A punched-out 30, which offers a view of old Spick magazines, adorns the cover of the current anniversary issue. "Are we that old already?" asks Flitz Flosch, the frog with the small speech impediment who, together with Karl Kiebitz, has been guiding the magazine as a "certified editorial consultant" since its founding. The children's magazine wants to be cheeky, creative, different - in short, "spicky. It wants to make people "smart" and promote the reading skills of children and young people, but at the same time it also wants to entertain them - with reports on animals, technology, sports, nature and the environment, with jokes, puzzles and comics.

With a circulation of 35'000 copies, Spick is still the number 1 among Swiss children's and youth magazines. However, much has changed since its launch: The design has been adapted to the zeitgeist, new sections such as "Total Digital" have been added, readers are now kept up to date via the website Spick.ch including a newsletter, and on the Spick blog the community discusses topics such as falling in love, climate protection, nuclear power or apps. Since Künzler Bachmann Verlag started publishing Spick, the school magazine is no longer collected by stapling, but stored in a box.

The range of services offered by Spick is constantly being expanded. In collaboration with the Lia Rumantscha language organization and subsidized by the Canton of Graubünden's language promotion program, the magazine has also been published in Romansh since last September on a trial basis for one year. "We got off to a good start and are pretty sure that we can continue the project," says publishing director Roger Hartmann, commenting on the launch. Since last year, there has also been the "Best of Spick," a free extra issue that is always included in the November edition and is available at newsstands. Furthermore, Spick publishes summer and winter guides twice a year. This year, in cooperation with Sarasani, the member newspaper of the Swiss Scout Movement and the SAC huts, a summer guide of around 72 pages is being produced, a "survival booklet" that focuses on typical scouting topics.

To celebrate the anniversary year in a fitting manner, additional promotions are planned for 2012: In addition to major competitions, games and free apps will be available for download. For example, the app "Witzemixer" (Joke Mixer), which presents the readers' jokes to children in a new form. Parents, grandparents, godparents and godmothers can congratulate the magazine via the Facebook page, and a reading competition has been launched to arouse interest in the children's magazine in schools. 

In addition, a new launch is planned for this spring. With "Big Spick - das Vätermagazin ", Künzler Bachmann Verlag is now targeting the fathers of Spick readers. "Extra for big men with a certain longing for the child in the man," say the publishers. It will be launched in May with a print run of a good 53,000 copies, and the second issue is planned for November.

While advertisements are planned for Big Spick, one looks in vain for them in the children's magazine. However, the Spick does have advertising in the form of banner ads on the website. And for contests and anniversary campaigns, the publisher works with sponsors. For example, a new online game is available under the name Jamadu, Coop's own brand for children. "The cooperation with Jamadu exists because we think it makes sense for kids to eat healthy," Hartmann explains. "The label is a good thing." The publisher gives its cooperation partners a platform; in return, they put on the Spick and the autoguides or present the Spick logo. From a financial point of view, however, advertising and sponsoring have little impact. Most of the revenue, around 90 percent, comes from subscription sales.

Advertising on its own behalf, on the other hand, is central to the Spick; after all, as readers outgrow the target group, the entire readership changes every few years. "The strong brand helps us find new readers," says Hartmann. "But of course we have to be very involved in marketing." To that end, the publisher works with various agencies. The agency Lasso Consulting, which specializes in youth marketing, is on its side as a consultant. The Spick also receives support from the St. Gallen agency Live Minded. The results of the collaboration will be seen as early as April. Then the Spick will draw attention to the anniversary with a TV commercial.

The Interview with Editor-in-Chief Hans Schödel read in the current print edition of Werbewoche.  

Isabel Imper

Spick subscriptions for Werbewoche readers
To mark the anniversary, Werbewoche is giving away five annual subscriptions to the Spick. To enter the drawing, send an email to verlosung@werbewoche.ch with the following information: Recipient's address and age of child. The deadline for entries is March 30. 

The head of the Spick editorial team, with Editor-in-Chief Hans Schödel, is based in Nuremberg. Since the then owner Tamedia outsourced the Spick editorial team in 2003, Sailer-Verlag, which publishes various children's magazines and teaching materials, has been responsible for the editorial content. It works with a large network of freelancers, most of whom are in Switzerland. At Künzler Bachmann Verlag in St. Gallen, which took over the children's magazine from Tamedia in 2005, two permanently employed editors work for the Spick. Künzler Bachmann Verlag is also responsible for advertising, printing and subscription management. 

