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Bolevard press Blick wants to know from its readers how they read Blick - and turns them into media researchers.
Tabloid Blick wants to know how readers read Blick - and is turning them into media researchers. These days, Ringier's tabloid Blick is turning to its audience with full-page advertisements: "Blick of the future - join in!" is the paper's headline. Together with the opinion research institute Readerscan, they are looking for readers to evaluate Blick and "take part in an exciting study" of the paper. For the equivalent of a year's subscription and the prospect of a wellness weekend as a competition prize, around 150 newly qualified lay media researchers from the cantons of Zurich and Lucerne are to provide the Blick makers with information about their reading habits. Using small hand-held scanners, the test subjects are to scan those parts of the newspaper to which they have devoted their attention. The aim is to find out how readers look at the individual articles. "What do you read from top to bottom? Where do you only read the beginning and scroll on? What do you always read and what do you never read?"
Further declining circulation In the face of such questions, one might think that the Blick editorial team has lost its gut feeling for good stories, that the paper's editors have forgotten what the ingredients of a tabloid are. Indeed, at first glance, the campaign gives the impression of an editorial fear instinct. After all, circulation figures are still trending downwards, as Ringier CEO Martin Werfeli told journalists at the traditional fall media breakfast at the headquarters on Dufourstrasse.
The paper is clearly on the cusp of repositioning itself, as it tends to recruit its increasingly ageing readership from rural areas. The urban and younger audience prefers newspapers such as 20 Minuten or Ringier's own heute and Cash daily, which are all available free of charge. In the coming year, Dufourstrasse therefore plans to focus on the Blick package and also fundamentally overhaul its online presence. "This will go a long way," said publisher Michael Ringier. He described the corresponding investments as "central".
The current search for Blick researchers is just the beginning. This is confirmed by deputy editor-in-chief and Blick newspaper editor Rolf Cavalli. "But it is just one of various instruments that we will be launching from mid-January." For Cavalli, there is no compelling reason to use the Readerscan tool at this particular time, but the company does have the ambition to be the first major user of the technology, which it already started using two years ago. In Germany, the major daily newspapers regularly use Readerscan as an optimization tool.
The survey is to be conducted three times over a period of three to four weeks in the coming year. The first survey period will provide the current status of reading habits and allow initial conclusions to be drawn, the second period will provide the first comparative values and corrections and adjustments to the magazine will be conceivable and possible after the third period at the latest. The application is expensive and not yet ready for the market, says Cavalli. For this reason, there are no plans to use it permanently for the time being, as Telecontrol does to measure TV ratings. "We only use Readerscan as an optimization tool," explains Cavalli and does not want to make a new newspaper based on the results. Readerscan does not replace the paper maker or the journalistic concept.
Apparently, the instrument was also suitable because, according to Cavalli, Blick is more dependent on readers' reactions than other newspapers. One conceivable intervention would be to remove a section that is hardly read, for example, or to change the emphasis of the content if the values in the Culture section are lower than in the People section. "We are approaching the investigation with an open mind because we are a newspaper that has to constantly scrutinize itself," says Cavalli.
The investigation with Readerscan therefore does not decide whether daily columnist Jürg Ramspeck continues to write in Blick or not. But in which direction should Blick generally move? According to Cavalli, to where the paper has potential. "And that clearly lies with women."
Upgrading the InternetPublisher Michael Ringer
said at the publisher's traditional fall media breakfast: "The Internet is fundamentally changing our business." The Group therefore intends to push ahead with its Internet activities in the coming year. The end of 2006 was an absolute record year for the publishing house. The Group launched 14 new titles, most of them in Eastern Europe. With heute and Cash daily, Ringier launched two already successful free newspapers on the market within a very short space of time. The new launches resulted in a single-digit percentage increase in sales from 1.26 billion francs in the previous year. However, Ringier CEO Martin Werfeli said that profits would fall slightly due to the high launch costs.
Further declining circulation In the face of such questions, one might think that the Blick editorial team has lost its gut feeling for good stories, that the paper's editors have forgotten what the ingredients of a tabloid are. Indeed, at first glance, the campaign gives the impression of an editorial fear instinct. After all, circulation figures are still trending downwards, as Ringier CEO Martin Werfeli told journalists at the traditional fall media breakfast at the headquarters on Dufourstrasse.
The paper is clearly on the cusp of repositioning itself, as it tends to recruit its increasingly ageing readership from rural areas. The urban and younger audience prefers newspapers such as 20 Minuten or Ringier's own heute and Cash daily, which are all available free of charge. In the coming year, Dufourstrasse therefore plans to focus on the Blick package and also fundamentally overhaul its online presence. "This will go a long way," said publisher Michael Ringier. He described the corresponding investments as "central".
The current search for Blick researchers is just the beginning. This is confirmed by deputy editor-in-chief and Blick newspaper editor Rolf Cavalli. "But it is just one of various instruments that we will be launching from mid-January." For Cavalli, there is no compelling reason to use the Readerscan tool at this particular time, but the company does have the ambition to be the first major user of the technology, which it already started using two years ago. In Germany, the major daily newspapers regularly use Readerscan as an optimization tool.
The survey is to be conducted three times over a period of three to four weeks in the coming year. The first survey period will provide the current status of reading habits and allow initial conclusions to be drawn, the second period will provide the first comparative values and corrections and adjustments to the magazine will be conceivable and possible after the third period at the latest. The application is expensive and not yet ready for the market, says Cavalli. For this reason, there are no plans to use it permanently for the time being, as Telecontrol does to measure TV ratings. "We only use Readerscan as an optimization tool," explains Cavalli and does not want to make a new newspaper based on the results. Readerscan does not replace the paper maker or the journalistic concept.
Apparently, the instrument was also suitable because, according to Cavalli, Blick is more dependent on readers' reactions than other newspapers. One conceivable intervention would be to remove a section that is hardly read, for example, or to change the emphasis of the content if the values in the Culture section are lower than in the People section. "We are approaching the investigation with an open mind because we are a newspaper that has to constantly scrutinize itself," says Cavalli.
The investigation with Readerscan therefore does not decide whether daily columnist Jürg Ramspeck continues to write in Blick or not. But in which direction should Blick generally move? According to Cavalli, to where the paper has potential. "And that clearly lies with women."
Upgrading the InternetPublisher Michael Ringer
said at the publisher's traditional fall media breakfast: "The Internet is fundamentally changing our business." The Group therefore intends to push ahead with its Internet activities in the coming year. The end of 2006 was an absolute record year for the publishing house. The Group launched 14 new titles, most of them in Eastern Europe. With heute and Cash daily, Ringier launched two already successful free newspapers on the market within a very short space of time. The new launches resulted in a single-digit percentage increase in sales from 1.26 billion francs in the previous year. However, Ringier CEO Martin Werfeli said that profits would fall slightly due to the high launch costs.
With regard to the Eastern European business, Ringier said at the fall press conference that the publishing house had become a bit of a victim of its own success. "There is an incredible amount of competition," said the publisher. In the Czech Republic, the Group was at times fighting against three competitors with its tabloid Blesk. In Switzerland, too, competitive pressure is constantly increasing. "2006 was a tough year," said Ringier. In 2007, the Group intends to slow down the pace somewhat and concentrate more on Internet activities and the recovery of Blick.
René Worni
