Wochenpresse Following the resignation of editor-in-chief Roger Köppel, the future of Weltwoche remains open. Publishing director Uli Rubner talks about succession, success figures and party-political attributions.WW There has been speculation about Roger Köppel's move to Springer since last summer. Ms. Rubner, what has the publishing house done to keep its journalistic turnaround manager? But I no longer take such industry rumors as seriously as I used to. Nevertheless, it was clear to me that he would follow a call to Germany sooner or later.
Now it has come to this sooner rather than later. In view of the Facts relaunch and declining circulation, a rather unfortunate
Timing for Weltwoche.
A change of editor-in-chief always involves certain risks. However, this departure also opens up new opportunities. Many cancellations of Weltwoche were due to its supposed SVP positioning. Such attributions are closely linked to Köppel as a person. With his departure, we can hope that the assessment of Weltwoche's performance and orientation will become more objective again.
Springer writes in its press release that Köppel has "decisively sharpened the profile of Weltwoche". But above all, he has also raised his own profile. Can this two-and-a-half-year symbiosis between the new boss and the old newspaper be dissolved without damage?
This kind of identification can be very fruitful - but only as long as it is not imposed by external party politics. If, for example, a story about the statistics on foreigners, as published in the last SonntagsZeitung, had appeared in Weltwoche, people would have been collectively and reflexively outraged by nasty SVP propaganda. In this respect, it may also be an advantage if Köppel, who has now become an irritant figure for many, leaves the game. Because however the succession is arranged: It offers the chance to make the discussion more objective. This does not mean that Weltwoche will also be saying goodbye to its liberal-bourgeois positioning with the editor-in-chief.
With his uncritical interview with Silvia Blocher, Köppel has
political arc for many readers and colleagues.
Okay, this story was a bit too much for me too. Like many others, I let him know that. And now he's also a little self-critical about the nature and timing of this interview.
However, the recent erosion in the reader market began last summer, long before the explicit election recommendation. Why did the new Weltwoche magazine's miracle bag aura fade so quickly?
After the format change, we had a thick trial subscription cover, which naturally melted away a little over time. As a result, it was mainly a matter of compensating for fixed subscription cancellations with new additions. After a long upward trend since the relaunch, we were no longer able to achieve the hoped-for growth rates from the fall onwards.
So you weren't able to make up for the subscription gap with newsstand sales of provocative Blocher issues.
Around the time of the Federal Council elections, all the publications featured Blocher and thus boosted their sales. Nevertheless, sales were generally good last fall, but not brilliant. The thriftiness of newsstand customers was felt by everyone, from Blick to Weltwoche.
Will Weltwoche once again be able to achieve six-figure certification this year?
It won't quite be enough for that yet. However, the current print run is well above the 91,000 copies we published last year.
reached. You must also remember that Wemf measured 85,000 copies in 2001, so we have already made a big leap. Nevertheless, we will be careful not to be too euphoric.
In its current issue, the SonntagsZeitung concludes that the decline in sales is due to a loss of reach.
Rightly so?
This is wrong and misleading. Circulation and readership figures are often lumped together. We are talking about key figures that may or may not correlate. Subscription certification is due on April 1, and we will be among the winners there. However, we will have to wait until the fall to see the new readership figures.
The same article cites fewer pick-ups, i.e. declining readers-per-issue figures, as a further reason for the supposed dip in readership growth.
This is also technically incorrect. What is correct is that both circulation and reach increased after the format change. As a magazine, Weltwoche is therefore not only selling better, but is also being read by more people. We naturally hoped for and built on this double effect in the run-up to the relaunch.
Who decides on Roger Köppel's successor?
Ultimately, our CEO Filippo Leutenegger together with the Board of Directors.
The only basic maxim to which Köppel publicly subscribes is that
the truth about costs. So is a journalistic mastermind with a penchant for stretching budgets, such as Roger de Weck, out of the question from the outset?
I cannot comment on specific names in my role. But there's no question that we initially needed a journalistic messiah like Roger Köppel, whose recognized strengths such as originality and courage enabled him to live up to huge expectations. Without such a personality, we would not have achieved the turnaround. The successor can build on what has been achieved and benefits from the image of a winning title. His task is easier.
Interview:
In the blackAs CEO Filippo Leutenegger announced at a media conference, Jean Frey Verlag (Weltwoche, Beobachter, Bilanz, TR7) achieved a profit after tax of "a good 10 million francs" in 2003. This on a turnover of almost 100 million francs and an operating result of just under 10 million francs. The last annual financial statements of the previous owner, Basler Zeitung Medien, in mid-2002 still showed a
Loss of 12 million francs.
According to Leutenegger, this turnaround is due to his own
According to the information provided, almost two-thirds of this was due to the rigid cost-cutting measures in the areas of printing, personnel and IT. The rest was due to the increase in advertising and sales revenue at Weltwoche, the "excellent performance" of TR7 and the growing number of subscribers to the "still highly profitable" Beobachter. At the same time, the CEO denied all rumors of an imminent sale of Jean Frey and announced the imminent creation of an internal ombudsman's office. (oc)
With the Silvia Blocher interview, Weltwoche maneuvered itself into the SVP twilight.
Weltwoche publishing director Uli Rubner.
Oliver Classen

