Calm wind in Thurgau
Daily Newspapers The battle between the Thurgauer Zeitung and the Thurgau split of the St.Galler Tagblatt continues. One side reports slight losses, the other no gains.
Daily Newspapers The battle between the Thurgauer Zeitung and the Thurgauer split of the St.Galler Tagblatt continues. One side reports slight losses, the other no profits.The Thurgauer Zeitung - die Neue (TZ), which was launched on January 1, 2001 and emerged from several smaller titles, has its second subscription renewal phase behind it. Publishing director Urs Bucher therefore knows that he will not be able to maintain last year's certified circulation of 42000 copies. "We are now at about 41000 copies," he says, so TZ is back to about where it was at the start two years ago (41188 copies). He justifies the decline with "merger aftermaths." In addition, the economic slump is making itself felt, for example in the case of subscription cancellations, which are declared as personal savings measures due to unemployment. "However, we are not feeling the competition from the Tagblatt," says Bucher, adding that the current declines have nothing to do with the St.Galler activities.At the Tagblatt, the Thurgau split of the St.Galler Tagblatt (SGT), a year-on-year comparison is more difficult. Before that, the SGT had two splits in Thurgau, the Bodensee-Tagblatt (BT) in Upper Thurgau (14,000 copies) for decades and the Mittelthurgauer Tagblatt (MTT) since January 1, 2001 (parallel to the start of the Neue TZ), which reached 1800 annual subscriptions a year ago. With the start-up of the new SGT printing center in the fall, BT and MTT were merged to form the new Tagblatt with expanded editorial performance on seven newspaper bundles. According to SGT Publishing Director Daniel Ehrat, the start was made with 14800 copies. After the fall vacations, 7000 households in the Steckborn district were also served free of charge for a week to gain subscribers.
Expectations too high
Today, five months later, Ehrat draws a meager balance. The Tagblatt has a total of about 15,000 subscriptions, "which is clearly below expectations," he says. "Overall, we haven't lost anything, but we haven't gained much either." In terms of circulation, the Tagblatt has increased more in central Thurgau - "where we are new" - but in the existing areas it has lost something. Ehrat's expectations were also not met by a trial in three Central Thurgau communities, where the Tagblatt, as the carrier of official notices, is delivered free of charge once a week to all 2970 households. This has so far brought in about 200 subscriptions.
The picture is somewhat different when it comes to advertising revenues: According to VSW statistics, the TZ lost 22.9 percent of its volume or 1213 pages last year, especially in job ads. In this respect, too, competition from the Tagblatt was not noticeable, says Bucher. Ehrat, on the other hand, speaks of a "more or less stable advertising volume" at the Tagblatt and even of a "slight growth in advertising from the area of the former MTT." Bucher cannot confirm this.
Death notices from Central Thurgau are also "extremely rare" in the Tagblatt, he says. They are considered an indicator of regional anchoring. This is probably why the Tagblatt has introduced special prices for obituaries. This action is "limited in time, we don't provide the space for free," says Ehrat with regard to the action of the Berner Zeitung in the Solothurn area (see WW 9/03). Bucher confirms this. He therefore speaks of "very fair competition" in Thurgau, without dumping prices.
Markus Knöpfli
Expectations too high
Today, five months later, Ehrat draws a meager balance. The Tagblatt has a total of about 15,000 subscriptions, "which is clearly below expectations," he says. "Overall, we haven't lost anything, but we haven't gained much either." In terms of circulation, the Tagblatt has increased more in central Thurgau - "where we are new" - but in the existing areas it has lost something. Ehrat's expectations were also not met by a trial in three Central Thurgau communities, where the Tagblatt, as the carrier of official notices, is delivered free of charge once a week to all 2970 households. This has so far brought in about 200 subscriptions.
The picture is somewhat different when it comes to advertising revenues: According to VSW statistics, the TZ lost 22.9 percent of its volume or 1213 pages last year, especially in job ads. In this respect, too, competition from the Tagblatt was not noticeable, says Bucher. Ehrat, on the other hand, speaks of a "more or less stable advertising volume" at the Tagblatt and even of a "slight growth in advertising from the area of the former MTT." Bucher cannot confirm this.
Death notices from Central Thurgau are also "extremely rare" in the Tagblatt, he says. They are considered an indicator of regional anchoring. This is probably why the Tagblatt has introduced special prices for obituaries. This action is "limited in time, we don't provide the space for free," says Ehrat with regard to the action of the Berner Zeitung in the Solothurn area (see WW 9/03). Bucher confirms this. He therefore speaks of "very fair competition" in Thurgau, without dumping prices.
Markus Knöpfli
