More transparency for the SME market
St.Galler Mediax AG launches a new information and communication platform for SMEs
St.Galler Mediax AG launches a new information and communication platform for SMEsBy Daniel Schifferle From March, the SME world will have a new communication platform consisting of a magazine and an Internet site: Kmubusiness and Kmubusiness.ch. With its cross-media project, the St.Gallen company Mediax AG aims to contribute to greater transparency in the fragmented market of small and medium-sized companies.
The world of small and medium-sized enterprises is a huge market. Switzerland has more than 250,000 companies with between 1 and 250 employees - a market that provides over 65% of jobs and thus forms the backbone of the country's economy. "For providers of goods and services, the SME segment is the most important sales market in the economy as a whole," explains Jorges Chaves, owner of Mediax AG. This St.Gallen company is active in the fields of marketing, publishing and new media and already publishes various magazines. The major disadvantage of the widely ramified SME world is the extreme fragmentation of the market and the small size of the individual companies. "A market that is therefore difficult to cultivate," says Chaves.
Mediax AG wants to remedy this situation with an information platform consisting of the magazine Kmubusiness and the online medium Kmubusiness.ch. The cross-media project will be launched in the second week of March. The declared aim of the new B2B platform is "to coordinate communication between SMEs and, as an intermediary, to structure supply and demand in the SME market in a meaningful way".
The idea behind the content of the Kmubusiness magazine, which is designed in four colors throughout, is to provide a broad range of information that addresses the information needs and issues of the SME world. From management topics, checklists and ratings to lifestyle topics, the service-heavy magazine covers everything that moves the SME world. The magazine will be published in six issues this year and nine issues from 2003. Due to this low periodicity, however, the magazine is only of limited use for keeping up to date. The associated site Kmubusiness.ch provides a remedy. The interactive online marketplace supplements the magazine with the latest SME news, also offers various special sections on SME-relevant aspects and creates competence centers on key topics such as information technology, telecommunications, insurance and finance.
Various other special interest securities in the portfolio
Kmubusiness is published in a print run of 50,000 copies, which are sent to SMEs by mail order. New addressees are served with each issue. In this way, publisher Jorges Chaves hopes to generate at least 10,000 subscriptions within a year. Single issues of Kmubusiness are also available at larger kiosks for CHF 7.50 per issue. The subscription price has not yet been set.
Kmubusiness is printed by Weber Druck in Biel. Full-page advertisements are available at a standard price (black and white or four-color) of CHF 1,500. Kmubusiness and Kmubusiness .ch are not the only products from Mediax AG, which is solely owned by Jorges Chaves. The company, which focuses on special interest titles, already publishes the magazines Woman's, Golf Lifestyle and Mex. It acquired a stake in the latter last October. Mex Verlags AG, which is owned by the two companies Mediax AG and Factum AG, was founded at that time. As a reminder, the Zurich-based direct marketing company Factum took over the magazine from Ringier in January 2001.
In addition to these four titles, for which Mediax AG handles everything from editing to advertising sales, the St. Gallen-based company also has marketing contracts for the special interest magazines View and Careerstep in its portfolio. It also holds a strategic consulting mandate for Netzwoche.
The world of small and medium-sized enterprises is a huge market. Switzerland has more than 250,000 companies with between 1 and 250 employees - a market that provides over 65% of jobs and thus forms the backbone of the country's economy. "For providers of goods and services, the SME segment is the most important sales market in the economy as a whole," explains Jorges Chaves, owner of Mediax AG. This St.Gallen company is active in the fields of marketing, publishing and new media and already publishes various magazines. The major disadvantage of the widely ramified SME world is the extreme fragmentation of the market and the small size of the individual companies. "A market that is therefore difficult to cultivate," says Chaves.
Mediax AG wants to remedy this situation with an information platform consisting of the magazine Kmubusiness and the online medium Kmubusiness.ch. The cross-media project will be launched in the second week of March. The declared aim of the new B2B platform is "to coordinate communication between SMEs and, as an intermediary, to structure supply and demand in the SME market in a meaningful way".
The idea behind the content of the Kmubusiness magazine, which is designed in four colors throughout, is to provide a broad range of information that addresses the information needs and issues of the SME world. From management topics, checklists and ratings to lifestyle topics, the service-heavy magazine covers everything that moves the SME world. The magazine will be published in six issues this year and nine issues from 2003. Due to this low periodicity, however, the magazine is only of limited use for keeping up to date. The associated site Kmubusiness.ch provides a remedy. The interactive online marketplace supplements the magazine with the latest SME news, also offers various special sections on SME-relevant aspects and creates competence centers on key topics such as information technology, telecommunications, insurance and finance.
Various other special interest securities in the portfolio
Kmubusiness is published in a print run of 50,000 copies, which are sent to SMEs by mail order. New addressees are served with each issue. In this way, publisher Jorges Chaves hopes to generate at least 10,000 subscriptions within a year. Single issues of Kmubusiness are also available at larger kiosks for CHF 7.50 per issue. The subscription price has not yet been set.
Kmubusiness is printed by Weber Druck in Biel. Full-page advertisements are available at a standard price (black and white or four-color) of CHF 1,500. Kmubusiness and Kmubusiness .ch are not the only products from Mediax AG, which is solely owned by Jorges Chaves. The company, which focuses on special interest titles, already publishes the magazines Woman's, Golf Lifestyle and Mex. It acquired a stake in the latter last October. Mex Verlags AG, which is owned by the two companies Mediax AG and Factum AG, was founded at that time. As a reminder, the Zurich-based direct marketing company Factum took over the magazine from Ringier in January 2001.
In addition to these four titles, for which Mediax AG handles everything from editing to advertising sales, the St. Gallen-based company also has marketing contracts for the special interest magazines View and Careerstep in its portfolio. It also holds a strategic consulting mandate for Netzwoche.
