Column By charging for agenda items, the Basler Zeitung is setting an example for the public service of the press. In Basel, a highly interesting field test is currently underway to determine the value of the public service of the printed press. The Basler Zeitung, which created a daily tabloid-format journal in the midst of the advertising crisis, has fallen into disrepute with cultural organizers. This is because it has recently dared to charge between five and twenty francs for the advertisements in the Agenda, in return for which it guarantees publication. Previously, the announcements were free of charge, but inclusion was at the discretion of the editorial team. The reasoning: What costs nothing is worth nothing - and after all, cultural event organizers pay for all the other services they use without any problems (although they are usually not badly refinanced by public subsidies).
But when it comes to the press, over a hundred organizers and cultural institutions are shaking with indignation. They have solemnly sworn to boycott the Agenda and accuse the market-leading paper of trying to open up an additional classified advertising market at the expense of free cultural life. Publisher Matthias Hagemann counters that he invests two million francs a year in cultural reporting, which is being expanded rather than reduced despite the advertising slump.
The controversy is not only being followed with interest by publishing managers throughout the country. The question of where the organizers' duty to inform ends and the newspaper's begins is also being discussed elsewhere. The longer the cultural perpetrators in Basel do without this announcement medium, the more urgent the question becomes as to whether they can afford to do so and whether the other channels are strong enough to compensate for the resulting loss of contact.
The background to the dispute is really worth considering. Successful regional newspapers have long concentrated their resources on local reporting and on the regional service sector, in which the event agenda plays a prominent role. The paying subscribers and buyers demand this service - a win-win situation, one would think. The substitution of this service by the Internet and other media only works to a limited extent at regional level.
On the other hand, this service incurs high costs - for the daily space, but also for the procurement and preparation of the information. Newspapers therefore provide a service to the public that should not be underestimated. And they do this in a competitive environment that is distorted - among other things by the SRG - to the extent that it siphons off concession money of one billion francs per year in the name of public service.
Newspapers of all sizes, but especially the smaller ones, provide us with many other services. By providing a platform for events, votes, debates and initiatives, they keep public life and direct democracy going: without a performance mandate, without remuneration, certainly out of self-interest, but also as a voluntary commitment. The fact that some publishers derive a justification for state press subsidies from this increasingly expensive service package may be rejected on regulatory grounds, but it is certainly understandable.
> Karl Lüönd is a journalist, ombudsman of the Jean Frey publishing house and head of the Media Institute of the Swiss Press Association.