When a customer books radio advertising through a marketer, the price always includes an agency commission (AC) - the margin for the marketer. Depending on the station or pool, the commission is between 5 and 20 percent. Some broadcasters are now asking their customers to book directly with them instead of via the marketers. "They prefer anything that doesn't come via the marketer," says Felix Kilchsperger, Head of Radio Sales at Radiotele. Some customers go for it because it saves them the sales costs. "And they usually also get free space," says Kilchsperger, adding that there are clear indications of such business practices. It happens, for example, "that national customers ask us not to include one station or another when booking radio pools because they have concluded a 'mega deal' with them," says Kilchsperger. "Such agreements are almost always made a state secret to us." Kilchsperger estimates that around eight radio stations in German-speaking Switzerland and four in French-speaking Switzerland make such deals, i.e. around a third of all stations. He does not name names.
The measure is full
Now, however, he has lost it. In an email to radio stations and customers, he calculates that this behavior will become more expensive when it comes to pool bookings at the latest. "Because if a customer or a media agency demands that we book a pool recommended by us without station X or Y, then we are forced to convert the pool booking into solo bookings," says Felix Kilchsperger.
However, solo bookings are 23 to 45 percent more expensive (see table). Kilchsperger's conclusion: "If a customer does not get at least 25 percent from a broadcaster, they are making an extremely bad deal. In French-speaking Switzerland, it should even be 50 percent freespace." But even that is often not enough. The difference between individual and pool bookings at City Pool, for example, is 22,000 francs - almost exactly the value of Basilisk. In other words: In this case, Basilisk would have to offer itself to the customer free of charge or add 100 percent Freespace so that the customer doesn't pay more.
No wonder Kilchsperger's warning is starting to bear fruit. "We've spooked a horse. Some customers have already reacted because they have realized that their deals are less attractive," he says.
Markus Knöpfli

Gilles Aeby is the strategic head of the first truly bilingual agency "numéro 10" in Bern. When a woman in German-speaking Switzerland is pregnant, she craves cornichons. At least that's what the saying goes. If a woman in French-speaking Switzerland is happily expecting, then she would rather snack on strawberries, according to French-speaking folklore. This phenomenon is known as the "Röschtigraben", to use the language of food culture. "Numéro 10" is the name of an agency that wants to solve this problem in future. "It's not just about language. It's about understanding two different mentalities," says Gilles Aeby.
A few months ago, the previous head of the DDB agency branch in Bern, Andy Wüthrich and Valérie Pecalvel, proposed a management buyout to the previous owner Herbert J. Seiler. Since January, the new logo "numéro 10" has been displayed above the old agency sign in the business park on Felsenaustrasse in Bern. Aeby is Head of Strategic Planning. Wüthrich acts as Creative Director. Pecalvel is responsible as Client Service Director. The new agency is completely detached from the Swiss DDB network, but still operates as an affiliated member of DDB Nouveau Monde in France.
Contrary to press reports to the contrary, the management buyout was carried out "peacefully and on the initiative of the Bernese". Seiler would have been delighted that his life's work was being continued. The new owners have not only been able to take over the staff and premises, but also all but one of the customers.
But Gilles Aeby would not be the thoroughbred advertiser he is known to be if "numéro 10" did not want to stand out in future with a style that is as unique as possible. "We are the first agency in Switzerland to specialize fully in 'bilingual' advertising," explains Aeby, adding: "For us, bilingual doesn't just mean that we speak two languages. It also means that we understand both markets and their cultures, mentalities and consumer behavior."
FNAC, for example, is already looking to benefit from this expertise. The French media and culture market leader for literature, music, film and multimedia is planning to use the "numéro 10" strategy to gain a foothold in German-speaking Switzerland. Conversely, the agency is also working on making cult brands such as Gala and hohes C a household name in French-speaking Switzerland. The new agency also looks after the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and the fashion house La Redoute on both sides of the language border. For this client, "numéro 10" recently organized the "Bikini on Ice" event in Zurich and Lausanne. "A prime example" of the agency's intended style, which aims to combine traditional advertising even more closely with event and experience marketing in future. "We have developed a new strategic method that increases the brand's energy and accelerates its growth," explains Aeby. His recipe: the brand must be proactively implanted.
At "Bikino on Ice", there were 250 people in Lausanne and over a hundred in Zurich who responded to the call for a photo shoot in the snow - of course in a sensational swimsuit from La Redoute. These people "actively create an experience with the brand" and then pass on the propaganda.
Seven people have been working at "numéro 10" since the beginning, and rapid development is already programmed. "We offer the strategic and conceptual expertise of large agencies, but also ensure flexibility and continuity in client service."
Gilles Aeby actively pursues football in his free time. The father of two also plays ice hockey, regularly runs half marathons and loves all kinds of new music.
Gilles Aeby grew up in Fribourg. He began his career as an advertiser in 1987 at Impuls in Zurich. After Saatchi & Saatchi and BDDP, he returned to French-speaking Switzerland. Before founding "numéro 10", the qualified advertising assistant and advertising manager was head of DDB in Bern for six years. The "advertising kid", who never wanted to do anything else, particularly likes the variety of tasks. "The mixture of rational discipline and strategy as well as the completely playful thinking of creation is something you don't find in every industry." Aeby also loves jumping from one area to another: "You have to be very flexible."
For Gilles Aeby, "bilingue" not only means speaking two languages, but also understanding their cultures and mentalities.
Andreas Panzeri

