A free newspaper for restaurant visitors

 On September 20, Welcomedia is launching a free newspaper called Gastwoche, which will be distributed in restaurants. The paper will initially be published fortnightly, and from next year is expected to appear weekly, as sales manager Arnold A. Beuggert told Werbewoche. Its content will be dedicated to the areas of politics, business and society; "mainstream topics that interest visitors to restaurants, cafés and hotels", said Beuggert. The aim is to cover current topics in greater depth with background reports. The circulation is 25,000 copies, and the makers will be writing to 21,000 landlords over the next few days to introduce them to Gastwoche. According to Beuggert, the magazine is the "first personalized mass newspaper". The innkeepers will be given the opportunity to design a five-centimeter field on the front page themselves. They can use an internet-based solution to specify what should appear in this field themselves. "This gives restaurateurs the opportunity to advertise their business. And they can give guests their own newspaper," said Beuggert.
In addition to distribution in restaurants, there are also plans to sell the newspaper at newsstands for 1.80 francs. A cooperation with car companies is also being considered, "as an on-board magazine, so to speak", explained Beuggert. The idea behind the distribution concept to restaurants is that commuter newspapers would reach people on the move, where they only want to get information briefly and the contact time is subsequently short. Gastwoche, on the other hand, is intended to reach an audience that has time. Wemf is assuming a provisional reach of 100,000 readers throughout German-speaking Switzerland. An online presence is also planned.