Publicitas is on the move

Since the beginning of June, Publicitas has once again been placing advertisements in the daily newspapers Bieler Tagblatt, Journal du Jura and Walliser Bote - as well as in all other titles published by the two independent publishers Gassmann AG (Biel) and Mengis (Visp). This was announced by the two publishers and "P" in a joint communiqué on June 5.

Muscle play did not make an impression everywhere

14 months earlier, the two media companies had broken with P because the latter wanted to impose a brokerage agreement with a new pricing model on the publishers. This provided for a fixed basic amount per brokered advertisement - reportedly 30 to 65 francs per advertisement, depending on the publisher and title portfolio - plus a commission based on turnover. The major publishers accepted, but Gassmann and Mengis resisted. But Hanspeter Rohner, Chairman of the Board and CEO of PubliGroupe, and the then new Publicitas CEO Beat Roeschlin set an example: they stopped placing ads with the Mengis and Gassmann titles and had their data deleted from the P system. In short: P broke with universal mediation. But Gassmann and Mengis were not alone: months later, Basler Zeitung and Landbote also dispensed with P's services - for the same reason.

The basic amount is off the table

And this is what the new solutions look like: According to Mengis CEO Kurt Hasen and Marcel Geissbühler, Board Delegate of W. Gassmann AG, the P waived the basic amount per advertisement in both cases and is once again accepting a placement contract based on the old commission model. Conversely, it now receives a "slightly higher commission" from the two publishers than before. "For us, it is crucial that the contract is continued according to the previous model," says Geissbühler. Hasen agrees: "A basic amount is not acceptable for small publishers," he says. "No entrepreneur buys services where they lose money."

And what does the P say? There was no direct confirmation. "Publicitas was able to reach an agreement with W. Gassmann AG and Mengis AG on an economically sensible model for the placement of advertising orders," wrote P CEO Beat Roeschlin. But wait - if he calls the new-old commission solution "economically sensible", then one can probably conclude that he now considers the model with a basic amount to be less sensible and is abandoning it in favor of small publishers. There are many indications of this, including the situation in Winterthur.

But what led to the rapprochement in Biel and Visp? There was no information from Roeschlin. But the two publishers did. "The P became more flexible. It realized that it was in the same boat as the publishers," says Hasen. He also points to the economic situation: times have become tougher for publishers, especially because individual companies and major distributors have massively reduced their print advertising. Geissbühler sees other reasons for the successful talks: "New people led the negotiations on the P side." In addition, national customers have exerted pressure because not all titles can be booked via P channels. "Customer satisfaction must remain our top priority," he says.

Still a lot of work on the P construction sites

However, the new contracts also have a catch: they are limited to the end of the year. Therefore, renegotiations will take place again in the fall, according to Visp and Biel. Walliser Bote and Bieler Tagblatt are part of the newspaper pool with Freiburger Nachrichten (FN). It is therefore important for both of them to know what is happening at the FN, especially as negotiations with the P were also pending in the fall of 2011. However, nothing had been heard since then. "We spoke to each other, but left everything as it was. We still have the same commission," says Deputy Director Gilbert Jenny. He continues: "The P is an important partner for us. We are now waiting to see how it repositions itself in Fribourg." (see box).

Little movement on the P construction site in Basel. Roland Steffen, CEO of Basler Zeitung Medien, does not want "any change" at the moment, because despite the break with P, "only positive experiences" have been made on the Rhine bend. Nevertheless, he is keeping the door ajar: "If Publicitas convinces us with its performance and a fair remuneration model, there is basically nothing to stop us talking about working together," he writes. The situation is completely different in Winterthur: "We are holding more intensive talks with P than ever before," says Markus Wenger, Publishing Director of Landbote. And as in Biel and Visp, they are "talking about a higher commission - but without a basic amount!". Markus Knöpfli