Now comes the million-dollar chiasso
Economic regions Are Ticino and northern Italy also merging in media terms? The answer is clear: yes!
Economic areas Are Ticino and northern Italy also merging in the media? The answer is clear: Si! A new Ticino magazine with the emphatically positive title Si is also taking its first steps in Italy: last week, the magazine, which is published ten times a year, was distributed free of charge to all 100,000 Ticino households by post for the first time in the style of the Italo magazines and 30000 copies were distributed in restaurants and other public buildings in the Italian border region of Insubrica. Si is also cross-border in its content: The first issue began with a six-page interview with the President of the Ticino Government, Marina Masoni, and Roberto Formigoni, the President of the Lombardy region. This look across the national border with topics such as traffic, customs, labor law and tax issues is an important part of the new magazine, says Alberto Rota, owner of the event agency Isicom in Chiasso and publisher of Si. The target audience is the Ticino family, he emphasizes. The Italian readership is secondary. The primary aim of distribution across the border is to present the magazine to potential Italian advertisers. The latter are still few and far between in the first issue: only one of 17 advertising pages comes from an Italian customer.
The search for advertisers across the border is commonplace in Ticino. Publicitas Lugano, for example, has a man stationed in the Insubrica region who acquires advertisements for the Ticino newspapers. Conversely, Casino Lugano advertises for new players in Italian newspapers.
However, the fact that a print magazine in Ticino is also physically venturing beyond the country's borders is new. Elsewhere, this idea has already been toyed with, for example at the 75-year-old Si main competitor Illustrazione Ticinese (1,300,000 copies). "I have also considered distributing our magazine to households in the Italian border region, but so far this has failed due to the lack of reliability of the distribution companies there," says publisher Marco Werder.
This indicates what has long been confirmed elsewhere: Ticino and the Insubrica region - although they have different mentalities - are gradually growing together as markets and the borders are blurring. For some time now, for example, the Swiss poster provider Affichage has been increasingly exploring the area just outside Milan. According to an Affichage analysis, this region is closely linked to Ticino and functions as a unit in terms of commuter traffic, exchange of goods and communication. "Together with the population of Ticino, around one million people live there," says Affichage CEO Christian Kauter. This offers the poster company the opportunity to strengthen its weak poster business in Ticino in the long term. He is currently in negotiations with a small outdoor advertising company in Como to take over the company. "I assume that we will be able to complete this first step this summer," says Kauter.
The electronic media show that it is not only Swiss media that are interested in crossing borders: several radio and TV stations broadcast from Italy into Switzerland. Major advertising clients are taking advantage of this, says Felix Kilchsperger from radio marketer Radiotele. "They usually book the Ticino pool, which includes the two Ticino stations and four Italian radio stations."
What is also striking is that the Milan edition of the commuter newspaper Metro expanded its distribution area considerably at the beginning of 2005, including to Lecco and Varese, i.e. towards Ticino. Perhaps the move across the Swiss border is only a matter of time. Are there any such plans at Metro in Rome? Director Giampolo Roidi is evasive, he obviously doesn't want to show his cards. Nevertheless, his written reply is telling. "Thank you for your suggestion. However, the current distribution of Metro Milan has been carefully examined by us and can hardly be improved."
Perhaps. But that could change. Because the public transport network is also being expanded: SBB and the Italian company Ferrovia Mendrisio-Varese (FMV) are working together to connect two currently independent lines between the centers of Bellinzona, Lugano, Chiasso, Como and Varese by 2010. "This will create the conditions for offering half-hourly regional services and two-hourly InterRegio services," according to SBB. This could also become attractive for Metro - or 20 minutes.
Also busy catching advertisers in Italy: the magazine Si.
The search for advertisers across the border is commonplace in Ticino. Publicitas Lugano, for example, has a man stationed in the Insubrica region who acquires advertisements for the Ticino newspapers. Conversely, Casino Lugano advertises for new players in Italian newspapers.
However, the fact that a print magazine in Ticino is also physically venturing beyond the country's borders is new. Elsewhere, this idea has already been toyed with, for example at the 75-year-old Si main competitor Illustrazione Ticinese (1,300,000 copies). "I have also considered distributing our magazine to households in the Italian border region, but so far this has failed due to the lack of reliability of the distribution companies there," says publisher Marco Werder.
This indicates what has long been confirmed elsewhere: Ticino and the Insubrica region - although they have different mentalities - are gradually growing together as markets and the borders are blurring. For some time now, for example, the Swiss poster provider Affichage has been increasingly exploring the area just outside Milan. According to an Affichage analysis, this region is closely linked to Ticino and functions as a unit in terms of commuter traffic, exchange of goods and communication. "Together with the population of Ticino, around one million people live there," says Affichage CEO Christian Kauter. This offers the poster company the opportunity to strengthen its weak poster business in Ticino in the long term. He is currently in negotiations with a small outdoor advertising company in Como to take over the company. "I assume that we will be able to complete this first step this summer," says Kauter.
The electronic media show that it is not only Swiss media that are interested in crossing borders: several radio and TV stations broadcast from Italy into Switzerland. Major advertising clients are taking advantage of this, says Felix Kilchsperger from radio marketer Radiotele. "They usually book the Ticino pool, which includes the two Ticino stations and four Italian radio stations."
What is also striking is that the Milan edition of the commuter newspaper Metro expanded its distribution area considerably at the beginning of 2005, including to Lecco and Varese, i.e. towards Ticino. Perhaps the move across the Swiss border is only a matter of time. Are there any such plans at Metro in Rome? Director Giampolo Roidi is evasive, he obviously doesn't want to show his cards. Nevertheless, his written reply is telling. "Thank you for your suggestion. However, the current distribution of Metro Milan has been carefully examined by us and can hardly be improved."
Perhaps. But that could change. Because the public transport network is also being expanded: SBB and the Italian company Ferrovia Mendrisio-Varese (FMV) are working together to connect two currently independent lines between the centers of Bellinzona, Lugano, Chiasso, Como and Varese by 2010. "This will create the conditions for offering half-hourly regional services and two-hourly InterRegio services," according to SBB. This could also become attractive for Metro - or 20 minutes.
Also busy catching advertisers in Italy: the magazine Si.
Markus Knöpfli
