Expansion with setbacks
SME titles The SME magazine market remains in flux. The era of rapid expansion is over.
SME titles The SME magazine market remains in flux. The era of rapid expansion is over.
The last three years have seen new start-ups and expansion attempts among SME magazines. At first glance, 2005 looks set to continue in the same vein. A new SME title for the whole of German-speaking Switzerland called Blickpunkt:KMU is being published again these days. The approximately 90-page, bound and neatly designed free magazine with the byline "A magazine from your point of view" is starting with 11500 copies. Of these, 9000 copies will be sent to addresses of SMEs with at least ten employees, further copies will go to financial institutions with SME customers and the rest will be available at trade fairs. The magazine is published six times a year by the six-month-old publishing house Demolli & Partner in Basel.
Less advertising-heavy
But despite the young company and new title, there are some indications that Blickpunkt:KMU is primarily following in the footsteps of the previous quarterly KMU Spezial. The latter was apparently last published in September 2004, the homepage is dead, the telephone in Basel is not answered and e-mails are not answered by the publisher himself. At the same time, Yasemin Demolli, a former member of the KMU Spezial management team, is now the main editor of Blickpunkt:KMU. However, neither Demolli & Partner nor KMU Spezial have any further details. However, Blickpunkt:KMU distinguishes itself from KMU Spezial. Publishing director Michel Gysin emphasizes that, in contrast to KMU Spezial, the new magazine does not see itself as a link between SMEs and the IT sector; the aim is to be much broader and less subject-specific. Blickpunkt:KMU is also less "advertising-heavy", says Gysin, but adds that the articles are accompanied by thematically appropriate and paid publicity reports, which are referred to as "advertorials". The better such an advertorial complements the editorial environment, the less the customer has to pay for it, says Gysin.
So much for the newcomer. But there have also been changes to the existing titles. The most spectacular is that of Leader, which until a year ago only covered eastern Switzerland (WG 26, 28, 44, 61), but then expanded rapidly and apparently took over. At the beginning of May 2004, the SVP-affiliated magazine launched an edition for north-western Switzerland (6000 copies), followed by the Zurich edition (17000 copies) at the end of May(!) and then Bern/Solothurn (13000 copies) in June. A Central Switzerland leader split was also planned. However, the publisher Metrocomm in Wil (SG) has since had to cut back considerably: The Zurich and Northwestern Switzerland editions were discontinued immediately after the first issue - because they were unprofitable - and outside of Eastern Switzerland, only the Bern/Solothurn edition remains. The main reason, according to publisher Natal Schnetzer, was that the Leader had no suitable acquisition partners in Basel and Zurich. In fact, in both cases Metrocomm had commissioned two agencies in Eastern Switzerland, including his father's Context Publishing, to sell the advertisements. The situation is different in Bern, where a local agency is responsible for acquisition. Schnetzer has not yet completely extinguished his dream of covering German-speaking Switzerland by means of regional splits, but he does intend to proceed in smaller steps in future. And above all, only with local sales organizations.
Another split
The largest SME title, KMU-Manager, had a similar experience. Last year, it increased its certified 116,000 copies by 30,000 P.O. Box copies. At the same time, it split the circulation: from September, 400,000 copies for the greater Zurich area received a 16-page supplement with its own front page, introductory interview, paid PR texts and around eight pages of classified ads - to accommodate regional customers in terms of price. Another split for Eastern Switzerland followed in December. But unlike the Zurich split, the one in Eastern Switzerland was not profitable and only appeared once, as co-publisher Peter Blattner freely admits. The reason: they had underestimated the tough conditions in Eastern Switzerland.
On a positive note, the KMU-Manager, which was already the only SME title to participate in the MA Leader, was also the only one of its guild to be surveyed by Mach Basic last year. However, with 100,000 readers, it shares the fate of many free titles that do not even reach one reader per copy. Another fly in the ointment for the SME manager is a recent ruling by the Fairness Commission, according to which the paper has so far failed to distinguish publicity reports clearly enough from editorial text (see box). The KMU-Manager will probably comply with the ruling and choose a different layout for PR texts in future.
