Facts finds niche
Magazines The newly revised issue of *Facts* will be published on May 11. It will immediately become clear what was previously arbitrary.
Magazine On May 11, the newly revised Facts appears. It immediately becomes clear what was previously arbitrary.New layout, new magazine structure and new content had Facts recently announced. Werbewoche reported (WW 14/06). Since the new editor-in-chief Andreas Durisch took office on December 15, 2005 - he continues to head the editorial department of the SonntagsZeitung - the paper has undergone a general overhaul. New people from the environment of Welt- woche, Tages-Anzeiger and Cash complement the editorial team and the chief editors. They are to guarantee that Facts also delivers what its creators understand to be a Swiss news magazine: Relevant news from politics and business, hot topics from culture and lifestyle. To illustrate the changes, Durisch looks back ten years: "Facts was exciting and more than just a marketing success during its first five years. The magazine fell into the sometimes journalistic offside when the founding crew, "a dozen good people from SonntagsZeitung and Weltwoche," changed jobs. Facts was "waffling on politics and often too innocuous on business," says Durisch. Under these circumstances, the Facts scandal of 1999, when the paper alleged that Federal Councilor Kaspar Villiger had relations with a prostitute, was nothing more than an accident. The last layout correction in 2004, as the start of a new era of journalistic seriousness, was then too well-behaved in the appearance of the paper and did not make the breakthrough with the readership. Young and female readers jumped ship. Time and again, there was thematic confusion, especially in the short news items, where fashion stories were juxtaposed with drug stories. But even with bigger stories - the editorial team cut the piece on devil exorcists next to the exclusive interview with Sharon Stone - the news magazine's direction caused frowns. "It was too colorful, and you didn't know if Facts was a society magazine or a lifestyle magazine," Durisch says.
Vitality of the founding years and seriousness of the most recent era should therefore merge. "I believe there is a place for Facts between Schweizer Illustrierte and Weltwoche," says Durisch. When he took the job, it quickly became clear that a change was needed not only in terms of content, but also visually. The design was created by Adrian Hablützel, longtime art director of Annabelle. Hablützel is a permanent member of the new crew. The advantage of this is that the pitfalls of the layout can be mastered in-house. The redesigned paper is already prominent at the beginning. The title font takes up a quarter of the front page, headed with a topic outline. Three more follow at the bottom of the page.
Compared to the old layout, the booklet has a clear structure and visual language, complemented by additional graphics, info boxes and further supplementary texts on a hypertext level. These make the pages visually lively and balanced at the same time. The text supplements are intended to make the content of the main article comprehensible or at least guessable when browsing through the pages - in contrast to the image legends of Spiegel, for example, which consistently pose riddles. High-quality images will be given more prominence in the future, even sometimes double-page spreads. "This was neglected in the past, but we don't want to become a magazine" says Durisch. Readers will find their way around more easily because the page headings are now no longer eye tests, but clearly recognizable.
Showing identity more clearlyThe restructuring of the departments is intended to emphasize the identity of the paper as a Swiss news magazine more clearly: Cover Story, Switzerland section with political and social topics, the Business section moved more prominently to the front, followed by the Facts classic Knowledge. Lebensart, which combines culture and lifestyle, offers a new stage. There are articles and tips on fashion, design and technology, literature, film and music. In second-to-last place, ahead of Sports, is the Foreign Affairs section. This is astonishing for a news magazine, but it can be read as an emphasis on Switzerland as a location. Thus Facts, which was founded shortly after Focus and ten years ago had copied a lot from the German model, continues to Swissize. "Today, Facts is more classic than Focus," says Durisch.
With its own interweaving, the new Facts sees itself almost as a counter-model to the author's paper Weltwoche. "In approach, we are closer to Weltwoche, in implementation closer to the Sunday press." Where the three Sunday titles are fixated on the weekly rhythm, Facts relies on a more analytical approach and on topics that - overrun by topicality - remain lying. "Only a magazine can condense latent topicality, for example the story about poor doctors in Switzerland, into a cover story," says Durisch, describing the niche for his paper.
Facts needs economic successThe readership figures of Facts,
which over the years has been repeatedly predicted to die, or to merge with Weltwoche, are, according to the latest Wemf half-year results, showing a minimal upward trend (439,000 readers). The new appearance is being celebrated with a large Facts advertising campaign with the claim "I want more Facts". In this way, the paper is to achieve a turnaround and become a premium magazine. "Facts must have more economic success," says Andreas Durisch and is convinced that the editorial team can make the journalistic contribution to achieve this. René Worni
Vitality of the founding years and seriousness of the most recent era should therefore merge. "I believe there is a place for Facts between Schweizer Illustrierte and Weltwoche," says Durisch. When he took the job, it quickly became clear that a change was needed not only in terms of content, but also visually. The design was created by Adrian Hablützel, longtime art director of Annabelle. Hablützel is a permanent member of the new crew. The advantage of this is that the pitfalls of the layout can be mastered in-house. The redesigned paper is already prominent at the beginning. The title font takes up a quarter of the front page, headed with a topic outline. Three more follow at the bottom of the page.
Compared to the old layout, the booklet has a clear structure and visual language, complemented by additional graphics, info boxes and further supplementary texts on a hypertext level. These make the pages visually lively and balanced at the same time. The text supplements are intended to make the content of the main article comprehensible or at least guessable when browsing through the pages - in contrast to the image legends of Spiegel, for example, which consistently pose riddles. High-quality images will be given more prominence in the future, even sometimes double-page spreads. "This was neglected in the past, but we don't want to become a magazine" says Durisch. Readers will find their way around more easily because the page headings are now no longer eye tests, but clearly recognizable.
Showing identity more clearlyThe restructuring of the departments is intended to emphasize the identity of the paper as a Swiss news magazine more clearly: Cover Story, Switzerland section with political and social topics, the Business section moved more prominently to the front, followed by the Facts classic Knowledge. Lebensart, which combines culture and lifestyle, offers a new stage. There are articles and tips on fashion, design and technology, literature, film and music. In second-to-last place, ahead of Sports, is the Foreign Affairs section. This is astonishing for a news magazine, but it can be read as an emphasis on Switzerland as a location. Thus Facts, which was founded shortly after Focus and ten years ago had copied a lot from the German model, continues to Swissize. "Today, Facts is more classic than Focus," says Durisch.
With its own interweaving, the new Facts sees itself almost as a counter-model to the author's paper Weltwoche. "In approach, we are closer to Weltwoche, in implementation closer to the Sunday press." Where the three Sunday titles are fixated on the weekly rhythm, Facts relies on a more analytical approach and on topics that - overrun by topicality - remain lying. "Only a magazine can condense latent topicality, for example the story about poor doctors in Switzerland, into a cover story," says Durisch, describing the niche for his paper.
Facts needs economic successThe readership figures of Facts,
which over the years has been repeatedly predicted to die, or to merge with Weltwoche, are, according to the latest Wemf half-year results, showing a minimal upward trend (439,000 readers). The new appearance is being celebrated with a large Facts advertising campaign with the claim "I want more Facts". In this way, the paper is to achieve a turnaround and become a premium magazine. "Facts must have more economic success," says Andreas Durisch and is convinced that the editorial team can make the journalistic contribution to achieve this. René Worni
