Home-grown competition

 
Sunday press The NZZ Group is refraining from a regionalized NZZ am Sonntag. 
When the AZ media announced last spring that the Aargauer Zeitung would be launching a Sunday title, alarm bells rang at the NZZ. Felix E. Müller, editor-in-chief of the NZZ am Sonntag, publicly considered regionalizing his paper and at the same time put a question mark over the fact that this would not necessarily be economically viable. When publisher Peter Wanner's seventh edition of the Aargauer Zeitung was launched last fall, there was probably a brief and cautious cough behind the doors of the two Zurich publishing houses NZZ and Tamedia. Because Wanner's Sonntag is a veritable fourth Sunday title. "More of the same", commented Felix E. Müller on the paper, adding that even more Federal Councillors would now have the opportunity to give interviews in the Sunday press. And Falkenstrasse adopted a wait-and-see attitude, but kept the idea of regionalization up its sleeve as a small threat scenario. Since then, the feared cooperation between other titles in the Sonntagsmarkt and Wanner's new paper has not materialized. Hanspeter Lebrument remains the only one so far with his Südostschweiz am Sonntag. But that could soon change this fall, when the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, a wholly-owned NZZ subsidiary, will produce its own seventh edition.
NLZ rebuffedThe Lucerne newspaper had already put out feelers in Aargau once and examined cooperation with the Aargau publisher in a joint Sunday title, but was rebuffed by the NZZ Group management. But now it is clear: "If the NLZ brings out a seventh edition, then that is also okay at NZZ Group level. It will make its position clear on Sunday," says Alfred Hümmerich, Chairman of the NZZ Group Management. For Hümmerich, one thing is clear: the media market in Switzerland is becoming ever tighter. That is why the NZZ wants to become more active as a group. The planned seventh edition of the NLZ fits perfectly into the strategy and was developed significantly within the Group framework. This means that the idea of a regionalized NZZ am Sonntag has clearly been abandoned. At Falkenstrasse, preference is obviously being given to regional solutions for the traditional papers in which the NZZ has a strategic stake. The St. Galler Tagblatt, which is 95 percent owned by the NZZ, therefore also sees potential for a journalistic expansion into Sunday. "We are looking into it, but not this year," says Hümmerich. This is because the conditions in St. Gallen are different to those in Lucerne, he says.
Search for synergiesFrom the point of view of those responsible at NLZ, the extension to Sunday is a logical consequence of the continuing trend in the industry. The decision may even come a little late, as the figures in the reader and advertising market have tended to calm down. "The trend is not over yet," says NLZ Managing Director Jürg Weber with conviction. His company also wants to put out feelers for potential cooperation partners on Reading Sunday in future. "We are open to various partners and are looking for synergies," he says. Weber is thinking of combining advertisements and exchanging articles with the editorial offices of other newspapers, namely Sonntag and Südostschweiz am Sonntag. This will give NZZ am Sonntag the competition it actually wanted to avoid. However, the competition is partly home-made and some of the income from the possible combinations flows back to the NZZ Group, which owns NLZ in its entirety. Those responsible are currently working on the concept.
René Worni