Landbote hooks up with Tagi
Newspapers Landbote and Tages-Anzeiger are facing a joint advertising combination - the Nordostschweiz combination is breaking up.
Newspapers Landbote and Tages-Anzeiger are on the verge of a joint advertising combination - the Kombi Nordostschweiz is breaking up.Lothar Dostal, Managing Director of Landbote publisher Ziegler Druck und Verlag in Winterthur, has terminated his membership of Kombi 1, an advertising pool between Landbote, Schaffhauser Nachrichten and Thurgauer Zeitung, with effect from the end of the year. "We wanted to have a free hand so that we could decide anew in January 2006 which combos would best serve the Landbote," is how Dostal explains this termination.
It is easy to guess in which direction Dostal's thoughts are heading since Tamedia acquired a 20 percent stake in Ziegler Druck at the beginning of the year and also added the Tages-Anzeiger job advertisement to the Landbote: A combined Tagi-Landbote offer is within reach. Dostal confirms: "Such a combination is very obvious and would make sense in the market, because Landbote and Tages-Anzeiger cover the two largest Zurich agglomerations and together have a reach of 45 percent in the canton of Zurich. But we are only the junior partner in this matter." The decision ultimately lies with the Tagi. Its publishing director Maili Wolf, however, does not want to comment on this issue.
Dostal's interest in a combination with the Tagi is all the greater as it could pave the way for a possible integration of the Landbote into the Metropool (Tagi, Basler Zeitung, Berner Zeitung). The chances of joining the Metropool are at least not bad, as the Basler Zeitung is pursuing a similar goal with the Neue Fricktaler Zeitung - and, according to reports, the Berner Zeitung with the Bieler Tagblatt. Dostal is cautious: of course he would "very much like" to see Landbote become a member of the Metropool, but to what extent
The three pool partners will have to decide whether it makes sense to expand this combination, he says.
What's next for the Kombi 1 partners? "The termination does not mean that we want to give up Kombi 1,"
Dostal quickly followed up. A continuation is certainly possible. The Schaffhauser Nachrichten also assumes this. However, Dostal openly admits that he also wanted to dissolve Kombi Nordostschweiz (NOS) when he gave notice. This is made up of Kombi 1 and the Züri-Land trio Zürcher Oberländer, Zürcher Unterländer and Zürichsee Zeitung. "The NOS is an association of regional titles that achieve very different levels of coverage in their respective areas. If a Tagi-Landbote combination comes about, I no longer see any market benefit for the NOS," says Dostal. The new ownership structure of the Züri-Land partners - NZZ holds minority stakes there - played a subordinate role in the decision to terminate the contract, says Dostal. In any case, Tamedia did not exert any pressure.
The Züri-Land-Kombi has already come to terms with the new situation, especially as the Landbote had breached the NOS contract by enclosing the Tagi-Stellenanzeiger. Erland Herkenrath, Managing Director of the Zürcher Unterländer and the Zürichsee Zeitung, and Konrad Müller, Publishing Director of the Zürcher Oberländer, assume that the NOS will not be continued. The aim now is to strengthen the Züri-Land-Kombi - among other things with the uniform layout of the three titles from August 23. "I assume that we will be able to maintain the volume that previously came into our newspapers via NOS and Züri-Land in future, even without NOS, because the major distributors will hardly be able to do without us," says Herkenrath.
But there is one person who weeps a tear for the NOS: Markus Wenger, deputy director of Publicitas Winterthur and advertising manager of Landbote, Kombi 1 and NOS. "The NOS worked very well," he says. "This is probably one of the reasons why the participating titles have become a major player in the market, attracting the interest of major publishers." Wenger estimates the turnover that the NOS will generate this year at CHF 11.5 million; he puts the additional income from Kombi 1 alone at a good CHF 7 million, while that of Züri-Land is slightly lower.
Similar, but not the same
Three newspapers appear on August 23
from the Zurich region in a new look and with a slightly different concept in some cases.
The Zürcher Oberländer (ZO), the Zürichsee Zeitung (ZSZ) and the Zürcher Unterländer (ZU) have had a number of things in common for some time now: a printing center in Oetwil, which has just been equipped with a new printing press, they are united in the Züri-Land-Kombi (see adjacent article), they are marketed by Publicitas and have had the NZZ as a minority shareholder for a few months now. ZU and ZSZ also have the same managing director, Erland Herkenrath.
As of August 23, there will be yet another common feature: For the first time, the three titles have had a uniform design created by Winterthur designer Peter Hajnoczky.
appearance - still in newspaper format(!). But there is no sign of standardization: the newspaper heads are still very different, and the concepts have by no means been lumped together. ZU and ZSZ remain strongly locally oriented, which is reflected, for example, in the bundle sequence: The two titles continue to have the local and regional pages in the first bundle, with the rest in the second bundle.
