Migros magazine

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Migros magazine
logo
description Swiss weekly newspaper
language German
publishing company Federation of Migros Cooperatives
First edition 1942 (as We bridge builders )
Frequency of publication weekly
Widespread edition 1,550,818 (previous year 1,558,711) copies
( WEMF circulation bulletin 2019)
Range 2.371 (previous year 2.358) million readers
(WEMF MACH Basic 2018-II)
Editor-in-chief Franz Ermel (Head of Migros Magazine)
editor Federation of Migros Cooperatives
Web link migrosmagazin.ch
ZDB 2432899-6

The Migros magazine is a weekly free newspaper of the Swiss retail group Migros . The magazine , founded by Migros founder Gottlieb Duttweiler in 1942 and published by the Federation of Migros Cooperatives, used to be called Wir Brückenbauer , with the subtitle “Weekly Journal of Social Capital” (also known as bridge builders for short ).

history

Foundation (1942)

Gottlieb Duttweiler set up journalistic channels for Migros early on. It began in 1925 with a leaflet entitled Migros - the Bridge , which appeared every three to four weeks. From December 1927 Duttweiler placed text advertisements in several newspapers. This newspaper in the newspaper appeared a total of 727 times. In November 1935 Duttweiler founded the newspaper Die Tat , which appeared first as a weekly and from October 1939 as an evening newspaper.

When Duttweiler converted Migros into a cooperative in 1941, he applied to the Justice and Police Department to found a weekly newspaper for the members of the cooperative. The launch was not approved until July 21, 1942. Shortly afterwards, on July 30, 1942, the first edition of Wir Brückenbauer appeared . Duttweiler was on the editorial board of the new newspaper.

Issued January 29, 1943

With this organ, Migros was able to convey a “Migros spirit” to its members better than through the newspaper in the newspaper . During the Second World War , this meant, among other things, that the federal government's supply policy was commented on from one's own perspective and a sense of community was built up and maintained. In his leading article in the first edition, Duttweiler demanded: “A condition must be created in everyday life that will be in harmony with the word: 'We are one nation of brothers'. Back to federal principles, up to Christianity in everyday life - [...] that is the task of material and spiritual social capital and especially of our body 'We bridge builders'. "

The bridge builders built in the following years with various sections such as letters to the editor, contests, consulting services, travel and reader surveys readers loyalty. Different sections of the population were portrayed, but the marketing of Migros products, which were cheap even during the war, also contributed to reader loyalty in the time of crisis. The advisory service and the competitions in which readers could send in text and image contributions were particularly popular. In the first few years, the circulation rose from 110,000 copies in the summer of 1942 to 200,000 copies in 1950. The most important growth factor in addition to reader loyalty was the free membership in the cooperative.

Redesign (1987)

In 1987 the newspaper was redesigned: The bridge builder now appeared in four colors and in tabloid format . Changes have also been made to the content. On March 25, 1987, the new rubric of a search corner appeared for the first time, initially under the title “Whoever searches, who finds”. Later it was called “One of you knows for sure…”. The search corner developed into a “real hit” with the public, as the newspaper wrote in May 1987: “So many people and things from bygone times want to be found again - and in any case, someone in our large readership will certainly remember. »

Over 1000 search queries then appeared each year. Mostly they concerned lost friends from school, vocational training or military service, but also forgotten song texts, poems or hobby things. The submissions, which were published with or without a photo, often expressed a return to the rural world that was believed to be lost. The introduction of a conservative column for the purpose of reader loyalty corresponded to the dominant marketing topic at the time, the change in values , as the Migros Annual Report 1987 mentioned. Migros perceived these changes as both an opportunity and a threat. On the one hand, in the face of new times of crisis, the rubric conveyed an identity-creating memory deposit, on the other hand, the return to the past also strengthened individual learning for the future.

Renaming (2004)

On May 25, 2004 the newspaper was renamed Migros-Magazin in order to emphasize the relation to Migros again after the old symbolism of the retailer as a "bridge builder" between producers and consumers had been forgotten. The "we" clarified the community and was supposed to create the "bridge" between producer and consumer.

The renaming fell in a phase of the renewal of Migros, which also included the revision of the statutes of November 9, 2002 and the associated structural reform as well as the new model from 2003. In the leading article, Anton Scherrer , President of the General Management of MGB, wrote: "The new magazine should reflect the fresh, modern Migros - without neglecting current social, political and economic issues." Associated with this was a more reader-friendly design of the structure and the enlargement of the typography .

