Sunday press war hots up

A new quality paper is on sale from Sunday swissinfo.ch

A fierce circulation battle is expected to break out in German-speaking Switzerland with the arrival of a new Sunday newspaper, the "NZZ am Sonntag".

For the past 15 years, newspaper readers have been faced with a simple choice between the mass-market “SonntagsBlick” and the more upmarket “SonntagsZeitung”.

But now the publishers of the country’s most prestigious paper, the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” (NZZ), have decided to gatecrash the party.

Backers of the NZZ am Sonntag, who are targeting an eventual circulation of around 150,000, are confident the market can sustain a third Sunday newspaper.

“The NZZ group is convinced the launch of the Sunday edition is the right decision,” said editor-in-chief, Felix Müller.

According to research carried out by Swiss television, the market has proved lucrative for both existing Sunday papers. The SonntagsBlick makes a profit of around SFr17 million ($10.11 million) a year, while the SonntagsZeitung nets its owners SFr25 million.

Reto Lipp, president of the Zurich press association, predicted bitter fighting between the three Sunday papers, each backed by a major publisher. But he conceded that the NZZ am Sonntag, which is being heavily marketed, had “a good chance of breaking through”.

First shots fired

The first shots in what is expected to be a protracted war have already been fired, with subscribers to the NZZ’s weekday edition being offered a year’s free subscription to the Sunday edition.

The SonntagsZeitung, which has a circulation of 220,000, is generally thought by observers to be the most likely loser in the upcoming readership battle. The paper’s publishers openly admit that they expect to yield some ground.

“We don’t want to lose more than 10,000 subscribers, and not more than 100,000 readers,” SonntagsZeitung’s Sandra Geiger told swissinfo.

“We have made changes at every level, ever since we found out a year ago the NZZ was going to publish a Sunday edition.”

The new Sunday edition of the NZZ is not just being pitched at the paper’s existing readers. It will contain more pictures than the weekday edition, along with an increased number of interviews and features.

“We have more freedom for our editorial content,” added Felix Müller. “But we will also stick to the same general principles that guide the weekday edition.”

Lower advertising costs

The SonntagsZeitung and the NZZ am Sonntag will not just be competing for readers. Advertisers are also looking forward to the media scrap, which could lead to lower costs.

“The SonntagsZeitung has been perceived as very arrogant with advertisers, since it had a virtual monopoly on the so-called high-value readership,” said Müller.

Not every attempt to establish a Sunday paper has been successful in German-speaking Switzerland. In 1986, publisher Beat Curti, along with six regional editors, launched the “Neue SonntagBlatt”, which folded a year later with losses of SFr22 million.

Those behind the NZZ am Sonntag say they will do everything to avoid the same fate, claiming they have learnt from others’ mistakes. “We have worked out a business plan that gives us the best chance of success,” said NZZ publisher Tobias Trevisan.

Switzerland has four other Sunday papers, two in French, the “Matin du Dimanche” and “Dimanche.ch”, and two in Italian, the “Caffe della Domenica” and the “Mattino della Domenica”.

swissinfo