"So far, NZZ Campus has been seen as an investment, now it must also pay off"

The 74-page magazine now wants to be even closer to students - with stories about studying and starting a career. Instead of thematic issues, there is now a prominent cover story. The "Study and Work" section offers background reports, interviews and legal advice, while "Life" features articles on love, travel and unusual people. New sections such as "Student of the Hour," "The Controversial Interview," "Lecture Criticism" and "Bullshit Bingo" are designed to generate conversation in the lecture halls. The newly younger and more diverse group of authors includes up-and-coming talent, big names from the university environment, NZZ authors, and a network of correspondents at Swiss and international universities. NZZ Campus is distributed to universities in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. In addition, it is sent directly to students who have subscribed to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung or the NZZ am Sonntag. The circulation is 50'000 copies. The quarterly magazine is supplemented by the website, which is updated daily. Campus.nzz.ch, a newsletter and various social media channels.

Peer Teuwsen, how great is the attraction for you, as a seasoned journalist, to take over the editorial management of a student magazine?
Peer Teuwsen: That has a very big appeal for me. I also run NZZ Geschichte, where I have the privilege of addressing an audience that tends to be older. With NZZ Campus, I now get the chance to reach younger people and, above all, to deal with younger people in the editorial and writing teams. I have enjoyed working with young journalists all my life. Some of them are already very advanced, but others I hope I can pass on some of my experience.

What makes the new NZZ Campus fundamentally better than the old one?
Vanessa Sadecky: The new layout is certainly striking: it is clearer and fresher and corresponds to the taste of the target group. We sat down with students twice to find out what they want and expect from a student magazine. In terms of content, it was important to us that the magazine becomes more relevant - not only for students, but also for professors and other lecturers.

How exactly were the students involved in this process? The target group of students is very large...
Teuwsen: We formed so-called focus groups. We tried to take into account the entire range of students in their composition and to achieve as representative a coverage as possible: from very young to long-term students; students from all over Switzerland, from all major universities and from different fields of study. An HSG student probably has different expectations than, for example, a German language and literature student.

So they picked individual students and interviewed them?
Teuwsen: Exactly. We discussed with them, showed them other student publications, other magazines. We tried to find out what was liked and what was rejected. We also showed the group our layout designs and asked for their opinion.

Are there students in this large target group who are particularly important to the NZZ? Does NZZ Campus - to put it casually - want to appeal to an ethnology student just as much as to a Jus, ETH or HSG student?
Teuwsen: Definitely. But the fact that we have to serve a very broad, heterogeneous audience is also a challenge. The only thing students have in common is that they all want an academic education. We have to find topics and implementations that appeal to as many as possible and can't make a magazine just for law students, for example.

From NZZ's point of view, is the magazine primarily made because the target group of students is an attractive advertising target group, or because future academics are to be introduced to NZZ?
Teuwsen: We do the magazine primarily for two reasons: On the one hand, we can attract a younger readership early on and perhaps later transfer them to other NZZ titles. On the other hand, the NZZ also feels obliged to offer the student world a forum, a platform. We want to give students a home in which they can express themselves -many students write and are represented in the editorial team. NZZ Campus is unique. There are magazines from the individual universities, but nothing overarching that attempts to represent the entire university landscape. The fact that we have also had great success in the advertising market with this concept is naturally gratifying. With multi- and cross-media campaigns and customized solutions, we have been offering the ideal platform for reaching students in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland with NZZ Campus for years.

Is it also about recruiting the next generation of journalists?
Teuswen: (laughs) Yes, here he sits (points to Sadecky).
Sadecky: Exactly, I'm still studying and currently on my bachelor's degree at the ZHAW. We also have a volunteer in the editorial department who has just completed her master's degree. In addition, we have numerous freelancers who are studying and want to become journalists.

When the magazine was launched in 2006, it was important that it "come across as distinctly NZZy. Is that still the case? At first glance, the new layout does not resemble the NZZ...
Sadecky: I think the whole NZZ publications have changed a lot in the last ten years, including the Neue Zürcher Zeitung with last year's redesign. NZZ Campus was designed by the same art director as NZZ am Sonntag, which won an award for its layout.

