The Obwalden newspaper in Sarnen (Image: Google Street View)
The head of the new editorial office in Stans will be Florian Arnold, who previously headed the editorial office in Altdorf, which is being downsized, as CH Media announced on Friday. The previous head of the editorial office in Stans, Markus von Rotz, is leaving the newspaper at his own request. The Sarnen office will be closed.
Staff cuts with redundancies were unavoidable. The image/photo, graphics and technical page production departments are also affected. It is hoped that the newly formed editorial team will provide stronger impetus in digital journalism, the statement continues.
The aim of the merger is to maintain reporting from the cantons despite dwindling resources. CH Media, a joint venture between AZ Medien and NZZ-Regionalmedien, which owns the three newspapers, announced last November that it would cut 200 full-time jobs over the next two years. (SDA)
The Board of Directors of ONZ Obwalden und Nidwalden Zeitung AG has decided to close the company for economic reasons and to initiate an orderly liquidation, according to a press release issued on Thursday. The 17 employees of ONZ were given notice at the end of February, whereby all contractual obligations will be fulfilled. The employees were informed of this decision by the Board of Directors on Wednesday morning, having already been informed of the company's financial situation in the weeks beforehand.
The closure has become necessary because the commercial development of the newspaper has taken longer than originally anticipated, the statement continues. Although expenditure had always remained within budget, advertising revenue and income from subscriptions had fallen well short of expectations, meaning that ONZ Obwalden und Nidwalden Zeitung AG was facing over-indebtedness. In order to be able to meet all its obligations, the Board of Directors has therefore decided to liquidate ONZ Obwalden und Nidwalden Zeitung AG in an orderly manner. This liquidation would enable the company to meet its obligations to employees, business partners and customers. Subscribers to ONZ would also have the opportunity to request a refund for services not provided in full.
No trend reversal despite numerous measures
The last printed edition of ONZ will be published on Friday, March 2, 2012, after which the online channels will also be switched off. More than 400 ONZ shareholders bought shares worth CHF 3 million within a few weeks at the beginning of 2010 and made the launch of ONZ possible in the first place. The liquidation of the company means that all contributions made will be lost. The fact that the share capital will be exhausted after two years was already stated in the 2010 subscription prospectus. ONZ Obwalden und Nidwalden Zeitung AG will convene an Extraordinary General Meeting at short notice, at which the Board of Directors will propose the dissolution and liquidation of the company.
As there have been no signs of a positive trend reversal on the revenue side despite numerous measures in the areas of marketing, pricing, advertising and personnel, the Board of Directors no longer considers it expedient to continue investing in ONZ, the company said. The Board of Directors deeply regrets that it has not been possible to establish ONZ Obwalden und Nidwalden Zeitung as a long-term journalistic voice and to generate profits for its shareholders with the company.
A publicity success, economic goals not achieved
In journalistic terms, the newspaper has been a success, it continues. In the almost two years of its existence, ONZ has developed into a highly respected voice that has achieved a high level of recognition in Obwalden and Nidwalden and beyond. The newspaper had more than 3,000 subscribers, who followed the reporting twice a week in the printed edition. In addition, ONZ reached more than 30,000 online users every month who used the various channels to find out about what was happening in the two original cantons.
Economically, ONZ was unable to achieve its goals from the outset. According to the business plan, the aim was to gain around 4,000 subscribers in the first financial year and to increase this figure to 8,000 by the third financial year. However, the number of subscribers leveled off at 3,000. Income from advertising was always around a third below expectations. The figures for the Jungfrau Zeitung in the Bernese Oberland, which is published according to the same concept, were used as a benchmark.
Advertising customers had been very hesitant to commit to ONZ right from the start, and the very active sales team had repeatedly been put off placing advertisements until a later date. Obviously, ONZ Obwalden und Nidwalden Zeitung had not succeeded in building up sufficient trust in the market to be able to significantly increase advertising revenues. This was despite the fact that the quality of the product had never been questioned by potential advertisers. In addition, the competition had also reacted well and quickly in the commercial sector, which had made it even more difficult for ONZ to establish itself in the market.
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Melk von Flüe (pictured) has been an editor at ONZ since September last year and has so far reported mainly on politics and sport, according to a press release issued on Monday. He will be 30 years old next September and before joining ONZ, he worked as a freelancer and occasionally as an editorial employee for the Obwaldner Wochenblatt and the Neue Obwaldner Zeitung as well as in the Media Research department at AGB Nielsen in Buochs, Lugano and Sydney.
Francesco Welti will remain available to ONZ as Editor-in-Chief until the end of August and will gradually hand over his duties to Melk von Flüe until then. The current Editor-in-Chief is leaving ONZ for personal reasons. After working for the newspaper with full commitment for around one and a half years, he is now devoting himself to other challenges, writes the ONZ. "The ONZ is now so well positioned that I can hand over my position with a clear conscience," summarizes Welti, who is based in Ticino.
Melk von Flüe is already looking forward to his new role: "I am very motivated and would like to thank the ONZ Board of Directors for the trust they have placed in me." Von Flüe will head up an eight-strong editorial team and wants to anchor the newspaper, which has already quickly established itself in Obwalden and Nidwalden, even more firmly in the two original cantons.
The ONZ Obwalden und Nidwalden Zeitung is a micro-newspaper with a circulation of 10,000 copies. According to the press release, micro-newspapers are so called because their makers regard the region from which they report as a microcosm: Everything is local, everything is seen through the lens of one's own region. There are currently two micro-newspapers in Switzerland: The original, the Jungfrau Zeitung, and the first licensed edition, the ONZ Obwalden und Nidwalden Zeitung.
After a slow start, advertising revenues have grown strongly in recent months, according to a press release issued on Wednesday. The Board of Directors of ONZ is confident that the young media company will be profitable in two years' time.
ONZ closed its first financial year on December 31, 2010 with a loss of CHF 1,478,000, the press release continues. This result is around 700,000 francs better than originally budgeted. The result was achieved thanks to two significant savings: Printing and distribution costs were lower than expected and personnel expenses were also lower than budgeted. The lower expenditure was also significantly influenced by the shorter operational activity of ONZ, which lasted eight months in the first financial year instead of twelve months as budgeted.
According to the press release, ONZ's advertising income is showing a clear upward trend. At the end of the first financial year on December 31, advertising revenue was lower than expected at CHF 704,000. In the first four months of the current year, the targets have already been achieved with 492,000 francs.
Subscription target not achieved in first financial year
At the end of December 2010, 2,131 subscribers received the ONZ printout in their letterboxes every Tuesday and Friday. This means that the subscription target for the first financial year was not reached, as the statement continues. A strong upward trend has been noticeable since the beginning of the year. ONZ gained almost 900 new subscribers within five months. This has exceeded the expectations of ONZ managers. At the end of May, 3010 readers had subscribed to ONZ. The online edition is read by an average of 25,000 unique clients per month. This means that a third of the population in the Nidwalden and Obwalden market area, with around 75,000 inhabitants, already reads ONZ online. Online readers generate over 300,000 page impressions per month. This also includes access from smartphones and tablet PCs.
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