With the discontinuation of the weekly supplement Ansager, Berner Zeitung (BZ) and Bund are making room for "20 Minuten Week". Tamedia reacts (still) defiantly with a relaunch of Züritipp. "Without its most colorful gem, the Berner Zeitung is a bit bland in the media landscape," wrote a disappointed reader after the Ansager nightlife magazine was discontinued. In other letters to the editor, the end of the joint BZ and Bund paper was described as a tragedy, a catastrophe and an impoverishment of the canton. BZ publishing director Franziska von Weissenfluh shows understanding: "As a BZ subscriber, I would also have written a letter to the editor." The hiring of the announcer certainly means a loss of image. But in view of the advertising slump, the red pencil had to be applied somewhere. The announcer was affected because the newspaper editorial offices can provide this expensive additional service themselves with little extra effort, as Bund publishing director J. Pepe Wiss explained.
Conspiracy theories
Will the federal city now have to do without a nightlife magazine? Only for a few days. The last issue of the Ansager (ironically titled "Absager") appeared on March 28, and on April 3 the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten launched its nightlife magazine "20 Minuten Week" for Zurich, Bern and Basel. In view of the seamless transition, the Ansager editorial team sensed a conspiracy in an open letter, as Espace Media now wants to acquire a stake in 20 Minuten together with Tamedia. No wonder, as the Mittelland Zeitung was already speculating that "20 Minuten Week" could soon be merged with BZ.
Franziska von Weissenfluh waves it off. There has never been any discussion about a cooperation with 20 Minuten. However, it is impossible to predict what will happen in a year's time: "When we launched the announcer last April, I couldn't imagine that we would be able to hire him again."
20-Minuten managing director Rolf Bollmann could well imagine that "Week" will one day join the BZ, even though he has not yet held any talks with the future owners of the commuter newspaper. "After all, the point of a cooperation is to create synergies.
to create," he says. On the other hand, he fears a dilution
of the readership profile. "20 Minuten Week" is specifically aimed at young readers and limited to their interests. Elite culture is left out - "we leave the 100 opera house visitors to the NZZ Ticket", says Bollmann. The announcer was never considered a competitor during the planning stage. Rather, "Week" fulfills a need of advertising customers, especially the cinema scene, for whom Züritipp, for example, is too widely distributed.
But even if BZ could dispel Bollmann's concerns, there would be another obstacle to cooperation. According to Wiss, BZ and Bund have undertaken not to offer a replacement product during the expiry of the original announcer contract until the end of 2004. A Bund cooperation with the NZZ Ticket "hovers over us as an idea" but, according to the publishing director, has not yet been concretized.
In Bern, "20 Minuten Week" is therefore likely to be unrivaled for the next two years. The Tages-Anzeiger, on the other hand, has taken up Bollmann's gauntlet and intends to fight the battle even after Tamedia's acquisition of the commuter newspaper, as Editor-in-Chief Peter Hartmeier assured. The Züritipp is to be relaunched from mid-June "in the guise of a big city magazine". Like "20 Minuten Week" and NZZ Ticket, it will be published on Thursdays in future. The new Züritipp will offer "exciting content for young people", Hartmeier announced, "but we are not making a youth magazine". The nightlife magazine will be aimed at urban Tagi readers of all ages. He is convinced of its success: "Zurich's millions are predestined for a city magazine like Züritipp."
Programmed high-flyerBy the end of 2003, the nightlife magazine "20 Minuten Week" aims to have doubled its initial circulation of 50,000 copies. This is according to the advertising documentation of the Zurich company Mediabox, which markets Week as part of its youth pool. At the launch on April 3, 40,000 copies will be distributed by colporteurs and via partners Ex Libris, City Disc and Kitag cinemas. 10,000 copies will be available in stores, clubs, bars and other venues. In the youth pool, Week can be booked together with the lifestyle magazines Kult, Forecast and 7th Sky and, on request, with the Ticino magazine Reset. The discount is 10 percent. According to Mediabox, all youth pool titles together reach a readership of 600,000 people. (sm)
Stefano Monachesi
