Page 27 - ASSET MANAGER 9 (EN)

ASSET MANAGER • NO. 9/2018 POST • 27
SWITZERLAND POST SHIPPING,
TWICE AS EXPENSIVE!
ASSET MANAGER is printed, texted, corrected, laid out and so on in Switzerland. As editors of ASSET MANAGER we attach great importance to the quality of being Swiss. With one exception: our mail.
Author: Roger Fromm, Founder INVESTORY AG
Our post office has special rates for sending news- papers AZ, AZA and AZB. However, before you can benefit from this special rate as editor, you need to check whether the OFCOM guidelines are cumula- tively fulfilled:
OFCOM GUIDELINES
• Periodicals that appear regularly at least once a quarter
• which do not primarily serve business and advertising purposes
• that are not free publications
• which do not weigh more than 1 kilogram with the supplement
• which can be handed over to at least 1000 paying subscribers or members of the post office (minimum quantity per dispatch = 1000 copies). At the latest at the end of the introductory year we require a valid certification for at least 1000 paid subscriptions or paid member/donor subscriptions.
• at least 15 % editorial share for titles without press promotion. For membership or foundation press, at least 50 % editorial share is required.
ASSET MANAGER is a free publication and does not benefit from AZB by definition.
However, these guidelines are different in each country, and a cross-check of the different countries shows signifi- cant differences in these guidelines as well as in the costs. Switzerland is one of the most restrictive.
Currently, ASSET MANAGER is sent from Germany to Switzerland, because our magazine meets the German
guidelines as a journal without any problems: The total cost is CHF 0.886 per magazine. Shipping from Switzer- land with B-Post costs CHF 1.80. That's an additional cost of at least CHF 4 570 per print run.
Our applications for an AZB tariff were rejected on the grounds that it was a free publication. Our free magazine and probably also other Swiss magazines are disadvan- taged in this way compared to foreign magazines, or are forced to relocate abroad.
If the production steps were shifted to Eastern Europe, ASSET MANAGER would substantially reduce costs. Throughout the entire value chain, Switzerland would lose not only tax revenues in the amount of the controversial postage costs, but also labour. That is not what we want.
Instead of cumulative compliance with the OFCOM direc- tives, it should be sufficient, as in other countries, for some of these criteria to be met. It remains to be hoped that the OFCOM guidelines will soon be adapted to the needs of today.