Among the great philosophical questions, mankind is particularly interested in one: Where am I going? More precisely: Where am I going tonight? Starting today, Züritipp will answer this question online every day. Zueritipp.ch presents seven tips for going out in Zurich and the region every day from Monday to Sunday, according to a statement.
The print offering will be expanded and refined by the online editorial team: "Listen today to the album of the band playing tomorrow in Zurich. Click through picture galleries of the reviewed exhibition. Trailers accompany all film reviews. Speaking of which, haven't you always wanted to give our critics a piece of your mind? Use the comment function and rate the films yourself," the new offering is touted in the release.
What else is new? One has become more beautiful, but also more practical: "You forgot the name of the current movie with Brad Pitt? No problem: search by name, but also by club or music style, and the intelligent search immediately suggests events and reviews. The restaurant search is also impressive: whether it's a cheap Japanese restaurant in Kreis 4 or an upscale French restaurant with a garden terrace - with our restaurant search, you'll finally eat what, where and how you want."
Züritipp is also new on Facebook. "Share our daily tips with your friends. You can read news, rumors and recommendations from the gastronomy, music and art sectors in the Twitter box. There, our authors publish first and foremost when something is happening in Zurich's cultural life."

Tamedia suffered a 15.9 percent drop in sales to 389.0 million francs in the first half of 2009. Profits plummeted: they amounted to CHF 0.8 million, compared to CHF 59.4 million a year earlier. The operating result at EBIT level fell by 95.2 percent to CHF 3.5 million, as the Zurich-based media group announced on Thursday. The corresponding margin amounted to 0.9 per cent after 15.5 per cent in the same period of the previous year. Tamedia's result in the first half of 2009 was characterized by "a sharp recession and a slump in advertising investments". The decline in advertising investments since June 2008 has worsened. Job advertisements in daily newspapers, for example, have fallen by 47.4 percent. As in previous economic cycles, this slump has hit Tamedia's leading job supplements Alpha and Stellen-Anzeiger with full force, the press release continues. Tamedia has taken extensive cost-cutting measures to counteract this. Cost-cutting measures totaling CHF 47.8 million were implemented in the first half of the year. The measures had a negative impact on the half-year financial statements with one-off restructuring costs of CHF 7.9 million
In the press release, Tamedia is not very specific about future developments. Due to the economic outlook, the media company expects advertising revenues to continue to decline until the end of 2010. However, as a result of the announced cost reductions and thanks to synergy effects, it should be possible to achieve a noticeable improvement in results from 2010 onwards.
End of Solothurner Tagblatt
Tamedia also announced that the Solothurner Tagblatt will be discontinued by the end of September. The paper, a regional edition of the Berner Zeitung, has been making constant losses in the millions in recent years, according to the statement. The closure, which is subject to the statutory consultation procedure, will lead to the loss of 13.8 full-time positions, affecting 17 employees.

At IFA 2009, the world's largest trade fair for consumer electronics, Sony is presenting
Consumer Electronics, the new Group-wide claim "Make.believe" - that is:
make dot believe. With this slogan, the company is introducing a uniform claim for all entertainment and electronics divisions worldwide for the first time. According to the press portal, the slogan bundles all communication measures in the areas of electronics, games, film, music, cell phones and network services.

www.presseportal.ch
www.sony.de

The Italian Kombi between the renowned weekly magazine Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich and the monthly magazine Italian News is being published for the first time this week. The Kombi starts immediately, with a circulation of 160,000 copies. According to a statement from Italian News, readership is estimated at around 182,000.
The magazine is aimed at all people in Switzerland who cultivate Italianità, who are interested in fashion, travel, cars, gastronomy, culture, but also in politics and sport. Italian News promotes the lifestyle of Italian culture and "Made in Italy", which will appear in the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich and Italian News on October 21. According to the press release, the official publication of the city of Zurich, Tagblatt, has always seen itself as a medium that brings people together and was the first newspaper in Switzerland to publish a multilingual page since 1989 with Pagina Italiana. Both products now jointly offer the Italian Kombi, which includes an advertising offer with a price reduction of 40 percent.

www.italiannews.ch
www.tagblatt-zuerich.ch

Whether the maximum advertising impact of posters can be achieved if the same advertising motif can be seen in as many places as possible in a small format or on an extremely large poster cannot be said with absolute certainty. However, the CDU now seems to have found the ultimate solution to this question. After the party called on its supporters on the Internet to send in portrait pictures of themselves, a poster was designed. Now 1,800 citizens are using their faces to advertise for another term in office for Chancellor Angela Merkel on an area of 1,660 square meters. The CDU's election poster is the largest in Germany. The supporter poster with the slogan "We have the strength" has been hanging in the middle of Berlin since Tuesday. And it will be on display on Straße des 17. Juni, one of Berlin's most important traffic arteries, until the end of September, as the party announced on Tuesday. According to Sueddeutsche.de, the poster covers scaffolding behind which parts of the historic Charlottenburg Gate have been rebuilt since 2007.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de

Ringier now offers its readers, listeners, users and customers in Switzerland additional gifts
and offers: Customers will benefit from admission to events, concerts, movie previews, sporting events and a range of different gifts. As part of its strategic realignment, Ringier Switzerland is placing the club in the "Entertainment, Electronic Media & Events" division.
According to the Ringier press release, the new club will focus on the network; the various offerings of Ringier subsidiaries and affiliates will be woven into the offering, and the club will find a stage in all newspapers and magazines as well as on radio and TV programs.

www.ringier.ch

The PoubliGroupe magazine Persönlich announced today, Wednesday, that the magazine will be published with a new concept in the coming days. The two publications Persönlich Rot and Persönlich Blau will be merged into one monthly magazine entitled Persönlich. The new magazine will be published ten times a year. The portal now teases with the byline "Swiss business magazine for communication".
Personal Purple: Personal Blue and Red will be merged from September
The slump in the advertising market and the economic crisis had accelerated the decision to merge the two magazines, the publisher explained in June.

