Internet company Yahoo is relaunching its web portal and investing around 100 million dollars in an accompanying international marketing campaign. The company hopes that this will enable it to boost both traffic to its sites and revenue in future. According to the press release, Yahoo also wants to open up to competing offers in future and allow users to integrate third-party web services - such as Facebook or Twitter - into the web portal. In the past, the Internet company has increasingly had to contend with competition from Google and other rivals and has not managed to turn its position as one of the most popular websites in the world into profits.

As of today, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung has a new look. This was celebrated with an elegant breakfast in Zurich's Terasse restaurant. Advertisers took the opportunity to talk about the new NZZ with the editors and employees from the publishing house.
It is the first truly comprehensive relaunch in more than 60 years. The original six frets had to make way for a new, lighter and more compact paper architecture. There are now three sections, as they say on Falkenstrasse: politics (foreign, domestic, regional), business and the stock market, and features. Sport can be found in the business section, while special topics such as research and technology are in the feature section. Both sport and special topics start on the back of the bundle. The first two volumes have five columns throughout, the feature section has four columns.
The elegant, unagitated redesign was developed and implemented by the Cologne-based design agency Meiré und Meiré in close collaboration with in-house art director Brigitte Meyer. The relaunch has been an outstanding success, one is even tempted to speak of a great success. Markus Spielmann headlines the new opinion page "Giving substance more aesthetics". You can't say more than that.
PCM

Albert P. Stäheli, CEO NZZ.

Dr. Daniel Hofer, member of UL NZZ.

Markus Spillmann, Editor-in-Chief.

Between 11 a.m. and 12 noon on Wednesday, around 50 journalists vented their discontent with a sit-in in front of the Edipress building. They were protesting against the dismissal of ten colleagues at the free newspapers Matin Bleu and 20 minutes. According to SDA, the participants in the sit-in criticized the fact that neither the editorial offices nor the staff associations had been consulted prior to the dismissals. The ten people affected had learned of the redundancies on Tuesday on the occasion of the merger of the two free newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland.
According to the union, the publishers of Edipresse and Tamedia have thus broken the rules: According to Dominique Diserens, secretary of the journalists' union Impressum, the law stipulates that publishers must meet with the social partners in advance of such layoffs in order to seek alternatives to the terminations. The publishers of Edipresse and Tamedia offered talks on Wednesday for the next day. Impressum hopes that the proposals of the two editorial offices will then be heard, Diserens added.
The last issue of Matin Bleu will be published on Friday. On Monday, the two editorial teams will already be working under one roof with the title 20 minutes.

Since the first screen-up in October 1999, the television landscape in Switzerland has changed quite a bit - in every respect.
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Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Let me tweet you something: tweeting makes you stupid. That's what a clever Scottish psychologist from the University of Stirling found out. At least she thinks so. Her theory: the 140-character short messages on Twitter make little demand on the working memory, require little attention and therefore hardly strengthen the networking between nerve cells. In comparison, Facebook is clever - because complex actions such as inviting friends or chatting require the brain to work hard and constantly short-circuit its synapses. The more complex the functions, the more active the working memory, the smarter the user. The result is obvious, isn't it?
The 140-character rant following this publication was unreadable. Tenor: "If Twitter made you stupid, we would probably have noticed!" All angry people know what the researching lady missed: keeping it short is difficult. It's much more complicated than explaining content at length, meandering from stick to stick and from thought loop to thought loop and not knowing where you started at the end of the sentence. You don't need scientific analysis to realize this. A little self-experimentation is enough.
Well, whether the brain works when tweeting depends on the message you want to spread: "Make coffee" is not really a particular challenge and does not provide the reader with any particular insight. But if you see Twitter as a medium for providing information, exchanging opinions and winning people over, you not only need your brain stem, but also the rest of your thinking apparatus, nerves included. Highly compressed information requires highly concentrated action.
Once again, in 140 characters: Tweeting can stress you out, drive you crazy. Whether tweeting makes you smarter is debatable. But the compression exercises don't make you dumber.
Anne-Friederike Wilhelm - @AFWilhelm - @werbewoche

