To the point: anyone can save
Even for the most steadfast optimists, something seems to be becoming clear: The global economic crisis has finally reached the media industry. Not only in the USA and Germany, but also in Switzerland, media companies are looking with trepidation to an uncertain future.
Even for the most steadfast optimists, something seems to be becoming clear: The global economic crisis has finally reached the media industry. Not only in the USA and Germany, but also in Switzerland, media companies are looking with trepidation to an uncertain future.
Everyone knows that there is a threat of losses on the advertising side. But no one knows how big they actually are and how big they will become. No one knows how long the crisis will last. No one knows what can be done about it. Neither the publishing powers that be nor the ubiquitous consultants who were already buzzing around the individual publishing houses in the good times, working out theoretically promising strategies, helping to launch new, retort-bred titles onto the market, and trying to sniff out internal savings potential like sniffer dogs.
Drastic cost-cutting measures are therefore being implemented in an attempt to save what is considered worth saving. Rationalization, focusing, optimization of processes, cost transparency, return on investment - these are the buzzwords.
There is a hectic pace everywhere, with cutbacks being made all over the place. Editors are downsizing, budgets are being cut, editorial teams are being shrunk back to health, as the saying goes, or even merged, as the WAZ Group is currently doing in Germany, where four titles are to be managed by a single editorial team in the future. A lot is also happening at Gruner und Jahr. A title like Park Avenue, which was launched three years ago to great fanfare, is being discontinued with a bang. In the future, the publishing house's four business titles will be supported by only one, altogether much smaller editorial team. Savings are being made at Süddeutscher Verlag. The Holtzbrinck Group will not continue its video portal WatchBerlin next year. There is no end to the bad news from abroad. Markus Knöpfli summarizes the unfortunate situation in Switzerland in the article on page 21.
It is clear that a media company, like any other business-managed company, must also initiate measures if the economic outlook is poor. These interventions are often drastic, and the steps taken hurt because they entail drastic changes. Things that have become dear and traditional have to be thrown overboard as ballast so that the ship does not sink. That is unpleasant.
But perhaps the whole thing is also an opportunity. In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion, talk and lecturing about the fact that the Swiss media landscape is in a state of flux, but the real innovations that were supposed to take this trend into account have failed to materialize. Perhaps they are coming now, and they are sorely needed.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
pc.meier@werbewoche.ch
Everyone knows that there is a threat of losses on the advertising side. But no one knows how big they actually are and how big they will become. No one knows how long the crisis will last. No one knows what can be done about it. Neither the publishing powers that be nor the ubiquitous consultants who were already buzzing around the individual publishing houses in the good times, working out theoretically promising strategies, helping to launch new, retort-bred titles onto the market, and trying to sniff out internal savings potential like sniffer dogs.
Drastic cost-cutting measures are therefore being implemented in an attempt to save what is considered worth saving. Rationalization, focusing, optimization of processes, cost transparency, return on investment - these are the buzzwords.
There is a hectic pace everywhere, with cutbacks being made all over the place. Editors are downsizing, budgets are being cut, editorial teams are being shrunk back to health, as the saying goes, or even merged, as the WAZ Group is currently doing in Germany, where four titles are to be managed by a single editorial team in the future. A lot is also happening at Gruner und Jahr. A title like Park Avenue, which was launched three years ago to great fanfare, is being discontinued with a bang. In the future, the publishing house's four business titles will be supported by only one, altogether much smaller editorial team. Savings are being made at Süddeutscher Verlag. The Holtzbrinck Group will not continue its video portal WatchBerlin next year. There is no end to the bad news from abroad. Markus Knöpfli summarizes the unfortunate situation in Switzerland in the article on page 21.
It is clear that a media company, like any other business-managed company, must also initiate measures if the economic outlook is poor. These interventions are often drastic, and the steps taken hurt because they entail drastic changes. Things that have become dear and traditional have to be thrown overboard as ballast so that the ship does not sink. That is unpleasant.
But perhaps the whole thing is also an opportunity. In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion, talk and lecturing about the fact that the Swiss media landscape is in a state of flux, but the real innovations that were supposed to take this trend into account have failed to materialize. Perhaps they are coming now, and they are sorely needed.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
pc.meier@werbewoche.ch
