Newspapers tweet, news agencies tweet, companies tweet, private individuals tweet. Boundaries between service providers, media and recipients are becoming blurred. Everyone is involved, somehow. For communication professionals, however, "somehow" is never good. Twitter tips for advertisers and writing professionals.
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Swiss television recently launched a video portal on which all programs can be watched free of charge. In addition to the video contributions, users can also find information on which programs have been watched the most and which have received the highest ratings. The "Tagesschau" can also be broken down into contributions, with the number of views being calculated for each one. According to research by Tagesanzeiger.ch, weather reports and criminal cases were at the top of the popularity scale in recent days. Users, on the other hand, were less keen on top-heavy topics. While the key figures are interesting for viewers but only of limited use, Swiss television is all the more interested. User behavior influences the design of TV programmes, admits SF press spokesman David Affentranger. True to the motto: give the audience what it wants. Mind you, this is not just about which feature films are shown, but which topics the newsroom will focus on in future - and this at a broadcaster with a public service remit.

Europe's largest television company, RTL Group, is responding to the collapse in advertising revenues with a strict cost-cutting course for its programs. As the advertising markets are not expected to recover quickly, the aim remains to cut program costs even more than before, said RTL CEO Gerhard Zeiler. Production and purchasing would have to be cheaper.
In the first half of 2009, the turnover of RTL with its more than 70 radio and TV stations and globally operating production companies fell from 2.86 billion euros in the same period last year to 2.59 billion euros. The group, which is majority-owned by Bertelsmann, had made a profit of 391 million euros at the same time last year.

www.sda.ch

Lockers Reloaded
Saatchi & Saatchi has developed a creative concept for an integrated «Back to School» campaign for its new client, Manor. At the heart of the campaign is a clear idea that plays a defining role in the lives of schoolchildren: the locker. Building on this, the agency developed not only the «style and feel,» as Creative Director Jürg Aemmer explains, but also contest ideas, interactive games, and a downloadable class schedule. «Achieving such an integrated result—from POS to online to traditional media—requires new models of collaboration,» says strategist Pascal Schaub with conviction.
Saatchi & Saatchi and Manor found the solution in having resources from both sides work very closely together from the very beginning—the British call this a «fluid organization.» You could also say it’s about learning with and from one another.
With an eye toward the future, Manor’s brand identity was implemented in a consistently integrated manner. This was only possible because all disciplines worked together across boundaries—without departmental silos—toward the same vision. From Visual Factory, which handled the window displays, to the brand managers, and on to the online specialists. Those involved agree: the model has passed the test. Further implementations by Saatchi & Saatchi and Manor will follow.

Switzerland: Fold It Yourself
Since mid-August, four new «Only an Ad Can Do That» themes have been appearing in about 100 newspaper and magazine titles: the ads «The Primer,» «Short and Sweet,» «Globi,» and “Schweizer Brauchtum,” each featuring folding instructions. If you follow the instructions, the half- or full-page ad transforms into a handy little booklet in Reclam format that showcases the power of advertisements. The idea comes from Silvio Seiler of Wegelin & Co. Private Bankers. He had won the Swiss Press Association’s competition earlier this year. Together with the five ad concepts from the other winning team, the association will be running a campaign through the end of the year featuring nine ad concepts in various sizes and language versions.

Only license areas with commercial programming; values: market share in % within the license area, based on the first half of 2009. Source: Mediapulse Radio Panel.
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Around 5000 subscribers in the Zurich area did not receive their newspapers on Wednesday morning. According to SDA, the Zurich newspaper carriers are taking strike action to protest against wage cuts of up to 20 percent in early newspaper delivery in Zurich and large parts of eastern Switzerland. This would cut the low wages of the delivery staff, which are just under 20 francs per hour gross. On Wednesday morning, around 60 newspaper carriers gathered at the Volkshaus from 4 a.m., as Hans-Peter Graf, Central Secretary of the Comedia union, said on request. The staff are determined to continue the strike if Zuvo-GL does not want to negotiate genuinely.
The media unions Comedia and Kommunikation had called for the protest meeting and the warning strike. They are calling on the management of the delivery organization Zuvo - 50 percent Tamedia, 50 percent NZZ - to withdraw the wage cuts announced in March and to enter into serious negotiations with the two unions. To this end, they have issued an ultimatum until next Monday. Otherwise, they are threatening further action.
In the current crisis situation, a wage reduction of up to 20 percent could lead to a serious problem for people in a low-wage area, as Comedia and the communications union explained. They called on the management of the delivery organization Zuvo to reverse the massive wage cuts and enter into serious negotiations with the two unions. However, Zuvo has not yet responded to the demands, Graf continued. The two unions also appealed for the understanding and solidarity of subscribers affected by the strike action, should their newspaper not be in their letterboxes.
For the publishers of Tages-Anzeiger and NZZ as founders of Zuvo, as well as for Swiss Post, which wants to acquire Zuvo and is hoping for a wage reduction that was previously implemented, such an approach is inhumane and simply a disgrace, the SGB wrote on Wednesday. It expresses its solidarity with the strikers and their unions and assures them of its full support.
Around one percent of newspapers not delivered on time
Zuvo has around 3,600 employees and is responsible for early newspaper delivery in Zurich and large parts of eastern Switzerland. Around 2 percent of the 2,200 Zuvo employees affected by the wage cuts took part in the strike on Wednesday morning, said Zuvo media spokeswoman Sonja Levy when asked about the action.
Around one percent of the newspapers were not delivered on time. Levy could not yet say how the Zuvo management would react to the demand for negotiations. She referred to an agreement reached last week with the Zuvo employee representatives.
For one-off compensation payments (the trade unions speak of "measly
amounts"), Zuvo has provided 450,000 francs. According to Levy, a large number of Zuvo employees have already signed the new contracts with the lower wages.

