The international out-of-home media agency Poster Publicity is opening a branch on Zurich's Dufourstrasse. The independent agency with headquarters in London and connections to networks in America, the Far East, Eastern and Western Europe has already realized campaigns in this country with a volume of over one million Swiss francs. In 2000, Poster Publicity implemented out-of-home campaigns in more than 60 countries worldwide - group billings amounted to over 200 million US dollars. According to the managing directors of the Zurich branch, Winfried Karst and Michael Braun, the need for a local branch in Switzerland also arose due to increased demand from customers. Although the market is relatively small, the
It has a considerable out-of-home share of no less than 12 percent.
The establishment of the Poster Publicity branch in Zurich should now help to facilitate target group-oriented and creative planning and analysis. As Managing Directors, Braun and Karst are also
in Germany and Austria. In Germany, Manuela Krähenbühl will take over the agency management as Country Manager. In her new position, the 29-year-old wants to position herself in the out-of-home sector "with more targeted planning and new tools." (ko)

(4th quarter 2000)(Values = index "Supporters" of the ad compared to the average of all ads in the industry; 1.00 = average = 100%)Best of Print AdvertisingThe ad hits 2000 from the Advertising Index of the market research institute Demoscope
In cooperation with the market research institute Demoscope, Publimedia presents the readers of WerbeWoche five times a year with an excerpt from the
Results from the Advertising Index (AX Print). This index (see box) is a module of the Market Radar and measures the popularity of advertising subjects. In the top two rows are those subjects that achieved the greatest acceptance in the relevant psychographic target group (see wind rose). The three subjects that
in the entire sample, i.e., all four target groups in total, performed best in the 4th quarter of 2000 are shown under the heading "Top three".
(4th quarter 2000)

(Values = "Supporters" index of the ad vs. the average of all ads in the industry; 1.00 = average = 100%)
IT Bluewin Zug (Wirz) 1.1Banks/credit cards/mail Swiss Post Postfinance (Publicis) 2.2
Tourism Air Mauritius Occupation Married (PRW) 1.2
Telecommunications Orange Speak more (Euro RSCG) 1.2
Household Miele Cat & Dog 1.6
Advertising IndexFor the Advertising Index ad tests, a representative sample of around 800 people is surveyed in eight survey waves. The respondent first completes a psychological test (50-item test) and then leafs through a booklet containing 45 advertisements. As when reading a magazine, they are free to linger over each advertisement for as long as they wish. Before turning the page, she rates the ad on a scale from 5 ("appeals to me a lot") to 1 ("doesn't appeal to me at all"). Supporters" are people who are "very" or "fairly" attracted by an ad. The acceptance of advertising determined in this way correlates strongly with other functions of advertising impact and is therefore suitable for benchmarking.
For the segmentation of the sample according to target groups, Market Radar uses a psychographic test, the so-called 50-item test. With the help of this test, the value orientations of the respondent are determined and assigned to one of the psychogram fields (see wind rose). The value orientations range from South (conservative) to North (progressive) and from West (outward-looking, materialistic) to East (inward-looking, idealistic).
Further information on the Advertising Index and the Market Radar is available from Demoscope. Planning support with the Advertising Index, the Radar and new
with the Print Advertising Monitor (PAM), Publimedia.

