Court spokesman and court jester at the same time
The Reformed Church Newsletter for eight cantons is getting a new design and layout
The Reformed Church Messenger for eight cantons gets a new concept and layoutBy Markus Knöpfli A number of Reformed member newspapers are being renewed for 2002. The third-largest of these, the intercantonal Kirchenbote, will now be published in eight cantons in a header page system with 13 split editions. Without advertisements.
On December 28, the Intercantonal Church Messenger, the member newspaper of the Protestant Reformed Cantonal Churches of Basel-Stadt, Baselland, Solothurn, Schaffhausen, Lucerne, Obwalden, Schwyz and Uri, will be published for the first time with a new concept and layout in 160,000 households. The layout was designed by Zurich graphic designer Karl Heinz Gebert (NZZ Folio, Nikon News).
The previous intercantonal Kirchenbote had a joint cover and various regional sections in the second bundle. Now, however, the paper is intended to be closer to the faithful and is therefore published in a header page system with 13 cantonal and some regional splits.
The journalistic concept is also changing. Instead of primarily printing PR and press releases from church groups and committees as before, the editorial team in Basel, with a total of 520 full-time equivalents, will now observe and research church events in the cantons, according to the mission statement "in critical loyalty to the church".
Jörg Ferkel, President of the Editorial Commission, puts it this way: "The Kirchenbote should not only be a 100 percent court spokesperson, but also a court jester." However, the boundaries are clear: the cantonal churches and parishes finance the paper. "That's why there is also an internal dependency," says Ferkel. However, the new editor-in-chief Tilmann Zuber, a pastor, MAZ graduate and temporary editor-in-chief at the Zürcher Kirchenbote, also wants to tackle hot topics.
In addition, the magazine is explicitly intended to appeal not only to church members, but also to those outside the church. Among other things, with topics that are sometimes provocative within the church, such as the recently published issue on esotericism.
The intercantonal church messenger has an annual budget of CHF 1.2 million, excluding postage costs. There is no advertising revenue, as is the case with the Zürcher Kirchenbote (see box). According to Publicitas, there is a certain market, says Ferkel, but this would only cover the additional costs for the necessary expansion of the paper to 16 pages. "What's more, we didn't want to overload the cart now," says Ferkel.
Incidentally, the church bulletins of St.Gallen (7,000 copies) and Glarus (8,700 copies) will also be given a new design in 2002. The St.Gallen Kirchenbote was designed by the TGG office in St.Gallen. The Glarus Kirchenbote, on the other hand, is currently still part of the intercantonal Kirchenbote, but jumped ship with the new concept for fear that the canton would not be sufficiently covered by the Basel editorial team. The paper is now called Reformiert GL. The layout and content of the jacket come from Reformierte Medien in Zurich.
Advertisements are not taboo elsewhere
On December 28, the Intercantonal Church Messenger, the member newspaper of the Protestant Reformed Cantonal Churches of Basel-Stadt, Baselland, Solothurn, Schaffhausen, Lucerne, Obwalden, Schwyz and Uri, will be published for the first time with a new concept and layout in 160,000 households. The layout was designed by Zurich graphic designer Karl Heinz Gebert (NZZ Folio, Nikon News).
The previous intercantonal Kirchenbote had a joint cover and various regional sections in the second bundle. Now, however, the paper is intended to be closer to the faithful and is therefore published in a header page system with 13 cantonal and some regional splits.
The journalistic concept is also changing. Instead of primarily printing PR and press releases from church groups and committees as before, the editorial team in Basel, with a total of 520 full-time equivalents, will now observe and research church events in the cantons, according to the mission statement "in critical loyalty to the church".
Jörg Ferkel, President of the Editorial Commission, puts it this way: "The Kirchenbote should not only be a 100 percent court spokesperson, but also a court jester." However, the boundaries are clear: the cantonal churches and parishes finance the paper. "That's why there is also an internal dependency," says Ferkel. However, the new editor-in-chief Tilmann Zuber, a pastor, MAZ graduate and temporary editor-in-chief at the Zürcher Kirchenbote, also wants to tackle hot topics.
In addition, the magazine is explicitly intended to appeal not only to church members, but also to those outside the church. Among other things, with topics that are sometimes provocative within the church, such as the recently published issue on esotericism.
The intercantonal church messenger has an annual budget of CHF 1.2 million, excluding postage costs. There is no advertising revenue, as is the case with the Zürcher Kirchenbote (see box). According to Publicitas, there is a certain market, says Ferkel, but this would only cover the additional costs for the necessary expansion of the paper to 16 pages. "What's more, we didn't want to overload the cart now," says Ferkel.
Incidentally, the church bulletins of St.Gallen (7,000 copies) and Glarus (8,700 copies) will also be given a new design in 2002. The St.Gallen Kirchenbote was designed by the TGG office in St.Gallen. The Glarus Kirchenbote, on the other hand, is currently still part of the intercantonal Kirchenbote, but jumped ship with the new concept for fear that the canton would not be sufficiently covered by the Basel editorial team. The paper is now called Reformiert GL. The layout and content of the jacket come from Reformierte Medien in Zurich.
Advertisements are not taboo elsewhere
The Berner Sämann and the Kirchenbote of the canton of Zurich are not only the largest church member newspapers with 287,000 and 26,000,000 copies respectively, they have also been accepting advertisements for over a year. The reason: the general financial shortage of the churches. Both papers have strict criteria catalogs. The Zürcher Kirchenbote takes care of its own advertising acquisition (one page costs 8,000 francs), while the Sämann has leased it out. The Kirchenbote is expecting advertising income of around CHF 60,000 this year and CHF 100,000 in 2002. There are no figures for the Sämann, only this much: the advertisements not only cover the additional costs.
