Jekami
This week, René Worni writes about the NZZ's regional press, which lacks leadership.
René Worni on the unmanaged regional press of the NZZ
What does the NZZ actually do with its regional newspapers? In contrast to its competitor Tamedia, (almost) nothing. The subsidiary Freie Presse Holding (FPH) is responsible for its regional newspapers. Through FPH, the NZZ holds shares in the St. Galler Tagblatt, the Neue Luzerner Zeitung and the Züriland-Zeitung (Unterländer, Oberländer, Zürichsee Zeitung), for example. And managers from the regional newspapers meet regularly to exchange ideas. In this respect, the FPH is a more or less valued interface. And that's about it. A consensus on how the regional press should strategically develop or at least behave in the shadow of the NZZ and in the competitive regional market has not yet been reached, and the FPH is a neglected entity at the NZZ (housed in an adjacent building). After all, anyone who works at the journalistic heights of a world newspaper is hardly interested in the concerns of a few scattered regional titles. They should see for themselves how they manage. This is why there is a widespread lack of orientation aids and guiding signals from the Falkenstrasse. So it just happens that Lucerne is now entering the Sunday market with its own Sunday edition and choosing its own cooperation partners (currently AZ Medien) in direct competition with NZZ am Sonntag. Not only do Lucerne and Baden want to cooperate editorially and on the advertising market on Sundays, but the new Sonntagstalk on the AZ stations Tele Tell and Tele M1 will also be editorially linked to the two Sunday papers. The NZZ says that the Lucerne case fits in perfectly with its strategy. However, as the majority owner of the Neue Luzerner Zeitung and the
St. Galler Tagblatt failed to convince both papers to publish a joint Sunday edition or to coordinate the project with the NZZ am Sonntag. A strategic disaster and a random joke for the NZZ regional press. AZ publisher Peter Wanner, in trouble due to Tamedia's news offensive in the Mittelland, is an ideal catalyst for all kinds of cooperation. How serious the NZZ is about the necessary commercial interests remains a mystery.
René Worni, Editor
