Wemf: Free Newspapers Top, Reading Behavior Stable

As the Wemf study Mach Basic 2012-2 published on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 shows, the new digital media do not appear to be displacing print titles, according to a statement. Over the years, the readership figures for newspapers and magazines remain stable. 89.3 percent of Swiss people over the age of 14 regularly read at least one of the newspapers surveyed in the study, and 89.0 percent read a magazine (see table).

Difference frequent and infrequent readers

The average respondent said they regularly read eight different titles of the 394 newspapers and magazines surveyed. This value has remained stable over the last 10 years. It can be seen that people who regularly read at least 13 print titles often have an above-average average school education. This group is increasingly female and generally has a higher household income than the group that reads a maximum of three titles and the majority of whom have only completed compulsory schooling. 

Free newspapers continue to lead the field

The free commuter newspaper 20 Minuten continues to lead the list of the most widely read German-language Swiss dailies by a wide margin and extended its lead (1.4 million/+21'000). The paid edition of Blick again had to concede second place to the free newspaper Blick am Abend. In the last survey, Blick was still just ahead, but this time it suffered the greatest loss of readers of all daily newspapers (-19'000). Both titles have a readership that is less than half that of 20 Minuten. The Tages-Anzeiger (514'000/+6000), the Zurich regional newspapers (251'000/+4000) and the Basler Zeitung (163'000/+2000) saw increases. While the NZZ (283'000/-5000) and the Neue Luzerner Zeitung (258'000/-11'000) suffered losses, the Südostschweiz newspaper maintained its readership at the level of the last survey (237'000). 

Sonntags Blick leads, NZZ am Sonntag makes gains

Sonntags Blick remains the most popular Sunday press title in German-speaking Switzerland (805,000/+7000). By contrast, the strong growth in readership of NZZ am Sonntag is striking: the title increased its readership by 33,000 to 529,000, thus closing the gap on the second-place Sonntags Zeitung, which recorded a decline in readership (-6,000). 

Readership growth in consumer magazines

The list of Swiss-German magazines and journals is still dominated by the publications of the major distributors Coop and Migros: The Coop Zeitung (2.7 million/+55'000) can extend its lead even more than the Migros magazine (2.4 million/+30'000). The two free magazines are followed by the paid consumer magazines Beobachter (1.0 million/+24'000) and K-Tipp (994,000/+14'000), which also made strong gains. Other winners in German-speaking Switzerland were Schweizer Familie (732'000/+8000) and Weltwoche (314,000/+10'000). Also gaining readers were Das Magazin (769'000/+3000), NZZ Folio (651'000/+1000) and Gesundheitstipp (610'000/+4000). By contrast, titles such as Geo, Schweizer Illustrierte, Drogistenstern, Annabelle and Automobil Revue lost up to 14'000 readers.

Latin Switzerland: Readership decline

In French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, readership losses predominated. Only 20 Minutes (507,000/+33'000) and La Liberté (98,000/+4000) increased their readership in French-speaking Switzerland. According to the SDA news agency, most other titles lost between 16'000 and 1000 readers. The Ticino press products are also confronted with a decline in readership. 

The following Table shows the readership figures for selected newspapers and magazines compared with the last Mach Basic study. 2012-2: April 2011 to March 2012, 2012-1: October 2010 to September 2011.

nvgl: title not comparable with Mach Basic 2012-1 for methodological reasons

Table: SDA