Aroma's management has been redefined: Division heads of the competence areas of creation, consulting, planning/realization/logistics represent the strategic cornerstones in the company management: Jeannette Bours, new Managing Director and Head of Consulting, previously Deputy Managing Director and Head of Consulting, Roger Stämpfli, new member of the Executive Board, Head of Creation/CD, Sandro Hunziker, still member of the Executive Board, Head of Planning/Realization/Logistics. Founder and owner Lukas Meier is still a member of the Executive Board with a focus on strategic corporate management and takes care of corporate communication as well as customer-specific special projects.
Jeannette Bours, Deputy Managing Director and Head of Consulting since 2005, took over the management of Aroma in June 2009. Before joining Aroma, Bours was responsible for communications/sponsorship at Radio 24 and Tele Züri as well as Cinerent OpenAir. She was also responsible for event concepts/management at Wundermann (Y&R Group) and worked as a consultant for new media communication at Futurecom (Y&R Group).
Roger Staempfli was appointed to the Aroma management team in June 2009. He has been Creative Director at Aroma since 2007 and worked as a freelancer in exhibition design, object construction and styling for eight years before his move. He then worked for seven years as Deputy Head of Marketing, Head of Window Dressing and Art Director at Loeb.
Sandro Hunziker joined Aroma in 1998 as Head of Planning and has been heavily involved in the further development of the company since then. He has been a member of the Executive Board since 2005 and Head of Planning/Realization and Logistics since January 2009. Before joining Aroma, Sandro Hunziker worked for 6 years in the architecture and construction industry, where he acquired his expertise in design and planning.

From left to right: Roger Staempfli, Sandro Hunziker, Jeannette Bours, Lukas Meier.

"In the course of technological evolution, the internet is exploding into the real world. People will always be online and will have the opportunity to add a layer of digital content to reality in real time." This was the conclusion reached by trend researcher Daniel Bischoff at the 3rd Conference on Technology Outlook and IT Trends organized by Future Network at the University of Zurich on Tuesday, according to the press release. Bischoff believes that while mobile devices in particular currently enable a digital superimposition of reality via image recognition, web connections and display technologies, in future glasses, contact lenses or even tiny implants will also be used to project this additional information directly onto the human eye.
There is no shortage of ideas and visions, some of which have already been tested in pilot projects. In future, for example, it should be possible to simply stroll through the area when looking for an apartment. If you like a block of flats or a house, you can use the camera on your cell phone to point at the property. The additional digital level provides information on available apartments and also provides information on the rental price and landlord contact. The Android development Layar is already experimenting with links to existing platforms and user-generated content such as Wikipedia, Flickr or the local Google search.
Revolutionary turning point in technological development
Completely new game concepts are conceivable for the gaming industry thanks to virtual overlays of the real world. And traditional print media could benefit if the physical product offers additional virtual information and 3D graphics when viewed via a cell phone or laptop camera. "This development will result in completely new business models, as people will always be prepared to pay money for relevant information," says Bischoff in an interview with Pressetext. The direction of this technological and content-related evolution is already clearly emerging. According to Bischoff, however, it is difficult to predict in detail which business idea will actually be crowned with success by 2020.
"We are currently experiencing a revolutionary turning point in technological development," emphasizes Moshe Rappoport from IBM Research. The convergence of various developments in hardware and software as well as the strong integration of social components - keyword social networks and user-generated content - is creating a digital aha effect of unimagined proportions. "Just a few years ago, computer scientists, academics and business people were the main users of computers, but now the overwhelming majority are private users of computers, cell phones and other technological devices. Unlike in the past, IT today must therefore define itself by the fact that it makes our everyday lives significantly easier and solves global problems," says Rappoport in an interview with Pressetext.
In order for a large number of private users to benefit from the technological achievements, developers still have a lot to learn, especially when it comes to intuitive usability and a simple user interface, criticizes Rappoport. It is annoying, for example, when Swiss train passengers miss their connection because the user interface of the electronic ticket machine is too complicated. Rappoport attributes the success of the iPhone to the fact that it can be used in a playful way by both young people who have grown up digitally and the older generation - the so-called "digital immigrants".
Rostock University Professor Clemens Cap, on the other hand, warned of a potential disaster caused by the misuse of private information and personal data: "With all the great opportunities that technological developments are opening up for private users, but also in business, we must also ask ourselves certain ethical questions." When people are increasingly integrated into the digital world via technical aids, including implantable RFID chips, and feed personal information into it, this naturally pushes boundaries that inevitably lead to protests, says Cap.
Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant data
In view of such dangers and the fact that mobile devices in combination with mobile data packages are the driving force behind current technological developments, Austrian carrier equipment supplier Kapsch CarrierCom believes that telecommunications providers have an advantage. "Compared to many internet portals, the telcos enjoy far higher trust ratings. This could give them a more important role in the future when it comes to storing and managing sensitive online user data," emphasized Engelbert Kerschbaummayr, Director Customer Solution Management at Kapsch, at the Zurich conference.
The IT experts also identified the associated flood of data as a further problem of rapid digital development. "The new word creations petabyte, exabyte and zettabyte already prove that we have a problem. According to an IDC study, the total amount of data generated will increase to 1.8 zettabytes - around 1.8 billion terabytes - by 2011, while the available storage space will fall to around 50 percent," explains André Golliez, President of the Swiss Informatics Society. "Companies are therefore well advised to develop a plan now on how to distinguish relevant from irrelevant data and how to tackle the long-term storage and archiving of important data."