P-Lease In times when even the NZZ is tied to Publicitas, the Walliser Bote is taking an anti-cyclical approach: it recently took the plunge and went it alone.Since September 1, the Walliser Bote (WB) has once again been published entirely under its own management. This means that the publisher's own advertising agency Mengis Annoncen, which previously only served the Upper Valais market, now has full responsibility for the title. Agency manager Jörg Salzmann explains the venture: "Like other newspapers, the WB has lost advertising volume in recent years, but primarily in the national market. In the Upper Valais, where we were active ourselves, we have increased in the same period. We now want to transfer this momentum to the national advertising market." However, this is difficult as long as the title is on a P lease. "When we contacted customers ourselves, P kept insisting on its exclusive rights in the national market."
Gains in the local market
The WB's emancipation is surprising because the paper is doing quite well. Since the peak year of 2000, its advertising volume has only fallen by around 20 percent - other titles have lost 50 percent or more in the same period. However, Salzmann is not prepared to leave this point as it stands. "If we hadn't been able to grow in the local market, our volume would have fallen more sharply," he says. The success in the local market has to do with the fact that Mengis Annoncen has changed the way it addresses customers.
While the company used to make do with direct mail campaigns, it has approached local customers more directly in recent years. "We were less active before," admits Salzmann. The growth rate in the local market was six percent in 2002 and another two percent in 2003. This year, however, we have now lost two percent. "But that still puts us at the same level as 2002," Salzmann states confidently.
He also points out another point: in 1998, at the beginning of the previous lease (see box below right), P 53 and Mengis Annoncen generated 47 percent of the WB's turnover. However, the ratio is now 50:50 and half of the national turnover comes from the Bern newspaper pool, of which the WB is a member. "We have analyzed our loss: It arose primarily in the leasing area," Salzmann summarizes.
The aim of Mengis Annoncen is clear: to at least halt the decline in WB volumes. But the question arises: How does Salzmann tackle the matter? The qualified publishing expert names three measures: Firstly, Mengis Annoncen has increased its sales force by one position - with former insurance agent Roger Kreuzer, who now works exclusively on the national market. "Secondly, Mr. Kreuzer is doing with national customers exactly what has already helped us in the local market: He approaches them, visits them and provides them with individual offers tailored to their needs," says Salzmann.
However, the company has already been unsuccessful with its own office in Bern or Zurich (see box below left). And as a third measure, the WB presentation is to be revised. This week, the WB website will also be launched at www.walliserbote.ch.
USPs must speak for themselves
Kreuzer does not have any bait-and-switch offers for national customers. The well-known USPs of the WB must speak for themselves: since 1996, its circulation has remained stable at a good 27,000 copies, and currently stands at 2,7354 copies. The readership has even grown steadily, from 49,000 in 1999 to currently 52,000. And the reach in the circulation area (WG 23) is a sensational 87 percent. "If you want to cover the Upper Valais, there's no getting around the WB," says Salzmann.
Valaisans are so free: the Bote runs the national advertising business on its own.
Sees advantages in going it alone: agency manager Jörg Salzmann.
Tentative steps towards independenceThe WB only tied itself to the P for the first time at the advanced age of 120. The reason: in order to merge with the newspaper "Walliser Nachrichten/Briger Anzeiger", it also had to take over the latter's contract with Publicitas. In return, the WB was able to increase its circulation from 5500 to 8500. As a result, the WB was leased for ten years.
In 1970, publisher Ferdinand Mengis took the opportunity to emancipate himself and founded Mengis Annoncen. From then on, the agency worked the local market in the Upper Valais, while P remained responsible for German-speaking Switzerland and the Lower Valais.
In the 1990s, this partial lease was also terminated, Mengis Annoncen took over the reins completely and even opened an office in Zurich. This step was unsuccessful, however, and in 1998 the agency withdrew from Zurich, and the WB again entered into a lease with the P on the national market - the one that expired at the end of August.
Cooperation with P remains partial "Although we regret the loss of the lease, contact with the WB has not been broken off," says Otto Meier, General Director of Publicitas. There is still a commission agreement and also a mediation agreement with P Sion for Lower Valais. And together with the Berner Zeitung, P will continue to take care of marketing and order processing for the Bern newspaper pool.
Meier: "The WB's decision to go it alone does not upset us." He also clarifies that it is quite common for publishing house and P employees to visit customers together, even in the case of director's titles. But it is not acceptable for a leased publisher to take over the processing afterwards. But that is exactly what the WB wanted. "In such cases, we would run the risk of publishers cherry-picking and only taking on the big customers themselves," says Meier. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

Magazines Schweizer Illustrierte does not need a new start. Just a slight graphic overhaul.
"Schweizer Illustrierte plans relaunch" was the headline of the Werbewoche newsmail on November 12. SI publishing director Urs Heller is not too happy about this. "Relaunch is too big a word for what will change at SI from November 29. We have simply given the magazine a graphic overhaul and streamlined it a little," he says. Neither the logo nor the 2001 concept nor the visual language will be changed, and no communicative appearance is planned.
"For a relaunch, you need an outside perspective. However, we did it purely in-house, with zero budget," emphasizes Heller. What has changed can be counted on one hand.
Firstly, a new basic font has been chosen, but the average reader is unlikely to notice this. Secondly, the somewhat bold and bulky graphic elements have been made more subtle. There are no new containers, only the party scene, previously at the front of the magazine with the people pages, has been moved to the back.
"Fresher, cleaner, more elegant, lighter and also a little more airy," is how Heller describes the SI after the overhaul. And he emphasizes once again that only the regular "homework" was done. Nothing more was necessary. "The SI's people concept has proven to be quite crisis-resistant."
The magazine is clearly over budget, to which the timely line extension (see box) has undoubtedly contributed. A look at the figures confirms this statement: SI's circulation has been fairly stable since 1999 at over 250,000 copies (currently 25,550 copies), readership seems to be leveling off at over a million (currently 1041,000 readers), and in terms of advertising volume, this year People magazine seems to be close to its 2002 record (6232 pages).
Well bedded on specialsTwo years ago, SI launched the four-times-yearly publication
Al dente cooking magazine, which is so popular that SI's sister publication in French-speaking Switzerland, Illustré, soon adapted the special.
The special editions Auto, Shopping and the multimedia magazine Login are also published twice a year. And once a year, the publisher publishes the specials Miss Switzerland and Jazz Montreux. "Nothing is changed in any of these magazines," says Heller. "They are very successful." (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

Advertising market Based on data from Media Focus, Goldbach Media launches a monthly index for advertising expenditure and advertising pressure.The Goldbach ElectronicMediaIndex (GEMI) shows the development of electronic media in comparison to the overall market since the introduction of the first advertising window in 1993. Monthly seasonality is filtered out of the time series. The short-term view compares the past 13 months of TV, radio, online and teletext individually.