February was not a happy month for the advertising market overallBoth the commercial and job advertising markets had an inglorious February. Only the weekly newspapers continued to perform well and the development of commercial advertisements in February was anything but a cause for celebration. However, this month had one working day and therefore one issue less in the current year, which puts the unsatisfactory result into perspective somewhat. According to the area statistics of the Swiss Press/VSW, commercial advertising in newspapers declined in all three parts of the country. In German-speaking Switzerland, the decline amounted to 5.7 percent, in French-speaking Switzerland
6.6 percent - only Ticino got off lightly with a loss of "only" 0.7 percent.
Thanks to the volume of job advertisements, which also grew much more slowly than in previous months, these unsightly figures for commercial advertisements were at least corrected upwards somewhat. In German-speaking Switzerland, there was even a slight increase of
1.2 percent. The overall result in French-speaking Switzerland was still pulled up to minus 2.4%. In Ticino, on the other hand, job advertisements were also down (minus 13.3%), meaning that the overall loss in the southern canton was also significant at minus 2.1%.
Major newspapers slumped - locomotive weekly newspapers
In the commercial advertising market, the big newspapers (circulations of over 50,000 copies) were hit hardest, losing 11.4 percent in German-speaking Switzerland and as much as 18.1 percent in French-speaking Switzerland. The situation was even more difficult for the smallest newspapers (circulations of less than 10,000 copies); they were down by as much as 28.3 percent in German-speaking Switzerland and 9.1 percent in Ticino.
The only bright spot among the newspapers in February were the weeklies, which were already
have been achieving top results in a row for months. With an increase of 6.6% in commercial advertising, they once again performed well above average. If you add to this the 56 percent increase in job vacancies, the weekly titles achieved an increase of 8.8 percent. In French-speaking Switzerland, the weekly newspapers posted an impressive increase of 20.4%, even without the help of the job market.
However, both the Anzeiger, which lost 4.6 percent of its advertising volume, and the agricultural press, which continued its downward spiral at 5.3 percent, had little to laugh about.
For magazines, the erosion in February was at least not quite as severe as in January. However, they still lost 1.1 percent of advertising across Switzerland as a whole, despite additional expenditure. The hole is particularly large in Ticino, where advertising fell by 34 percent, while German-speaking Swiss magazines also lost 3.7 percent of their advertising. The French-speaking Swiss magazine market was the only one to record a pleasing gain of 11.6 percent.
The Publicitas index of advertising expenditure in the daily press, which measures sales in Swiss francs and also includes job advertisements, paints a somewhat more positive picture of the current trend. The index rose by 0.4 points, although this corresponds to almost halving the growth realized in January.
Daniel Schifferle

Muse & MusseSandra Haldi
What was the last cultural event you attended?
Sandra Haldi: The Ronny Jordan concert - because of "So what!" What else?
What are you reading right now?
Haldi: "The Terrorists" by Sjöwall/Wahlöö (Swedish crime writer duo) with addictive potential.
Which CD do you currently prefer to listen to?
Haldi: "Fresh Mood"/Swerve.
Which movie would you most like to see again?
Haldi: "A bout de souffle" by Jean-Luc Goddard, if only because of the young Jean-Paul.
What TV show did you fall asleep during the other night?
Haldi: "Colombo".
What is your latest discovery on the Internet?
Haldi: www.TheSpark.com (because of the IQ test).
What could you never do without?
Haldi: Coffee in the morning.
Love is...?
Haldi:...fortunately unpredictable.

(4th quarter 2000)Affinity of advertisements with supporters in "Yuppieland "Best of Print AdvertisingThe advertising hits 2000 from the Advertising Index of the market research institute Demoscope
In cooperation with the market research institute Demoscope, Publimedia presents the readers of WerbeWoche five times a year with an excerpt from the
Results from the Advertising Index (AX Print). This index (see box) is a module of the Market Radar and measures the popularity of advertising subjects. In the top two rows are those subjects that achieved the greatest acceptance in the relevant psychographic target group (see wind rose). The three subjects that
in the entire sample, i.e., all four target groups in total, performed best in the 4th quarter of 2000 are shown under the heading "Top three".

