Press Since May 1, the Ringier magazine L'Hebdo in French-speaking Switzerland has had a new concept and a new look. Editor-in-chief Alain Jeannet - now also editor-in-chief - discusses both with Christophe Büchi, NZZ correspondent for French-speaking Switzerland and long-time contributor to Werbewoche.WW: Mr. Jeannet, you recently became editor-in-chief of L'Hebdo. In what state have you found the magazine in which you worked for a long time? Alain Jeannet: L'Hebdo was confronted with a phenomenon that other news magazines are also familiar with: an erosion of sales circulation.
How sharp was the decline at L'Hebdo? 48,000 copies were sold (last certification by Wemf), almost 90 percent of which are subscriptions.
And where was the top? In the best times - around 1994 - we sold 61,000 copies. But competition was much less fierce back then than it is today.
The reaction at L'Hebdo came relatively late. Why?
Compared to Le Point and L'Express, for example, there was a relatively long wait. This probably has to do with the fact that L'Hebdo is the only news magazine on the French market and the pressure was felt somewhat less quickly here.
Is there still room for a news magazine in French-speaking Switzerland? But it's clear that journalistic competition has become much tougher for us - due to growing competition from the daily press, among others, but also from audiovisual media such as French-speaking Swiss radio, which is now much more involved in the political debate.
You are thinking of the discussion program "Forum" on Radio Suisse Romande La Première?yes, of course, among other things. But with 48,000 copies sold and 22,000 readers, we remain a locomotive. Despite all the necessary self-criticism, we have a solid base of readers and, with a reach of 16.8 percent, more than any other news magazine in Europe.
What is the socio-economic profile of your readership? We have many well-educated readers. Our reach among the leaders and top leaders is already high (40.5 % and 39.6 % respectively according to MACH-Leader), higher than that of the daily newspaper Le Temps. But we want to increase it even further. And that is the main objective of our relaunch.
So a little more principals instead of assistant headmasters and teachers? A little less "classe moyenne"?
We want to increase our readership in the middle classes and win over decision-makers. But it's true: We also had the problem that the profile of L'Hebdo and that of Illustré were too close together. We need to differentiate ourselves more clearly.
Could you tell us a little more about the purpose of your "nouvelle formule"? Our relaunch consists of an editorial reorientation and not just a simple facelift. But that too, of course.
Let's talk about the design first. What has changed?
We wanted to move away from the style of the nineties à la Focus or Capital, the French business magazine from Prisma Presse. This style was heavily inspired by television and the Internet, and that is now a thing of the past for us. We want to focus more on the text again. This means fewer photos, but better use of them. Less graphical patisserie, but distribute it more efficiently. No more glossy paper, but semi-matt.
And in terms of content?
That is the decisive factor. We want to increasingly play the traditional trump cards of the weekly press again. We want readers to find more original information and more research that they don't get from the daily press. But we also want to anticipate social developments more, play a kind of pilot fish - that's almost an obsession of mine. In other words, we want to provide more background and focus less on current affairs. And resolutely set ourselves apart from the opinion mainstream and political correctness.
It's clear that we studied the new Weltwoche very closely, because its relaunch is certainly one of the most interesting experiments in the Swiss press in recent years. But our starting point was quite different from that of Weltwoche.
Firstly, we are the only news magazine and therefore the leader in our market, whereas Weltwoche has to reckon with Facts magazine. In addition, Weltwoche has its own history as a weekly newspaper on newsprint, which it also had to take into account. And finally, although our economic situation was problematic, we were not in a survival crisis like Weltwoche. We therefore had to and were allowed to proceed somewhat more cautiously. In view of our reach, however, we could not become too elitist.
You have said that you want to focus less on topicality and provide more background. Can you illustrate this with an example?
At the G8 summit, we were about to pass. After all, there's no point in reporting things later and in more detail that have already been reported elsewhere. In the end, we did publish a longer article, but only because one of our editors had found a view of the event that you couldn't read anywhere else.
So the core message is to stand out more from the news - we have a twofold USP. Firstly, we want to provide information and opinions that you wouldn't otherwise find in the press. And secondly, we want to put more emphasis on the pleasures of life - on humor and l'art de vivre.
You keep saying that you want more research. So you are clearly setting yourself apart from the somewhat feuilletonistic instructional journalism that at times set the tone in French-speaking Switzerland in particular?
We want to get away from the position of the journalist with the raised index finger, from the teacher attitude. We want more diversity in general. That's why we will increasingly attract foreign authors as well as authors who don't come from the journalistic pie. We journalists have to be very careful not to act autistically.
