"We are facing major changes"
Urs Gossweiler, publisher of the *Jungfrauzeitung*, expects major upheavals in the media landscape in 2009.
The Publicitas Forum will be a thing of the past by the time this Advertising Week is published. Urs Gossweiler, publisher and editor of the Jungfrauzeitung, comments on developments in the Swiss media center on the occasion of the event.
According to Gossweiler, the coming year in particular will not be without turbulence in the local media scene. When it comes to naming the trends in an increasingly cross-media world, he says, fierce disputes are to be expected. Because there is "less to distribute" among the market players. "We are facing major changes in 2009," estimates Gossweiler with regard to the development of the three major private media companies in Switzerland, Ringier, NZZ and Tamedia. Tamedia in particular is currently growing rapidly, for example through start-ups such as Newsnetz and takeovers such as Search.ch, which is making it more difficult for the company to form a functioning media network. Media integration is not practiced at Tamedia in any way; instead, there are several similar editorial offices that could actually work together. "Obviously Tamedia can afford this. The integration will be correspondingly complex one day," says Gossweiler. On the other hand, the publisher expects dawn at NZZ, because with Albert P. Stäheli they will have a CEO who is motivated to prove that there can be a second integrator in the Swiss media center. So far, the NZZ has not utilized any synergies from its media. Whether a network of Zurich (NZZ), St. Gallen and Lucerne would be sufficient against Tamedia's triangle of Zurich, Basel and Berne remains to be seen. Gossweiler considers it crucial which side AZ publisher Peter Wanner will take in the medium term. Ringier, on the other hand, does not currently know exactly what its strategy is. Under these premises, the three big players would fight for national budgets and oversleep localization, which is currently being boosted by the American financial crisis and is showing the first signs in Germany under the heading of micromarketing. Above all, Axel Springer will make a takeover bid to either Tamedia or Ringier from one day to the next. "Just like Rupert Murdoch did to the Wall Street Journal."
René Worni
According to Gossweiler, the coming year in particular will not be without turbulence in the local media scene. When it comes to naming the trends in an increasingly cross-media world, he says, fierce disputes are to be expected. Because there is "less to distribute" among the market players. "We are facing major changes in 2009," estimates Gossweiler with regard to the development of the three major private media companies in Switzerland, Ringier, NZZ and Tamedia. Tamedia in particular is currently growing rapidly, for example through start-ups such as Newsnetz and takeovers such as Search.ch, which is making it more difficult for the company to form a functioning media network. Media integration is not practiced at Tamedia in any way; instead, there are several similar editorial offices that could actually work together. "Obviously Tamedia can afford this. The integration will be correspondingly complex one day," says Gossweiler. On the other hand, the publisher expects dawn at NZZ, because with Albert P. Stäheli they will have a CEO who is motivated to prove that there can be a second integrator in the Swiss media center. So far, the NZZ has not utilized any synergies from its media. Whether a network of Zurich (NZZ), St. Gallen and Lucerne would be sufficient against Tamedia's triangle of Zurich, Basel and Berne remains to be seen. Gossweiler considers it crucial which side AZ publisher Peter Wanner will take in the medium term. Ringier, on the other hand, does not currently know exactly what its strategy is. Under these premises, the three big players would fight for national budgets and oversleep localization, which is currently being boosted by the American financial crisis and is showing the first signs in Germany under the heading of micromarketing. Above all, Axel Springer will make a takeover bid to either Tamedia or Ringier from one day to the next. "Just like Rupert Murdoch did to the Wall Street Journal."
René Worni
