To the point: difficult birth
Ten years ago, on December 13, 1999 to be precise, the Norwegian publishing house Schibsted launched the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten with a bang. Just two days before, the launch date was announced.
The project manager was Sacha Wigdorovits. At the same time, Ueli Haldimann was working on the first edition of Metropol (which later had to be renamed Metro). For the Swedish media group, it was the launch of the first non-Swedish edition of Metro. 20 Minuten, however, was ahead, and Metropol did not launch until the end of January 2000. The two free newspapers were not taken seriously by the established publishers. They were laughed at and ridiculed. They sat on their high horses and could not imagine that a free newspaper could serve the needs of readers for information. And this in a country where free newspapers had a long and successful tradition.
Many advertisers and advertising and media agencies were also skeptical. They wanted to wait and see. See the first figures. Just don't take any risks. So the beginning was not easy. For the swashbuckler Rolf Bollmann, as the first managing director, the skepticism and scorn he received from many quarters was all the more incentive. He was convinced of his product and fought with heart and soul, because he wanted to win.
Barbara Domeyer wrote in the 2001 issue of Media Trend Journal: "New, interesting and to be taken seriously, alongside the globally widespread Internet, is a new generation of newspapers: the commuter newspapers. At this point, I would like to put forward the hypothesis that these newspapers will mutate into a new print category that will trigger and intensify the desire for news, especially in the young segments that are not yet so attached to daily newspapers. Qualitative data on the motivation for using these commuter newspapers among 14- to 24-year-olds supports the validity of this hypothesis: When asked why they read these titles (such as 20 Minuten, Metropol and ZürichExpress) practically on a regular basis, 43 percent already say that they have gotten into the habit of doing so, that it is somehow cool, that it is part of the day."
Right she got! 20 Minuten has become a success story. Taken over by Tamedia, the ridiculed commuter paper has become Switzerland's biggest newspaper. Many of the critics and doubters at the time are nice and quiet today, and only a few, such as the former editor-in-chief of the Tages-Anzeiger, Peter Hartmeier, openly admit that they had badly miscalculated.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
Many advertisers and advertising and media agencies were also skeptical. They wanted to wait and see. See the first figures. Just don't take any risks. So the beginning was not easy. For the swashbuckler Rolf Bollmann, as the first managing director, the skepticism and scorn he received from many quarters was all the more incentive. He was convinced of his product and fought with heart and soul, because he wanted to win.
Barbara Domeyer wrote in the 2001 issue of Media Trend Journal: "New, interesting and to be taken seriously, alongside the globally widespread Internet, is a new generation of newspapers: the commuter newspapers. At this point, I would like to put forward the hypothesis that these newspapers will mutate into a new print category that will trigger and intensify the desire for news, especially in the young segments that are not yet so attached to daily newspapers. Qualitative data on the motivation for using these commuter newspapers among 14- to 24-year-olds supports the validity of this hypothesis: When asked why they read these titles (such as 20 Minuten, Metropol and ZürichExpress) practically on a regular basis, 43 percent already say that they have gotten into the habit of doing so, that it is somehow cool, that it is part of the day."
Right she got! 20 Minuten has become a success story. Taken over by Tamedia, the ridiculed commuter paper has become Switzerland's biggest newspaper. Many of the critics and doubters at the time are nice and quiet today, and only a few, such as the former editor-in-chief of the Tages-Anzeiger, Peter Hartmeier, openly admit that they had badly miscalculated.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
