The Zurich Advertising Club and Publisuisse hosted a discussion on new forms of TVBy Andreas PanzeriMuch has changed in the Swiss TV market. Two powerful private broadcasters with home-grown programs are competing with SRG. Two TV bosses and two advertisers shared their subjective experiences and took a look into the distance.
"I already said you must have fallen into a ratings hole," joked Peter Schellenberg when Jürg Wildberger arrived five minutes late at the panel discussion in Zurich's Renaissance Hotel. "Schälli" was retrospectively introduced by the moderator Reto Kammermann from the Zurich Advertising Club as a "crime writer and commissioned filmmaker for the German Armed Forces and director of SF DRS since January 1, 1988".
This irony took on a deeper meaning when Wildberger's career path was then zapped through with "'Kassensturz', 'Netto', Editor-in-Chief Business Channel, '10 vor 10', Program Officer SF DRS, Editor-in-Chief Facts and now TV 3 with 'Big Brother'".
Unlike many previous panels about the fraternal dispute in the Swiss TV scene, however, the panel discussion developed in a pleasantly objective atmosphere. Some participants found it a pity that Schellenberg only wanted to take part in this event if he did not have to discuss in the presence of Roger Schawinski. Andy Lehmann from Optimedia expressed his regret about this. And so the discussion was somewhat one-sided, focusing mainly on the achievements of TV 3.
The fourth on the podium, Matthias Luchsinger from Cinecom, attested to Jürg Wildberger's "absolutely professional marketing" of his channel. "You can tell that he studied economics. Even in his cross-media strategies," said the media specialist.
Fortunately, you can't copy SRG
The head of TV 3 immediately felt challenged: "After three years, we have achieved a market share of ten percent," he said, citing current ratings. And then Wildberger made what was probably the most important statement of this discussion on the keyword "building a journalistic alternative in Switzerland" when he qualified: "In terms of content, we are not quite broadcasting what we wanted to do a year ago. But TV 3 today is certainly very different from what we will be in two years' time!"
  The jazz musician with a talent for improvisation compared the situation with the development of RTL. Freely commented: 'Even at RTL, the fruits of the development work are showing more today than "Tutti Frutti" did back then.
  "We used to always have to say we were good. Today you can see it!" Peter Schellenberg remarked on the new competitive situation. The personnel market has changed just as positively. There is more rotation among journalists and presenters. "Our problem used to be that people didn't want to leave. Today, not everyone wants to stay with Swiss television until they're 65," Schellenberg said happily, without specifying whether these SRG fossils, who had previously been fed for years, were more likely to migrate to Tele 24 or TV 3.
Schellenberg formulated the strategy for his channels as "consistency and maintenance of the label". He does not want to jump into new forms, even if the "Millionärsshow" would admittedly be an ideal replacement for "Benissimo". But with Endemol, Schellenberg would have "a bit of a problem working together. His telephone polls are a rip-off!"
And apart from that, the emergence of the new German private broadcasters would have provoked some creative thinking at the time. "Similar competitors have no chance of copying SRG," said the director of SF DRS. And had to put up with the remark that Schawinski should probably be excluded here for the well-known reasons.
Media planning is more serious than TV program planning
Despite a friendship with Wildberger that is still palpable, Schellenberg did not hide the fact that he also finds certain developments at TV 3 anything but good. With regard to the repeatedly and proudly cited multimedia achievements with simultaneous free TV, Internet and SMS on "Big Brother", the old 68er put this cross-media revolution into perspective with his reservations: "If a woman who is avowedly averse to alcohol is deliberately drunk in the container - and then it is announced via SMS that you can watch her vomiting in the toilet on the Internet, then as program director I don't want to take responsibility for such new content."
With his own pithiness, Schellenberg described private broadcasters as "paternoster television": you can get on and off a trend whenever you want. "And just like the paternoster, a new trend is always guaranteed to follow," added Lehmann.