Technology TBWA Switzerland stepped on the gas to seek out the limits of the challenge for Motorex. In the beginning was the word, it says in the Bible. Motorex's briefing for the advertising agency TBWA Switzerland was a little more unconventional. The Langenthal-based company Motorex supplies garages, workshops, tunnel builders, industrial companies, machine constructors and even farmers, bikers and motocross professionals with a range of more
than 1800 products from all areas of oil refinement. The company started out in 1917 with floor care products, developed into a traditional Swiss brand and is still able to hold its own internationally against oil companies such as Shell and BP.
The family business has now reformulated its image. A new corporate film was the ideal way to do this, as a kind of visualized vision of Motorex.
True to their "Disruption" strategy, TBWA's creative team spent a day in a workshop asking Motorex's top management about their position, goals and intentions. On the basis of this brainstorming session, the agency won Motorex's entire international advertising budget in a pitch in summer 2003. Since then, in addition to the corporate film, five advertising subjects, a comprehensive manual for the use of advertising materials at home and abroad and the 2005 edition of the traditional Motorex calendar have been created.
TBWA has formulated the convincing basic idea "Challenge the limits" as the claim for all measures. This addresses a demanding target audience and encourages them to test the limits and strive for the highest goals everywhere. And the oil for this naturally comes from Motorex.
"Challenge the limits" can be introduced and implemented in all areas: In internal objectives, in research and development, in production and distribution, in support. Challenge the limits" even makes sense for personal ambitions.
Motivate and stimulate
The claim will therefore be used in all Motorex communication media from this year onwards. And not only there. "Challenge the limits" must be inextricably linked with Motorex. "Every form of ambition, every record attempt, every increase in earnings should be supported by this slogan and motivated by Motorex," says CEO and strategist Markus Pekeler at TBWA.
The new corporate film shows what this means. It is neither a self-promotion nor a presentation of products, but an image film that radiates the highest level of competence, that motivates and inspires by not talking about products, but about needs, goals and challenges.
The film, in which the music is drummed on oil drums like in the stage show "Stomp", portrays people who are committed to top performance at Motorex and with products from this company - "Challenge the limits". "We also wanted to give employees a strong internal goal," says Account Director Niklaus Huwyler. On the other hand, this claim also demonstrates the desired promises for customers.
Agency wanted to go to the limit
In the same spirit, the series of advertisements and posters shows people taking on a major challenge together with a technical device. The claim "Challenge the limits" is supplemented with the message: "Whatever your challenges are: The oil for it comes from Motorex."
TBWA cleverly avoided using common motifs from the motor industry such as racing cars or the oil bottle in the hand of a pinup for these ads. "Challenge the limits" was also the advertising agency's motto. "The solution was found in emotional images that radiate the desired feeling of challenge without limits," says CD Oliver Schneider. "Playing up the trucker feeling of the truck driver" is another way of putting it.
All the subjects were photographed especially for the campaign. In each advertisement, however, several shots were electronically combined to create a single one of these dream images. The advertisements are used nationally and internationally in around fifty countries in various formats in the trade and consumer press.
"Challenge the limits": Advertisers also take off with Motorex.
Andreas Panzeri