www.sda.ch

The statement in Werbewoche of 13.9.09 that the magazine Woman in Business is the first independent business magazine for women in Switzerland is incorrect. The women's business magazine Business and Woman (www.businessandwoman.com) has been available in German-speaking countries, including Switzerland, since October 2008. The issue at the end of September 2009 also features Switzerland. In the cover interview, Giselle Rufer, founder and owner of the watch manufacturer Delance, answers B&W's questions. Since the middle of the year, B&W has also been flying as the magazine with the concept in first and business class on selected flights operated by the renowned airline Swiss International Airlines Limited. The publisher is Pantheon Media Limited from Cologne. With a total circulation of 20,000 copies, B&W is published quarterly. B&W is a mixture of business topics, advice, lifestyle, trends in health, management and culture, and of course success stories: Here you will find portraits of and interviews with women in leadership and key positions. All written by a team of female specialists and experts (tax consultants, lawyers, business economists, doctors, psychologists, etc.). B&W is exclusively represented in Switzerland by the advertising agency proud Mary GmbH in Zurich. Women in Business is therefore not the first independent business magazine for women. This statement is incorrect. It is also incorrect to say that all other publishers have failed with such magazines: Business and Woman has already been in existence for a year.

This year, the juries nominated a total of seven projects for the Corporate Communications Award and the Media Relations Award. The following organizations made it onto the shortlist for the Award-CC and Award Media Relations: Brandpulse Zurich with Victorinox, cR Werbeagentur bsw Basel with the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, the agency erdmannpeisker Biel with the mountain sports brand Mammut, Berne Declaration Zurich with the "Ilisu Dam in Eastern Turkey" project, Heads Corporate Communications Zurich with the University of Zurich, Weisse Arena Gruppe Laax with the marketing of the LAAX winter resort and Syngenta International Basel with the "Grow more from less" communications project.
The Corporate Communications and Media Relations Awards will be presented again this year on Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 5.30 p.m. as part of the Swiss Forum for Integrated Communications at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland in Olten. The all-day forum starts at 09.00 a.m. and is entitled "The end of classic communication".

www.award-cc.ch
www.forum-kommunikation.ch

The Federal Council is opposing a project by the National Council's Political Institutions Committee (SPK). This provided for parties to be allowed to advertise free of charge on radio and television before federal votes. According to SDA, the national government believes that this encroachment on the freedom of broadcasters is not suitable for promoting political parties. In addition, the plan contradicts the decision of the councils to maintain the ban on religious and political advertising in the Radio and Television Act.
According to the Federal Council, SBB has offered the political parties the option of displaying a joint poster with a slogan on the proposals in the larger stations before referendums. However, the parties have never made use of this offer. The SPK would like to bring more fairness to the referendum campaign with the free advertisements from the parties and the referendum and initiative committees. The Commission must now decide whether and in what form it wishes to submit the legislative amendments to the plenary. Otherwise, we can only guess how long the Swiss parties will wait to come up with an alternative to Teleblocher.

A Publisuisse commercial is currently running on SF in which sports presenter Matthias Hüppi is made fun of - parodied by cabaret artist David Bröckelmann. However, according to the TV magazines Tele and TV-Star, there was never an official inquiry as to whether Hüppi agreed to this use. "I was simply informed that this commercial was going to be shown and thought: Yay, then go ahead." He could live with it, said the 51-year-old diplomatically, because indirectly "the income would also benefit SF Sport".

www.publisuisse.chf
www.tele.ch
www.tvstar.ch

From October, the former local radio station Basel 1 will become Radio Basel with studios in Basel and Liestal. Eight of the 16 employees have been made redundant, as announced by Radio Basilisk co-founder Christian Heeb's Media for Adults. At the same time, a further 14 members of the editorial team have been recruited, according to the press release. The team is to be further expanded before the start of broadcasting. However, Radio Basel already has more employees under contract than Basel 1.
On August 21, Medien für Erwachsene MFE definitively took over Basel 1 from the former owner Basler Zeitung Medien. MFE, owned by local radio pioneer Christian Heeb and German entrepreneur Karlheinz Kögel, announced details of the relaunch on Wednesday. The new name will be Radio Basel. The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Sven Hoffmann, the Delegate Christian Heeb. The board also includes Hansjürg Deutsch and Franz C. Widmer are also members of the board. The publisher of Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, Mathis Lüdin, is also up for election. Heeb is also CEO and is responsible for journalistic management. The management team also includes Widmer (Quality/Training), Alexandra Parisi (Central Services), Sandra Schiess (Editorial Management), Markus Vogt and Frank Linhard (Chiefs of Service) and Nick Schulz (Head of Music).

www.sda.ch

Ad development In the first half of 2009, the Swiss press lost around CHF 176 million in net ad sales compared with the previous year. Compared to 2007, the figure is around 204 million. By Ueli Custer.
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