However, the media man wanted to give the private TV providers the
The advertising industry can react to such rapid and usually short-lived trends in a similarly spontaneous manner. Professional media planning works with long-term strategies; if a new program on TV 3 suddenly has three percent more market share, the media placement cannot simply immediately place three percent more customer money around this new program, explained the Managing Director of Optimedia.
The same money is being spread across more and more channels. "So will more advertising be cheaper?" asked Reto Kammermann in the episode. Wildberger replied indirectly: "Viewers are used to the quality of the German channels. But they have five times more money per minute than we do." Large budgets must therefore be replaced with ingenuity if, for example, "Big Brother" Switzerland with only four people still wants to bring an equivalent or even better product to the screen than RTL with its 16 permanently employed container keepers.
In Switzerland, only eleven percent of the CHF 350 million in TV advertising money goes to private television, and the trend is rising. Wildberger therefore calculates that, with a "normal" distribution formula as in the rest of Europe, one day there should be money for at least two private broadcasters here too without any problems.
SF DRS could, but does not want to interrupt "Benissimo"
Lehmann countered that people in Spain also spend much more time in front of the television with four hours a day. "With the new lunchtime program on SF 1, a change is on the horizon," Peter Schellenberg tried to reassure the electronic media planners. As long as the usage time of the brave new TV world does not increase, it is an illusion to think of greater advertising revenue. "SRG is relatively sold out in prime time," the former monopolist revealed. The problem is also the restrictions on interstitial advertising.
According to the law, "Benissimo" could be interrupted in the middle, and Andy Lehmann could also "immediately sell" this new advertising option to his customers. Nevertheless, Schellenberg does not want to interrupt it "for image reasons". At least not until the new radio and television law is signed and sealed, as the tactician from Leutschenbach finally revealed in an aside.
Incidentally, interruptive advertising is the suicide of quality television. In southern European countries, where much more money is invested in TV advertising, the medium of television is increasingly being used just like radio. In the USA, the trend is actually such that people are once again listening to the radio much more than watching television.
TV 3 will soon have no sand
more under your feet
With the telling statement that SF DRS has only one permanently employed lawyer, while ZDF has 36, Schellenberg was able to credibly justify his television vision: "We are competitors in the market. But privately, we don't want to get involved in senseless price gouging!"
  SF DRS could invent the "Millionaire Show" itself more cheaply anyway instead of buying it in. When asked why it hadn't been done long ago, the Leutschenbacher said: "You know that there have been certain changes in our entertainment department!"
Looking to the future, Wildberger believes that the upcoming formats will probably involve a mixture of reality and fiction. "You only have one format in ever new variations," countered Schellenberg. Even if it is also difficult to stand out independently when, for example, the "Millionaire Show" has to be broadcast in the same style everywhere, Schellenberg does not wish for the demise of TV 3. "Tamedia television is a good customer of the studio facilities in our tpc."
Wildberger reassured: "We bring the new things that are popular - and we do it in dialect." As a result, he is no longer standing on sand, but "can already feel the ground under his feet", summarized the head of TV3.
PS: If you, as an advertiser, have not been completely delighted by these lines, here is a word of consolation from Peter Schellenberg: "I think many commercials are well made. But advertisers are a rarely masochistic bunch. Advertisers in particular always say their work is just garbage."

Muse & MusseBarbara Litschi
Which cultural event did you attend last and why this one in particular?
Barbara Litschi: "Schär, Holder & Meierhofer" by Lorenz Keiser, because no other cabaret artist dares to portray the political situation in Switzerland so pointedly.
What are you reading right now and why?
Lychee: "Novel without a Name" by Duong Thu Huong, because since my trip to Vietnam last year I've been interested in everything that comes from that corner of the world.
Which CD do you currently prefer to listen to?
Litschi: "1", The Beatles, because I always like these songs.
Which movie would you most like to see again and why?
Litschi: "Pelle the Conqueror" by Bille August, because it's my absolute favorite film.
What TV show did you fall asleep during the other night?
