Tagi enters the countryside
Regional Press: In November, Tamedia’s regional strategy for the *Tages-Anzeiger* will take shape—a midterm assessment.
Regional press Tamedia's regional strategy for the Tages-Anzeiger becomes concrete in November - an interim assessment. "There is nothing that could stand in the way of our plans," says Rolf Bollmann, publishing director of the Tages-Anzeiger since January. The unruly former "Mister 20 Minuten", who turned the free newspaper into the most successful print title in the country within six years, was brought into the company management by Tamedia CEO Martin Kall at the second attempt. In line with the company strategy, he is to anchor the Tamedia flagship more firmly in the core area and boost its growth in the region. The procedure is familiar: Four new regional editorial offices based on the model of a crew that has been working on the left bank of the lake in Wädenswil since March 2005 - a total of 65 new jobs - are to be created in Bülach, Uster, Stäfa and at the headquarters on Werdstrasse in Zurich. Further Tagi local editions in the Limmat Valley and in Winterthur are conceivable, but are not currently under discussion, according to Bollmann. The editorial and publishing teams have largely assembled and the offices are ready to move into. "In a weekly interview with Werbewoche last January, the busy publishing director explained how he intends to bring his competitors, in particular the rural newspapers around the lake belonging to the NZZ, to their knees. However, he has not yet been able to push through the favored advertising combination of Tages-Anzeiger and 20 Minuten internally. "This combination would have an unbeatable reach and an excellent target group," says Bollmann. He wants to tackle the weakness of the Tagi in its core area, as 20 Minuten has overtaken the Tages-Anzeiger in terms of advertising in Zurich. In Bern, Basel, Lucerne and St. Gallen, on the other hand, the traditional newspapers are far stronger than Tamedia's free paper. Even today, Bollmann makes no secret of the fact that the decision-making processes at the Tages-Anzeiger are too slow for him - one of the reasons why the aforementioned advertising combination has not yet materialized. "If I take stock after more than half a year at the Tagi, I'm not satisfied with what we've achieved," says Bollmann, who used to "step on the gas" at 20 Minuten.
A fundamental difficulty of the forthcoming regionalization of the Tages-Anzeiger remains the triage between topics that appear in the regional sections and those that appear in the Zürich-Bund. This is particularly accentuated in the city of Zurich, where the Tagblatt also covers certain topics. "There will be discussions every day about what we should publish in the city split and what in the Zürich-Bund." Close cooperation between the editorial teams is a matter of course.
As Chairman of the Board of the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich, Bollmann knows what he is talking about. "It's clear that we don't want to cannibalize the Tagblatt with the new local section," says Bollmann. Tamedia holds 60 percent of the Tagblatt, the rest is held by NZZ. Apparently, a solution acceptable to the NZZ has been found, as he expects the green light from the city authorities for a planned repositioning of the Tagblatt, which will continue to function as an official publication, by the end of August (see also WW 29/06).
The regionalization is accompanied by a revision of the Tagi appearance. An initial concept for changing the layout with new reader guidance, a completely redesigned culture section, new fonts and even a new title head was rejected by the Board of Directors as too progressive. "Readers are sensitive, the smallest change is difficult if it goes against their habits," says Bollmann. But the project remains topical. Readers should first get used to the new regional sections. As early as January, work will continue on a gentle renovation of the paper.
NZZ wants to launch press network againPressenetz,
The pool developed by the NZZ for the exchange and purchase of journalistic articles has not met with the intended response from regional newspapers in its current form. The idea is for interested regional titles to feed the pool with their own texts and cover a certain demand for content themselves.
On the one hand, this is intended to promote editorial exchange and, on the other, to make journalistic content more affordable for publishing houses that have come under increasing cost pressure in recent years.
So far, however, hardly any regional newspapers have made use of the newly developed electronic tool. "The editorial offices do not use the tools to automatically integrate larger circles of the regional press," confirms Beat Lauber, member of the management board of NZZ and head of the regional newspapers combined in the NZZ subsidiary Freie Presse Holding. The editorial offices largely solve their needs bilaterally.
In particular, the Zurich regional newspapers belonging to the NZZ Group have been cultivating an editorial exchange for some time. From October, they will institutionalize this with a ten-strong national editorial team with a joint cover section. However, Lauber intends to continue discussing the project with the publishers and editorial teams associated with the NZZ and develop it further at both a journalistic and technological level.
The Swiss News Agency (SDA) would be a common denominator, as practically all publishers use its services. Discussions about a corresponding successor model, Pressenetz, have already taken place with the SDA, explains Lauber. Whether the agency can integrate further services into its own network is currently being examined. "That would amount to the same thing, because the press network is nothing more than the agency's own services," explains Lauber. The aim is for the Pressenetz idea to be up and running on a technical platform that all publishers are already using in the coming year.
René Worni
A fundamental difficulty of the forthcoming regionalization of the Tages-Anzeiger remains the triage between topics that appear in the regional sections and those that appear in the Zürich-Bund. This is particularly accentuated in the city of Zurich, where the Tagblatt also covers certain topics. "There will be discussions every day about what we should publish in the city split and what in the Zürich-Bund." Close cooperation between the editorial teams is a matter of course.
As Chairman of the Board of the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich, Bollmann knows what he is talking about. "It's clear that we don't want to cannibalize the Tagblatt with the new local section," says Bollmann. Tamedia holds 60 percent of the Tagblatt, the rest is held by NZZ. Apparently, a solution acceptable to the NZZ has been found, as he expects the green light from the city authorities for a planned repositioning of the Tagblatt, which will continue to function as an official publication, by the end of August (see also WW 29/06).
The regionalization is accompanied by a revision of the Tagi appearance. An initial concept for changing the layout with new reader guidance, a completely redesigned culture section, new fonts and even a new title head was rejected by the Board of Directors as too progressive. "Readers are sensitive, the smallest change is difficult if it goes against their habits," says Bollmann. But the project remains topical. Readers should first get used to the new regional sections. As early as January, work will continue on a gentle renovation of the paper.
NZZ wants to launch press network againPressenetz,
The pool developed by the NZZ for the exchange and purchase of journalistic articles has not met with the intended response from regional newspapers in its current form. The idea is for interested regional titles to feed the pool with their own texts and cover a certain demand for content themselves.
On the one hand, this is intended to promote editorial exchange and, on the other, to make journalistic content more affordable for publishing houses that have come under increasing cost pressure in recent years.
So far, however, hardly any regional newspapers have made use of the newly developed electronic tool. "The editorial offices do not use the tools to automatically integrate larger circles of the regional press," confirms Beat Lauber, member of the management board of NZZ and head of the regional newspapers combined in the NZZ subsidiary Freie Presse Holding. The editorial offices largely solve their needs bilaterally.
In particular, the Zurich regional newspapers belonging to the NZZ Group have been cultivating an editorial exchange for some time. From October, they will institutionalize this with a ten-strong national editorial team with a joint cover section. However, Lauber intends to continue discussing the project with the publishers and editorial teams associated with the NZZ and develop it further at both a journalistic and technological level.
The Swiss News Agency (SDA) would be a common denominator, as practically all publishers use its services. Discussions about a corresponding successor model, Pressenetz, have already taken place with the SDA, explains Lauber. Whether the agency can integrate further services into its own network is currently being examined. "That would amount to the same thing, because the press network is nothing more than the agency's own services," explains Lauber. The aim is for the Pressenetz idea to be up and running on a technical platform that all publishers are already using in the coming year.
René Worni
