A quarter of the market share is generated online

Swiss print media are steadily losing reach, while online offerings are growing. MACH Basic has been showing the same picture for several years: Swiss print media are losing reach. The joint reach study of the press media in Switzerland, which is published by WEMF, determines the readership of the participating titles twice a year. It provides information on the number of readers and the composition of the readership of an average edition of a title or combination of titles. The MACH Basic survey comprises around 19,000 interviews per year.Country love phenomenonThere are also very few winners in the current MACH Basic 2015-1 compared to last year's data (see table on page 56). Once again, LandLiebe and Côte Magazine Genève were able to significantly increase their readership. The magazine from Ringier is a phenomenon: while most titles are struggling with a loss of reach, LandLiebe reaches more readers every year. Compared to 2014, the magazine, which is published six times a year, was able to gain 80,000 readers and now has a reach of 562,000 readers.In addition to LandLiebe, there are other publications that were able to buck the trend and increase their reach compared to the previous year - albeit not significantly. In the "Daily and weekly press" category, these are Le Matin, Gazette de la région, Le Régional, Le Nouvelliste, 20 Minuti I-CH, laRegioneTicino and Rivista di Lugano. In the "General Interest, Financial, Economic, Special Interest and Trade Press" category, the publications Fritz + Fränzi, Schweizer Gewerbezeitung, Les Alpes, Echo, Générations Plus, Saisonküche and Via made slight gains.Sunday newspapers under pressureThe newspaper with the widest reach in German-speaking Switzerland is still 20 Minuten with 1,507,000 readers. It is followed in second place by another commuter newspaper, Blick am Abend, with 696,000 readers. Blick is in third place with 647,000 readers. The Sunday press generally suffered heavy losses. Although SonntagsBlick is still the leader in this category with 714,000 readers, it lost almost 100,000 readers compared to the previous year. SonntagsZeitung is in second place with 635,000 readers, followed by NZZ am Sonntag (421,000 readers) and Schweiz am Sonntag (372,000 readers).In the "General Interest, Financial, Economic, Special Interest and Trade Press" category, Coop-Zeitung (2.659 million readers) and Migros-Magazin (2.413 million readers) continue to achieve the greatest reach in German-speaking Switzerland. Ktipp is in third place with 940,000 readers, followed by Beobachter (857,000 readers) and Drogistenstern (819,000 readers).Digitalization requires a rethinkWhat is the reason for the dwindling reach of Swiss print media? One explanation is certainly that media content is increasingly being consumed online as digitalization progresses - be it via PC, tablet or smartphone. In response to this development, WEMF and NET-Metrix launched the Total Audience intermedia reach study, which is being published for the fifth time this year. The idea behind the study is to determine the combined reach of a media brand's printed edition and the corresponding web offering (stationary and mobile websites and apps). The results of the MACH Basic and NET-Metrix profiles are combined and any double usage is taken into account. This year, Total Audience is being published alongside MACH Basic for the first time, and the results of the study show that print-based media brands are generally able to compensate for their losses in the print readership market with supplementary online offerings. They also succeed in attracting new readers who could not previously be reached via the print-only offering. While gross reach generally remains stable, digital offerings are gaining slightly in the ratio between print and online usage. The average proportion of online users is now a good 25 percent.

Source: Total Audience 1.4, WEMF & NET-Metrix20 Minuten and Migros strongAmong daily newspapers, the 20 Minuten media brand reaches 2,709,000 readers with its print title and online presence, putting it clearly in the lead (see chart). The Blick Group is in second place with 1,962,000 readers, followed by the Newsnet network with 1,788,000 readers, while Migros is clearly in the lead with its magazine and online presence (3,101,000 readers) among the press titles that are published weekly. Thanks to the strong online presence of the Blick brand, SonntagsBlick is in second place with 1,756,000 weekly readers. Schweizer Illustrierte is in third place (755,000 readers), followed by Tele (438,000 readers) and Femina (334,000 readers). Among the monthly publications, Beobachter is in first place with a reach of 1,203,000 readers, followed by Saisonküche (928,000 readers), Bilanz (207,000 readers) and Bilan (129,000 readers). When evaluating the figures, however, it should be noted that not all major media brands took part in the study.___________________You can find out more about MACH Basic with the current reach figures for the highest-circulation Swiss publications in the current issue of Marketing & Communication 04/2015. Order your subscription now.___________________Author: Simon Wolanin