Litschi: I watch TV so rarely that I can't even remember the last program I watched, let alone the last time I fell asleep. But maybe I shouldn't say that so loudly.
What is your latest discovery on the Internet?
Litschi: I'm an impatient Internet surfer; if I don't reach my destination within five minutes, I give up searching. That's why I don't usually discover new sites myself, but let others draw my attention to interesting addresses.
Love is...?
Lychee:...probably the most processed theme in music,
Literature, film - and probably also in advertising.

The European launch budget for Microsoft's planned X-Box games console goes to Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), London.NewsBBH wins Euro budget for X-Box
BBH won the pitch against Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, Lowe Lintas & Partners and 180. In order to be able to participate in the presentation for the estimated budget of 120 million Swiss francs, BBH played high poker in December and returned the budget from Microsoft's competitor Sega.
WPP plans fourth networkThe British advertising holding company WPP has barely caught up with the competition from Omnicom and Interpublic with the takeover of Young & Rubicam when it is already moving into the fast lane. As reported in the New York Times, WPP plans to announce the formation of a fourth international network of advertising agencies on January 25. The European agency chain Conquest, Cole & Weber in the USA and Batey in Singapore are expected to serve as building blocks. The new company is to specialize in clients with smaller budgets, which the New York Times defines as budgets of 50 to 100 million dollars.
WHS also in the running for the VW accountThe German car manufacturer Volkswagen has invited six agencies to pitch for its planned luxury model. In addition to Weber Hodel Schmid, Zurich, VW's regular agency DDB, Berlin, Grey, Düsseldorf, Xynias Wetzel von Büren from Munich, Grabarz & Partner in Hamburg and the US agency Arnold Communications are also competing for the account.
Burger King to Campbell Mithun The fast food chain Burger King entrusts Campbell Mithun, Minneapolis, with the US budget for the children's target group. After the adult budget (for McCann-Erickson), Burger King's second advertising chunk also goes to an Interpublic agency. Grey and account holder Lowe Lintas were also involved in the pitch. The budget is estimated at 70 to 100 million dollars.

Despite new competition from commuter newspapers, Baslerstab (BS) was able to publish a total of 110 more advertising pages in 2000 than in 1999 (plus 1.3 percent).NewsBaslerstab remains stable
Since the launch of the commuter newspapers in Basel in September, the advertising volume of the BS has only remained stable compared to the previous year, despite the editorial expansion. However, after the relaunch, BS did not make an introductory offer like the commuter newspapers. There were no significant changes among the major advertisers for 2001, said BS Director Daniel Weick.
More sales for PlakandaThe outdoor advertising holding Plakanda increased its sales in the 2000 financial year by 18 percent to around 90 million Swiss francs. Plakanda announced that this was well above the industry average of 14 to 15 percent. The company gained market share in both the street advertising and POS sectors. The company is optimistic for 2001 thanks to the exclusive contract with Zurich Airport.
BR approves SF Info for German-speaking SwitzerlandThe SF Info repeat program will be broadcast throughout German-speaking Switzerland in future. The Federal Council has granted SRG and Presse-TV permission to do so and approved the cooperation agreement between the two companies. SRG had been testing SF Info in the Zurich conurbation since May 1999. The program consists of repeats of SF 1 and SF 2 information broadcasts. SF Info is distributed via satellite (from 2 February) and cable. SRG is prohibited from advertising and sponsoring on SF Info. Press TV, on the other hand, is allowed to advertise in its program environment in proportion to its broadcasting share, as Alfons Birrer from Bakom explained.
New Business with Presse FachverlagConcentration in the German advertising trade press: Peter Strahlendorf, owner of New Business Verlag, has taken over Presse Fachverlag. New Business Verlag publishes the weekly magazine of the same name. Presse Fachverlag focuses on the distribution sector with its titles. Its publications also include Distripress Gazett, which is published on behalf of Distripress, the European press distribution association based in Zurich.