www.persoenlich.com

Effective immediately, Swiss national Patrik Hug will assume overall responsibility for both countries as Country Manager Switzerland and Austria at Open Text. Hug has already worked as Sales Director for Open Text in Switzerland and Austria. He brings ECM know-how from previous positions as well as his experience in operational business to his new area of responsibility. He was also involved in various company acquisitions and worked for companies that were taken over by Open Text.
Before joining Open Text and Obtree, which was sold to iXOS in 2003, Hug, who holds a federal diploma in information technology, held various technical, operational and consulting positions at ABB, IDS Scheer and Compuware. During and after the acquisition of iXOS by Open Text, Hug continued to support customers in the document management environment as Key Account Manager and was responsible for all major projects. In January 2006, he was promoted by Open Text to Sales Manager, in August of the same year to Sales Director Switzerland and in February 2009 to Sales Director Switzerland and Austria.

www.opentext.com

The online auction house Ebay has sold its loss-making Internet telephony subsidiary after around four years. A 65 percent stake was sold to a group of financial investors led by Netscape founder Marc Andreesen. Nevertheless, the company has failed to exploit the potential of one of the world's largest communities, says brand expert Markus Hübner, Managing Director of Brandflow, in an interview with Pressetext.com. eBay will be very angry about this.
The Group will now receive around 1.9 billion dollars from the investor consortium, but invested around 3.1 billion dollars in the Skype purchase in 2005. The remaining 35 percent of Skype is to remain in eBay's possession.
Although the company has seen a significant increase in Skype customers over the past four years, jumping from 50 million to over 400 million, Web 2.0 world market leader Facebook only has less than 300 million members by comparison. Skype is also valued at a total of 2.75 billion dollars according to Pressetext.com, but had to write down its telephone business by 1.4 billion dollars in 2007 alone.

www.pressetext.ch

The Stöhlker agency, based in Zollikon, is now communicating for the European Mountain Villages Football Championship. The European football competition, which took place in Valais for the first time in 2008, strengthens the idea of football as a unifying force and draws the public's attention to the motivation and competitiveness of mountain dwellers, who have to hold their own in Europe in an increasingly demanding environment, the agency writes in a press release. The first European Mountain Village Championship took place in 2008, shortly before EURO 2008, in the Valais mountain village of Gspon at an altitude of over 2000 meters. The 2nd European Mountain Village Football Championship will take place from 24 - 27 May 2012 in Austria, in Kleinarl in Salzburgerland at an altitude of 1014 meters above sea level. The organizing committee has already secured the support of FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who is one of the founders of this competition.

www.stoehlker.ch

ZKB awards the ZKB Sustainability Prize for SMEs for the first time. Druckerei Feldegg was one of the three winners in this competition for sustainability. On Monday, August 31, 2009, Erwin Oberhänsli received the prize for his many years of success in environmentally friendly production from Charles Stettler, Head of Corporate Clients at ZKB. His company was awarded third place. The owner-managed Zurich-based company is regarded as a pioneer in sustainable media production, writes the Swiss Printing Industry Association VSD. A total of 66 SMEs took part.
As a pioneering, regional graphic arts center for the environmentally friendly production of exclusive printed matter, Druckerei Feldegg is making a name for itself, as the family business has been committed to greater sustainability in its operations for almost 20 years now, as the press release explains further. Druckerei Feldegg was the first company in Switzerland to implement the VSD concept for the climate-neutral printing process. According to the press release, climate-neutral printing means offsetting CO2 emissions that are difficult or impossible to reduce with current technology by saving the same amount elsewhere. The holistic context with the integration of other aspects of environmental protection makes climate-neutral printing truly credible: this includes energy efficiency, paper from sustainable forestry, certified environmental and quality management systems.

www.druckindustrie.ch

Swiss public affairs and communications consultants launch the blog Wandelhalle.ch. It addresses the topic of transparency in political communication from the perspective of active lobbyists and public affairs experts. The initiators are convinced: "A modern democracy needs lobbyists".
The Wandelhalle.ch blog is a discussion platform for topics related to political communication. It is aimed not only at active communication experts, but also at all interested parties from politics, business, public administration and the general public. Officially launched on September 1, 2009, it also focuses on the transparency debate surrounding lobbying in Switzerland. Editorial responsibility lies with the two initiators Andreas Hugi (Furrer.Hugi&Partner) and Markus Kaufmann (complizen). It is their declared aim to be able to discuss current and relevant topics as controversially as possible. To this end, contributions from guest authors are also published on the blog. The discussion should be transparent and open to the public. Transparency is also the credo of the two blog initiators for their work in political communication.

Public affairs and communications consultants have launched the lobbyist blog Wandelhalle.ch, which addresses the topic of transparency in political communication from the perspective of active lobbyists. Andreas Hugi (Furrer.Hugi&Partner) and Markus Kaufmann (complizen) are the editors in charge and present their positions on lobbying, transparency and corporate citizenship, for example in a "plea for lobbyists". Other professional colleagues are also invited to express their opinions. In addition, guest authors will regularly publish their opinions. The first step will be taken by Bruno Frick, member of the Council of States, and Lukas Golder from gfs.bern.
With this blog, the initiators of Wandelhalle.ch would like to make an active contribution to the discussion and the formation of political opinion. The Wandelhalle.ch blog is partisan in the best sense of the word: it takes sides with the lobbying profession, but clearly advocates transparency and professional ethics and engages in a debate with other demands and proposals. "A modern democracy needs lobbyists," is the credo of the two bloggers.

www.wandelhalle.ch