Sunday gets tighter

 
Press Sunday market, free press, online offensives - how is the NZZ reacting to the latest events in the industry? If the Espace takeover by Tamedia or the long list of announced and already realized new launches in the online, free or Sunday segment that are currently keeping the media industry on tenterhooks are anything to go by, the NZZ has not exactly stood out with innovations of late. Apart from a recently published print version of the education and career platform Campus, which previously only existed on the Internet, a book supplement for the NZZ am Sonntag and construction noise on Falkenstrasse, the company seems to be in quiet mode. Obviously, there is no acute need for action to respond to the current upheavals in the industry with new products. "From the outside, we probably seem less active because we're not constantly announcing new projects," says NZZ Editor-in-Chief Markus Spillmann. But free content is also an issue for the NZZ. Spillmann refers to NZZ online. The NZZ already offers most of its content there free of charge.
No NZZ free paperIn the print sector, however, the situation is different. Falkenstrasse is unlikely to produce a free title in the familiar style (20 Minuten, punkt.ch). The business models on which the well-known free papers are based do not allow for expensive analysis, commentary and background information, explains Spillmann. "The discussion about whether content should be free or not is therefore going in the wrong direction for us." Instead, the NZZ is asking itself what revenue model would be necessary to ensure that journalistic quality à la NZZ could continue even if the public no longer wanted to pay for content, but the market for it was still intact. "If we wanted to enter the free sector, we would have done so long ago. That would certainly be possible in an intelligent way - also compatible with the NZZ's brand management," says Spillmann. But although the public is becoming more and more accustomed to free content, it pays for NZZ content without grumbling.
Know-how from FocusThere is more movement on the Internet. In the face of growing competition from new online news portals, the company is constantly investing in order to maintain the good positioning and reach of NZZ online. To this end, the news editorial team is being further expanded - not least in view of the events surrounding Euro 08. Florian Stadel, the former online editor-in-chief of the German news magazine Focus, has also been brought on board and the aim is to make greater use of NZZ's editorial resources for the online sector.
A sober view of the factsIn connection with the latest events in the competitive Sunday market (see "More of the same"), Falkenstrasse is taking a sober view of the facts. On the one hand, NZZ am Sonntag's reach and circulation are still growing steadily, while SonntagsZeitung and SonntagsBlick in particular have reached or passed their peak. On the other hand, with Sonntag, the seventh edition of Mittelland Zeitung, a new competitor is entering the national Sunday market as the fourth title. "We will feel the effects of this and lose readers in the medium term," says Spillmann. For him, it is clear that Mittelland Zeitung subscribers do not want "a second and third kilo" of Sunday newspapers in their letterboxes in addition to the new title. Competition stimulates business, but it is also clear that not every publisher can launch its own newspaper on Sunday. "We all know that doesn't work in this country."
There are different interests within the NZZ Group, on the one hand those of the NZZ and on the other those of the regional newspapers belonging to the Group, namely the Neue Luzerner Zeitung and the St. Galler Tagblatt. The former had already informally put out feelers into the Aargau Sunday market. But for Spillmann it is clear: "Lucerne and St. Gallen have potential, but they are part of the NZZ and can't just do what they want." Decisions on how loosely the parent company wants to keep its subsidiaries on a leash have yet to be made at Group level. First of all, its own Sunday title is undergoing a gentle overhaul after five years. "We have designed the NZZ am Sonntag very precisely, now we want to make certain adjustments to improve readability," says Spillmann.
At the publishers' congress at the KKL in Lucerne, Spillmann recently gave the impression that the NZZ was also planning a product specifically for Germans in Switzerland. "That would be pretty absurd." However, Spillmann believes that NZZ, NZZ am Sonntag, NZZ online and Campus are well received by Germans. "We are trying to position ourselves there, because Germans in Switzerland are an interesting target group for the NZZ and for the advertising industry."
René Worni