Lava TV hires US agencyThe Zurich-based production company Lava TV ("Expedition Robinson") has agreed a cooperation with William Morris Agency (WMA), New York. The agency will represent Lava TV in the USA and Canada with immediate effect. Initial talks with American TV stations on the sale of productions and formats are to begin soon.
GDI honors websitesFor the second time, the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI) has presented its E-Shop Award. The award recognizes "the best stores on the World Wide Web". The winners are the condom store Praeser.ch as "Rookie of the Year" and the insurance company Webinsurance.ch as "Big Player". The audience award went to Beerculture. com. 120 e-shops competed for the awards.
Search.ch launches cinema platform
Search.ch is expanding its offering to include the online cinema platform www.kino.search.ch. It presents the current cinema program in Basel, Bern, Lucerne, St.Gallen, Winterthur and Zurich. There are also community offerings such as a film review forum. Trailers can be viewed in RealVideo format. "According to the Wemf study, 73 percent of our users find out about events via the Internet, and cinema is searched for 11912 times a month," explained Rudolf Räber, Managing Director of Search.ch.
Jobline opens Swiss branchesJobline International, the pan-European online recruitment agency, is opening branches in Zurich and Geneva. Jobline's strategic goal is to establish a pan-European search platform, the company announced. With the Swiss location and the new Swiss website, Jobline is improving its cross-border offering to candidates.

Switzerland is also affected by the wave of restructuring at Real Media worldwideThe fact that Urs Wolfensberger had to resign from Real Media (Switzerland) shows one thing above all: Publigroupe also has to realign its online unit in this country - in an even more concentrated form than abroad: in future, the focus will only be on the sale of online advertising.According to Pascal Zähner, CEO of Real Media (Europe), "differing views on the future strategy of Real Media (Switzerland)" were the reason why he showed Urs Wolfensberger, Managing Director of Real Media (Switzerland), the door (WW 2/01). He did not reveal any more details, but the new direction does give some indication.
"Real Media is concentrating on its strengths: the development and sale of technology from the USA and the sale of Internet advertising in Europe," said a Publigroupe press release at the end of 2000.
The statement, which applies to Real Media worldwide, hits Real Media (Switzerland) much harder: in future, the company intends to concentrate on just one of its strengths. "In Switzerland, we will focus massively on the sale of online advertising," says Robert Schmidli, CEO of Publidirect, who has taken over the management of Real Media (Switzerland) on an interim basis until around the middle of the year.
But why is Real Media (Switzerland) not selling Open AdStream, a technology developed in the USA that can be used to manage websites and their online advertising? Schmidli explains: "We will continue to offer Open AdStream, but our own Salesforce would be too expensive. We will pass on orders to Real Media (Europe)."
Real Media aims for quality
good turnover
A reference to the small size of the local market? Schmidli is evasive. Apparently, however, Wolfensberger had been more generous in his assessment of the potential in this country.
The reduction in the technical area has consequences in terms of personnel. While Real Media International is cutting a good ten percent of its jobs worldwide, Real Media (Switzerland) is cutting as many as 25 percent of its approximately 40 jobs. However, Schmidli wants to expand sales and double the current five jobs: "It depends on how the market develops. But the more people, the better," he says. The aim this year is to increase sales at Real Media (Switzerland) by 20 to 30 percent compared to 2000.
Just this much: Real Media (Switzerland) also made a big miscalculation in this respect. The company is now satisfied with less than a quarter of its previous expectations. Schmidli adds: "We want to generate good quality sales. That means: secure customers and no price wars." Which could probably be interpreted as a side blow against Wolfensberger...
Markus Knöpfli

The Handelszeitung publishing group is not forgetting the small and medium-sized enterprises of French-speaking SwitzerlandThe Handelszeitung publishing group's French-language business magazine PME Magazine has been given a new look. Editor-in-chief François Schaller wants to continue to focus on practice-oriented business information.The business journal with the somewhat cumbersome name PME Magazine (PME = Petites et moyennes entreprises = SMEs) primarily reports on companies and aims to provide directly useful information. With this aim, the magazine sets itself apart from competitors such as the Edipresse magazine Bilan, which offers business information in a broader sense.
