The magic of the ordinary

As always, this week's WEMF figures have been interpreted like school grades and commented on like a casting call. Commentators have been saying the same thing for years, and it's true: the user figures for our media are more stable than their circulation trends and are moving straight ahead or gently downwards at an enviably high level. What is becoming increasingly annoying is the gap in data collection on the electronic use of newspaper offerings. For some titles - such as the NZZ - it has now reached respectable levels.

Once again, I have noticed that a title category that has been growing slightly but steadily for years, contrary to the industry trend, has hardly been noticed: the cooperative free press from Coop and Migros. Migros Magazin (formerly Brückenbauer) has 2.384 million weekly readers in German-speaking Switzerland, while Coop-Zeitung even has 2.679 million. In a ten-year comparison, the two titles show increases of 12 and 18 percent respectively, while the majority of daily and weekly newspapers have to struggle to explain their negative figures or zero growth. So the editors and publishers in the pay of Coop and Migros must be doing something right. Even considering the size and reach of the two titles, the acceptance test is convincing.

I took a look at the latest issues of both magazines and came to the conclusion that both titles score highly because they contain exactly what they say on the tin: Coop and Migros respectively. Week after week, the customers who read them derive direct benefit from their reading. I bet that the promotional ads are among the most popular pages. But the editorial program also revolves to a large extent and with a strong seasonal accent around the respective events in the Coop or Migros world. Popular categories such as cooking, wine, sport, travel, etc. are unabashedly linked to the respective offers. The Coop newspaper pushes the mushroom season, while the Migros magazine goes for a making of from the shooting of the new Migros Bio commercial. The editorial content is not shy about satisfying the commercial interests behind it. Not only does this not bother anyone; I would even go so far as to say that anyone who picks up a magazine with the title Coop-Zeitung or Migros Magazin expects this.

Journalism as a service and benefit brokerage in the everyday sphere of shopping and households, mixed up with celebrity stories that are closely linked to Supercard or Cumulus activities. The seven-hundredth Udo Jürgens interview in the Coop newspaper also gains new appeal, because you also find out how to get into the new musical at a discount. Yes, here journalism does not disguise its auxiliary function for marketing in any way. It is straightforward and honest and delivers what it promises. Conflict and politics are largely excluded - unless the interests of the major distributors are directly affected, such as in the case of store opening hours. It is not the enlightening approach that counts, but the service-providing, seductive, entertaining one.

You can turn up your journalistic nose at this. But the enormous and stable readership figures over the years prove that this type of interest-based consumer journalism is gladly accepted as a supplement and contrast to the rest of the program and is also correctly classified - I maintain: precisely because people know that you want to sell them something on every page.

In terms of publishing, the two battleships are also sailing in the slipstream of the supposedly big players. It is interesting to note that some sectors, such as travel agencies with special offers, are happy to take advantage of the enormous displacement of these battleships. All in all, a simple mental calculation shows that both Migros Magazin and Coop-Zeitung would easily be listed among the top ten companies in the Swiss publishing industry if they were not always forgotten. Which is probably fine with them, because otherwise people would start talking about the buying power and influence of the major distributors. After all, they are not only advertising customers, but also the biggest print buyers - and important publishers.