MZ dresses bz in red
New logo, new campaign: The Basellandschaftliche Zeitung aims to make its presence felt—now also in the Unterbaselbiet region.
The Basellandschaftliche Zeitung has been part of the Mittelland-Zeitung (MZ) association for two years and has been wholly owned by AZ Medien of publisher Peter Wanner for eight months. On August 27, its appearance was also completely adapted to the MZ appearance. The previous logo in Gothic script, with the red abbreviation bz in the middle, was dropped. Instead, the paper has a red bar across the entire front page: "Basellandschaftliche Zeitung" is written there in negative letters and "bz" in a cube to the right. Below this, a gray bar states that the paper belongs to MZ. The bz is thus dressed in the style of all MZ partners, whose logo is also red - except for that of the flagship Aargauer Zeitung (blue).
The red - corresponding to the red crosier in the canton's coat of arms - will also be the dominant color in the bz in the future, although it cannot be printed in four colors throughout. Otherwise, little will change graphically, as the bz has already been sourcing its cover pages from Baden. Only the regional pages will be adapted to the MZ layout. In terms of content, however, editor-in-chief Thomas Dähler will focus more on the city of Basel and above all on the large surrounding Basel municipalities: Allschwil, Binningen, Muttenz, Reinach, Münchenstein and Birsfelden (Arlesheim district). The bz had previously served this so-called "bacon belt" rather cautiously, and its competitor Basler Zeitung had an even stronger presence there. However, since BaZ made inroads into bz's home region of Oberbaselbiet with a large print run, there has been no mercy in Liestal either. "We are now expanding our reporting on the Basel agglomeration. We also want to provide more in-house coverage and become more up-to-date. We're not writing less about the rest of the region, but at least we're writing less about village events," says Dähler. Publishing director Sabine Galindo will also be strengthening marketing in the same area. "Many people haven't even realized that the bz is a real all-in-one newspaper that doesn't need to shy away from comparison with the BaZ," she says.self-confident, cosmopolitan, dynamicThe new appearance is therefore also being used in Liestal as a prelude to a broader advertising campaign, with which the CR Basel advertising agency has been commissioned. Self-confident, cosmopolitan, dynamic and modern - these were the keywords in the briefing. In short: bz was to be positioned as an alternative to BaZ. The CR Basel team created the claim "bz. the region in all its glory". This is visualized by subjects in which a bz newspaper roll is placed oversized in the landscape - sometimes as the players' entrance to the St. Jakob stadium, sometimes as the tunnel of the H2 bypass currently under construction. A third motif is particularly topical: in the cityscape of Basel, the rolled bz symbolizes the planned 154-metre-high office tower of the pharmaceutical company Roche, which was approved by the Basel government just last week. The seventh issue of Sonntag, which will also be available as a single subscription in future, will also be promoted with a Zolli motif. In addition to advertisements and posters, the campaign includes TV and radio spots, public transport advertising and perimeter advertising at events.
Like most subscription newspapers, the bz is slowly but steadily losing reach. It currently has around 53,000 readers, compared to 5,000 more just two years ago. According to Galindo, it is not so much the large circulation of the BaZ as the free newspapers that have led to this decline. "But we don't want to lose any more," she adds immediately. She expects a positive trend - due to the successful campaign, increased marketing and also due to the new customer loyalty tool bz bonus, with which she wants to offer bz readers a discount or an event once or twice a month in future.
Markus Knöpfli
The red - corresponding to the red crosier in the canton's coat of arms - will also be the dominant color in the bz in the future, although it cannot be printed in four colors throughout. Otherwise, little will change graphically, as the bz has already been sourcing its cover pages from Baden. Only the regional pages will be adapted to the MZ layout. In terms of content, however, editor-in-chief Thomas Dähler will focus more on the city of Basel and above all on the large surrounding Basel municipalities: Allschwil, Binningen, Muttenz, Reinach, Münchenstein and Birsfelden (Arlesheim district). The bz had previously served this so-called "bacon belt" rather cautiously, and its competitor Basler Zeitung had an even stronger presence there. However, since BaZ made inroads into bz's home region of Oberbaselbiet with a large print run, there has been no mercy in Liestal either. "We are now expanding our reporting on the Basel agglomeration. We also want to provide more in-house coverage and become more up-to-date. We're not writing less about the rest of the region, but at least we're writing less about village events," says Dähler. Publishing director Sabine Galindo will also be strengthening marketing in the same area. "Many people haven't even realized that the bz is a real all-in-one newspaper that doesn't need to shy away from comparison with the BaZ," she says.self-confident, cosmopolitan, dynamicThe new appearance is therefore also being used in Liestal as a prelude to a broader advertising campaign, with which the CR Basel advertising agency has been commissioned. Self-confident, cosmopolitan, dynamic and modern - these were the keywords in the briefing. In short: bz was to be positioned as an alternative to BaZ. The CR Basel team created the claim "bz. the region in all its glory". This is visualized by subjects in which a bz newspaper roll is placed oversized in the landscape - sometimes as the players' entrance to the St. Jakob stadium, sometimes as the tunnel of the H2 bypass currently under construction. A third motif is particularly topical: in the cityscape of Basel, the rolled bz symbolizes the planned 154-metre-high office tower of the pharmaceutical company Roche, which was approved by the Basel government just last week. The seventh issue of Sonntag, which will also be available as a single subscription in future, will also be promoted with a Zolli motif. In addition to advertisements and posters, the campaign includes TV and radio spots, public transport advertising and perimeter advertising at events.
Like most subscription newspapers, the bz is slowly but steadily losing reach. It currently has around 53,000 readers, compared to 5,000 more just two years ago. According to Galindo, it is not so much the large circulation of the BaZ as the free newspapers that have led to this decline. "But we don't want to lose any more," she adds immediately. She expects a positive trend - due to the successful campaign, increased marketing and also due to the new customer loyalty tool bz bonus, with which she wants to offer bz readers a discount or an event once or twice a month in future.
Markus Knöpfli
Sunday - Saving thanks to synergies
Sonntag, the seventh edition of the Mittelland-Zeitung, costs money. That's why the MZ partners have to make savings. According to reports, bz will have to reduce its expenditure by one million francs this year and cut six jobs. "That's not quite true," says editor-in-chief Thomas Dähler. Three jobs have been relocated to Aarau, one person has taken early retirement, one position has not been filled and only one redundancy has been announced. And the savings could largely be achieved thanks to synergies with MZ in the back office area. The editorial team will not feel the effects. The bz publishing house and editorial office in Liestal currently have 42 full-time positions. (mk)