Magazines At the beginning of March, Gion Stecher will join the editorial team of TR7. Stecher has been working for the TV guide since December, and Stecher's appointment means that TR7's editorial team will be expanded to three people. In addition to editor-in-chief René Hildbrand, it also includes deputy editor-in-chief Simone Reich.

Masani Ambient Media determines the most popular free advertising postcard of the year. Four subjects now have the chance to be voted Card of the Year 2003 by the Internet public. The nominees are "Season's heatings - man with bed bottle" by 141 Switzerland, Berne, "Viva la leche" by the Swiss milk producers, "Benefiber" by Werbe-Werkstatt, Berne, for Novartis and "www.ch.ch" by the Federal Chancellery. Voting on www.ambientmedia.ch/vote runs until March 5. The winners will receive a national campaign worth CHF 28,000 as a prize.

Competition The call for entries for the various competitions of the international advertising festival in Cannes is now open and applications for the Film, Press and Outdoor Lions must be submitted by March 12. The deadline for the Direct Marketing competition is March 19, for the Media Lions March 26 and for the Cyber Lions April 2. Entries can be submitted online at www.canneslions.com.

Logistik Ottiger & Partner has won IT logistics service provider Also Holding AG as a new client, and the Lucerne-based agency is developing a uniform corporate identity for all divisions of the company, which is based in Hergiswil and operates in Germany and Switzerland. With the first
Results are expected towards the end of 2004. Ottiger & Partner won
the order in a competitive presentation against two competitors.

The achievements of the food industry are rightly celebrated as social progress, and when Julius Maggi invented ready-made pea soup in the 19th century, the innovation was gratefully received. Today, it would never occur to anyone to want to feed the world's population in the 21st century without conveyor belt food. However, the more indispensable ready-made food becomes for feeding the hungry masses, the more the good old days are glorified, when people still produced and prepared their own food. It is well known that our food popes and top chefs are among the most vehement critics of industrially produced food, because industrial food cannot and must not be good.
A grandmother from North Rhine-Westphalia breaks this taboo: "I lied to you for 30 years", she admits - albeit anonymously - in an advertisement for an Aachen plum jam that she always claimed as her own.
The McCann-Erickson agency introduces us to a woman with civil courage who resisted social pressure. And offers the best illustrative lesson in "conformity behavior in group situations", which Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, the grand dame of German demoscopy, analyzed in 1980 in her magnum opus "The spiral of silence". May Granny have enjoyed the free time she didn't have to spend at the stove to the full.
(sh)

Bankruptcy Barely three months after the grounding of WHS, Harry Sulzer (38) also goes bankrupt with his agency Bonaparte.Looking back, Sulzer says that the Waterloo had already been announced after his serious motorcycle accident three years ago. Due to his long absence, the necessary acquisition suffered just as much as the motivation of his employees. Finally, the figures also collapsed. In its best years, Bonaparte generated a BBE of over 3.5 million francs and managed accounts such as Coop, Bosch, HP and AZ Fachverlage. Despite an increased BBE in 2003 (+13%), it struggled with growing operating debts. Sulzer is unable to put a figure on this; at least the salaries of the last four terminated employment contracts have been paid.

The Zurich-based advertising agency Department has won the budget for Havana Club, the rum brand from Pernod-Ricard, after a two-stage competitive presentation. The mandate includes the advertising publicity and accompanying measures for sponsoring and events for "El Ron de Cuba" in Switzerland, the agency announced. The first poster campaign will be launched in spring 2004.

Competitions The international advertising festival in Cannes has announced the jury members for the DM category, with Alex Schmid (Alex Schmid BSW) and Remo Bachmann (Fisch Meier Direkt) representing Switzerland. As in 2003, a preliminary jury will judge the works submitted to the Lions Direct before the start of the festival. Remo Bachmann is involved here. Alex Schmid will judge the final round on site in Cannes.

Awards The Peugeot ad "Rallye Champion" by Euro RSCG Switzerland won four awards in the Corporate and Motorsports categories at the 2003 International Automotive Advertising Awards, with marketing executives from General Motors, Ford, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, VW and Volvo on the Executive Committee.