The timing was not without a certain piquancy: on the last day of this year's congress of the Swiss Press Association in Interlaken, of all places, it became known that Radio Energy's appeal had been rejected by the Federal Administrative Court. Ener¬gy came away empty-handed in the reallocation of FM frequencies for the Zurich-Glarus broadcast area. The decision of the Federal Council was supported by the Federal Administrative Court and is therefore legal. The popular and successful station will therefore only be allowed to broadcast until the end of the year. More than 270,000 listeners will miss their station, and 60 employees will be out on the street.
The reactions at the congress were accordingly. "There is deep disappointment. A media ban on a blameless, good broadcaster is absolutely incomprehensible. Politics has failed if it allows such a concession procedure," said publisher president Hanspeter Lebrument. SVP National Councilor Natalie Rickli was outraged: "It's a huge scandal that the state is shutting down a functioning medium." FDP National Councilor Filippo Leutenegger struck a more moderate tone, saying, "Given the tight regulation of the Radio and Television Act (RTVG), the decision was foreseeable, but it's still incomprehensible."
The new RTVG was a forceps birth. Conrad Meyer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the AG for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, said in an interview with Werbewoche in April 2008 about the RTVG: "A cumbersome, elaborate process in which I ask myself whether these forces that are at play then really lead to the best result." The endless debates in the large and small chambers made the regulations more and more complicated and rigid. The control screws were tightened more and more. The fee splitting advocated by most publishers led to further covetousness on the part of politicians. It was not the market that was supposed to decide, but the performance mandate. The term "public service" became the mantra of the regulators, which was eagerly followed by the radio producers. There was never any talk of a guarantee of vested rights for stations that were established and successful in the market. The expected concession money made them forget the fear of too much state control and regulation. The publishers allowed themselves to be lulled into a lull.
Ringier hoped to the end that their appeal would be successful. Now they want to apply for an interim frequency until broadcasting via DAB+ will be possible.
Regulation triumphed over common sense. The obscure public service won out over market success. Even pithy words are no longer of any help.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]

Media Focus The advertising market grew slightly in August for the first time in five months. Advertising worth CHF 256.6 million was placed in the media, 0.8% more than in the previous year. In July, the advertising market had fallen by 1.0%. TV, radio and posters were the main media to record growth. However, the print media continued their steep decline. Since the beginning of the year, the daily, weekly and Sunday press media group has recorded gross advertising losses of CHF 85 million compared to the same period last year. Vehicles in particular saw an increase in advertising in August (+ almost 46 %). The IT segment also saw a significant increase (+just over 30 %). Media Focus also registered significantly more advertising in the energy, non-profit campaigns, political campaigns and pharmaceuticals segments. Advertising activity for watches and jewelry declined the most (- 43 %), in particular due to the decline in watch advertising.

Rotary swaging is a processing technology for metal parts that hardly anyone knows about. Not even proven specialists. In order to make the precision-mechanical cold forming process more popular with target groups in the automotive, furniture and medical technology industries as well as in mechanical and apparatus engineering, the agency at the airport created a swaging campaign that has been on display in specialist media, on the web and as a mailing and brochure since September 2009.
Responsible at Roundtech AG, Flums: Paul Hafner (Managing Director). Responsible at the agency at the airport: René Eugstair (CD), Dominique Rutishauser (AD), Benita Sutter (graphics), Patrick Lindner (text). Plasticine artwork: Eva Witschi, Illux Birrwil. Photo: Vision Studios, Balgach.

