VIENNA, Austria — Just a little more than a year ago, Fellner Medien’s national daily, Österreich, debuted to impressive reader and advertiser reviews, thanks in part to a novel production approach that blends the look of a glossy magazine with the topicality of a daily newspaper.

To achieve that look, Fellner Medien employed a print infrastructure based on hybrid presses, using heatset-equipped towers to produce high-quality sections in combination with coldset printing units uses to produce news sections.

The paper, now with a daily circulation of approximately 175,000, is produced at two sites.

The major Austrian site in Tulln, just outside of Vienna, is anchored by a heatset/coldset GeoMAN press from MAN Roland. The second plant, in Passau, Germany, is operated by contract printer VGP and uses a ColorMAN hybrid press (see related story on page 22).

Wolfgang Zekert, Österreich’s managing director, discussed how technology is affecting the newspaper and how its strategy is helping it gain a foothold in the competitive Austrian newspaper market.

Österreich’s single-copy sales strategies employ a
variety of promotions.

On Österreich’s first-year performance and how its plan to woo female readers with glossy, lifestyle-oriented sections fared:

Zekert: We are one year into our business plan and because we are still considered new, no viable market research is available. Research can be viewed in a great many ways. We have a daily newspaper product (Monday – Saturday) with an average circulation of around 175,000 copies, 75,000 more copies than our target. Of this number, 86,000 are single subscriptions, 30,000 are bulk copies and the rest come from single-copy sales. We expect to realize stable readership at the end of Year Two and plan to break even between years three and five, just like other European newspapers.

Photos: Newspapers & Technology
Wolfgang Zekert, managing director of Österreich, said the newspaper is being marketed like any other consumer brand.
 

If we compare our readership demographics to that of other newspapers in the market we see that we have a greater number of younger and female readers than they do.

Part of that is because our hybrid product was tailored toward females and younger readers when Österreich was conceived.

We go after that readership aggressively. We will flood an urban area with 100,000 to 130,000 free copies every day. This is in addition to our sold copies.

On Österreich’s revenues and distribution:

 Zekert: This is a very easy summary — advertising follows sales. The more circulation you have the more advertising you will have. We are very dependent on circulation. Building our distribution network was very hard. We recruited over 600 people from all walks of life to get this paper out. Where we couldn’t find distribution we used the post office; however, the newspaper then arrives around noon and not first thing in the morning, which is our goal.

On Österreich’s marketing strategy:

Zekert: We think of Österreich in terms of brand strategy and marketing — just like shampoo. We want non-traditional readership. We are convinced that our brand strategy is working well as our single copy sales are increasing. We notice that after we flood an area for two weeks that within the next two weeks our single copy sales are driven higher in that area.

We know we are a pure pain (to our competitors) as we now have 50 to 60 court cases filed against our actions.  We feel it is worth the effort.

On how outsourcing printing and relying on multiple print sites has helped the newspaper:

Zekert: We have outsourced one-half of our printing operation. Our contract printer is VGP, located in Passau, Germany. We also co-own our printing plant here, just outside of Vienna. Because Austria is so large we needed a second print site in order to get our copies delivered in a timely manner. We actually need a third site in southern Austria.  Our quality and service are matched between the contract printing site and our own operation. That is a big benefit for our newspaper.

On how the ability to produce heatset sections every day is allowing Österreich to distance itself from the competition:

Zekert: We have a daily heatset supplement inside our newspapers. Our competition only has one heatset supplement per week, which is printed in Germany on a gravure press.

Having the ability to produce a heatset section daily is a big advantage to the advertising market, especially for the big retailers. Our retail companies are always having a big price war, and our heatset capabilities let us print their ads with the latest prices.

Our competition has to farm out those heatset ads and thus they must be printed 10 to12 days before running.

A news desk where live Web TV updates are broadcast is located just above the newsgathering center (below) where journalists provide content for both the print edition and the Web.
 

On Österreich’s ratio of heatset and coldset pages in a typical edition and any changes that might be considered:

Zekert: We are now on our business plan in pages — 32 pages for the national section and 16 to 32 regional pages in coldset, and 32 pages in heatset.

On whether Österreich has plans to change other aspects of the newspaper such as size, weight of newsprint or the number of heatset sections:

Zekert: We have no plans to change our tabloid size. It is a good size because it is big enough to be considered a newspaper and yet small enough you can handle it. We have found that advertisers like magazines more than supplements.

As far as new sections, at the end of September we launched Madonna, a weekly magazine aimed at women and the younger audience. It’s a 4-color, 98-page, heatset magazine.

Madonna is sold on Saturday. A reader can buy a copy of Österreich with a copy of the magazine inside for $2.15 (€1.50).

Without the magazine, the newspaper sells for 70 cents (€.50). All during the following week, Madonna can be purchased as a single copy at $1.40 (€1). Of the Saturday copies sold, 80 percent include Madonna.

On the role automation has played in the production of Österreich and the software used.

Zekert: We use Digital Technology International software and connect that to Adobe InDesign. Printnet software from MAN Roland unit ppi Media is used to transmit pages.

On Österreich’s Web site and how that complements the printed edition:

Zekert: It is very important to broaden the target audience; therefore, you need to and must have a combined print and Web appearance. Our editorial staff creates multichannel editorial, used for the Web, print and television. It’s the same news delivered in multiple formats.

Our online revenues, while smaller than our print revenues, cover the costs of supporting the Web. You have to have a combined product to compete in today’s market.