Descending to new heights?
Customer magazines Swiss Magazine has turbulent times behind it and exciting times ahead.
Customer magazines The Swiss Magazine has turbulent times behind it and exciting ones ahead.Swiss' in-flight magazine has only just overcome internal problems - and already new, even greater challenges lie ahead with the preparations for the marriage between Swiss and Lufthansa.First to the latest turbulence: at the end of 2004, Swiss Inflight Media (SIM), an agency in Basel that exclusively marketed the Swiss Magazine and the rest of Swiss' in-flight media offering, cancelled its sails and returned its mandate to Swiss. SIM owner Marcel Wernli does not wish to give reasons. However, he emphasizes that he relinquished the contract of his own accord and that Swiss acted fairly in doing so.
In the meantime, Swiss has reversed the outsourcing of advertising sales and bundled its acquisition forces in-house. The crew for the entire in-flight media offering - from refreshment packs to advertisements in Swiss Magazine - is now housed at the customer magazine publisher at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse and has been headed by Roger D. Müller since January. Müller previously marketed Swiss Magazine - at SIM, no less - but left the agency a year ago. He was approached by Swiss at the end of 2004 for the new-old job. However, he does not want to say any more about the change of acquisition.
He also does not wish to comment on the future of Swiss Magazine, as the "constructive negotiations on a takeover and integration of Swiss into the Lufthansa Group" (press release dated March 13) are still too early to do so. However, he was relieved to read in the communiqué that there was talk of "maintaining the Swiss brand". "An airline called Swiss will continue to need a Swiss Magazine", Müller hopes. He does not rule out an advertising combination with the Lufthansa magazine, but points out that Swiss Magazine is a member of the international industry association Inflight Marketing Bureau (www.imb.com) and is therefore already involved in combination variants.
Marcel Wernli, who has already represented around 60 airline magazines from all over the world exclusively in Switzerland through his second company Inflight Media Marketing AG (IMM) - including the Lufthansa magazine - could imagine the possible merger of the two airlines having further repercussions for the print sector at Swiss. "Unlike Swiss, Lufthansa has the Lufthansa exclusive - a monthly magazine for frequent flyers - in addition to the in-flight magazine. It is therefore conceivable that Lufthansa will initiate a similar magazine at Swiss," he says.
Fewer passengers, smaller circulationSwiss carried around 9.2 million passengers in 2004, one and a half million fewer than in the previous year. This again means lower frequencies for Swiss Magazine. In 2002 there were still 11.6 million passengers.
The bilingual on-board magazine (German/English) is published eight times a year with a non-Wemf-certified circulation of 80,000 copies and also has a double issue with 1,300,000 copies each in July/August and December/January.
For comparison: Lufthansa magazine is published by G+J Corporate Media with a circulation of 280000 copies. (mk)
Destination uncertain: It is not yet clear what will become of the Swiss in-flight magazine after the Lufthansa deal.
Markus Knöpfli
In the meantime, Swiss has reversed the outsourcing of advertising sales and bundled its acquisition forces in-house. The crew for the entire in-flight media offering - from refreshment packs to advertisements in Swiss Magazine - is now housed at the customer magazine publisher at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse and has been headed by Roger D. Müller since January. Müller previously marketed Swiss Magazine - at SIM, no less - but left the agency a year ago. He was approached by Swiss at the end of 2004 for the new-old job. However, he does not want to say any more about the change of acquisition.
He also does not wish to comment on the future of Swiss Magazine, as the "constructive negotiations on a takeover and integration of Swiss into the Lufthansa Group" (press release dated March 13) are still too early to do so. However, he was relieved to read in the communiqué that there was talk of "maintaining the Swiss brand". "An airline called Swiss will continue to need a Swiss Magazine", Müller hopes. He does not rule out an advertising combination with the Lufthansa magazine, but points out that Swiss Magazine is a member of the international industry association Inflight Marketing Bureau (www.imb.com) and is therefore already involved in combination variants.
Marcel Wernli, who has already represented around 60 airline magazines from all over the world exclusively in Switzerland through his second company Inflight Media Marketing AG (IMM) - including the Lufthansa magazine - could imagine the possible merger of the two airlines having further repercussions for the print sector at Swiss. "Unlike Swiss, Lufthansa has the Lufthansa exclusive - a monthly magazine for frequent flyers - in addition to the in-flight magazine. It is therefore conceivable that Lufthansa will initiate a similar magazine at Swiss," he says.
Fewer passengers, smaller circulationSwiss carried around 9.2 million passengers in 2004, one and a half million fewer than in the previous year. This again means lower frequencies for Swiss Magazine. In 2002 there were still 11.6 million passengers.
The bilingual on-board magazine (German/English) is published eight times a year with a non-Wemf-certified circulation of 80,000 copies and also has a double issue with 1,300,000 copies each in July/August and December/January.
For comparison: Lufthansa magazine is published by G+J Corporate Media with a circulation of 280000 copies. (mk)
Destination uncertain: It is not yet clear what will become of the Swiss in-flight magazine after the Lufthansa deal.
Markus Knöpfli
