The 56-year-old publicist and journalist Hanspeter Spörri from Teufen has been elected president of the Saiten association at the general meeting, as reported by the publisher of the eastern Swiss cultural magazine on Monday. Spörri was elected unanimously. He replaces Peter Dörflinger, who chaired the association for five years and is now moving to Chur for professional reasons.
According to a press release, the Saiten association's accounts for 2008 were balanced. Advertising revenue and membership fees increased once again compared to the previous year. The association has been publishing the cultural magazine of the same name for 15 years. In November 2008, Saiten was awarded a recognition prize by the city of St. Gallen.

The business titles of Axel Springer Switzerland - Bilanz, Handelszeitung, Stocks - and the trade journals are moving closer together. The titles will be centralized in terms of production, layout and proofreading, as CEO Ralph Büchi told the Sonntag newspaper. Although an overall editorial team is out of the question, the editorial teams will work more closely together. This mainly affects the Invest section, which will be completely merged under the management of current Bilanz editor Hansjörg Ryser. Three jobs are expected to be cut by the end of the year as part of this project.
Axel Springer Switzerland had a record year in 2008. According to Büchi, the advertising slump in the business titles occurred exactly at the turn of the year 2009 and amounted to 30 to 40 percent. In the financial sector, advertising fell by as much as 50 percent.

At the Cannes advertising festival, the shortlists of seven of the twelve Lions categories have been announced so far. Swiss agencies are also among the nominees:

Press Lions
JUNG von MATT/LIMMAT, Zurich: THONG, PROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION
JUNG von MATT/LIMMAT, Zurich: SLIP, PROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION
JUNG von MATT/LIMMAT, Zurich: BOXER, PROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION

Outdoor Lions
KRIEG SCHLUPP BÜRGE/SPRINGER & JACOBY, Zurich: : SWISS NATIONAL PARK, AMAG AUTOMOBIL- UND MOTOREN
KRIEG SCHLUPP BÜRGE/SPRINGER & JACOBY, Zurich: VIAMALA AMAG AUTOMOBIL- UND MOTOREN
KRIEG SCHLUPP BÜRGE/SPRINGER & JACOBY, Zurich: SAN BERNARDINO AMAG AUTOMOBIL- UND MOTOREN
KRIEG SCHLUPP BÜRGE/SPRINGER & JACOBY, Zurich: FLIMS AMAG AUTOMOBIL- UND MOTOREN
RUF LANZ, Zurich: COMPUTER SPECIALISTS RECRUITING, MCKINSEY & COMPANY
EURO RSCG GROUP SWITZERLAND, Zurich: HEARTBEAT, ZURICH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
EURO RSCG GROUP SWITZERLAND, Zurich: TEAR, ZURICH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Radio Lions
No Swiss agencies

Direct Lions
No Swiss agencies

Media Lions
ADVICO Y&R, Zurich: REVOLVING POSTER HILLARY, SONNTAGSZEITUNG
KRIEG SCHLUPP BÜRGE/SPRINGER & JACOBY, Zurich: SALTO FOR BEGINNERS, MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES
WIRZ WERBUNG, Zurich: FORK, TIBITS VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT
walker, Zurich: EBAY ATTACK, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Promo Lions
walker, Zurich: EBAY ATTACK, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PR Lions
SPILLMANN/FELSER/LEO BURNETT, Zurich: ZURICH'S BEING SOLD, CABARET VOLTAIRE

To the shortlists:
> Press Lions
> Outdoor Lions
> Radio Lions
> Direct Lions
> Media Lions
> Promo Lions
> PR Lions

Exxtra Kommunikation has created four new subjects for the Migros Léger brand campaign. The natural black and white shots of the reigning Miss Switzerland tie in with the existing print campaign and combine with the message of the Léger line "Pleasure without remorse". Léger has been the sponsoring partner of the Miss Switzerland organization since 2007. The new advertisements can now be seen in various newspapers and magazines.

Responsible at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives, Zurich: Sven Guggenheim, Sibylle Widmer (Marketing Communication Brand/Label Management), Sandra Stöckli, Eliane Züger (Category Management). Responsible at Exxtra Kommunikation, Zurich: Dieter Hofmann (CD), Andrea Dübendorfer (AD), Nina Treml (text), Michael Broglin (Client Service Director), Claudia Kuhn, Tobias Schoen (consulting), Véronique Vial (photos).

