Carlo Imboden

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Carlo Imboden (born April 22, 1950 in Brig ) is a Swiss media researcher, management consultant and inventor of Readerscan .

biography

Imboden was born in Valais, went to school in Bern, from which he graduated with a high school diploma in Latin. He studied business administration at the University of Bern . Between 1975 and 1980 he was an assistant at the Business Administration Institute at the University of Bern, and until 1983 senior assistant at Walter Müller. In 1982 Imboden received his doctorate. rer. pole.

1983 began his career as a management consultant. He joined Implementa AG as a strategy consultant, headed it as managing director for four years, was nine years delegate to the board of directors and CEO of ATAG Ernst & Young Consulting, member of the group management of ATAG Ernst & Young, head of "Public" at Ernst & Young Consulting Germany and Switzerland. Imboden has been an entrepreneur since 1999: He founded NOVO Business Consultants in 1999 as a managing partner, imboden consulting in 2003 and Readerscan Imboden + Co. in 2005.In addition to his management activities, Imboden has strategically advised more than a hundred private companies and public institutions in all of these functions.

Imboden is widowed, has four children and lives in Bern .

plant

Imboden is considered to be the most important innovator of the printed press in Europe after the turn of the millennium. Its work is largely based on the findings from over 100 reader scan applications in print titles, which can be used to track down to the line how a change in the newspaper affects actual reading behavior . His influence on the press was reinforced by a wide range of teaching activities, numerous publications and extensive lecturing and consulting activities.

In 2004, after the presence of the first ReaderScan analyzes of the actual reading behavior propagated Imboden a real paradigm shift for the printed newspaper: away from the increasingly short-winded appetizers journalism - mistakenly hailed as reader-oriented - towards fewer but longer and inhaltsträchtigeren articles . With the advent of online journalism , this requirement became more and more important, as it could be empirically proven by means of a reader scan that the increasingly cross-media reader gets the "short feed" online, but expects more in-depth information in the printed newspaper . To date, practically all newspaper publishers in Europe have made this change.

As a result, Imboden urged that the printed newspaper, in competition with the digital media, largely abandoned its news-driven chronicler activity in favor of background, in-depth, explanation and commentary on topics relevant to the masses . Winged words that bring every print journalist closer to what they mean are: “Topics instead of appointments” and “Don't have the first, but the last word”.

Imboden called for the printed newspaper as a mass medium to return to content suitable for the masses and to gradually outsource the segment-specific content to the online media . He found that all the segment-specific articles, which are addressed to small groups of readers, make up up to 60% of the volume in many newspapers, but are ignored as irrelevant by the broad readership. According to Imboden, this explains a considerable part of the ongoing decline in readership of the printed newspaper.

With regard to the article dramaturgy (spin of the story), Imboden propagated a consistently reader-oriented introduction to the story early on. The article must not start at the place of the event, but should start in the mind of the reader. Does the story begin z. B. in the city theater, in the town hall, in the sports hall, the non-insiders get out of the article immediately. This can only be prevented if the article docks thematically to the collective prior knowledge of the readership at the start, e.g. B. to the machinations of the bankers, to climate change or to migration and racism. By means of a reader scan it could be empirically proven that the article entry is the decisive cliff in the reading process . Once this has been avoided, many text beginners read to the end of the article .

Imboden developed actual writing rules for all journalistic forms of presentation , the observance of which results in a demonstrably higher reader response in terms of reading volume and reading time. So Imboden demanded z. For example, for the interview, a radical departure from the traditional headline in the form of quotations, which is intended to signal the reader the stylistic form "Interview", but in reality mostly tips the reader out of the text at a loss . Another writing rule concerns the first question in the interview: This must by no means be a pure icebreaker question, otherwise the reader will get bored out of the text at this point. Rather, it should reflect the most burning question from the reader's point of view.