More color and an airier basic layout
This is reversed in the ZO: foreign, domestic and cantonal are in the first fascicle, the region follows in the second, business and culture in the third and sport in the fourth.
As a result of the new newspaper headline design, the ZO has to do without its previous three-story title, loses the article "der" and is now just called Zürcher Oberländer. There is also a change of name for one of the ZSZ's head papers: March Höfe Zeitung is renamed Zürichsee Zeitung, like its sister papers on the two shores of Lake Zurich. Linth Zeitung and Sihltaler, on the other hand, which are also part of ZSZ, will retain their names.
The new design is simple and without frills. As there are no dividing lines between the articles, it looks very open and airy. What's new is that a small advertising space can be booked on the front and on each of the waistband and bundle end pages. The images are larger than before and the color scheme has been extended to more pages, but the three titles cannot yet be printed in four colors throughout. This will require an additional investment, but this is planned.
Whether ZSZ, ZU or ZO - all three titles want to get even closer to their readers. ZO is probably the most brash. "We have a somewhat outdated image and now want to shed it," says ZO publishing director Konrad Müller. The new image should help speed this up. However, Müller doesn't just want to serve readers "old wine in new bottles". "We need to be bolder, the young people need to understand us and we need to cover the topics that really interest people." Each article must be convincing in its own right, says Müller.
However, the ZO is also creating new channels that will make it easier to address topics that are close to readers. To this end, a "daily topic" is being introduced in the ZO regional section, a regular background page in the general section and a new "Special" section, which is dedicated daily (except Mondays) to topics such as everyday life/family, research/knowledge, health/medicine, trends and nature.
Special pages mutually interchangeableThe uniform layout comes into play with these background and special pages: the other two titles can take over these pages completely if required. However, ZU and ZSZ will also add topics, pages or articles to a pool in future, from which the others can then choose. "The new layout makes it possible to exchange articles and entire pages. This exchange will hopefully be intensified. But it is not the case that departments will be merged as a result," says Erland Herkenrath.
But why is the redesign happening now? Are ZU, ZO and ZSZ arming themselves against possible further local splits of the Tages-Anzeiger? "We did have that somewhere in the back of our minds," admits ZO editor-in-chief Christoph Vollenweider. However, the new technical possibilities at the Oetwil printing center and the competition from 20 Minuten and the Internet were the deciding factors. "The fact that more and more households are doing without any newspaper subscriptions gives me more stomach ache than the competition from the Tages-Anzeiger," says Vollenweider.
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Is the Landbote also terminating its P lease? The planned linking of the Landbote to its own Tages-Anzeiger title suggests that the Winterthur daily newspaper could also terminate its Publicitas lease. "This contract runs until the end of 2007 and is not up for discussion during its term," says managing director Lothar Dostal (for the time being). (mk)
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It is easy to guess in which direction Dostal's thoughts are heading since Tamedia acquired a 20 percent stake in Ziegler Druck at the beginning of the year and also added the Tages-Anzeiger job advertisement to the Landbote: A combined Tagi-Landbote offer is within reach. Dostal confirms: "Such a combination is very obvious and would make sense in the market, because Landbote and Tages-Anzeiger cover the two largest Zurich agglomerations and together have a reach of 45 percent in the canton of Zurich. But we are only the junior partner in this matter." The decision ultimately lies with the Tagi. Its publishing director Maili Wolf, however, does not want to comment on this issue.
Dostal's interest in a combination with the Tagi is all the greater as it could pave the way for a possible integration of the Landbote into the Metropool (Tagi, Basler Zeitung, Berner Zeitung). The chances of joining the Metropool are at least not bad, as the Basler Zeitung is pursuing a similar goal with the Neue Fricktaler Zeitung - and, according to reports, the Berner Zeitung with the Bieler Tagblatt. Dostal is cautious: of course he would "very much like" to see Landbote become a member of the Metropool, but to what extent
The three pool partners will have to decide whether it makes sense to expand this combination, he says.
What's next for the Kombi 1 partners? "The termination does not mean that we want to give up Kombi 1,"
Dostal quickly followed up. A continuation is certainly possible. The Schaffhauser Nachrichten also assumes this. However, Dostal openly admits that he also wanted to dissolve Kombi Nordostschweiz (NOS) when he gave notice. This is made up of Kombi 1 and the Züri-Land trio Zürcher Oberländer, Zürcher Unterländer and Zürichsee Zeitung. "The NOS is an association of regional titles that achieve very different levels of coverage in their respective areas. If a Tagi-Landbote combination comes about, I no longer see any market benefit for the NOS," says Dostal. The new ownership structure of the Züri-Land partners - NZZ holds minority stakes there - played a subordinate role in the decision to terminate the contract, says Dostal. In any case, Tamedia did not exert any pressure.