The ruling was initiated by an almost namesake of KMU-Manager, KMU-Magazin. Publisher Engeli & Partner was concerned about the image of its own title, said editor-in-chief Hans Suter. "We are committed to clean journalism and want to prevent the shortcomings of some of our competitors from affecting our image.
rub off on everyone." The most significant innovation for the SME magazine is that it will be included in the MA Leader for the first time. According to Suter, the magazine has also had a "very good year". "We were over budget - and in the first two months of 2005 we are even massively over budget."
The three-year-old KMU-Business has also experienced "extremely positive development", says its publisher Jorge Chavez. Since its launch in fall 2002, the Mediax magazine has increased the number of issues from five to six and now eight per year. Last year, the magazine was also in the black for all issues. It is therefore already clear that "the balance sheet for the SME market", as Chavez calls his magazine, will be published monthly from 2006.
He also wants to expand the editorial team, generate more additional benefits for subscribers on the homepage and "triple the number of subscriptions from just under 13,000 today in the medium term". To this end, he is entering into partnerships with business publications, such as the current combined subscription offer with Stocks, which Chavez says is going very well.
Clear verdict from the Fairness CommissionCommercial communication "must be designed and labeled in such a way that it is clearly recognizable as a paid placement". This is stated in point 3.12 of the principles for fairness in commercial communication.
The Fairness Commission now states that there is a lack of clear separation in the case of KMU-Manager, even though it labels its publicity reports as such. "The PR articles have the same number of columns, the same structure and layout as well as the same identifying colors. It is therefore no longer possible to speak of sufficient recognizability and differentiation." The Commission's decision is therefore clear: the assessed title "has acted unfairly within the meaning of principle no. 3.12 and is requested to refrain from this type of commercial communication."
This verdict is all the more serious as the SME manager also bears the "Q-Publication" seal of approval from the Swiss Press Association. As a Q publication, however, it must adhere to certain guidelines, including the following: "The principles of the Swiss Fairness Commission are observed and complied with." It will now be interesting to see how the expert committee responsible for certification reacts. According to the mission statement, it not only awards the seal, but also "monitors compliance with the standards."
Incidentally, the ruling should also be interesting for the new Blickpunkt:KMU magazine. There, too, the layout for publicity reports and articles is identical, and the PR texts are written using the uncommon "adver-
torial" is concealed rather than labeled. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli
The last three years have seen new start-ups and expansion attempts among SME magazines. At first glance, 2005 looks set to continue in the same vein. A new SME title for the whole of German-speaking Switzerland called Blickpunkt:KMU is being published again these days. The approximately 90-page, bound and neatly designed free magazine with the byline "A magazine from your point of view" is starting with 11500 copies. Of these, 9000 copies will be sent to addresses of SMEs with at least ten employees, further copies will go to financial institutions with SME customers and the rest will be available at trade fairs. The magazine is published six times a year by the six-month-old publishing house Demolli & Partner in Basel.
Less advertising-heavy
But despite the young company and new title, there are some indications that Blickpunkt:KMU is primarily following in the footsteps of the previous quarterly KMU Spezial. The latter was apparently last published in September 2004, the homepage is dead, the telephone in Basel is not answered and e-mails are not answered by the publisher himself. At the same time, Yasemin Demolli, a former member of the KMU Spezial management team, is now the main editor of Blickpunkt:KMU. However, neither Demolli & Partner nor KMU Spezial have any further details. However, Blickpunkt:KMU distinguishes itself from KMU Spezial. Publishing director Michel Gysin emphasizes that, in contrast to KMU Spezial, the new magazine does not see itself as a link between SMEs and the IT sector; the aim is to be much broader and less subject-specific. Blickpunkt:KMU is also less "advertising-heavy", says Gysin, but adds that the articles are accompanied by thematically appropriate and paid publicity reports, which are referred to as "advertorials". The better such an advertorial complements the editorial environment, the less the customer has to pay for it, says Gysin.