The French-language Handelszeitung offshoot has not done badly with its orientation so far. After all, the magazine launched in 1989 reaches around 63,000 readers (Mach Basic 00), with a circulation of 19,000 copies. The once somewhat staid publication is now clearly more professional since the new editor-in-chief François Schaller, who came from L'Hebdo and Le Nouveau Quotidien, took over the helm.
Now the magazine wants to take another step forward. It has taken over its appearance from the French-Canadian Topdesi
Nathalie Baylaucq, and the result is impressive. The cover - in the colors gold, green, blue, orange and yellow - is trendier, but also aims to be clearly informative. For this reason, several tear-offs are placed next to a picture subject, as used to be the custom with French magazines. The effort to be "appealing" and at the same time solid and serious is also visible inside.
A fun innovation is the introduction of "counter-leads", i.e. short summaries at the end of each text. Editor-in-chief François Schaller, however, as he explains to WerbeWoche, is even more enthusiastic about another playful innovation: the quotes in the texts now appear in red. Daring!
The magazine content has been significantly expanded once again. More space has been given to e-business and investor tips. However, with eight editors, PME Magazine is still produced with a minimum of resources. Schaller hopes to be able to further increase the editorial content thanks to freelancers. The Handelszeitung bosses Ralph Büchi and Kurt Speck are obviously giving him a free hand. And the takeover of the Handelszeitung Group by Springer Verlag has, by his own admission, had no impact on Schaller so far.
Christophe Büchi

The US jeans manufacturer sings its way into the hearts of teenagers with karaoke commercialsBy Thérèse BalduzziFor today's teenagers, Levi Strauss is their parents' jeans brand. Levi's are considered uncool. But the jeans factory's latest campaign has a chance of being noticed again by 18-24-year-olds. It pretends to be uncool.
The karaoke spots designed by TBWA Chiat/Day were launched for the holidays. The campaign consists of 31 30-second spots. In them, real people perform alone or in pairs on a stage and sing along to the songs "Downtown" by Petula Clark, "Karma Chameleon" by Boy George and "Kung Fu Fighting" from the movie "Supercop".
Almost all amateur performers sing very differently. Some have so much ear for music that it becomes a chant. Others sing Boy George's song as if it were a hip-hop song. And in the "Kung Fu" song, most of them try their hand at helpless leg kicks.
But karaoke enjoys great popularity in America precisely because it is "cheesy", and the choice of songs is meant to be "camp", as the ironic attitude is called. The cheap decor, the bad songs and even worse interpretations are so uncool that they fulfill all the conditions for being cool.
The commercials also have a hypnotic effect. They are so unbearable that you can't look away. The perfect setting to show off the jeans, which is what it's all about. In the 31 spots, at least as many variations are shown as the Levi's models 569, 517, engineered jeans and corduroy versions can be worn. The tagline at the end of the spots shows the Levi's logo with the phrase "Make them your own", the title for a far-reaching campaign that also includes print ads, internet advertising and events. The campaign speaks to consumers' desire to express personality through their clothing. However, the campaign also focuses on the products. For example, the names of the jeans model just shown appear briefly in some of the karaoke commercials.
Campaign praise from
the trade press
The campaign also includes print ads for Levi's and for Levi's Engineered Jeans, in which young people style their jeans according to their style. They appear in magazines such as Vogue, GQ, Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan and Sports Illustrated.
Previously, the "Dressing Room" and "Fix-it" commercials also ran as part of the campaign. The first shows young people in the changing room trying on their jeans and dancing in front of the mirror. "Fix-it" shows an attractive janitor wearing Levi's 569 who is inundated with requests for repair work from female residents.
Experts praise the campaign: both Bob Garfield from Advertising Age and Barbara Lippert from Adweek see the commercials as an opportunity for Levi's to be seen as a cool brand again.

Cancel "What's the point?"