But for example, things like Bullshit Bingo don't necessarily seem "NZZ-like"....
Sadecky: Of course, NZZ Campus also claims to be daring. The journalistic values in particular should be "NZZ-like": We want to tell relevant, well-researched stories. The fact that we also entertain students with entertaining columns between the stress of learning is not a contradiction.

Is there also a danger with sections like Bullshit Bingo that the whole thing might come across as chumming up if you want to specifically address young people with it?
Sadecky: There is always that danger. But Bullshit Bingo is just a good example of something that was suggested and desired in the focus group, that we in the editorial team also enjoyed - a nice unorthodox way to get an insight into a field of study.

And something that has been established on social media for years....
Teuwsen: It certainly hasn't established itself in the NZZ yet (laughs). It's an experiment, an experimental field. If it triggers a shitstorm, we'll have to rethink the whole thing again, of course (laughs).

What does NZZ Campus Online offer?
Sadecky: Online, the blogs are the most important element. We have five bloggers who are hired each semester. In addition, there are many print articles online and there is a lot of news and useful information for everyday student life - which is of course also a good platform for our advertising customers. The NZZ Campus online presence is rounded off with the Facebook and Twitter pages, which are successful with our target group. In addition, there is the NZZ Campus Newsletter, through which we are in contact with 14'000 subscribers.

How do you keep finding new, good bloggers?
Sadecky: Many students consider it a privilege to write for NZZ Campus, which is why we get plenty of applications. Our editorial team makes sure that the mix fits, that the most exciting topics are covered and takes the best and most creative young talents.

And how do print and online interact in terms of content?
Sadecky: The website is not an online edition of the magazine, we bring the most relevant things online that are readily shared and create conversation. To take a recent example: Just now, our 19-year-old student intern Khaleda Dawudi, who fled to Switzerland from Afghanistan as a 4-year-old girl, published her life story online with us. The article has been shared thousands of times.
Teuwsen: Online, we also have the opportunity to react to current events. After all, the magazine is published four times a year. The blogs have long been part of the NZZ campus world and are popular with students. In addition, we can see here who has the potential to perhaps make it into the magazine or the NZZ - a kind of laboratory.

The original concept of the three thematic areas of study, the world of work and student life remains?
Teuwsen: Yes, but we now have clear separator pages where the individual areas begin. Another finding from the focus groups: The magazine should be clearer. Apparently, the younger generation wants clarity and a clear layout. Another difference is that we no longer focus on specific topics, but rather on a cover story - for example, a very detailed one in the first issue.

What do students expect from a magazine like NZZ Campus?
Teuwsen: They want relevance; to get value from the magazine. But they also want to be entertained. Getting this mix right is the art. Relevance that is also well told. It's very important to me that the stories are well written. That people enjoy reading them. I'm curious about the feedback, but I think the level is relatively high.

In September, NZZ Campus celebrates its 10th anniversary. Do you think the print edition will still be around in another 10 years?
Sadecky: I think so. Personally, I wouldn't be so sure about a newspaper, but with a magazine like NZZ Campus, I'm positive about the future. There will always be students, and we're confident that we'll be able to keep our finger on the pulse of what's going on over the next ten years.
Teuwsen: It will probably be really difficult for daily newspapers. At least to the extent and at the price that they are today, they will probably not remain with us. With NZZ Campus, on the other hand, I believe in a future as a print product. What I also think is cool - and new in contrast to the past - is that the thing also has to pay off. Every product in the house has to be self-supporting. Up to now, NZZ Campus has always been seen as an investment in future readership; now we have to succeed in both. For me personally, this is an interesting incentive.

Interesting in a positive sense?
Teuwsen: Yes, really. For me as a journalist, it must also be a requirement that what I write and publish has a chance on the market. I don't want to write for a publication that no one reads, at most a small group finds "still nice", but otherwise writes at a loss. With NZZ Campus, there is no such danger. Over the past ten years, we have established direct contact with students, and now, with the relaunch, we have moved even closer to their lifeworld.

Interview: Thomas Häusermann