Swiss television SF and radio DRS want to launch a joint news platform on the Internet as early as 2010. Since the publishers now fear for the advertising revenues of their own online platforms, they are announcing vehement opposition. According to Bazonline.ch, if SRG were to lift the online advertising ban, this would mean an additional annual revenue of 12 million.
The websites of Schweizer Radio DRS and Schweizer Fernsehen are to be merged as early as next year, writes the Basler Zeitung on Friday. This emerges from the internal newsletter of SF editor-in-chief Ueli Haldimann. Currently, the online editorial teams of radio and television work completely independently of each other. Until now, it had always been emphasized that the controversial merger of SF and Radio DRS would not be realized until 2011 at the earliest. However, the new news platform is already planned for 2010.

The business network Xing now offers its members the integration of the Twitter live search "Twitter Buzz". The micro-blogging service can be searched live for specific keywords using this application. Xing immediately suggests a few keywords from the profile page to members, such as company name or location. The application is still in the beta version. Members can add Twitter Buzz to their Xing profile free of charge. The application is integrated via an Open Social interface, which is also used to integrate the "Xing News" and "Ask Xing Members" applications. At the same time, Xing is opening up to third-party programs with Open Social. These will be introduced in the coming weeks.

Communications consultant Iwan Köppel, currently Managing Director of the CVP Canton of St.Gallen, will be joining the Alea Iacta Group, recently founded by Roger Tinner, in September. He will establish the new Alea Aacta Pr&Consulting unit as a partner.
Köppel has experience in consulting, PR and editing, advocacy, campaigning and association management. He has been party secretary and managing director of the CVP Canton St.Gallen for four years. Prior to this, he worked for five years as a consultant in a recognized Zurich communications agency for clients in business, politics and administration. At the same time, he represented the interests of and managed business and campaigns for associations and organizations, primarily in the areas of location, infrastructure and transport policy as well as health policy. The historian, political scientist and journalist also worked as a project manager in the communications department of the private banking division of a major bank and as a journalist for a regional newspaper.

Swiss Post has a new website as of today. The aim is to make it easier for customers to navigate the site. The portal should also make it easier for customers to access products and services. New navigation aids are designed to make searching for information faster and clearer.
The design of the new Internet portal was realized by the Aarau agency Mysign, while the Bern-based company Unic is responsible for the technology and content migration.

Plan.Net Suisse and Sunrise Communications have entered into a long-term collaboration. After the Zurich-based new media agency has already implemented several online campaigns for Sunrise, Plan.Net Suisse is now taking over the Swiss telecommunications company's Internet marketing activities as the main agency. Plan.Net Suisse will be primarily responsible for Sunrise's broad online communication on the Internet. In addition to the creation of campaigns including media planning, this also includes the realization of special productions as well as the implementation of sales and performance marketing activities for the provider of fixed network, mobile phone, Internet and data communication products.
As the next project in the joint collaboration, Plan.Net Suisse is launching an online campaign to promote the new HTC Magic Device with Google services, which can now be seen on high-reach Swiss Internet portals such as 20min.ch, Blick.ch and Search.ch as well as on the news portals of the Tages-Anzeiger, Basler Zeitung, Berner Zeitung and Thurgauer Zeitung.

Responsible at Plan.Net Suisse: Yvan Piccinno (Managing Director), Anke Buchta (Art Direction), Christian Aussem (Text), David Geiger (Consulting and Project Management). Responsible at Sunrise Communications: Priska Heger (Director Marketing & Communication), Marina Stierli (Senior Specialist Residential Customers).

"Stop advertising" stickers on letterboxes must be observed. With this decision, the Swiss Commission for Fair Trading, the self-regulatory body of the advertising industry, has ruled in favor of a consumer. The man had regularly received a magazine from the drugstore and pharmacy chain Sun Store, despite the "No advertising" sign on his letterbox. He therefore filed a complaint with the Fairness Commission
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Sun Stores argued that the magazine was an information magazine for which the sticker was irrelevant. However, the Fairness Commission ruled in favor of the consumer. It based its decision on the criteria of the WEMF for advertising media research and Swiss Post. According to these criteria, publications are considered to be newspapers or magazines if they are not primarily used for business purposes or advertising. They must also have an editorial content of at least 15 percent. This refers to articles written by a responsible editorial team for information, entertainment or education. In contrast, all types of overt or covert advertising are considered non-editorial content. This includes, in particular, articles that conspicuously go beyond the natural need for information about products, as the Fairness Commission writes.
According to these criteria, however, the Sun Store magazine is not a magazine, but a vehicle for commercial communication, the Commission concluded. The magazine served predominantly or even exclusively to advertise the company's products and services. If the complainant received the magazine despite the sign on the letterbox, this constituted unfair, aggressive advertising within the meaning of the law, the Fair Trading Commission continued. Sun Store was therefore ordered to stop sending the magazine to the man in future.

The St. Galler Tagblatt is reducing the size of its newspaper to save money. The daily newspaper is closing its external editorial offices in Frauenfeld and Amriswil at the end of the year. Tagblatt editor-in-chief Philipp Landmark justified the cost-cutting measures in the Friday edition with the dramatic slump in advertising due to the economic crisis. The losses at the Tagblatt amounted to 25 percent compared to the previous year.
From next week, the Tagblatt with its seven regional editions in St. Gallen, Rorschach, Rheintal, Toggenburg, Wil, Appenzellerland and Thurgau will be published in a new, streamlined structure. Sport and business are merged into one federation. At the end of the year, the Tagblatt will close its external editorial offices in Frauenfeld and Amriswil. Various departments of the editorial team of around 100 employees will be affected. Two employees will be made redundant. Landmark writes that this reduction is manageable and mild by Swiss standards. In May, the newspaper had already announced six job cuts in the editorial department.

At Twitter.com/Werbewoche you will now find the latest news as well as references to current and in-depth articles from advertising, marketing and the communications industry. Follow us!

Andreas Durisch from the Sonntagszeitung is the new President of the Conference of Editors-in-Chief. As the committee announced on Thursday, he succeeds Peter Rothenbühler, the former editor-in-chief of Le Matin. The editors-in-chief of the Swiss print and electronic media elected Martin Spieler from the Handelszeitung as Vice President.
New members of the board are Hannes Britschgi (SonntagsBlick), Michel Danthe (Le Matin Dimanche), Catherine Duttweiler (Bieler Tagblatt), Colette Gradwohl (Der Landbote), Béat Grossenbacher (Le Journal du Jura), Rudolf Matter (Schweizer Radio DRS) and Daniel Weber (NZZ Folio).
The Editors-in-Chief Conference is the sponsor of the Press Council. The association delegates three representatives to its Board of Trustees. Its objectives include maintaining contacts, media policy discussions and quality assurance in the media.

The regional government of the southern Siberian region of Altai wants to name a 3,410-metre-high mountain in the region after the Russian state gas giant Gazprom. It is not clear whether the chosen mountain already has a name. An official expedition is to climb to the summit of the mountain this summer and erect a giant Gazprom logo on the mountain peak. This was announced by the government on its website. Members of the regional parliament hope that the logo will be visible from afar. We can only hope that this idea will not spill over into Switzerland. Just imagine if the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau were replaced by Pfister, Nespresso and Nutella...