WOZ vs. Weltwoche: Left in the fast lane

The weekly newspaper WOZ and Weltwoche could not be more different. While the cooperatively organized WOZ focuses primarily on left-wing alternative topics, Weltwoche positions itself on the right-wing political spectrum. The reach of the two weekly publications is developing in opposite directions, as the latest figures from WEMF (MACH Basic 2017-1) show. With 191,000 readers, Weltwoche still reaches more people than WOZ, which now has a reach of 101,000 readers. Nevertheless, the gap between the two political newspapers is shrinking steadily, as the following chart shows:

Since the first quarter of 2016, Weltwoche has lost a significant number of readers, while WOZ has grown. What are the reasons for this?Roger Köppel with a dual roleThe editor-in-chief and publisher of Weltwoche is Roger Köppel. He joined the SVP in 2015 and was elected to the National Council in October 2015. The media entrepreneur's dual role as editor-in-chief and politician has attracted criticism. For example, the Tagesanzeiger newspaper described Weltwoche in a Contribution at the end of 2015 as "Köppel's whip". It is quite possible that the "Weltwoche" brand, which was founded in 1933, has lost credibility as a result of this conflict of interest. Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who has since been dismissed for corruption, was named "Swiss of the Year" at the end of 2015. This choice earned the weekly newspaper strong criticism, including from "Spiegel" head of foreign affairs and Swiss Mathieu von Rohr.https://twitter.com/mathieuvonrohr/status/677203021751787521Poster campaign and theme trailerThe WOZ, on the other hand, has introduced a number of measures in recent years to attract readers. At the beginning of 2016, the weekly newspaper collaborated with well-known Swiss writers to realize a poster campaign against the SVP's enforcement initiative. WOZ has also been producing themed trailers via social media for a year and a half. "We accompany these with viral marketing and achieve quite high view numbers on Facebook," explained Claudia Gillardon, responsible for advertising and marketing at WOZ, in MK 10/2016. "The trailers advertise individual outstanding WOZ stories and help to draw the attention of people who are not yet familiar with WOZ. "WOZ celebrated the strong growth in readership in the second quarter of 2016 in its very own way. In collaboration with Leo Burnett, WOZ created a mailing with confetti punched out of original SVP advertising material. An advertising campaign was also launched. The campaign made it onto the shortlist for this year's SDV Awards."Anti-right-wing reflex" in Switzerland too?Finally, the surprising election of Donald Trump as President of the USA (quote from Weltwoche: "The sensation. The revolution. And yes, the slap in the face feels good") and the rise of right-wing populist parties in Europe may have played a role. In America, publications critical of Trump such as the "New York Times" or "Washington Post" recorded a significant increase in readership. This "anti-right-wing reflex" may be another explanation as to why the circulation figures of the two political papers are converging.You can read about nine other important findings from the latest reach figures from MACH Basic and Total Audience 2017-1 in the upcoming issue of MK 04/2017, which will be published at the end of April. Subscribe now!