Research Readerscan is set to revolutionize the press industry. In the tranquil town of Würzburg, the future of newspapers has already begun. When the Mainpost journalists start their computers in the morning, the first thing the editorial server presents them with is the usage results of yesterday's edition. Reading quotas in real time, so to speak. Some colleagues won't want to know exactly how their work is being received by the public. Especially as the first general findings of the so-called Readerscan were sobering: only 6.8 percent of the readers in 18 local splits read the magazine.
of the 450000 readers of this daily newspaper.
Editor-in-chief Michael Reinhard makes no secret of the fact that the measurement tool developed by Swiss publishing consultant Carlo Imboden and first implemented at the Holtzbrinck paper in April initially triggered "the usual defensive reflex" among his crew. After the first wave of surveys, however, this suddenly turned into a motivational boost. It then became clear that readers were investing 20 percent more time in the Mainpost after the newspaper was reorganized on the basis of the Readerscan data.
A level playing field at last
What sounds like a ratings nightmare to some journalists is the fulfillment of a long-cherished dream for publishing managers: finally, hard figures that can be used to make newspapers and magazines systematically more relevant and therefore - so the justified hope - more profitable! Figures that create a level playing field with the electronic competition and that can be used to appeal to advertisers' economic sense rather than their gut feeling.
But what concrete insights does the new wonder weapon provide in the battle for the favor and attention of readers and advertisers? Here are the most important ones:
1. due to divergent interests, the local section is used less intensively than expected.
2. longer reports or features are read if they are thematically relevant.
3. topics are fundamentally much more important than authors.
4. comments are perceived significantly better next to the article in question than on an opinion page.
5 Title and image should correspond as far as possible, i.e. not trigger any "cognitive dissonance".
Sounds a bit like the rules of a journalist's handbook, doesn't it? Yes and no, say Reinhard and Imboden in unison, because Readerscan also shows that readers - contrary to popular opinion - also want to find news topics in their newspaper and, incidentally, hardly differentiate between editorial and agency texts. The main thing is that the news value is right.
These controversial findings at Mainpost and in Holtzbrinck management are of course grist to the mill of the free and commuter papers. However, Imboden's order book is currently filled by established newspapers. The latest new customer is the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, but an inquiry from Bild and Springer is also said to have already been received.
No wonder the former Ernst & Young consultant recently founded Readerscan Deutschland GmbH. The long-term goal is to franchise the process in
Europe and then the USA. If "Mr. Pressecontrol" is to be believed, there are not only inquiries from the UK and Italy, but "also from developing countries". Does this mean Switzerland?
Hard facts: The Readerscan can be used to determine exactly which articles in a print medium receive which attention.
An electronic text markerThe reader scan data is collected using a pen that looks like a cross between a clinical thermometer and a Stabilo Boss, but is ultimately
is just a hand scanner. By briefly tapping the pen, between 100 and 150 test subjects mark the entry and exit points of each text they read. After reading, the pen is placed in a docking station, which transmits the time data to a central computer. Using a matching process, the computer determines which articles were read by whom, for how long and up to where. A study using this equipment, which runs in several waves, costs between CHF 12,000,000 and CHF 24,000,000. (oc)
Oliver Classen

Industry policy An English name is to revitalize the BSW. Since 2001, the abbreviation BSW has stood for "Branchenverband Schweizer Werbe- und Kommunikationsagenturen". From spring 2005, this tongue twister will be a thing of the past: the association will change its name to leading swiss agencies bsw. The Extraordinary General Meeting on November 16 approved the Board's proposal, and according to BSW President Peter Leutenegger, the change went through without much discussion. With the name change, the BSW wants to give itself new impetus in order to better position itself on the market and become a strong brand again. Previously, the association had determined in an assessment that it was not perceived uniformly and had some image deficits. It is seen as large and sluggish, as
antitrust and as the "guardian of the 17,65%" (agency fee).
In addition to the name, a new logo and image will also contribute to the association's image change. The exact procedure for this redesign will be determined at an upcoming Board meeting.
Incidentally, the idea of changing the name is not entirely new. In spring 2003, there was already a project to merge the BSW with the Association of Public Relations Agencies in Switzerland (BPRA), which ran under the working title "Swiss Leading Agencies". However, the project was rejected by the majority of BPRA members.
The relaunch was not the only item on the agenda at the Annual General Meeting. The BSW members also decided to support the campaign against advertising bans with a substantial financial contribution. Each agency will transfer a fixed amount for this purpose. According to Peter Leutenegger, it will be between 500 and 1000 francs, depending on the size of the agency.
Stefano Monachesi

Wing rental company The energy drink manufacturer Red Bull recently bought the Jaguar Formula 1 team. Red Bull inventor Dietrich Mateschitz' company, founded in Salzburg in 1987, is now worth 4 billion euros and achieved a turnover of 1.3 billion euros in 2003. euros. Worldwide sales increased by 17 percent compared to 2002 (+41% in the USA alone). To give his brand such wings, Mateschitz - ranked 9th among the 100 richest Austrians - invests 500 million euros a year in advertising.

Dialogue marketing 53.7 percent of DM companies in Switzerland expect sales to increase in the second half of the year, which means that optimism remains below that of their counterparts in Germany (54.8 percent) and Austria (63.1 percent). This is shown by the joint barometer study of the three national industry associations. Austria also leads the field in the assessment of business in the first half of 2004 compared to the second half of 2003. The number of employees indicates a slight upturn in Switzerland: In the 1st half of 2004, 22.2 percent of companies hired additional employees, 59.3 percent saw no change in the number of employees and 13 percent saw a decline. The complete study can be obtained free of charge on the Internet at christian.alten [email protected].