The Leader Pool now has a Plus version with Radio L. A stand-up or stand-down model for you?
Felix Kilchsperger: Clearly a cancelation, because I don't necessarily need Radio L for national sales. It doesn't show any performance, so I don't know what it brings. In addition, the leader pool - with or without Radio L - has a hole in St.Gallen. So I always have to book Aktuell as well.
But the merger of the Aktuell and Ri stations will be practically useless because of Radio L?
Kilchsperger: No, because Ri-Aktuell is much more attractive in terms of price and performance than the Leader-Pool plus, precisely because I don't know the performance of Radio L, but I do know that of Ri-Aktuell.
But doesn't the Plus variant currently drive you more into isolation?
Kilchsperger: Politically perhaps, but certainly not on the market. But Aktuell has no disadvantages because St.Gallen is involved in almost all national campaigns, whereas Chur is not, nor is Liechtenstein.
What do you think of Tele Leader AG, the new sales company of Tele Top and Tele Südostschweiz?
Kilchsperger: We have another hole in St.Gallen! It would make more sense if there were three of us, with Tele Ostschweiz.
Even though Tele Top covers the whole of eastern Switzerland including St. Gallen?
Kilchsperger: That's what Tele Top says, but whether it does as well in St. Gallen as Tele Ostschweiz remains to be seen.
Is there frustration behind your rejection of the new cooperation agreements because Top and Südostschweiz are not in radiotelepacht?
Kilchsperger: Not at all, the leader pool makes no sense for our customers from a professional point of view. There is probably no more pointless pool in Switzerland.
Interview: Markus Knöpfli

The crossover agency Angelink, which was founded two years ago, is changing from a sole proprietorship to a public limited company, with owner Markus Gabriel retaining 100 percent ownership of the shares. He sees the AG as the most sensible legal form for his company. "You keep all your options open," says Gabriel, "you can join a network or merge, and employee shareholdings are also easier to arrange. "Angelink moves between the poles of online advertising and traditional advertising and tries to combine both areas sensibly and competently. A concept with which Markus Gabriel has had mixed experiences. "You also have to fight against the cliché that advertisers know nothing about the internet and web specialists know nothing about advertising."
In the past two years, the agency has grown to seven employees, and Markus Gabriel wants to double turnover and the number of employees by 2003. Angelink's clients include KPNQwest, Credit Suisse, Canon, Fust and others (ba).

WSJ.com editor Rich Jaroslovsky sees a second dawn for print products onlineBy Daniel SchifferleCommercially viable online offerings from newspapers are exceptions to the rule. But the publisher of the much-vaunted financial site WSJ.com is optimistic about the future. He believes that the paid model was buried too soon and that now is the time to return to it. But despite half a million subscribers, the online version of the Wall Street Journal is still not making any money.
They are rare, the online offers with commercial success. Very rare. This was once again revealed at the traditional Zurich "Dreikönigstagung" on the subject of "Success models in online business". The few successful examples are passed around like sacred objects. That's why Rich Jaroslovsky, Managing Editor of the financial website WSJ.com, was not only in demand at the Media Institute event.
Journalists were already queuing up beforehand, reported Karl Lüond, head of the Media Institute. Everyone wanted to hear Jaroslovsky explain how to make Internet sites financially attractive. Because as the Internet euphoria has grown older, so has the disillusionment that such offers mainly cost money but bring in very little. And this despite good and still increasing use by the public.
Launched in 1996, the Wall Street Journal's online offering has had plenty of success. The year 2000 was a boom year and a milestone for WSJ.com: last year alone, the world's most successful financial site increased its number of subscribers by 52 percent. In the fall, the 500,000th paying subscriber also registered. Fantastic. And now there could be another boost. Rich Jaroslovsky is currently touring Europe to infect the local stock market and investor public with the WSJ.com virus. And there is certainly still considerable potential here, as only 15,000 of the site's half a million subscribers live on the Old Continent. However, this also has to do with the fact that WSJ.com only started marketing in Europe a few months ago.