An SW panel discussion in Lugano highlights the pitfalls of the new Radio and Television ActBy Piero Schäfer*32 parliamentarians and 35 representatives of the media and communications industry took part in a panel discussion on the new Radio and Television Act (RTVA) organized by the Swiss Advertising Association (SW) in Lugano. Conclusion: the law remains controversial.
After the last SW Parliamentary Talk in Bern, Ticino Council of States member Filippo Lombardi suggested continuing the series of talks at the session in Lugano. The RTVG was able to mobilize a remarkable number of interested parties: Over 60 guests came to the Hotel de la Paix.
After Marc Furrer, Director of the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom), had outlined the concept of the new law, SRG Director General Armin Walpen praised the basis for the legal text. It is excellent because it accurately reflects the realities of Switzerland. Even if he would have liked the SRG's performance mandate to be a little less demanding, Walpen also welcomed the clear mandate to provide a public service. The SRG Director General is also positive about the legislator's intention that SRG should continue to be financed by both license fees and advertising in the television sector. Walpen sees problems above all in the standards for implementation. Compared to the current situation, several restrictions and controls are planned. In particular, he wonders whether the state is not burdening itself with responsibilities that will ultimately overburden it.
Tamedia wants twelve minutes of advertising time per hour
Christian Staerkle, President of the Swiss Private Radio Association (VPS), welcomed the idea of dualism in radio (fees for SRG, advertising for private broadcasters). However, he questioned whether the proposed limited distribution of license fees to radios in mountain regions was the right thing to do. Staerkle considers advertising bans (for example for alcoholic beverages) for Swiss radios to be absurd as long as foreign stations can advertise cross-border for products that are banned here in Switzerland.
In principle, Staerkle considers the draft RTVA to be practicable. He has more reservations about television. Unfortunately, dualism is not envisaged here. This leads to a market distortion: as SRG is not only financed by advertising but also by fees, it can dictate spot prices on the market. This means that the fees subsidize the spot prices to a certain extent.
The consultation on the RTVA runs until the end of April. More and more associations and interest groups are currently publishing their opinions. Tamedia sent out its paper one day before the SW event. In it, the operator of TV 3 calls for a redistribution of advertising time (asymmetrical model): SRG should be allowed to advertise for six minutes per hour, but the private broadcasters for twelve minutes.
According to Armin Walpen, this asymmetry would result in SRG losing around CHF 150 million in advertising revenue, which roughly corresponds to the expenditure for the Ticino program. Moreover, it is not clear from the paper whether the halving would only apply to DRS stations or also to TV stations in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino. The SRG boss doubts whether these 150 million francs will actually end up in the coffers of the Swiss private broadcasters. "Advertising has the stupid habit of not going where it is allowed to, but where it thinks it will find its target audience," he said.
Bakom Director Marc Furrer is also certain that Tamedia's proposal would see advertising flow much more to the major foreign broadcasters. "We are not so altruistic as to make a law that in principle favors the German and French private broadcasters," he said.
At the end of last year, Council of States member and SW President Carlo Schmid-Sutter submitted an initiative to liberalize interruption advertising and advertising for light alcoholic beverages for private individuals. When asked about this initiative, Walpen was generous. He said that the SRG was prepared to forego this option in favor of "the friends of commercial competition". Walpen also sees something objectionable in the fact that foreign broadcasters are allowed to advertise alcoholic products in Switzerland. In this respect, the SRG Director General supports the SW President's proposal.
*Piero Schäfer is
SW communication manager
Few reactions at first

Around 170 associations and organizations have been invited to consult on the new RTVA. So far, it has mainly been associations that are little affected by the law that have responded. According to Furrer, the reactions are quite critical. No wonder: the law is provocative. Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger has always said that he does not want to discuss the matter with associations in advance. He would draw his conclusions later. Nevertheless, the basic model of the dual system, strong SRG and more liberal regulations for private broadcasters, is largely approved of, according to Marc Furrer, head of Bakom.

