From the spirit of the class struggle
The business magazine A Propos is distributed free of charge to employees by its French-speaking publishers
The business magazine A Propos is distributed free of charge to employees by French-speaking patronsBy Christophe BüchiA Propos is a new newspaper with an unconventional marketing concept being published in French-speaking Switzerland. The monthly magazine is distributed free of charge by a group of companies to their employees - the company only pays ten francs per subscription.
The business press in Switzerland is currently sending out conflicting signals. While some publishers are suffering and some are even thinking of quitting - a few days ago the Agefi Group announced the closure of the e-economy magazine Future(s) - others are full of optimism and plans for the future. These include the publishers of the business magazine A Propos, which was relaunched last year and already has nine issues to its name.
A Propos wants to be neither elitist nor shallow
The magazine, which appears ten times a year, is a hybrid between a free newspaper and a subscription-based publication. It is published by a cooperative to which French companies and employers' associations belong. The magazine is aimed at companies and is sold via collective subscriptions. It aims to provide information on political and economic issues that directly affect the private sector. However, the magazine is also intended as a broadly diversified magazine with entertainment value.
Cynthia de Araujo, President of the Editorial Board, formulates the objective as follows: "A Propos wants to be popular and generally understandable, but at a good level. The magazine should therefore be neither elitist nor shallow. It wants to offer committed analysis and thus provide a counterpoint to the arbitrariness of the tabloid media."
To achieve this goal, the editorial team was entrusted to a seasoned professional, Jean-Jacques Zuber from Valais, owner of a communications office in Monthey. François Matile, secretary of the employers' association of the watch industry, who also has a background in journalism, is the director of publication. Freelance journalists are also employed. This high-caliber editorial team is intended to guarantee a high level of quality, but also a professionally pleasant style.
The magazine really does look neat, strikingly unpretentious and yet visually appealing. It is printed on a medium-weight paper, but without a glossy finish. The text clearly takes precedence, but great efforts have been made to generously break up the text area with pictures. Solid grass-green titles provide visual highlights. Photos, crossword puzzles and other illustrative elements are used selectively. And the French cartoonist Mix et Remix, a rising star of the French comic scene, contributes a cartoon to each issue.
A legacy of the class struggle from the pre-war years
A Propos is the new edition of an old good idea. The "grandmother" of the media baby was founded in the crisis year of 1933 under the very respectable name Industrie et Travail. It was inspired by the Swiss Engineering Industry Association. The idea was to bring employees closer to the patronage perspective and to form a counterweight to the trade union newspapers.
The idea took off. The newspaper thrived and was soon exported to German and Italian-speaking Switzerland, where it was called Werkzeitung and Industria e Lavoro. It all went very well for 40 years. But in the crisis-ridden seventies, the magazine began to falter. In the face of audiovisual media, the paper suddenly looked old. In 1983, the magazine was relaunched and renamed Opinions. But even this did not bring about a real turnaround.
So last year the decision was made to make a real fresh start. The result? 11,600 subscriptions are currently being sold. That's quite respectable. A Propos aims to inform companies and their staff about political and economic issues that concern them - "former et informer" is how de Araujo puts it. But are companies still prepared to spend money on a magazine, even if it doesn't directly do PR for the individual company? In the age of short-term return on investment, this is the big question.
Off to the NZZWith this article, our long-standing French-speaking Switzerland correspondent Christophe Büchi says goodbye to WerbeWoche. Büchi is moving to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, where he will keep readers up to date on political, economic and social developments in French-speaking Switzerland. WerbeWoche wishes him joy and satisfaction in his new challenge.
The business press in Switzerland is currently sending out conflicting signals. While some publishers are suffering and some are even thinking of quitting - a few days ago the Agefi Group announced the closure of the e-economy magazine Future(s) - others are full of optimism and plans for the future. These include the publishers of the business magazine A Propos, which was relaunched last year and already has nine issues to its name.
A Propos wants to be neither elitist nor shallow
The magazine, which appears ten times a year, is a hybrid between a free newspaper and a subscription-based publication. It is published by a cooperative to which French companies and employers' associations belong. The magazine is aimed at companies and is sold via collective subscriptions. It aims to provide information on political and economic issues that directly affect the private sector. However, the magazine is also intended as a broadly diversified magazine with entertainment value.
Cynthia de Araujo, President of the Editorial Board, formulates the objective as follows: "A Propos wants to be popular and generally understandable, but at a good level. The magazine should therefore be neither elitist nor shallow. It wants to offer committed analysis and thus provide a counterpoint to the arbitrariness of the tabloid media."
To achieve this goal, the editorial team was entrusted to a seasoned professional, Jean-Jacques Zuber from Valais, owner of a communications office in Monthey. François Matile, secretary of the employers' association of the watch industry, who also has a background in journalism, is the director of publication. Freelance journalists are also employed. This high-caliber editorial team is intended to guarantee a high level of quality, but also a professionally pleasant style.
The magazine really does look neat, strikingly unpretentious and yet visually appealing. It is printed on a medium-weight paper, but without a glossy finish. The text clearly takes precedence, but great efforts have been made to generously break up the text area with pictures. Solid grass-green titles provide visual highlights. Photos, crossword puzzles and other illustrative elements are used selectively. And the French cartoonist Mix et Remix, a rising star of the French comic scene, contributes a cartoon to each issue.
A legacy of the class struggle from the pre-war years
A Propos is the new edition of an old good idea. The "grandmother" of the media baby was founded in the crisis year of 1933 under the very respectable name Industrie et Travail. It was inspired by the Swiss Engineering Industry Association. The idea was to bring employees closer to the patronage perspective and to form a counterweight to the trade union newspapers.
The idea took off. The newspaper thrived and was soon exported to German and Italian-speaking Switzerland, where it was called Werkzeitung and Industria e Lavoro. It all went very well for 40 years. But in the crisis-ridden seventies, the magazine began to falter. In the face of audiovisual media, the paper suddenly looked old. In 1983, the magazine was relaunched and renamed Opinions. But even this did not bring about a real turnaround.
So last year the decision was made to make a real fresh start. The result? 11,600 subscriptions are currently being sold. That's quite respectable. A Propos aims to inform companies and their staff about political and economic issues that concern them - "former et informer" is how de Araujo puts it. But are companies still prepared to spend money on a magazine, even if it doesn't directly do PR for the individual company? In the age of short-term return on investment, this is the big question.
Off to the NZZWith this article, our long-standing French-speaking Switzerland correspondent Christophe Büchi says goodbye to WerbeWoche. Büchi is moving to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, where he will keep readers up to date on political, economic and social developments in French-speaking Switzerland. WerbeWoche wishes him joy and satisfaction in his new challenge.
