"We're not going to knock our existing readers upside the head".
Roland Wahrenberger, publishing director of *Schweizer Familie*, on the new edition
Roland Wahrenberger, Publishing Director of Schweizer Familie, on the new circulation targets By Luca Aloisi
The unexpected gift from Rapperswil holds opportunities for growth: thanks to the acquired Meyer's customer base, Schweizer Familie (SF) can significantly expand its circulation and reach at Tamedia for the time being. SF Publishing Director Roland Wahrenberger talks about the strategy with which he wants to bind the new readers to the family magazine.
Roland Wahrenberger, although the Meyer's circulation figures (officially: 97,000) have obviously been rounded up considerably, can you be happy about the unexpected gift? How big is the actual subscription base?
Roland Wahrenberger: I don't know the exact number myself. The addresses are currently being entered into our system.
But surely you can say by how much you can increase the previous SF circulation of 156724 copies?
Wahrenberger: We will increase our print run to 215,000 copies in week 26.
This would mean that you would take over around 60,000 subscriptions.
Wahrenberger: You have to be a little careful with such calculations: You can't simply equate the certified circulation with the print run, as this is usually higher and currently still contains a relatively high number of trial subscriptions from the Swiss family.
Have you already noticed a reaction in the ad bookings?
Wahrenberger: The whole thing happened at such short notice that the official advertising deadlines were actually already over when the story broke. However, we have received signals that some customers are considering shifting their advertising budgets to the Swiss family. And we have already received concrete bookings.
What growth do you hope to achieve with the advertising pages?
Wahrenberger: Bets have been placed internally, but the figures vary quite widely. Expectations are well over 50 pages by the end of the year.
Which potential advertising customers do you want to target now?
Wahrenberger: These are primarily customers from the cosmetics and fashion sectors.
What target have you set yourself for the renewal rate of Meyer's subscribers?
Wahrenberger: There is a business plan, but I can't give you that figure either. Logically, we will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to win over as many people as possible. But we remain realistic.
Specifically: Is the gain of one third of existing Meyer's subscribers an optimistic estimate?
Wahrenberger: No, it's very pessimistic. We are clearly aiming higher.
Of your 600,000 or so readers, around 66,000 have also read Meyer's so far. Seen in this light, you can gain at most 70 percent of Meyer's readership.
Wahrenberger: Here too, the Mach overlaps only partially reflect the facts. Just think of practices where both papers are next to each other. A double reader is not always the same as a double subscriber. We are now in the process of finding out the actual figures.
In the last five years, SF has lost 42,000 subscribers, which it was only able to make up for to a small extent with around 7,000 additional individual buyers. How good are the chances now that you will be able to make up for this loss?
Wahrenberger: The fact is that our circulation has been stable since 2000. But it would be presumptuous to expect to pick up 42,000 subscriptions again in a very short space of time. It was a huge achievement to stabilize circulation. The primary goal at the moment is to maintain circulation. We are currently experiencing a slight upward trend.
Does the editorial team also feel this high expectation?
Wahrenberger: Of course. We have already given a lot of thought to what we can offer Meyer's readers without throwing the previous concept overboard.
Although the two audiences have similar values, the reading material is very different: family topics on the one hand, women's and lifestyle topics on the other. So what is the Swiss family doing to retain as many of its new readers as possible after the subscription expires?
Wahrenberger: There will be neither new departments nor new subject areas, as on the one hand we already cover many Meyer's areas and on the other hand we don't want to offend existing SF subscribers. We will strengthen the topics of beauty, fashion and cosmetics somewhat. And we will also test this for acceptance. If we succeed, there could be another boost in a second phase.
By when do you intend to implement these measures?
Wahrenberger: That has not yet been scheduled. Meyer's has made a loss, especially since 1999, which proves that repositioning is tricky, especially with the conservative target audience that you serve. You have been able to stabilize the media data by increasing the utility value of your paper. What steps are in store for the Schweizer Familie?
Wahrenberger: Our audience really does react very sensitively to repositioning. The Swiss family has already undergone several relaunches in its history, and circulation has collapsed time and again. We were able to stop the trend with the new concept. There is therefore no reason to change it again at the moment. We will continue on this course. Although we have already achieved a high level of quality, our main goal remains to constantly improve it.
With the false testimonial campaign (see page 7), the Swiss family is showing itself to be quite cheeky, although the celebrities quoted are unlikely to appeal to the younger and urban audience. Don't you see a discrepancy between appearance and reality here?
Wahrenberger: I don't think it's cheeky. It simply works according to the mechanisms of how good advertising should work. And that was exactly the idea behind it. The game with the fake testimonial is an elegant way of showing which people you can read about in our paper. We chose the celebrities that we thought would best appeal to our target audience.
