Tages-Anzeiger considers discontinuing the city split
The Tages-Anzeiger is rethinking its strategy in view of its sharply reduced circulation and readership figures. As the Sonntag newspaper writes in its October 5 edition, editor-in-chief Hartmeier is probably planning to discontinue the city-Zurich split. The newspaper has lost 9.1 percent of its readers within a year. At 487,000, it has fallen below the half-million mark for the first time.
The Tages-Anzeiger is rethinking its strategy in view of its sharply reduced circulation and readership figures. As the Sonntag newspaper writes in its October 5 edition, editor-in-chief Hartmeier is considering discontinuing the city of Zurich split (6th Bund). It is conceivable that the city split could be merged into the "Zürich" bundle, Hartmeier told Sonntagsblatt.
The changes are likely after the publication of the Wemf figures revealed that the Tages-Anzeiger has by no means improved its position over the past year. The newspaper lost 9.1 percent of its readers within a year. At 487,000, it has fallen below the half-million mark for the first time. The circulation is 213,738 copies. Hartmeier cites the many single households, the free papers and the increasingly intensive media substitution towards the Internet and commuter newspapers, especially among young people, as reasons for this.
In addition, the Tages-Anzeiger's regional concept does not appear to be paying off. While the Tagi is losing readers on Lake Zurich and in the Zurich Unterland and Oberland, the traditional regional papers are remaining stable or even increasing slightly. There are reportedly fears that one of the three papers that have been merged into a newspaper group - Oberländer, Unterländer and Zürichsee-Zeitung - will soon be taken over by the Tamedia Group.
As Tamedia spokesperson Christoph Zimmer told Werbewoche, the option of discontinuing the "Stadtsplit" and merging it into the "Zürich" bundle is also a journalistic consideration. According to Zimmer, readers from outside the city would also like to read stories from the neighborhoods. A merger would serve these people. Zimmer emphasizes, however, that nothing has been decided yet and that they are still thinking about it. There are also no plans to cut jobs in the merger scenario.
The changes are likely after the publication of the Wemf figures revealed that the Tages-Anzeiger has by no means improved its position over the past year. The newspaper lost 9.1 percent of its readers within a year. At 487,000, it has fallen below the half-million mark for the first time. The circulation is 213,738 copies. Hartmeier cites the many single households, the free papers and the increasingly intensive media substitution towards the Internet and commuter newspapers, especially among young people, as reasons for this.
In addition, the Tages-Anzeiger's regional concept does not appear to be paying off. While the Tagi is losing readers on Lake Zurich and in the Zurich Unterland and Oberland, the traditional regional papers are remaining stable or even increasing slightly. There are reportedly fears that one of the three papers that have been merged into a newspaper group - Oberländer, Unterländer and Zürichsee-Zeitung - will soon be taken over by the Tamedia Group.
As Tamedia spokesperson Christoph Zimmer told Werbewoche, the option of discontinuing the "Stadtsplit" and merging it into the "Zürich" bundle is also a journalistic consideration. According to Zimmer, readers from outside the city would also like to read stories from the neighborhoods. A merger would serve these people. Zimmer emphasizes, however, that nothing has been decided yet and that they are still thinking about it. There are also no plans to cut jobs in the merger scenario.