The Züri-Land-Kombi has already come to terms with the new situation, especially as the Landbote had breached the NOS contract by enclosing the Tagi-Stellenanzeiger. Erland Herkenrath, Managing Director of the Zürcher Unterländer and the Zürichsee Zeitung, and Konrad Müller, Publishing Director of the Zürcher Oberländer, assume that the NOS will not be continued. The aim now is to strengthen the Züri-Land-Kombi - among other things with the uniform layout of the three titles from August 23. "I assume that we will be able to maintain the volume that previously came into our newspapers via NOS and Züri-Land in future, even without NOS, because the major distributors will hardly be able to do without us," says Herkenrath.
But there is one person who weeps a tear for the NOS: Markus Wenger, deputy director of Publicitas Winterthur and advertising manager of Landbote, Kombi 1 and NOS. "The NOS worked very well," he says. "This is probably one of the reasons why the participating titles have become a major player in the market, attracting the interest of major publishers." Wenger estimates the turnover that the NOS will generate this year at CHF 11.5 million; he puts the additional income from Kombi 1 alone at a good CHF 7 million, while that of Züri-Land is slightly lower.
Similar, but not the same
Three newspapers appear on August 23
from the Zurich region in a new look and with a slightly different concept in some cases.
The Zürcher Oberländer (ZO), the Zürichsee Zeitung (ZSZ) and the Zürcher Unterländer (ZU) have had a number of things in common for some time now: a printing center in Oetwil, which has just been equipped with a new printing press, they are united in the Züri-Land-Kombi (see adjacent article), they are marketed by Publicitas and have had the NZZ as a minority shareholder for a few months now. ZU and ZSZ also have the same managing director, Erland Herkenrath.
As of August 23, there will be yet another common feature: For the first time, the three titles have had a uniform design created by Winterthur designer Peter Hajnoczky.
appearance - still in newspaper format(!). But there is no sign of standardization: the newspaper heads are still very different, and the concepts have by no means been lumped together. ZU and ZSZ remain strongly locally oriented, which is reflected, for example, in the bundle sequence: The two titles continue to have the local and regional pages in the first bundle, with the rest in the second bundle.
More color and an airier basic layout
This is reversed in the ZO: foreign, domestic and cantonal are in the first fascicle, the region follows in the second, business and culture in the third and sport in the fourth.
As a result of the new newspaper headline design, the ZO has to do without its previous three-story title, loses the article "der" and is now just called Zürcher Oberländer. There is also a change of name for one of the ZSZ's head papers: March Höfe Zeitung is renamed Zürichsee Zeitung, like its sister papers on the two shores of Lake Zurich. Linth Zeitung and Sihltaler, on the other hand, which are also part of ZSZ, will retain their names.
The new design is simple and without frills. As there are no dividing lines between the articles, it looks very open and airy. What's new is that a small advertising space can be booked on the front and on each of the waistband and bundle end pages. The images are larger than before and the color scheme has been extended to more pages, but the three titles cannot yet be printed in four colors throughout. This will require an additional investment, but this is planned.
Whether ZSZ, ZU or ZO - all three titles want to get even closer to their readers. ZO is probably the most brash. "We have a somewhat outdated image and now want to shed it," says ZO publishing director Konrad Müller. The new image should help speed this up. However, Müller doesn't just want to serve readers "old wine in new bottles". "We need to be bolder, the young people need to understand us and we need to cover the topics that really interest people." Each article must be convincing in its own right, says Müller.
However, the ZO is also creating new channels that will make it easier to address topics that are close to readers. To this end, a "daily topic" is being introduced in the ZO regional section, a regular background page in the general section and a new "Special" section, which is dedicated daily (except Mondays) to topics such as everyday life/family, research/knowledge, health/medicine, trends and nature.
Special pages mutually interchangeableThe uniform layout comes into play with these background and special pages: the other two titles can take over these pages completely if required. However, ZU and ZSZ will also add topics, pages or articles to a pool in future, from which the others can then choose. "The new layout makes it possible to exchange articles and entire pages. This exchange will hopefully be intensified. But it is not the case that departments will be merged as a result," says Erland Herkenrath.
But why is the redesign happening now? Are ZU, ZO and ZSZ arming themselves against possible further local splits of the Tages-Anzeiger? "We did have that somewhere in the back of our minds," admits ZO editor-in-chief Christoph Vollenweider. However, the new technical possibilities at the Oetwil printing center and the competition from 20 Minuten and the Internet were the deciding factors. "The fact that more and more households are doing without any newspaper subscriptions gives me more stomach ache than the competition from the Tages-Anzeiger," says Vollenweider.
Markus Knöpfli
Is the Landbote also terminating its P lease? The planned linking of the Landbote to its own Tages-Anzeiger title suggests that the Winterthur daily newspaper could also terminate its Publicitas lease. "This contract runs until the end of 2007 and is not up for discussion during its term," says managing director Lothar Dostal (for the time being). (mk)
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