The Washington Post's days as a left-liberal paper are over. If the newspaper caused the Republican president's political demise during the Watergate scandal, the newspaper makers are now fighting for the other camp. The Washington Post strongly supported George W. Bush - with neo-conservative columns, among other things - in his fight against terrorism. Now they are clamoring about Obama's reticence on Iran. Another indication of the shift to the right came recently when the left-wing blogger Dan Froomkin was fired. He had already not minced his words during the Bush years and wrote columns on the Post website in 2007. The liberals may now have finally said goodbye to their former jewel. Instead, the conservative circles now have a quality Washington newspaper - in addition to the TV channel Fox and the business channel CNBC.

In cooperation with IG Adscreen, Media Focus has included digital advertising space in its statistics. The new AdScreen medium can now be measured against the traditional media groups. Developments and trends can be determined and compared retrospectively from 2007.
In 2007 and 2008, the media group generated gross advertising revenues of CHF 9.3 million and CHF 7.3 million respectively from digital advertising space. This means that it is not quite on a par with the Teletext media group.

The competition for the cultural brand, the trend brand and the cultural manager of the year 2009 has started. Cultural institutions and projects in German-speaking countries can apply for the awards in the three categories until September 15. The competitions are organized by the agency for marketing and communication Causales with the support of Deutsche Post DHL.
With the award, which is being presented for the fourth time, the organizers want to promote innovative marketing ideas and brand management, as well as professional management in the cultural landscape, according to a statement on Monday. The winners will be chosen by a jury of experts, who will present the awards at the Kulturmarken Gala on October 29 at Berlin's Admiralspalast.

Further information and registration at Kulturmarken.de.

Marti & Partner is giving the Zurich Open a boost in terms of communication. To this end, the Zurich agency is working with Corporate Events, which is responsible for organizing and staging the golf event on 22 and 23 June at the Schönenberg Golf & Country Club. With the development of a new tournament logo, the focus is on corporate design work. The advertisers from Mühle Tiefenbrunnen have also created a new concept for the extensive programme booklet and positioned Corporate Events as a partner for the organization and implementation of golf events with an advertising campaign.

Responsible for corporate events: Michel P. Burckhardt (Initiator and OC President). Responsible at Marti & Partner: Peter Marti (management), Nadine Kündig, Beat Staudacher.

APG has launched a poster campaign on its own behalf. Under the slogan "We ensure clean air", it draws attention to the fact that the Affichage subsidiary succeeded in reducing its environmental impact by 20 percent in 2008 compared to 2004. To this end, the outdoor poster company operates a fleet of gas-powered vehicles. In addition, 100 percent green electricity is used for illuminated advertising. The use of "Naturemade Star" electricity has even led to a 50 percent reduction in the environmental impact of electricity since 2006.

A political advertisement in a newspaper should also be clearly labeled as an advertisement. This is the result of a decision published on Monday by the Swiss Press Council in a case concerning the Baslerstab. On September 22, 2008, the free newspaper belonging to the Basler Zeitung Group published a two-column article with the headline "Spektrum der Parteien" and the headline "Heute: Grünliberale Basel-Stadt". In it, a party representative took a stand against the rent protection initiative of the Basel Tenants' Association.
The association then demanded that a counterstatement be printed, as in its opinion the text contained false statements. However, the Baslerstab rejected this as it was not an editorial contribution. The publisher also stated that it was a paid advertisement, the content of which would only be checked for serious violations.

Danger of confusion with column
The Press Council did not respond to the tenants' association's complaint that its right of reply had been violated due to a lack of jurisdiction for advertisements. However, the Baslerstab had violated the Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Journalists, which requires a clear visual and conceptual separation of editorial content and advertising, with the text of a political party that was not clearly marked as an advertisement. The regular column title and political content could also give rise to the misconception that it was an editorially supervised column.

The Ringier subsidiary Media Swiss is building up an online business in Vietnam. Media Swiss has acquired the company Nhat Viet Group, under whose umbrella all of the Group's future online activities in Vietnam will be developed. 70 percent of the company shares have been acquired to date, with the remaining 30 percent to be taken over at the end of 2012. Following the purchase of two online platforms in Croatia and Serbia, Vietnam is the fourth country in which the media company is pushing ahead with the development of digital marketplaces.
The Nhat Viet Group, with 30 Vietnamese software engineers and an offshore software development team, provides IT services for Ringier and Media Swiss. The company will also be implementing e-commerce projects in the near future.