Rosy public market,
Thin financial results
However, despite rosy prospects in the public market, revenues are not exhilarating. Even WSJ.com, which is passed around as an example of success, is not yet earning any money. The financial site expects a turnover of just 51 million US dollars for the year 2000. 60 percent of this comes from the advertising market. Although things are moving forward in leaps and bounds - the advertising volume rose by over 50 percent last year - this is only a fraction of Dow Jones & Company's total revenue. And this unattractive size ratio is unlikely to change any time soon.
But Jaroslovsky is already certain of one success: subscriptions to the online version do not come at the expense of the magazine. "Two thirds of WSJ.com subscribers were never subscribers to the Wall Street Journal," says Jaroslovsky. The feared cannibalization of the print product has therefore clearly not occurred in this case. For Jaroslovsky, this is a reason to celebrate: "We have proven that print and online can complement each other."
For the 59 US dollar annual fee, however, the newly tapped user group is also spoiled. For a third of what the paper costs per year (175 US dollars), they receive the world's most comprehensive range of financial information from Dow Jones & Co as a complete package (see box). And the online offer also includes all texts from the current print editions: the American Wall Street Journal as well as the European and Asian editions. The winner is clearly the user, who only pays a fraction of a single print subscription, but gets a lot more information in return.
The advertising platform WSJ. com. Around 30 million US dollars in revenue from commercial communication last year is not much compared to the numerical strength of the target group and the low scatter loss that WSJ.com can offer. 98 percent invest money. Half of the users have an average annual income of 125,000 US dollars and work in top management. 56 percent also access WSJ.com from there.
Attractive user profile, but
little money from the advertising market
This proximity to the profession also points to another advantageous specialty that the sites of other print media can only be envious of. This is because the relationship between WSJ.com and its users is a true B2B relationship: the latter seek information there that directly influences their transaction decisions. This does not mean that other newspapers do not also provide relevance, but the distance and relationship to the action are much greater and more complex.
Despite the much less direct reference to action, the WSJ.com editor is also optimistic about the other print media sites. But only if they are absolutely committed to one principle: "The public will value products that meet their needs."
Will the payment model get a chance after all?
Jaroslovsky believes it is high time to return to the payment model. "The providers of online content need to take another hard look at it," he advises. In doing so, they also need to iron out a mistake made in the past. The most important mistake was made by the providers themselves by simply giving their information away for free and not changing it.
"If you do this for a long time and then suddenly come and want money, the users naturally don't agree." That's probably why a trick has to be used. "If sites want to develop the payment model, then they can't avoid justifying this with new service offers," Jaroslovsky is convinced.
However, in order to successfully position entertainment and an expanded news offering as "valuable" alongside business news, a few other conditions must be met. Jaroslovsky's recipe: "Exclusivity and information in special niches, that's what people pay for." But packaging is also important. So far, this has not been trimmed enough for its sales-promoting suitability. "You have to package the information in such a way that users can see the value they are paying for. That is the challenge."
But Jaroslovsky is also convinced that there is still a long way to go before the payment model for the use of online content is no longer just an exotic exception, as in the case of WSJ.com. But he is fundamentally optimistic. The know-how in the creation of online offers has matured to such an extent that it is now becoming increasingly possible to exploit the potential of the Internet. "The providers will come up with very individual answers and they will be good and valuable answers." But there is still a lot to do before the "valuable" really starts ringing in the cash register.
Dow Jones & Co. will give (almost) anything for 59 US-$

Dow Jones & Company, which is over 100 years old, is the world's most comprehensive and renowned source of information on the financial markets. And the financial site also draws on this. WSJ.com has access to a network of more than 1800 business journalists and reporters for its content. The online editorial team alone employs 250 people, 80 of whom are involved in the production and editing of texts, the others in technology, marketing and administration.