The unexpected gift from Rapperswil holds opportunities for growth: thanks to the acquired Meyer's customer base, Schweizer Familie (SF) can significantly expand its circulation and reach at Tamedia for the time being. SF Publishing Director Roland Wahrenberger talks about the strategy with which he wants to bind the new readers to the family magazine.
Roland Wahrenberger, although the Meyer's circulation figures (officially: 97,000) have obviously been rounded up considerably, can you be happy about the unexpected gift? How big is the actual subscription base?
Roland Wahrenberger: I don't know the exact number myself. The addresses are currently being entered into our system.
But surely you can say by how much you can increase the previous SF circulation of 156724 copies?
Wahrenberger: We will increase our print run to 215,000 copies in week 26.
This would mean that you would take over around 60,000 subscriptions.
Wahrenberger: You have to be a little careful with such calculations: You can't simply equate the certified circulation with the print run, as this is usually higher and currently still contains a relatively high number of trial subscriptions from the Swiss family.
Have you already noticed a reaction in the ad bookings?
Wahrenberger: The whole thing happened at such short notice that the official advertising deadlines were actually already over when the story broke. However, we have received signals that some customers are considering shifting their advertising budgets to the Swiss family. And we have already received concrete bookings.
What growth do you hope to achieve with the advertising pages?
Wahrenberger: Bets have been placed internally, but the figures vary quite widely. Expectations are well over 50 pages by the end of the year.
Which potential advertising customers do you want to target now?
Wahrenberger: These are primarily customers from the cosmetics and fashion sectors.
What target have you set yourself for the renewal rate of Meyer's subscribers?
Wahrenberger: There is a business plan, but I can't give you that figure either. Logically, we will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to win over as many people as possible. But we remain realistic.
Specifically: Is the gain of one third of existing Meyer's subscribers an optimistic estimate?
Wahrenberger: No, it's very pessimistic. We are clearly aiming higher.
Of your 600,000 or so readers, around 66,000 have also read Meyer's so far. Seen in this light, you can gain at most 70 percent of Meyer's readership.
Wahrenberger: Here too, the Mach overlaps only partially reflect the facts. Just think of practices where both papers are next to each other. A double reader is not always the same as a double subscriber. We are now in the process of finding out the actual figures.
In the last five years, SF has lost 42,000 subscribers, which it was only able to make up for to a small extent with around 7,000 additional individual buyers. How good are the chances now that you will be able to make up for this loss?
Wahrenberger: The fact is that our circulation has been stable since 2000. But it would be presumptuous to expect to pick up 42,000 subscriptions again in a very short space of time. It was a huge achievement to stabilize circulation. The primary goal at the moment is to maintain circulation. We are currently experiencing a slight upward trend.
Does the editorial team also feel this high expectation?
Wahrenberger: Of course. We have already given a lot of thought to what we can offer Meyer's readers without throwing the previous concept overboard.
Although the two audiences have similar values, the reading material is very different: family topics on the one hand, women's and lifestyle topics on the other. So what is the Swiss family doing to retain as many of its new readers as possible after the subscription expires?
Wahrenberger: There will be neither new departments nor new subject areas, as on the one hand we already cover many Meyer's areas and on the other hand we don't want to offend existing SF subscribers. We will strengthen the topics of beauty, fashion and cosmetics somewhat. And we will also test this for acceptance. If we succeed, there could be another boost in a second phase.
By when do you intend to implement these measures?
Wahrenberger: That has not yet been scheduled. Meyer's has made a loss, especially since 1999, which proves that repositioning is tricky, especially with the conservative target audience that you serve. You have been able to stabilize the media data by increasing the utility value of your paper. What steps are in store for the Schweizer Familie?
Wahrenberger: Our audience really does react very sensitively to repositioning. The Swiss family has already undergone several relaunches in its history, and circulation has collapsed time and again. We were able to stop the trend with the new concept. There is therefore no reason to change it again at the moment. We will continue on this course. Although we have already achieved a high level of quality, our main goal remains to constantly improve it.
With the false testimonial campaign (see page 7), the Swiss family is showing itself to be quite cheeky, although the celebrities quoted are unlikely to appeal to the younger and urban audience. Don't you see a discrepancy between appearance and reality here?
Wahrenberger: I don't think it's cheeky. It simply works according to the mechanisms of how good advertising should work. And that was exactly the idea behind it. The game with the fake testimonial is an elegant way of showing which people you can read about in our paper. We chose the celebrities that we thought would best appeal to our target audience.