A punched-out 30, which offers a view of old Spick magazines, adorns the cover of the current anniversary issue. "Are we that old already?" asks Flitz Flosch, the frog with the small speech impediment who, together with Karl Kiebitz, has been guiding the magazine as a "certified editorial consultant" since its founding. The children's magazine wants to be cheeky, creative, different - in short, "spicky. It wants to make people "smart" and promote the reading skills of children and young people, but at the same time it also wants to entertain them - with reports on animals, technology, sports, nature and the environment, with jokes, puzzles and comics.

With a circulation of 35,000 copies, Spick is still the number 1 among Swiss children's and youth magazines. However, much has changed since its launch: The design has been adapted to the zeitgeist, new sections such as "Total Digital" have been added, readers are now kept up to date via the website Spick.ch, including a newsletter, and on the Spick blog the community discusses topics such as falling in love, climate protection, nuclear power or apps. Since Künzler Bachmann Verlag started publishing Spick, the school magazine is no longer collected by stapling, but stored in a box.

The range of services offered by Spick is constantly being expanded. In collaboration with the language organization Lia Rumantscha and subsidized by the Canton of Graubünden's language promotion program, the magazine has also been published in Romansh since last September on a trial basis for one year. "We got off to a good start and are pretty sure that we can continue the project," says publishing director Roger Hartmann, commenting on the launch. Since last year, there has also been the "Best of Spick," a free extra issue that is always included in the November edition and is available at newsstands. Furthermore, Spick publishes summer and winter guides twice a year. This year, in cooperation with Sarasani, the member newspaper of the Swiss Scout Movement and the SAC huts, a summer guide of around 72 pages is being produced, a "survival booklet" that focuses on typical scouting topics.

To celebrate the anniversary year in a fitting manner, additional promotions are planned for 2012: In addition to major competitions, games and free apps will be available for download. For example, the "Witzemixer " app, which presents the readers' jokes to children in a new form. Parents, grandparents, godparents and godmothers can congratulate the magazine via the Facebook page, and a reading competition has been launched to arouse interest in the children's magazine in schools.

In addition, a new launch is planned for this spring. With "Big Spick - das Vätermagazin ", Künzler Bachmann Verlag is now targeting the fathers of Spick readers. "Extra for big men with a certain longing for the child in the man," say the publishers. It will be launched in May with a circulation of a good 53,000 copies, and the second issue is planned for November. While advertisements are planned for Big Spick, one looks in vain for them in the children's magazine. However, there is advertising for the Spick in the form of banner ads on the website. And for competitions and anniversary campaigns, the publisher works with sponsors. For example, a new online game is available under the name Jamadu, Coop's own brand for children. "The cooperation with Jamadu exists because we think it makes sense for kids to eat healthy," Hartmann explains. "The label is a good thing." The publisher gives its cooperation partners a platform; in return, they put on the Spick and the autoguides or present the Spick logo. From a financial point of view, however, advertising and sponsoring have little impact. Most of the revenue, around 90 percent, comes from subscription sales.

Advertising on its own behalf, on the other hand, is central to the Spick; after all, as readers outgrow the target group, the entire readership changes every few years. "The strong brand helps us find new readers," says Hartmann. "But of course we have to be very involved in marketing." To that end, the publisher works with various agencies. The agency Lasso Consulting, which specializes in youth marketing, is on its side as a consultant. The Spick also receives support from the St. Gallen agency Live Minded. The results of the collaboration will be seen as early as April. Then the Spick will draw attention to the anniversary with a TV commercial.

Isabel Imper

> To the Interview with Editor-in-Chief Hans Schödel. 

The head of the Spick editorial team, with Editor-in-Chief Hans Schödel, is based in Nuremberg. Since the then owner Tamedia outsourced the Spick editorial team in 2003, Sailer-Verlag, which publishes various children's magazines and teaching materials, has been responsible for the editorial content. It works with a large network of freelancers, most of whom are in Switzerland. At Künzler Bachmann Verlag in St. Gallen, which took over the children's magazine from Tamedia in 2005, two permanently employed editors work for the Spick. Künzler Bachmann Verlag is also responsible for advertising, printing and subscription management.