Successful course despite stock market slump
Stocks from the HandelsZeitung publishing group has survived its first hundred days well
Stocks from the HandelsZeitung publishing group has survived its first hundred days wellby daniel schifferleA good hundred days after its launch, the investor magazine Stocks is already enjoying the trust of many hardened stock market players. And this despite the never-ending cat's meow on the stock markets. But the dry spell is not over yet: There is still a lot to be done in terms of advertising to make the magazine profitable.
It almost makes you shudder: only negative news from the stock market for months now, the party definitely seems to be over. Not good news for a new investor magazine that has to find an audience under these conditions. You can't seduce an audience with nothing but horror news. This is now also evident in Germany: of the more than half a dozen new financial titles that have been flushed onto the market by the stock market boom in the last two years, the most recent ones are now having a very hard time. Saving and resizing are the order of the day. For example, the weekly title Aktienresearch, published by Axel Springer, the parent company of the HandelsZeitung publishing group, has been hit hard.
However, Stocks, which was first published on November 3, is the first investor magazine ever to be published in Switzerland, and even a slump on the stock market has apparently not spoiled its start. Publisher Ralph Büchi is "extremely satisfied" with how demand has developed in the first three months. "Our goal was to sell 20,000 copies in the first year. Today we have already sold over 25,000 copies." (see box) "We wouldn't have expected this so quickly," says Büchi.
Personally, he is even glad that he did not get caught up in a stock market boom with the launch of Stocks. "There would have been a great risk of creating a bubble," Büchi points out, "and if the hype was over after six months, we would have had to report declining sales figures again."
Even the old hands on the stock market rely on stocks
But who are the more than 25,000 regular subscribers to Stocks? The HandelsZeitung publishing group has commissioned a reader survey from the Zurich-based market research company Publitest, the results of which will be published at the beginning of March and sent to customers and agencies. Büchi already has some of the results today.
And they make you sit up and take notice, as the new stock market magazine has already positioned itself well ahead of the titles read by investors. "In terms of stock market expertise, Stocks ranks directly behind Finanz und Wirtschaft among those surveyed, even ahead of the established traditional business titles."
An indication that Stocks has already found his audience among the old stock market hands. This is also indicated by the statements about the professional position of the audience and its enormous power in the investment market. "Over half of our readers are managers, 44% make a stock market transaction at least once a week," Büchi quotes from the survey results, "and particularly attractive: 21% declare personal investment assets of over half a million francs."
The fact that Stocks is already attracting a great deal of attention from the German-speaking Swiss public was also recently demonstrated elsewhere. The Swiss Press Association recently ran a trial subscription campaign for the titles Stocks, Cash, HandelsZeitung, SonntagsZeitung, Weltwoche, Boom, Bilanz and Facts, with an order card enclosed with each of these papers several times for ticking off the featured titles.
"Of all the trial subscriptions generated, Stocks achieved the highest share," says Büchi happily, "which shows me that Stocks is being followed very closely." Of course, such messages are only initial indications; the acid test will not take place until the middle of the year. Stocks will then reveal its first LpA values in a special survey by Mach Basic, and a provisional certification of conditions has also been announced for the middle of the year. At the latest when such hard figures are available, the advertisements should also be more plentiful.
A larger volume of advertisements is expected
At present, the volume of advertisements in Stocks is not exactly exhilarating. Up to now, there have been 10 to a maximum of 17 pages per issue. With a magazine size of 84 pages, this results in an advertising share of just 10 to 20 percent - clearly still too little to make money.
However, Büchi is convinced that things will pick up after the slump in January and February. "We will already see a significant increase in March," he says, looking at the current booking list. This is particularly pleasing: Banks and financial service providers, Stocks' core target group among advertisers, are already regularly featured in the magazine. And according to Büchi, luxury brands from the watch and automotive sectors, which are traditionally less well represented in January and February, will also return in the spring.
In terms of advertising volume, Büchi is convinced that the target is not that far away. "With a 25 percent share of advertising, we are at the break-even point," he says. A figure that will probably be reached this year. However, the fact that the company will not yet be in the black in 2001 has to do with the high investments that are still being made in building up the reader market. "But we want to break even by 2003 at the latest," says Büchi.
But there is still a lot to do before then. One goal Büchi wants to achieve by the end of the year is to sell 30,000 copies. To achieve this, various campaigns are planned. One of these is the online investment game aktienrally.ch, which has just been launched together with the CS Group. "I expect Stocks to gain 10,000 new readers from this campaign," estimates Büchi. But the new investor magazine is also increasing its presence in other ways: a Zurich streetcar will soon be spreading the Stocks advertising message.
Over 25,000 copies soldCurrently, Stocks already sells over 25,000 copies per issue. According to Stocks publisher Ralph Büchi, around 20000 of these are subscriptions and around 3500 are trading customers of the financial portal Swissquote, with which Stocks entered into a co-marketing agreement at the start. Around 60 percent of the subscriptions are already annual subscriptions, the rest are three-month trial subscriptions. According to Büchi, an average of 500 subscriptions are added every week. Stocks sells around 5,000 copies per issue, a figure that has remained more or less stable since the launch. "When the stock market returns to positive times, however, we will increase our newsstand sales even further," Büchi is convinced.
