By Christo Volschenk
The Swiss business magazine Bilanz published an interview last week with Christian Unger, CEO of Swiss media group Ringier, on the company’s digital strategy. We publish excerpts below. Go here for the full interview (in German).

Mr. Unger: Our company is built on three pillars, namely publishing, digital activities and entertainment. That’s also the direction taken by other media groups, such as the Daily Mail Group, Lagardère and Bertelsmann. In the long term we aim to earn roughly one-third of our revenue from each of the following streams:

• our publishing activities in Switzerland;
• our digital activities in- and outside Switzerland, plus entertainment and new business models such as ticketing, events and radio;
• and from our joint venture with Axel Springer operating in Eastern Europe.

Overall, we are happy with the way our digital strategy is unfolding. In Switzerland the big online portals AutoScout and ImmoScout are doing very well. The job portal Jobs.ch, in which we hold a 15 percent stake, is also very successful and so is our coupon portal DeinDeal.ch. In Slovakia the acquisition of Azet.sk by RingierAxelSpringer made us the market leader in that country. Furthermore, RingierAxelSpringer doubled its income from digital activities in a single year.

But, the digital business demands risk-taking and experimentation. Even when a smaller project doesn’t develop as expected, we still gain valuable experience. With online projects one can wait and later buy at a high price, build something in-house, or one can spot market opportunities and get involved early with partners. We try all three ways. The experience gained is used on other projects. For instance, in the past three years we launched 120 apps, of which only three flopped. I don’t know of another media company with such a success rate when it comes to innovation.

The projects launched in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria cost us less than one million Swiss frank. (Read here about Ringier’s African projects – clients only.) We want to discover new markets. A company must allow itself such test projects. A year or two from now we’ll see if a business plan can be developed out of these test projects. Every now and then one must embark on initiatives which are not entirely return-driven. For instance, three years ago we put money into an investment fund in China, which will pay back next year. The investment quadrupled, but initially we didn’t invest for a return. We wanted to learn about new business models. The fund invested in the leading Chinese coupon portal Lashou.com. Armed with the experience we gained there, we acquired DeinDeal.ch.

The risks are very low in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.