In terms of content, WSJ.com offers everything the investor professional's heart desires: a comprehensive range of information on economic events with reports, analyses and market data from the financial markets around the world. Users have access to 22,000 background reports on listed companies. And they can browse the entire Dow Jones Publications Library with over 75 million articles to satisfy their hunger for knowledge. The exclusive service naturally includes daily personalized e-mails with tailored top news and news folders with up to five personalized investment portfolios.
Additional info power included in the 59 US dollar annual fee: All current content from all three print editions (The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Asian Wall Street Journal) as well as the Sunday financial paper Barron's are also included in the WSJ.com offer.
Comment

Learned a lot - earned nothing (yet)
From Daniel Schifferle
The disadvantages of the internet platform compared to the print edition are striking: much less money from users, much lower advertising revenue - and for a much richer product than the newspaper. This is clearly demonstrated by the Wall Street Journal's online offering, even if it is now being passed around as a beacon of hope for disillusioned sitemakers. The fact is: WSJ.com subscribers get access to a huge information package including all three issues of the Wall Street Journal. And all this for a fraction of the price they would pay for a single newspaper subscription.
In any case, the user is currently the winner. The losers are the providers of information, as they offer it online at much lower prices or even for free. This means that publishers are experiencing a drastic drop in the price of their services on their online platforms. This is dangerous, because the longer they offer their texts online for free or much cheaper, the more permanently they undermine the consumer's sense of the price of high-quality information.
And even as advertising platforms, the online offerings do not yet have the value they could have. WSJ.com has a huge and extremely attractive target group. But the advertising revenue it generates is a pittance compared to what the same target group would generate in print.
Despite the looming threat of a devaluation of both the information service and the advertising platform, the print media have learned at a pace hardly ever seen before thanks to the online world. Distribution in particular is undergoing a real revolution. New platforms and channels are making it possible to diversify information services, thereby tapping into new user groups and generating new forms of customer loyalty. Turning this power into money is the big challenge for the future.

The Edipresse Group takes over the advertising company Senger Media.Edipresse takes overSenger Annoncen AG
Edipresse publishing director Théo Bouchat told WerbeWoche: "Those Senger Media activities that work for our publications will be integrated into the group." The management of Senger Media will presumably be taken over by Marcel Siegenthaler, who is already responsible for Edipresse's presence in German-speaking Switzerland.
Because Edipresse does not see itself as a publisher of trade magazines, Senger Media's other activities will probably be outsourced. Negotiations between the two groups lasted several months. WerbeWoche had already reported on takeover rumors in June (WW 22/00). Incidentally, Edipresse confirms that Publicitas will continue to manage its daily newspapers.
Senger Media AG has its headquarters in Zurich, where it employs around 30 people, and a branch office in Lausanne. The advertising company provides advertising marketing for general-interest and trade magazines. It handles the advertising section of the publications Bilan, Femina and Animan for Edipresse. Senger also used to work for Bilanz, but this contract was lost some time ago. (cb)

The marketing and advertising agency FKP&Partner AG St.Gallen, based in Abtwil, has been acquired by Reinhard Frei & Partner AG in Balgach.The new owners, Reinhard and Ruth Frei, are thus expanding the range of services offered by their own agency for relationship management and communication and will offer integrated communication in future.The name FKP&Partner AG St.Gallen will be retained, and the former Chairman of the Board of Directors, Fredy Kappeler, will remain on the company's Board of Directors and will also support the new owners operationally for the time being.
The sale of the agency in Eastern Switzerland goes hand in hand with the restructuring of FKP&Partner AG Zurich. According to Kappeler, the specialized business units founded last year - including Fünf Freunde, an advertising agency - will continue to "develop according to plan". For health reasons, he has decided to concentrate on this task and sell the Eastern Switzerland branch.
Together, the agencies FKP&Partner AG St.Gallen and Reinhard Frei & Partner AG achieve a fee turnover of around four million Swiss francs. In view of the synergies, according to Frei, joint projects between the two companies are already on the horizon. In the medium term, Frei wants to establish himself as one of the ten largest PR agencies in Switzerland (ba).