Bertelsmann launches marketing offensiveDirectGroup Bertelsmann relaunches its book club business in Germany, introduces specialty clubs and has acquired the e-mail marketing provider zooba.com with 2.3 million subscribers in the USA. In addition, tennis star Stefanie Graf is to support the book clubs' marketing offensive as a media partner of the German clubs. Graf, who is described as a "heavy user" when it comes to media, is to realize a book, a CD-Rom and an audiovisual project for Bertelsmann in the fitness/wellness sector. Graf admitted at the Leipzig Book Fair that her favorite books are autobiographies. In his marketing offensive, DirectGroup CEO Klaus Eierhoff is focusing on the expansion of specialty clubs worldwide, which he says are currently gaining around 200,000 new members per month via the Internet in the USA. According to Bertelsmann, the online sales generated by book clubs worldwide already amount to around 150 million marks.
The acquisition of zooba
.com is part of DirectGroup's new multichannel strategy. Bertelsmann will use Zooba.com as a content channel with which individualized
emails can be sent as a sales tool to acquire new customers. For Eierhoff, the aim is to meet the multi-optional customer on all of their purchasing channels. Bertelsmann is thus linking the new with the old economy. Because "pure online providers will have difficulties if they do not serve additional sales channels," said Eierhoff. Bertelsmann, at home in both "economies", has quickly noticed in the USA that the proportion of multichannel customers is increasing. Carlo Bernasconi

Tobias Trevisan puts NZZ's interest in Weltwoche into perspectiveBy Markus KnöpfliIn the industry, it was expected that the Board of Directors (BoD) of Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG (NZZ) would decide on March 17 whether to launch a Sunday newspaper - with or without Weltwoche. However, this was not the case, and according to Tobias Trevisan, NZZ Publishing Director Newspapers, this will not be the case in the near future.
"On March 17, the board of directors of the NZZ will decide on the launch of the Sunday newspaper," wrote Facts on February 8, 2001, speculating that the NZZ would buy Weltwoche and turn it into a Sunday newspaper.
  But Tobias Trevisan, Publishing Director Newspapers at NZZ, asked by WerbeWoche on March 19 about the outcome of the board meeting, described the Facts report as a hoax. No decision had been made about a Sunday newspaper project, nor had the NZZ Board of Directors met, he said. It is true that a working group, of which he is a member, is currently examining whether the NZZ can and wants to produce a Sunday title. "However, the work of this group has not yet been completed, and neither calculations nor scenarios are available, which is why a Sunday newspaper project will not be a topic at the next Board meetings," says Trevisan.
In November, however, NZZ deputy editor-in-chief Kenneth Angst signaled to the Tages-Anzeiger that a "cooperation" with Weltwoche would be possible for an NZZ Sunday newspaper. It was soon rumored in the industry that the NZZ was considering buying the title. Trevisan notes that Angst made his statement on the basis of a "rough study" that examined where the NZZ could become active in publishing. It did not contain any concrete proposals, at most statements about which existing titles could be affected by a certain activity. For example, Weltwoche was also mentioned in the Sunday market. But it was only on the basis of this rough study that the NZZ decided to investigate the Sunday market, says Trevisan, describing the significance of the study. He adds: "Because there are no proposals yet, we don't know whether we have an interest in Weltwoche. That is why we have not yet discussed a sale or the price of Weltwoche with the Basel media group."
Now Tamedia and Ringier, both owners of a Sunday paper, have also expressed interest in Weltwoche - possibly just to drive up the price and prevent competitor NZZ from entering the Sunday market. Is Trevisan now trying to play down the actual NZZ interest in Weltwoche with his statements? Trevisan: "I don't know the interests of the other publishers. But the unrest surrounding Weltwoche is not something we want. On our part, however, this has led to more open information about our Sunday project."

