until January 2008 at the earliest,
and expansion into other districts, particularly Frauenfeld.
It is also unclear whether an advertising combination with the Schaffhausen
news comes about. "In any case, we have
various combination variants," says Ehrat.
Markus Knöpfli
