Swiss digital alliance relies on optional logins giving access to more than 20 titles from CH Media, NZZ, Ringier and Tamedia

The four largest private publishers in Switzerland – CH Media, NZZ, Ringier and Tamedia – as well as the SSR have been collaborating since the end of 2018 on a common goal to improve the conditions for a personalized relationship with users. They are launching their joint "mach's persOnlich" campaign in German-speaking Switzerland to encourage their users to register on a voluntary basis.

CH Media, NZZ, Ringier and Tamedia are now proactively highlighting the importance and benefits of setting up a login for access to more than 20 German media titles. At the beginning of 2020, it is planned that this initiative will be extended to French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino. SSR is likely to join the publisher alliance in 2020 with an optional login. The online platforms of the titles participating in the first phase are as follows:

CH Media: Aargauer Zeitung, Luzerner Zeitung, St. Galler Tagblatt and all their regional editions

NZZ: Neue Zurcher Zeitung and NZZ am Sonntag

Ringier: Blick, Beobachter, Bilanz and Handelszeitung

Tamedia: Tages-Anzeiger, Basler Zeitung, Berner Oberlander, Berner Zeitung, Der Bund, Der Landbote, 20 Minuten, Langenthaler Tagblatt, Thuner Tagblatt, Zurichsee-Zeitung and Zurcher Unterlander

Content tailored to individual interests

The declared common goal of the Swiss Digital Alliance is to engage, through a login, a direct personal relationship, stronger than before, with the users of the online journalistic offers of media participating in the alliance. This is precisely what the overwhelming majority of major US technology groups are already doing. A personal login, which involves registering on an online platform, allows media companies to clearly identify their visitors. Without this, it is impossible to offer personalized journalistic content. Great importance is given to the fact that the registration is as simple as possible for the user: the email address and a password are sufficient for most participating titles. Only paid offers will require extended registration with more targeted questions.

As of October 15, 2019, when a user views the online offers of the partners of the Swiss Digital Alliance, he will be invited to register on a voluntary basis. If the user does not want to follow this registration request, he can close the pop-up window with one click, without this having any influence on his future reading. It will be able to continue to consult all the open access content of the media titles, without any restriction.

In addition to the advantages of a login, the Swiss Digital Alliance also intends to communicate in a transparent way about the framework conditions of a registration: for the user, the main interest of a relationship based on a login lies in the getting more personalized content. The higher the number of users with login, the more the publishers will be able to offer specific articles, information, videos and contributions to target groups and offer them to interested readers. The advantage of customization will not be immediate after registration, but will be revealed over time. These elements will be explained in detail to the readers via a dedicated page as well as a video.

More targeted advertising
In the medium term, the improved database through registration will also allow publishers to place more targeted advertising. This is a necessary step to strengthen the position of media companies in the face of competition from US technology groups. These already account for 60% of digital advertising spend in the United States.

According to estimates, all Swiss media companies together make about a quarter of the total turnover of online advertising (display and video). The remaining turnover is already benefiting mainly Google, Facebook or foreign media companies.

"As a publisher, we are facing global competition to attract users' attention. We must not fall further behind international Internet platforms in this area. These offer their users a sometimes excellent experience and the personal login is often essential in this respect ", explains Marc Walder (CEO Ringier).

Felix Graf (NZZ Group CEO) adds: "The journalistic offerings of Swiss media companies have a future in the digital world only if they have solid funding and are therefore competitive with the major US platforms. . Logins make a decisive contribution to this competitiveness. "

Since it was set up at the end of 2018, the initiators of the Swiss digital alliance CH Media, NZZ, Ringier, SSR and Tamedia have taken enough time to come to an understanding of the concept first and then to develop and evaluate different scenarios. . The expertise and assessments of lawyers and data protection specialists have been taken into account in this project. "We have been very careful to be transparent about the use of data. The trust of our users and readers is our most valuable asset, "says Axel Wustmann (CEO CH Media).

Next steps: regional expansion and single sign-on at the alliance level
Most companies involved in the Swiss Digital Alliance have not waited for the launch of this campaign for an optional login to adapt, each on their own, processes and data structures to make the connection as simple as possible. A first test concerning the messages appearing during login has already taken place this summer in German-speaking Switzerland with several hundred thousand users.

"From the first quarter of 2020, the simple and optional login will have to be extended to French-speaking Switzerland and, if possible, to Ticino, among the partners currently involved. For the fall, we have an additional goal, the introduction of a single sign-on (SSO) at the alliance level in connection with a mandatory registration, "says Christoph Tonini (CEO Tamedia).

The concrete definition of these next steps will depend on the results of the October campaign. A general registration requirement is in principle not feasible for the SSR.