A big turnout last week at the Cinemax complex in Zurich's Steinfels area. Premiere for the latest Swiss film "Das Fähnlein der sieben Aufrechten" by Beat Fritsch The cast list also features unorthodox names such as pop starlet Kisha and head snob Fabien Rohrer, who proved to be a surprising discovery. The Keller novella was produced by commercial filmmakers Hans G. Syz and Reiner Roduner, among others, and for Syz it was also the start of a new future. In future, he only wanted to make feature films and handed over the commercial business to Roduner (see WW 10/01).
The producers were seen standing at the reception desk before the movie started, looking slightly nervous. Apparently they had miscalculated a little, as there were more guests than seats available. However, thanks to Roduner's organizational skills, every visitor ultimately found a seat in one of the auditoriums. One
A slightly diva-like nervousness could also be felt in Futurecom CD Christian Erni. His younger brother Lukas Erni initiated and co-produced the "Fähnlein" project with Syz. And an unsuccessful premiere would have hurt his big brother just as much. Fortunately, Brigitte and Bruno Widmer joined the group. So Erni was able to distract himself with a professional discussion, while Brigitte Widmer was already announcing the 2000 Brancaia from the estate's own vineyard as a top vintage. Erni could rest easy, by the way. Like many others, René Hürlimann from Euro RSCG, accompanied by Ursula Schaffner, commented favorably on the film: "Ninety minutes of super entertainment without any commercial breaks."
PR heavyweight Klaus J. Stöhlker and his wife Paula were accompanied by Christa Zeller and Orange Board member Hans-Jürg Schürmann. At last we were able to ask the PR doyen a question that had been burning on our tongues for a long time. Stöhlker's sons are christened Fidel and Raoul, like Cuba's
Maximo Lider and his brother. "PR stunt or genuine worship of Cuba, Mr. Stöhlker?" He loves Cuba and is already fascinated by Castro, as he occasionally dances on the nose of the Americans - whose mass culture he also dislikes - dictated Stöhlker in his jovial, patriarchal manner into the shortlist author's notebook. And the naming was actually connected to his admiration for the bearded Cuban - but the brother thing was a coincidence that he only found out about later.
Film celebrities were also on site. We met Simone Krebs and Christine and Martin Fueter at an aperitif in the neighboring Back & Brau. Christine Fueter may be moving into comedy. In any case, she has been included in the shortlist of possible authors for SF DRS following a writers' seminar by Charles Lewinsky on the basis of the script she sent in. Further discussions have also already taken place.
Instead of attending the film premiere, a large proportion of the young advertising talents chose to go to the Kult magazine party that took place on the same evening. They took to the dance floor at the legendary Roxy, which thanks to Rainer Kuhn can now return to the good old days at least once a month. At Kuhn's cult parties, you can now also see repeat offenders who frequented the club themselves as young vegetables in the eighties. Flavia Schlittler came with headhunter Hélène Müller, and Christophe Guye was also seen at the bar of the former "in" place for the first time in a long time. He was in discussion with Yves Spink - the Roxy used to be his living room, by the way - and one naturally wondered whether Christophe was trying to wrestle his FE producer away from Frank Bodin.
Beat Fritsch

on a film and party tour: Finally, the premiere of a Swiss film was on the program again, which already has a pop feel with its main actors. And then there was also one of the cult parties that will take place every month from now on.
If you're usually to be found at premieres and parties in the communications industry, you'll be spotted at a wide variety of events in the scene. Do you already have something to report? Pick up the phone (01 296 97 98) or hit the keys ([email protected]). Event tips and further shortlist images are available online at www.werbewoche.ch

No poster site is the same, and all passers-by let their eyes wander elsewhere, which is why it is difficult to correctly measure the perception of posters. Impact research therefore speaks of a mass medium without a defined target audience. Nevertheless, posters enjoy a great deal of trust. In the final part of his series on poster research, Wolfgang Koschnick explains which measurement methods are more or less reliable. page 16