So you are moving away from the thesis and campaign journalism that Jacques Pilet practiced with maestria and his epigones with much less brio? I worked under Jacques Pilet at L'Hebdo for a long time and learned a lot from him. He always stood by his ideas courageously, defended them over the long term and with great skill.
His journalistic merits are not up for discussion! Nevertheless, L'Hebdo and Nouveau Quotidien's campaign for EU membership, the Cointrin affair and the Poussepin campaign were examples of classic campaign journalism, when media professionals at times intervened directly in political events as a lobby.
The "journalisme d'investigation" can run parallel to what I would like to call "journalisme de proposition" (proposition = proposal). But I think L'Hebdo has done a very good job on the European issue in particular, anticipating many developments and moving the public debate forward.
Of course, we want to continue to represent high-profile opinions and conduct research in the future. But there is more than just "journalisme d'investigation", investigative journalism. If we have scoops, then all the better, of course. But you only get good scoops a few times a year. We must not fixate on chasing the primeur, but must also focus on expertise. For example, we have published dossiers on pensions and health insurance in recent issues. These are the big issues on which we have something to say.
Do you actually work with the German-language Ringier publications? Yes, we exchange articles with Cash. Sometimes we also work together with SonntagsBlick. But we don't do this systematically.
And what about cooperation on the French side? we work a little with L'Express, but not very intensively.
You want to move away from shallow magazine journalism and focus more on background and expertise. But doesn't your campaign, which focuses entirely on people with photos of celebrities, contradict this?
These are not just any personalities, but actual "doers". We want to reach more top people, and this is communicated in a coherent and emotional way. But by showing Couchepin, Piccard etc. as children, we also bring a little humor and irony into the matter. We want to show: You can get very far with L'Hebdo. Hence the claim: "Dans la vie, rien n'arrive vraiment par hasard."
But you have also taken the old slogan "bon pour la tête" out of the moth box. Why?
Because it is a very strong slogan that is firmly anchored in people's minds. We also wanted to create continuity with it.
And what were the initial reactions to your relaunch? Is L'Hebdo coming
ahead?
The response was very positive, both from readers and advertisers. We doubled our newsstand sales with the first issues. I am convinced that this will quickly have an impact on our financial situation and that we will also regain our position as the topic leader.
In view of the large number of media outlets and the enormous competition, is the concept of topic leadership even justifiable? we want to be debate leaders, even if we have to concede that other media outlets also do a good job. Vive la concurrence!
Couchepin helps with the relaunch of L'Hebdo.
The Edelweiss Connection
It would perhaps be a little exaggerated and not quite true to the biblical model to claim that Alain Jeannet's return as Editor-in-Chief of the Ringier weekly magazine L'Hebdo is something like the return of the prodigal son. After all, Jeannet didn't seem that lost at Edipresse. But somehow it was written in the stars that Jeannet and L'Hebdo would have to meet again sooner or later. After all, the new editor-in-chief had learned his journalistic trade at L'Hebdo.
Born in Neuchâtel in 1958, he studied political science at the University of Lausanne (where the author of these lines was allowed to work as an assistant) after completing his A-levels. He also played and sang in a pop group. At a time when many young French students were criticizing capitalism and raving about China and North Vietnam, he was already drawn to the USA, the land of almost unlimited free competition. As a young journalist at L'Hebdo, which was launched in 1981 and nurtured by Jacques Pilet, he quickly made a name for himself as an expert on chip technology, the New Economy and Silicon Valley. He became head of the economics department and moved to Berlin in 1990, just in time for the fall of the Berlin Wall, as Germany correspondent.
When Pilet launched the daily newspaper Le Nouveau Quotidien in 1991, mainly with Edipresse money, "Pilet-Boy Jeannet" became the chief executive of the new "journal suisse et européen". In 1993, the born "plodder" then went to the Far East as a rice runner in the Ringier payroll, in order to stamp half a dozen "print products" out of the socialist ground in China, Vietnam and Indonesia. In 1996, he returned to Nouveau Quotidien and shortly afterwards was recruited by Edipresse to the development group. He then returned to journalism: he became deputy editor-in-chief of L'Illustré, then editor-in-chief of Bilan and - all's well that ends well? - Editor-in-chief of L'Hebdo.
Jeannet is married to Renata Libal, editor-in-chief of Edelweiss, and is the father of two children. With parents like that, it can be assumed that the French-speaking media don't have to worry about the next generation of editors-in-chief.
Back at Ringier: Alain Jeannet.
Christophe Büchi
