Publishers increase reach thanks to digital offerings
Swiss media companies have slightly increased their overall reach over the past six months. While the readership of print media remained stable overall, publishers’ digital offerings are enjoying growing popularity.
Despite all the prophecies of doom, the printed newspapers and magazines published by private publishing houses in Switzerland remain very popular with readers. Total reach has remained stable at a high level of 94% since last fall (previous period: 95%). Two thirds of the total reach of media titles is accounted for by printed editions, while one third is made up of online users, as announced by the AG für Werbemedienforschung (WEMF) on Tuesday. The paid daily press was able to maintain the gross reach of its print readers.
Digital is becoming more important
The number of readers who use online offerings continues to rise. There has been a noticeable increase in user numbers, particularly among publishers that have had little presence in the digital business to date. These are regional newspapers and the financial and business press. The most-read medium by far is still 20 Minuten, which has a total reach of 3.2 million in the three regions of German-speaking Switzerland, French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino. Of this figure, 1.9 million is attributable to the print title and 1.3 million to users of the website.
Blick ranks second with a reach of 1.2 million. While digital usage has remained stable over the last six months, the reach of the print title has continued to decline. An analog picture can be observed with Blick am Abend. Blick is the only major medium to still have more readers online (710,000) than in the printed edition (519,000).
Regional titles on the upswing
The Tages-Anzeiger recorded a slight increase in readership with 718,000 users. While the figures for the print edition remained stable, they increased slightly for the digital edition. The opposite was true for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Here, readership of the print edition (265,000) increased, while digital usage (159,000) remained stable.
The regional newspapers were able to attract more readers with their digital offerings. The St. Galler Tagblatt increased its print and digital readership. At Luzerner Zeitung, readership of the print edition remained stable, while the population made greater use of the online offering. Both figures declined slightly for the Basler Zeitung and Corriere del Ticino. In French-speaking Switzerland, 24Heures, Le Temps and Le Nouvelliste attracted more attention digitally. Le Matin showed a similar picture, while the Tribune de Genève reported stable figures.
Well-read Sunday press
In the Sunday press, the NZZ am Sonntag was able to attract more readers in the print edition. With the launch of its own new website to mark its 15th anniversary, the paper is likely to attract even more attention online. To date, the digital usage of NZZ am Sonntag has been based on the figures for nzz.ch. Usage of the print edition of SonntagsBlick and SonntagsZeitung remained stable. Regional editions such as Schweiz am Sonntag and Ostschweiz am Sonntag were able to make gains. Schweiz am Sonntag was discontinued at the end of February and merged with the Saturday edition of AZ Nordwestschweiz. Weltwoche suffered a significant drop in reach. The weekly newspaper (WOZ) also lost ground. The newspapers of the major distributors Coop and Migros, which have a strong readership, held up well. They scored with their printed editions, while digital usage is still rather modest. The reach of Coop Presse remained stable, while the Migros magazines were slightly on the upswing. (SDA)