Experts offer their knowledge on expert portals - but are not liable for risks and side effectsBy Christian WeishauptExpert portals are currently on the rise on the web. They are intended to help Internet users obtain information. However, monitoring online experts is difficult and is largely left to the users of the platforms.
The exchange of information between individuals via the Internet is old hat. E-mail and newsgroups have long fulfilled this function. For about a year and a half now, however, there have also been services for exchanging knowledge on the Internet that connect users to an extent that would never have been possible with newsgroups. On so-called expert portals, people who are particularly knowledgeable in a particular field answer the questions of other users of the portal - either free of charge or for a fee.
Swiss also get involved
international with
A Swiss expert portal with a drive to expand is Wetellyou. com. Founded in September, it now offers its services on all continents. Like other question & answer service providers, Wetellyou also wants to expand its previously small user base by cooperating with portals. In Switzerland, contracts have been concluded with Sunrise.ch, Surfeu.ch and MSN.ch, among others. In the near future, T-Online and Swissonline will also be among the customers licensing Wetellyou for their own services.
On Wetellyou, the person seeking advice can contact an expert of their choice directly and submit their question. The expert will then get in touch by phone or e-mail. Anyone can become an online expert in a particular field. Wetellyou does not check the qualifications of the experts and accepts no responsibility for the advice given.
What is needed is the common sense of users, who are informed in the general terms and conditions that the service is no substitute for professional advice. At least the member evaluation program offers help in assessing the experts, in which the experts are graded according to the advice they have given so far. However, a large proportion of the experts have so far remained unemployed and ungraded. Obviously, not too many Swiss people trust the online advisors.
This is despite the fact that Wetellyou is currently free of charge for those seeking advice. Experts are currently giving their advice primarily in order to make a good name for themselves for the announced release of the portal. Then, according to CEO Stephan Widmer, the experts will be able to charge a price for their services. Wetellyou will collect 30 percent of the expert rate.
The B2B sector promises
higher sales
Apparently, many users are prepared to pay for experts. On the American expert portal Inforocket.com, information seekers can determine the value of the answer on a scale of 10 to 75 dollars. An inspection shows that quite a few offer 75 dollars or more. Inforocket.com keeps 20 percent of this for itself and generates high non-advertising income.
In the search for revenue, expert portals also offer their software to companies for integration into their intranet. According to Widmer, preparations are also underway at We tellyou.com for a pilot project in the B2B sector. The knowledge management tool for company intranets is to consist of three main modules: an expert module, similar to the question & answer portal on the Internet, a document manager for sharing content and a project module for forming virtual teams.
Hurra.de (http:// hurra.de) is still geared towards consumers. The platform works in a similar way to Wetellyou.com, but some of the information is subject to a fee. It is not the expert who specifies how much the information costs, but the person seeking advice who decides how much it is worth to them. Hurra.de suggests individual experts who are willing to provide the information at the suggested price or free of charge. The expert selected by the expert then receives the entire premium.
Hurra.de therefore does not supplement its income from banner advertising with commissions on advice given, but with entries from various providers in the platform's special search engine. In addition to the expert platform and a selection of two dozen well-known search engines, this offers users a third way to obtain information in nine specific subject areas.
The search engine works according to the pay-per-click system: providers can specify how much they want to pay for a visitor who is directed to their site via the Hurra.de search service. Those who are willing to pay more are ranked higher in the displayed search results. The minimum offer for an entry in the top positions is 0.1 euros per click. The disadvantage of this system is that the first search results are not necessarily the best or the most relevant.
According to René Schweier, Head of Communications at Hurra.de, revenue from the pay-per-click system currently accounts for 30 percent. Schweier on the future of expert portals: "At the moment, they are certainly as fashionable as online auctions were about two years ago. I think they probably offer the best opportunity to obtain targeted information."
American expert portals

Askme.com is free for consumers and focuses increasingly on the business sector. Cooperation with Goto Networks.
Inforocket.com is limited to the consumer sector. Those seeking advice indicate how much they are prepared to pay for information; free inquiries are not possible. Cooperation with Looksmart.
Exp.com has the strictest expert control system and wants to set itself apart from the competition. Co-branding partnership with Ask Jeeves.
Keen.com focuses on telephone consulting. Works together with Ebay.