So much for the newcomer. But there have also been changes to the existing titles. The most spectacular is that of Leader, which until a year ago only covered eastern Switzerland (WG 26, 28, 44, 61), but then expanded rapidly and apparently took over. At the beginning of May 2004, the SVP-affiliated magazine launched an edition for north-western Switzerland (6000 copies), followed by the Zurich edition (17000 copies) at the end of May(!) and then Bern/Solothurn (13000 copies) in June. A Central Switzerland leader split was also planned. However, the publisher Metrocomm in Wil (SG) has since had to cut back considerably: The Zurich and Northwestern Switzerland editions were discontinued immediately after the first issue - because they were unprofitable - and outside of Eastern Switzerland, only the Bern/Solothurn edition remains. The main reason, according to publisher Natal Schnetzer, was that the Leader had no suitable acquisition partners in Basel and Zurich. In fact, in both cases Metrocomm had commissioned two agencies in Eastern Switzerland, including his father's Context Publishing, to sell the advertisements. The situation is different in Bern, where a local agency is responsible for acquisition. Schnetzer has not yet completely extinguished his dream of covering German-speaking Switzerland by means of regional splits, but he does intend to proceed in smaller steps in future. And above all, only with local sales organizations.
Another split
The largest SME title, KMU-Manager, had a similar experience. Last year, it increased its certified 116,000 copies by 30,000 P.O. Box copies. At the same time, it split the circulation: from September, 400,000 copies for the greater Zurich area received a 16-page supplement with its own front page, introductory interview, paid PR texts and around eight pages of classified ads - to accommodate regional customers in terms of price. Another split for Eastern Switzerland followed in December. But unlike the Zurich split, the one in Eastern Switzerland was not profitable and only appeared once, as co-publisher Peter Blattner freely admits. The reason: they had underestimated the tough conditions in Eastern Switzerland.
On a positive note, the KMU-Manager, which was already the only SME title to participate in the MA Leader, was also the only one of its guild to be surveyed by Mach Basic last year. However, with 100,000 readers, it shares the fate of many free titles that do not even reach one reader per copy. Another fly in the ointment for the SME manager is a recent ruling by the Fairness Commission, according to which the paper has so far failed to distinguish publicity reports clearly enough from editorial text (see box). The KMU-Manager will probably comply with the ruling and choose a different layout for PR texts in future.
The ruling was initiated by an almost namesake of KMU-Manager, KMU-Magazin. Publisher Engeli & Partner was concerned about the image of its own title, said editor-in-chief Hans Suter. "We are committed to clean journalism and want to prevent the shortcomings of some of our competitors from affecting our image.
rub off on everyone." The most significant innovation for the SME magazine is that it will be included in the MA Leader for the first time. According to Suter, the magazine has also had a "very good year". "We were over budget - and in the first two months of 2005 we are even massively over budget."
The three-year-old KMU-Business has also experienced "extremely positive development", says its publisher Jorge Chavez. Since its launch in fall 2002, the Mediax magazine has increased the number of issues from five to six and now eight per year. Last year, the magazine was also in the black for all issues. It is therefore already clear that "the balance sheet for the SME market", as Chavez calls his magazine, will be published monthly from 2006.
He also wants to expand the editorial team, generate more additional benefits for subscribers on the homepage and "triple the number of subscriptions from just under 13,000 today in the medium term". To this end, he is entering into partnerships with business publications, such as the current combined subscription offer with Stocks, which Chavez says is going very well.
Clear verdict from the Fairness CommissionCommercial communication "must be designed and labeled in such a way that it is clearly recognizable as a paid placement". This is stated in point 3.12 of the principles for fairness in commercial communication.
The Fairness Commission now states that there is a lack of clear separation in the case of KMU-Manager, even though it labels its publicity reports as such. "The PR articles have the same number of columns, the same structure and layout as well as the same identifying colors. It is therefore no longer possible to speak of sufficient recognizability and differentiation." The Commission's decision is therefore clear: the assessed title "has acted unfairly within the meaning of principle no. 3.12 and is requested to refrain from this type of commercial communication."
This verdict is all the more serious as the SME manager also bears the "Q-Publication" seal of approval from the Swiss Press Association. As a Q publication, however, it must adhere to certain guidelines, including the following: "The principles of the Swiss Fairness Commission are observed and complied with." It will now be interesting to see how the expert committee responsible for certification reacts. According to the mission statement, it not only awards the seal, but also "monitors compliance with the standards."
Incidentally, the ruling should also be interesting for the new Blickpunkt:KMU magazine. There, too, the layout for publicity reports and articles is identical, and the PR texts are written using the uncommon "adver-
torial" is concealed rather than labeled. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli
