Is Ringier's anti-world week coming?

Ringier's weekly magazine is taking shape. Project manager Rudolf Bächtold told WerbeWoche that he would present a zero number, including a business plan, to Ringier's executive board in the first half of May.The magazine in oversized format, for which Kurt Schwerzmann is designing the layout, is intended to appeal to a target audience "in the vicinity of Weltwoche," said the former Weltwoche co-chief editor. Bächtold, however, did not want to say anything more specific about the content. If the concept is accepted at the first attempt, the new magazine could be launched in September.
Such an early start should make it difficult for Weltwoche, which is about to be relaunched and is also being converted into a magazine. Weltwoche belongs to Jean Frey AG, which Ringier wanted to take over from the Basel media group but surprisingly lost to Swissfirst Bank (see p. 21). So Ringier has now pushed ahead with its (counter)project. (mk)