Guest commentary Regional publishers who give the Tages-Anzeiger the little finger today will lose the whole hand tomorrow, predicts Christian Rentsch. Tamedia boss Martin Kall must be pretty desperate to get involved in a battle that he can hardly win. However, his analysis is absolutely correct: the Tages-Anzeiger, Tamedia's flagship, is stuck between four rocks. The strong local papers Landbote, Zürichsee-Zeitung, Zürcher Unterländer and Zürcher Oberländer, which are well anchored in their home countries, form a fortress ring around the Tagi's home territory, preventing it from expanding. If it wants to grow in so-called "Million-Zurich", it has to crack this ring.
Kall is too talkative a Machiavellian: At the moment, he likes to flute that he is interested in "any kind of cooperation". But at the same time, he tells anyone who will listen that he wants to get the competition from Zurich out of the way. Because the synergies of such cooperation are negligible as long as the newspapers remain independent, continue to have advertising sovereignty and use their own printing plants. And two or three thousand additional subscribers do not even cover the costs of a new local editorial office and a higher circulation.
The regional publishers know this too. So the only question for them is whether a Tagi expanded to include local splits can really be a threat to them. The answer is no. A look at the voting and election results in these districts shows it: the Tages-Anzeiger, which is still misunderstood as left-liberal, is the wrong newspaper for the rural agglomeration population dominated by the FDP and SVP. And those who are not satisfied with the right-wing local paper are already reading it today.
That leaves the much more important advertisers, the local businesses. And the authorities, who decide which newspaper is their official
publication organ. But why should the local, right-wing bourgeois business community advertise in the politically unreliable Tages-Anzeiger, which in case of doubt opts for urban and against rural interests? And why should the authorities, who have ideal partners in the local newspapers, replace them with the Tagi? In the Zürichsee-Zeitung, for example, they can report on their work largely unquestioned and in some cases even themselves, whereas with the Tages-Anzeiger they always have to expect that a journalist will try to uncover something.
The provincial politicians who are now chanting the mantra of "invigorating competition" need to realize that if Kall's strategy works, in ten years there will be no more diversity of opinion in the Zurich agglomeration, only the Tages-Anzeiger.
> Christian Rentsch was first head of the culture and then the media department of the Tages-Anzeiger. After its abolition at the beginning of 2004, he took early retirement.

Spirits Baileys distributor Diageo wants to dust off the image of the liqueur with a new design. "Advertising for distilled spirits may only contain statements and representations that relate directly to the product and its properties," stipulates Article 42b, paragraph 1, of the Swiss Alcohol Act. Many creatives see this restrictive Swiss legislation as an annoying corset, but it has given the team at Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett (SFLB) a new assignment: to refresh the image of Baileys. As the international campaign developed by Bartle Bogle Hagerty (BBH) was based on bar scenes, it could not be adapted for the Swiss market. For this reason, the local branch of Baileys distributor Diageo commissioned SFLB - an offshoot of BBH - to design the new advertising campaign.
Last spring, Diageo, the world's leading supplier of premium alcoholic beverages, unveiled a new look for its core brand Baileys. The redesign of the bottle was intended to reflect the brand's typical values such as sensuality and enjoyment more strongly.
An update of the image became necessary primarily due to changes in social trends: the fun generation increasingly replaced cocooning at the end of the 1990s. Since its market launch in 1974, Baileys has been perceived as a liqueur for special occasions with family and friends. Between the new premix drinks and modern cocktails that are now served in stylish bars and clubs, "The Original Irish Cream" began to look outdated - despite its leading position among premium liqueur brands worldwide. In line with the trend, Diageo Suisse and SFLB are focusing on the combination possibilities of Baileys in the advertising campaign.
The purist motifs only show the liqueur strips, which are created by the different densities of the liquid. In addition to the idea of tasting the mix shown, viewers are also given the quantities of the ingredients - in case the bartender doesn't know the drink.
The new Baileys designs are in the style of trendy mixed drinks.
Redesign for bottles and image of the Baileys liqueur: purist motifs in the style of trendy mixed drinks >> page 8
Simone Keller

Business press L'Agefi sees itself as a victim of the competition: The business newspaper is suing Le Temps, Tribune de Genève and Bilan as well as their publishers Edipresse and Ringier for unfair competition. According to a report in Le Temps, the case concerns a series of articles published between January and April 2004. Agefi CEO Alain Fabarez is of the opinion that these reports have cast L'Agefi in a very negative light and led to a fall in its share price. The Agefi Groupe is therefore to receive 6.3 million francs in damages, Fabarez himself 2.4 million francs.