Facebook wants to convince the advertising industry of the potential of advertising on its own platform. In order to achieve this goal, the social network has now teamed up with the market research company Nielsen, which will independently examine the effectiveness of advertisements on the community page in future. In this way, the main aim is to achieve greater credibility with regard to its own advertising effectiveness. "The new external evaluation will make it clear to companies that advertising on Facebook works," explains Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of the community platform, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

When the strong knight in iron armor walks through flames to pull us out of the mess and show us the way, and angelic figures wrap their comforting soft wings around us, giving us a feeling of security, we usually imagine we are in a fairy tale. These two archetypal opposites are the result of a storytelling exercise for a crisis blog: Crisis-experienced participants were invited to share stories about their personal crises. The aim of this approach was, on the one hand, to uncover the emotional needs of people in crisis. On the other hand, the aim was to understand how these concerns are transferred to the reality of the economic crisis and what influence they can have on emotional brand management.
People who have experienced crises - ranging from identity and marital crises to job loss and bankruptcy - are relatively relaxed about the consequences of the economic crisis. This is because they have learned in their lives that crises are also opportunities. Opportunities for change. They also hope that the crisis will bring substantial renewal. The clarifying thunderstorm of the economic crisis should bring a change in values: away from the culture of greed and towards a return to values such as humanity and sustainability.
Consumer behavior in the economic crisis
But how will consumer behavior change during the economic crisis? This was recently investigated in an international study using a similar approach in countries that have already been hit harder by the crisis than Switzerland. In England, France and Germany, consumer culture has already changed noticeably. The days of carefree shopping as an expression of a hedonistic attitude to life are definitely over. Shopping is once again becoming a conscious act. Spontaneous shopping sprees are subject to self-censorship. Going out, spa and hairdresser visits have become fierce opponents in the personal planned economy of consumers. The reality of shopping in the countries concerned has become a daily struggle to calculate. The aim of consumers is to indulge in as much of their old lifestyle as possible while still being able to put money aside. This is primarily achieved through strategies of replacement or compensation. Luxuries are dispensed with, small everyday comforts are rationed and washing-up liquid, for example, is diluted with water to extend its useful life. A new culture of DIY seems to be developing. Going out less and inviting friends home more often. Examples like these show the new consumer culture that is likely to reach Switzerland soon, depending on how the economic crisis progresses. However, according to the international study, "conscious shopping" does not just mean being cost-conscious. On the other side of the scale, sustainable products are becoming an everyday luxury that can be indulged in by those who can.
What does this mean for the brand world?
And which brands are the potential crisis winners? 500 Swiss people were asked which brands make them feel good in times of economic crisis. Participants were able to choose three brands from over 300 different product categories in the food, near-food and non-food sectors that make them feel particularly good. The three preferred brands were then evaluated using 32 validated mood boards, which depict different emotional positioning dimensions.
Migros was chosen by 61% of the participants, making it the clear winner, followed by Coop with 28%. M-Budget follows in third place, ahead of Aldi and Denner. Of the international brands, H&M, Coca-Cola and Nivea made it into the top ten. The dominance of retail brands in this ranking is not particularly surprising: where you can save money, you feel at home during the crisis. While the discounters Aldi and Denner are able to distinguish themselves primarily through consumers' cost awareness, they do not have a clear profile in terms of emotional positioning. Migros and Coop are different: both retailers position themselves through dimensions such as authenticity, familiarity, Swissness and naturalness - the emotional equivalent of a consistent sustainability strategy on both sides. Why is Migros so clearly preferred over Coop? This is probably due to the fact that the brand has succeeded in positioning itself well in terms of price and at the same time clearly distinguishing itself on an emotional level.
If we analyze the emotional positioning profiles of the other strong brands in more detail, a comparison with the archetypal typology mentioned at the beginning is obvious. The emotional profiles of the successful brands either resemble the strong knight, who conveys success and signals security and departure through his leadership strength. Or they appear more angelic and are characterized by positioning dimensions such as security and familiarity.
Migros and Coop manage to appeal to both poles. Their sustainability strategies convey leadership, while their Swissness positioning creates a feeling of familiarity and security among consumers.
The change in values longed for by the crisis blog participants is therefore confirmed by the results of the quantitative part of the Swiss study. At least as far as consumers' emotional brand perception is concerned, values such as sustainability and authenticity appear to be on the rise.
Alain Messerli