The print run of the magazine was already increased from the initially announced 55,000 copies to an average of 70,000 at the launch. Of these, between 15,000 and 20,000 are distributed to newsstands in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland, with selected sales outlets in Germany also receiving copies. Not quite half of the print run, around 30,000 copies, are reserved for promotions and cross-selling campaigns. Between 5,000 and 10,000 of these are sent out each week as sample issues.
It almost makes you shudder: only negative news from the stock market for months now, the party definitely seems to be over. Not good news for a new investor magazine that has to find an audience under these conditions. You can't seduce an audience with nothing but horror news. This is now also evident in Germany: of the more than half a dozen new financial titles that have been flushed onto the market by the stock market boom in the last two years, the most recent ones are now having a very hard time. Saving and resizing are the order of the day. For example, the weekly title Aktienresearch, published by Axel Springer, the parent company of the HandelsZeitung publishing group, has been hit hard.
However, Stocks, which was first published on November 3, is the first investor magazine ever to be published in Switzerland, and even a slump on the stock market has apparently not spoiled its start. Publisher Ralph Büchi is "extremely satisfied" with how demand has developed in the first three months. "Our goal was to sell 20,000 copies in the first year. Today we have already sold over 25,000 copies." (see box) "We wouldn't have expected this so quickly," says Büchi.
Personally, he is even glad that he did not get caught up in a stock market boom with the launch of Stocks. "There would have been a great risk of creating a bubble," Büchi points out, "and if the hype was over after six months, we would have had to report declining sales figures again."
Even the old hands on the stock market rely on stocks
But who are the more than 25,000 regular subscribers to Stocks? The HandelsZeitung publishing group has commissioned a reader survey from the Zurich-based market research company Publitest, the results of which will be published at the beginning of March and sent to customers and agencies. Büchi already has some of the results today.
And they make you sit up and take notice, as the new stock market magazine has already positioned itself well ahead of the titles read by investors. "In terms of stock market expertise, Stocks ranks directly behind Finanz und Wirtschaft among those surveyed, even ahead of the established traditional business titles."
An indication that Stocks has already found his audience among the old stock market hands. This is also indicated by the statements about the professional position of the audience and its enormous power in the investment market. "Over half of our readers are managers, 44% make a stock market transaction at least once a week," Büchi quotes from the survey results, "and particularly attractive: 21% declare personal investment assets of over half a million francs."
The fact that Stocks is already attracting a great deal of attention from the German-speaking Swiss public was also recently demonstrated elsewhere. The Swiss Press Association recently ran a trial subscription campaign for the titles Stocks, Cash, HandelsZeitung, SonntagsZeitung, Weltwoche, Boom, Bilanz and Facts, with an order card enclosed with each of these papers several times for ticking off the featured titles.
"Of all the trial subscriptions generated, Stocks achieved the highest share," says Büchi happily, "which shows me that Stocks is being followed very closely." Of course, such messages are only initial indications; the acid test will not take place until the middle of the year. Stocks will then reveal its first LpA values in a special survey by Mach Basic, and a provisional certification of conditions has also been announced for the middle of the year. At the latest when such hard figures are available, the advertisements should also be more plentiful.
A larger volume of advertisements is expected
At present, the volume of advertisements in Stocks is not exactly exhilarating. Up to now, there have been 10 to a maximum of 17 pages per issue. With a magazine size of 84 pages, this results in an advertising share of just 10 to 20 percent - clearly still too little to make money.
However, Büchi is convinced that things will pick up after the slump in January and February. "We will already see a significant increase in March," he says, looking at the current booking list. This is particularly pleasing: Banks and financial service providers, Stocks' core target group among advertisers, are already regularly featured in the magazine. And according to Büchi, luxury brands from the watch and automotive sectors, which are traditionally less well represented in January and February, will also return in the spring.
In terms of advertising volume, Büchi is convinced that the target is not that far away. "With a 25 percent share of advertising, we are at the break-even point," he says. A figure that will probably be reached this year. However, the fact that the company will not yet be in the black in 2001 has to do with the high investments that are still being made in building up the reader market. "But we want to break even by 2003 at the latest," says Büchi.
But there is still a lot to do before then. One goal Büchi wants to achieve by the end of the year is to sell 30,000 copies. To achieve this, various campaigns are planned. One of these is the online investment game aktienrally.ch, which has just been launched together with the CS Group. "I expect Stocks to gain 10,000 new readers from this campaign," estimates Büchi. But the new investor magazine is also increasing its presence in other ways: a Zurich streetcar will soon be spreading the Stocks advertising message.
Over 25,000 copies soldCurrently, Stocks already sells over 25,000 copies per issue. According to Stocks publisher Ralph Büchi, around 20000 of these are subscriptions and around 3500 are trading customers of the financial portal Swissquote, with which Stocks entered into a co-marketing agreement at the start. Around 60 percent of the subscriptions are already annual subscriptions, the rest are three-month trial subscriptions. According to Büchi, an average of 500 subscriptions are added every week. Stocks sells around 5,000 copies per issue, a figure that has remained more or less stable since the launch. "When the stock market returns to positive times, however, we will increase our newsstand sales even further," Büchi is convinced.
The print run of the magazine was already increased from the initially announced 55,000 copies to an average of 70,000 at the launch. Of these, between 15,000 and 20,000 are distributed to newsstands in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland, with selected sales outlets in Germany also receiving copies. Not quite half of the print run, around 30,000 copies, are reserved for promotions and cross-selling campaigns. Between 5,000 and 10,000 of these are sent out each week as sample issues.