Imboden has propagated the ten most important reader-oriented writing rules for every informative form of presentation such as short messages , messages and reports , for every interpretive form of presentation such as reportage , feature , portrait and essay , for every form of expression such as leading articles , commentaries , glosses and criticism , and in countless further training courses conveyed to the newspaper editors .

As far as language is concerned, Imboden found that only broadly understandable language would keep newspaper readers in the text . If two sentences that are difficult to understand follow one another, the majority of readers will drop out of the text.

Imboden's findings regarding the design of the printed sheet were just as important for the development of the newspaper . Using Readerscan , Imboden found that the prevailing newspaper designs destroy a lot of journalistic energy because they unnecessarily prevent the reader from reading. He had a lasting influence on the architecture of the newspaper (content and sequence of the individual books), the page sequence and page design, right through to the integration of images and graphics in the text block . His credo - empirically proven by the reader scan studies - is not to align the newspaper design primarily with aesthetic criteria, but unconditionally with functional criteria, in order to enable the reader to absorb the content as unobstructed as possible along the habitualized reception pattern .

Since 1984 Imboden had dealt intensively with the media industry in German-speaking Europe - first at a strategic level and later also at a product level. Imboden discovered that the newspaper and magazine publishers were one of the last economic sectors to bring products to market with practically no market information.

Imboden developed several processes for readership research one after the other : 1986 Opus as a survey method for the publishing industry, 1996 Printcontrol as an observation method and finally in 2004 Readerscan as a fully electronic method for researching reading behavior. All processes serve to align the content and design of newspapers and magazines and their marketing to the actual needs of the readers.

Readerscan is the first and only method that allows the reading rate of the users of newspapers and magazines to be shown on a daily basis . In German-speaking Europe alone, over 100 publishers work with this system, including titles as diverse as Die Zeit , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung FAZ , Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ , Die Welt , Die Presse , Salzburger Nachrichten , Berliner Kurier , Focus , and Coopzeitung , Fashion Classics , the Kicker , Bild , Blick and the Kronen Zeitung .

In addition to his turn to the media industry, Imboden had also worked for a long time as a innovator in the health and insurance industry as well as in public administration. Several future studies bear testimony to these activities.

Imboden is the author of several book publications and has written a number of articles on journalism and publishing issues. He was or is a lecturer at the University of Bern , the University of St. Gallen , the NDU St. Gallen, the ZfU International Business School, at several journalism schools in Europe, including the Axel Springer Academy , at the Ruhr School of Journalism, at the Upper Austrian Journalism Academy, at Danube University Krems and as part of Brain & the City at the University of Graz . Imboden teaches readership research at the Technical University of Dortmund .

Imboden is a part-time chairman of the board of directors of several companies and institutions. He is a board member of the Swiss Innovation Park, a member of the board of trustees of UNESCO - World Heritage Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch .

In 2004, Imboden, President of the Viktoria Home Commission, hosted Pope John Paul II on the occasion of his multi-day visit to Switzerland.

