Wanner's rebuke is not appreciated
So far, the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung (bz) in Liestal has weathered the advertising crisis surprisingly well. Nevertheless, it has been publicly reprimanded by Peter Wanner for the second time. Publisher Mathis Lüdin and the P are fighting back.
Of the five partners in the Mittellandzeitung (MZ) association, the bz closed 2008 with the highest increase. According to Wemf advertising statistics, it increased by 3.5 percent, while the Aargauer Zeitung (AZ) lost 13.1 percent. With 11.9 advertising pages per issue, the bz was almost on a par with the AZ (12.1 pages). In the first quarter of 2009, the bz reported a volume decline of 26.8 percent, three times more than the AZ, mainly due to a slump (-52.9 percent) in job advertisements. However, other MZ titles, in particular Sonntag, performed even worse.
In north-western Switzerland, the bz is also holding its own. In 2008, it took a total of 24 more advertising pages than arch-rival Basler Zeitung. And so far in 2009, it has clearly outperformed BaZ in terms of jobs. The bz is also doing well in other respects: nowhere is the joint "Sonntag" more accepted than in WG 31: virtually all bz subscribers also subscribe to the Sonntagsblatt. No other MZ title has achieved this.
In view of this performance in Basel, it is surprising what MZ boss Peter Wanner said last week in an interview with AZ (and also in the bz!). The 2008 financial year of his AZ Medien was "unsatisfactory", he said. On the one hand because AZ was massively under budget in terms of advertising, but also "because the performance of bz was inadequate". Wanner did not say which bz services he was referring to.
Wanner should stop constantly bashing the bz, says bz publisher Mathis Lüdin. This is particularly frustrating for the editorial team, who are doing a good job. "It would be more honest if Peter Wanner would admit that it is not the bz, but the Sonntag that causes financial problems because it generates massive additional costs," says Lüdin. "Without this additional burden, the bz would be successful." But including Sunday, the bz result is actually not pleasing. It has to bear a particularly heavy burden on the Sunday title - for three reasons: No other MZ partner has to cover three cantons (SO, BL, BS) in its regional section like the bz - without synergies with other partner editorial offices. Secondly, the bz would have to produce its own local sports section. Thirdly, early delivery costs the bz more than the other partners, who have their own distribution organizations, while the bz has to have this done by the postal subsidiary Prevag at significantly higher prices.
The Chairman of the Board of Basellandschaftliche Zeitung AG explains the decline in job advertisements by the fact that the bz continues to run its own job advertisement with mono ads from Northwestern Switzerland. "This was successful last year, but now it has also collapsed." The other MZ partners, on the other hand, would publish all job advertisements in the joint job advertisement on Saturday and Sunday. In other words: "The bz is losing out on exclusive job advertisements due to the economic situation, while the other MZ partners hardly have any jobs of their own and therefore have nothing more to lose," says Lüdin. This makes the bz look bad at the moment.
Werbewoche wanted to confront Peter Wanner with all these things. But he simply wrote that he was not referring to the bz in the AZ interview, but to "the inadequate performance of Publicitas for the bz". "Unfortunately, the wording was not clear enough."
Mathis Lüdin is not prepared to let this stand. In particular, P cannot be blamed across the board, but must be differentiated according to P branches, he says. For example, the P branch in Liestal was up on the previous year in terms of commercial advertisements, occasional advertisements and publicity reports, while the volumes from the Basel, Rheinfelden and Breitenbach branches were down on the previous year.
Markus Knöpfli
In north-western Switzerland, the bz is also holding its own. In 2008, it took a total of 24 more advertising pages than arch-rival Basler Zeitung. And so far in 2009, it has clearly outperformed BaZ in terms of jobs. The bz is also doing well in other respects: nowhere is the joint "Sonntag" more accepted than in WG 31: virtually all bz subscribers also subscribe to the Sonntagsblatt. No other MZ title has achieved this.
In view of this performance in Basel, it is surprising what MZ boss Peter Wanner said last week in an interview with AZ (and also in the bz!). The 2008 financial year of his AZ Medien was "unsatisfactory", he said. On the one hand because AZ was massively under budget in terms of advertising, but also "because the performance of bz was inadequate". Wanner did not say which bz services he was referring to.
Wanner should stop constantly bashing the bz, says bz publisher Mathis Lüdin. This is particularly frustrating for the editorial team, who are doing a good job. "It would be more honest if Peter Wanner would admit that it is not the bz, but the Sonntag that causes financial problems because it generates massive additional costs," says Lüdin. "Without this additional burden, the bz would be successful." But including Sunday, the bz result is actually not pleasing. It has to bear a particularly heavy burden on the Sunday title - for three reasons: No other MZ partner has to cover three cantons (SO, BL, BS) in its regional section like the bz - without synergies with other partner editorial offices. Secondly, the bz would have to produce its own local sports section. Thirdly, early delivery costs the bz more than the other partners, who have their own distribution organizations, while the bz has to have this done by the postal subsidiary Prevag at significantly higher prices.
The Chairman of the Board of Basellandschaftliche Zeitung AG explains the decline in job advertisements by the fact that the bz continues to run its own job advertisement with mono ads from Northwestern Switzerland. "This was successful last year, but now it has also collapsed." The other MZ partners, on the other hand, would publish all job advertisements in the joint job advertisement on Saturday and Sunday. In other words: "The bz is losing out on exclusive job advertisements due to the economic situation, while the other MZ partners hardly have any jobs of their own and therefore have nothing more to lose," says Lüdin. This makes the bz look bad at the moment.
Werbewoche wanted to confront Peter Wanner with all these things. But he simply wrote that he was not referring to the bz in the AZ interview, but to "the inadequate performance of Publicitas for the bz". "Unfortunately, the wording was not clear enough."
Mathis Lüdin is not prepared to let this stand. In particular, P cannot be blamed across the board, but must be differentiated according to P branches, he says. For example, the P branch in Liestal was up on the previous year in terms of commercial advertisements, occasional advertisements and publicity reports, while the volumes from the Basel, Rheinfelden and Breitenbach branches were down on the previous year.
Markus Knöpfli
The P is also fighting back
René Gehrig, Managing Director Central Region, also sees the criticism that Peter Wanner has recently leveled at Publicitas as "sabre-rattling". A lot of it also has to do with the publisher and its policies: Three years ago, he opted for full P-direction, then began parallel regional self-marketing, which he suspended again at the beginning of 2009. According to Gehrig, this back and forth was not conducive to marketing the AZ titles. "Customers and P employees are unsettled." He therefore hopes that the publisher will soon make a clear decision on direction.
Although Gehrig is pleased with Mathis Lüdin's praise for the Liestal P branch, he wants to "put it into perspective for reasons of fairness". The increase in advertisements from Liestal and the minus from other branches also arose because customers are increasingly booking the bz directly via the P Liestal.