For Publicitas boss Ernst Grab, the Mittelland Zeitung generates attractive volumesFrom January 2002, the Aargauer Zeitung will merge with the Solothurner Zeitung, Oltner Tagblatt and Zofinger Tagblatt to form the third-largest newspaper in Switzerland. This unites economically linked areas under one newspaper umbrella. For Publicitas and AZ Media, this also creates a new form of cooperation. What is the great advantage of the cooperation that has now come about between Aargauer Zeitung and Neuer Mittelland Zeitung? Or to put it another way: why does it make more sense than a partnership with the Berner Zeitung (BZ) or the Bund or NZZ, which were also involved in the negotiations?
Ernst Grab: A very important point: this cooperation will strengthen the economic region of the Mittelland between the two powerful poles of Bern and Zurich. As a joint block, the four participating titles have very good chances of survival in the medium and long term. It is also crucial that the area between Baden and Solothurn comes under a single newspaper umbrella, because this area makes sense as a common, homogeneous and strong advertising market.
But if Bern or Zurich had been chosen, what would have been the disadvantages?
Grab: In one direction or the other, this would have led to a separation of the three partners of Neue Mittelland Zeitung. But none of these three long-standing partners wanted to be torn apart. And another thing that should not be forgotten is that the Aarau-Olten-Zofingen region has grown together more and more over the past decades to form an economic area. The Mittelland Zeitung is now bringing this region together again.
And the whole scenario with the Berner Zeitung - why would this have been the worse solution?
Grab: The canton of Solothurn would probably have been split in two - one part towards Bern and the other towards Aargau. But that would not have been a good thing. Although the economic areas are cross-cantonal, the cantons still play an important role within such economically interconnected areas. A connection to the Bern region would not only have split one canton in two, but the entire Mittelland economic region. And this would have negative consequences for both the market area and the newspaper titles involved. In a cooperation with the Berner Zeitung, the latter would also have had to relinquish more autonomy than is now the case with the Mittelland Zeitung. This is because, as the example in the Bernese Oberland shows, the Bernese are tending towards much more integrated cooperation models with their partners.
So how does the Mittelland Zeitung model work?
Ernst Grab: For the advertising business, the Aargauer Zeitung plays the role of locomotive in this cooperation. This is because it has more pages from the national advertising market than the current Neue Mittelland Zeitung. The cooperation will also bring these additional volumes into the overall offering. To a large extent at least, this will certainly succeed. As a result, the three titles Solothurner Zeitung, Oltner Tagblatt and Zofinger Tagblatt, which currently have less national advertising, will receive larger volumes from the national market.
Has anyone calculated how high the increase will be?
Grab: Of course we have made calculations, but these are complex calculations that are also subject to uncertainties. That's why I only want to say this much at the moment: it will be an attractive additional volume.
Publicitas will work closely with AZ Media, the sales organization of the Aargauer Zeitung, to market the Mittelland Zeitung. Is this model similar to those already used by the Neue Luzerner Zeitung or Südostschweiz, for example?
Grab: No, what we do at the Mittelland Zeitung is different. Today we have a management contract with the publishers of the Neue Mittelland Zeitung (Solothurner Zeitung, Oltner Tagblatt, Zofinger Tagblatt) and a very close cooperation with the Aargauer Zeitung. In future, the basis of the cooperation will be a contract between the publishers of the Mittelland Zeitung and Publicitas for the promotion, sale and handling of advertisements. In this contract, the exclusive management of the advertising market will be transferred to Publicitas, with the restriction that the sales organization of AZ Media will also market the Mittelland Zeitung as a second sales channel. The Mittelland Zeitung will therefore have two sales channels.
But that sounds like a conflict-prone construction. How is the coordination of the two handled?
Grab: The way we have planned it, this organization is not prone to conflict. A management committee, in which the publishing directors of the participating newspapers and Publicitas are represented, will define the market development strategy and coordinate sales and processing.
The partners of the Mittelland Zeitung have not stopped emphasizing that the cooperation now chosen was not absolutely necessary. But isn't that only half the truth?
Grab: It's wise to do something as long as you don't have your back to the wall. The advertising market is booming at the moment. We are currently in the fortunate situation that all regional newspapers are doing well. But you also have to plan for the longer term: if the job market and advertising expenditure fall again, it could become difficult for individual regional newspapers. The chosen cooperation strengthens the position of each individual member. It leads to additional income, which in turn helps to build up reserves for tougher times. This also applies to other newspaper systems that restructured themselves at an early stage and that could possibly find themselves in a potential crisis from a strong position. I am convinced that if a dramatic situation similar to that of the early 1990s ever arises again, such newspaper systems will be able to survive.
Interview: Daniel Schifferle