Characteristic today

The Migros magazine is printed every Monday in more than one and a half million copies and sent free of charge in Germany to all members of a Migros cooperative and to all customers with the “ Cumulus ” customer card . The newspaper is u. a. also available free of charge to everyone in all larger Migros branches. She has a WEMF - certified circulation of 1'550'818 (. PY 1'558'711) distributed copies, and a range (. PY 2'358'000) of 2'371'000 readers (MACH Basic WEMF 2018- II).

The biggest competitor of the Migros magazine is the Coopzeitung , a Tuesday published weekly from the wholesaler Coop , which has roughly the same circulation and readership figures. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung calls the two newspapers the “silent giants” of the Swiss media landscape and comments on their journalistic work: “Obviously, the consumer segment likes everyday and lifestyle topics with a majority as well as politically balanced background reports”.

The Migros Magazine website was completely redesigned in summer 2017. The user is now at the center of the website. It can be personalized, you can follow individual authors or topics, and users can submit their own articles that appear at the editorial office's eye level and can also be printed in the print edition. According to Net-Metrix figures, the website (d / f) achieved approx. 546,000 visits, 282,000 unique clients and approx. 2.5 million page impressions. The then online department manager Reto Vogt was responsible for this.

Since 2005 appearing column of Bänz Friedli has been set by the end of November of 2019. Migros terminated its membership of the Swiss Media Association at the end of 2019 .

Other language editions

In French-speaking Switzerland , the weekly newspaper of Migros appeared in French first, entitled Pionnier Migros , then as Construire until 2004 similar to the German edition in Migros Magazine has been renamed. It has a WEMF-certified circulation of 504,700 (previous year 507,257) circulated copies and a reach of 660,000 (previous year 662,000) readers (WEMF MACH Basic 2018-II). The Migros Cooperative of the Canton of Ticino publishes an Italian- language weekly newspaper called Azione ; this was not renamed. It reaches a WEMF-certified circulation of 101,634 (previous year 102,022) copies and a reach of 123,000 (previous year 117,000) readers (WEMF MACH Basic 2018-II). Migros-Magazin , Migros Magazine and Azione together achieve a circulation of 2,157,152 (previous year 2,167,990) copies and a reach of 3,154,000 (previous year 3,137,000) readers.

literature

  • Beat Grossrieder: A strong sense of togetherness for difficult times. The “bridge builder” between customer loyalty and crisis management. In: Katja Girschik, Albrecht Ritschl, Thomas Welskopp (eds.): The Migros Cosmos. On the history of an exceptional Swiss company. here + now, Baden 2003, ISBN 3-906419-64-9 , pp. 203-219.

Web links

Commons : We bridge builders  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e WEMF edition bulletin 2019 , p. 30 (PDF; 593 kB).
  2. ↑ Migros-Medien is repositioning itself: Franz Ermel becomes Head of Content. In: advertising week. 5th October 2017.
  3. ↑ a b Grossrieder: Strong sense of togetherness for difficult times. 2003, p. 204.
  4. ↑ 75 years of building bridges. Migros, June 30, 2017, accessed October 17, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Grossrieder: A strong sense of togetherness for difficult times. 2003, p. 205.
  6. ↑ Gottlieb Duttweiler: The social capital. In: We bridge builders. July 30, 1942.
  7. ↑ Grossrieder: A strong sense of togetherness for difficult times. 2003, p. 206.
  8. ↑ Grossrieder: Strong sense of togetherness for difficult times. 2003, p. 207.
  9. ↑ Grossrieder: Strong sense of togetherness for difficult times. 2003, p. 211.
  10. ↑ Grossrieder: Strong sense of togetherness for difficult times. 2003, p. 208 ff.
  11. ↑ Hans Schneeberger: The brilliant frequent writer. Migros Magazine, August 12, 2013, accessed on October 17, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Grossrieder: Strong sense of togetherness for difficult times. 2003, p. 219.
  13. ^ Anton Scherrer: Dear members of the cooperatives. In: Migros magazine. May 25, 2004.
  14. ↑ Silent giants - member newspapers as important players in the media market. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , October 14, 2005, accessed on October 17, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Migros Magazine 2018 media data. (PDF) Migros Magazine, accessed on December 12, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Migros Magazin: Bänz Friedli's column is discontinued. In: persoenlich.com . September 27, 2019, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  17. ^ Edith Hollenstein: Swiss Media Association: Migros and Coop resign from the publishers' association. In: persoenlich.com . September 24, 2019, accessed September 24, 2019 .
  18. ^ Website of Azione , Migros Ticino weekly newspaper.
  19. ↑ WEMF Total Audience 2018-2 ( Memento from October 15, 2018 in the Internet Archive ), p. 8 (PDF; 609 kB).