Fonts

  • Patrick Probst: recipes for a reader near cultural journalism in the printed newspaper - empirically tested by ReaderScan . In: Wolfgang Lamprecht (Ed.): Weissbuch Kulturjournalismus. Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-85409-593-4 .
  • with Patrick Probst: 7 typical reception traps for agency articles - How the reader deals with agency articles - examined on the basis of 1380 domestic reports in 2011. In: newsroom.de
  • Carlo Imboden: The future of the printed newspaper - a vision based on Readerscan . In: Zoran Ribarovic (ed.): From Gutenberg to globalization. Split 2010, ISBN 978-953-96566-5-0 , pp. 85-98.
  • Not the first but the last word. In: Yearbook for Journalists 2010. Salzburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-901227-31-8 , pp. 136ff.
  • The reader is brutal! In: Medium magazine . No. 1 + 2/2009, p. 44ff.
  • The reader is extremely brutal. In: Yearbook for Journalists 2009. Salzburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-901227-28-8 , p. 9ff.
  • The reader is brutal! What the Readerscan inventor recommends to journalists. In: The Austrian Journalist . Edition 10/11, 2008, p. 30ff.
  • The reader is extremely brutal! New findings from research. In: Swiss journalist. 10/11, 2008, p. 26ff.
  • How women let themselves be seduced. In: Medium magazine. Edition 08 + 09, 2006, p. 32ff.
  • Sports and local food are totally overrated. In: The Austrian Journalist . No. 8 + 9/2004, pp. 28ff.
  • Risk Handling: A Decision-making Process. Bern / Stuttgart 1983.
  • with Cuno Pümpin: Corporate dynamics: How do we lead companies into new dimensions? In: Orientation. No. 98, Bern 1991.
  • with Kuno Schedler , Kurt Baumann: New Public Management. Impact-oriented control in politics and administration. Schäffer-Pöschel Verlag, 1999.
  • The Swiss health system in 2005. Muri 1995, ISBN 3-85707-046-3 .
  • with others: Healthcare - Quo vadis? Volume 1: Costs and Financing. Bern 1995.
  • with others: Healthcare - Quo vadis? Volume 2: Health Policy Bern 1995.
  • with others: Healthcare - Quo vadis? Volume 3: Hospitals. Bern 1995.
  • with others: Healthcare - Quo vadis? Volume 4: Health insurance and insurance. Bern 1995.
  • with others: Healthcare - Quo vadis? Volume 5: Doctors and Nursing Staff. Bern 1995.
  • with others: Healthcare - Quo vadis? Volume 6: Patients. Bern 1995.
  • with others: Healthcare - Quo vadis? Volume 7: Medicines. Bern 1995.
  • with others: RAV evaluation study. Final report, BWA series, articles on labor market policy, No. 14, Bern 1999.
  • with others: performance mandate and incentive mechanisms for the RAV. BWA series of publications, contributions to labor market policy, No. 17, Bern 1999.
  • with others: Insurance Topix: Development of distribution channels 2010 Bern 2001.

Web links

literature

  • Balz Ruchti: How we scare the reader away - Interview with Carlo Imboden. In: NZZ Folio , No. 333 April 2019, p. 48 ff.
  • Jost Lübben : content, content…. In: Fascination Local Journalism - Democracy Needs Leading Media. 20th Forum Local Journalism 2012, p. 2.
  • Volker Dick: A pen with consequences - Readerscan provides reliable reading rates. In: Federal Agency for Civic Education (Ed.): Journalists Reader: People! Photos! Sensations! What local newsrooms can learn from the boulevard - and what not. September 2009, p. 17ff.
  • Susanne Fengler, Bettina Vestring: Political Journalism. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15403-9 .
  • Klaus Meier: Journalism. UVK, Konstanz 2007, ISBN 978-3-8252-2958-0 .
  • Michael Segbers: The goods news. UVK, Konstanz 2007, ISBN 978-3-86764-010-7 .
  • Dieter Golombek, Erwin Lutz: Excellent. The best of 25 years of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's local journalist award. Editing recipes. Medienfachverlag Oberauer GmbH, St. Augustin 2005, ISBN 3-901227-21-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carlo Imboden: The future of the printed newspaper - a vision based on Readerscan. In: Zoran Ribarovic (ed.): From Gutenberg to globalization. Split 2010, ISBN 978-953-96566-5-0 , pp. 85-98
  2. ↑ Georg Taitl: Not having the first, but the last word, interview with Carlo Imboden. In: Yearbook for Journalists 2010. Salzburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-901227-31-8 , p. 136 ff.
  3. ↑ Balz Ruchti: "How we scare the reader away - Interview with Carlo Imboden", in: NZZ Folio, No. 333 April 2019, p. 48 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Imboden, Carlo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss media researcher
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Brig , Canton of Valais , Switzerland