Marc Lottenbach is taking over as publishing director of 20 Minuten Online. The 28-year-old will take up his new position on July 1, 2009. He succeeds Stephan Obwegeser, who is moving to the Swiss search and directory portal Search.ch as the new CEO.
Marc Lottenbach has been with 20 Minuten Online since 2005 and has headed the Sales Online & Crossmedia team since fall 2007. During this time, he has played a key role in the expansion of 20minuten.ch and the development of new advertising offers. Together with his team and Editor-in-Chief Hansi Voigt, Marc Lottenbach will continue to develop the news portal.
Before joining 20 Minuten, the qualified marketing planner worked as Sales Manager for Publicitas Web2com for one and a half years. He previously worked as Junior Product Manager at SevenOne Media and as Assistant to the Sales Manager at Ringier.

The public affairs and public relations agency Furrer Hugi & Partners celebrated its third birthday on Tuesday. The company, which has offices in Bern, Zurich and Brussels, is now expanding its workforce.
The agency was founded on June 1, 2006 in Bern and Zurich by Lorenz Furrer and Andreas Hugi. It started as a 3-person agency. Since then, the company has grown continuously in the areas of lobbying/public affairs and public relations to 11 permanent employees, two associated partners and a number of freelancers. In the summer of 2008, the agency took the step abroad and opened its own office in Brussels. This is managed by consultant Norina frei. She is supported in her work on site by freelancers in Switzerland and Belgium.
We are also announcing a new addition to the team: Alexandra Thalhammer will join the Furrer-Hugi team as the sixth advisor on July 1. The historian was previously political secretary in the FDP General Secretariat, where she was responsible for the areas of education, research and innovation and supported the FDP parliamentarians on the Commission for Science, Education and Culture.

Exactly one year ago, Ringier launched the commuter newspaper Blick am Abend. It has been a success. From mid-August, the paper will also be available in Lucerne, Zug, St. Gallen and surrounding communities.
The first Blick am Abend, the successor to the evening newspaper Heute, was published on June 2, 2008. The average for the first week was 205,034 pick-ups. Since then, an average of 245,401 copies have been taken from the boxes every day. According to Mach Basic, the newspaper is read by 313,000 people every day. Particularly often by people between the ages of 14 and 34 who have an above-average level of education and income.
The distribution area is now to be expanded from mid-August: The territorial expansion in central Switzerland will take place from Baar to Horw/Emmen, with a focus on Lucerne and Zug. In eastern Switzerland, it will extend from Wil to Lake Constance, with a focus on St. Gallen, Ringier wrote in a press release on Tuesday. At the same time, the existing distribution network in the existing areas of Berne, Basel and Zurich will be further consolidated. As a result, readership will exceed the 500,000 mark from August 2009, the press release adds.

More than 22,500 works from 86 countries were submitted to the Cannes advertising festival this year. A total of 552 came from Switzerland. This represents a decline of around 20 percent compared to 2008. There were fewer entries in eight of the eleven categories, with only the two categories Design and Promo receiving roughly the same number of works. In the newly created PR Lions category, 431 entries from 48 countries were submitted.

Wirz Werbung also scored at the New York Festivals. In the print category, it made it onto the shortlist with its ad for client Accubike,
in the category Ambient Media the work Hochhaus was nominated for the customer Jobwinner.

There is a new name on Maxomedia's client list: Grand Casino Bern. The agency for cross-media communication came out on top against several competitors in a two-stage pitch. Maxomedia is now responsible for the redesign of the existing Grand Casino Bern website. The relaunch of the site is planned for late summer.

At its General Assembly, the Swiss Direct Marketing Association SDV decided to expand its Executive Committee. The outgoing President Jakob Nef, who has been appointed Honorary President, will be replaced by a five-member collective body. From now on, the association will be headed by a member of the Executive Committee for one year at a time. Milo Stössel (MS Mail Service, St. Gallen) was elected as the first SDV President at the request of the Board of Directors. The collective body also includes Fabian Egger (CAT Medien, Baden), Christian Huldi (dr.huldi.management.ch, Meilen) and Corinne Harder (SDV Association Manager).
The SDV Board of Directors has also been expanded: Erik Neumann and Roger Rüegger are replacing Roelof Koopman, who has stepped down. Neumann has been CEO of Publicis Dialog since April of last year. Roger Rüegger has been Executive Creative Director at Wunderman for a year.

Code of honor is enforced internally
The General Assembly has authorized the Board of Directors to take immediate action against members who violate the Code of Ethics and also to report the perpetrators to the Swiss Commission for Fair Trading (SLK) or initiate legal proceedings. The SDV wants to strengthen the credibility of the association and the industry with this new regulation, as stated in a press release.

The newly elected SDV Executive Committee.

Change of president: Milo Stössel replaces Jakob Nef.

The entire board of the association.

The job cuts at the Tagesanzeiger have also affected the editorial team in Winterthur. The two long-standing editors Martin Gmür and Jürg Schmid have been made redundant "for economic reasons". The 53-year-old Gmür has been reporting on the city for over ten years, while the 58-year-old Schmid has been working in regional reporting for almost 20 years, according to an article in the Landbote. The 50-year-old Roger Keller, who set up the Winterthur editorial office in the 1990s, was also made redundant.
Only René Donzé, who is a lot younger and has been with the newspaper for a shorter time, will be allowed to stay, but will have to move his workplace to Zurich until further notice. However, the Tagi has no intention of withdrawing from Winterthur. Reductions will be made in all departments. "We still have some journalists with the necessary know-how about Winterthur in the Zurich editorial team," Edgar Schuler, the head of the department responsible, told the newspaper.

In Flagranti has designed a communication figure for Postfinance. This is intended to advertise the new service of making transfers by SMS. The promotional figure called Handyman - the personified cell phone - is intended to make the product benefits and their possible areas of application easy to understand. The yellow Handyman enjoys the role of savior in the payment crisis. He appears nationally in the cross-media advertising circus in mailings, promotions at festivals and in a cell phone campaign.
From May 1 to December 31, 2009, Postfinance is giving away a flight ticket "Around the world" every month. Anyone who has paid at least once with their cell phone, transferred money by SMS or topped up their call credit with their cell phone will automatically be entered into the prize draw.

Responsible at Postfinance: Marketing communications team for private customers.

In future, the internet company Google also wants to sell new literary publications as electronic books. Until now, only scanned older books, which are no longer subject to copyright, have been offered. A company spokesperson announced on Monday that the venture is to be launched this year.
The e-books should be readable on any internet-enabled device such as cell phones. This should make Google a serious competitor for the internet bookseller Amazon. The market leader also sells e-books over the internet, but they have to be read using a special electronic reading device such as Amazon's Kindle.

The print magazine Kult is back. From June 10, 2009, Kult.ch will feature cheeky satirical observations on the media and party landscape, politically incorrect socially critical reflections and interviews. In addition to familiar articles, such as those by chicken seller Handirr, there will also be new containers and sections.
Kult founder Rainer Kuhn has brought together most of the old team of authors for the relaunch. Kult.ch is like the "old Kult" with the old bite, according to a press release issued on Tuesday. There will be a big comeback party on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Seefeld-Razzia, Seefeldstrasse 82, 8008 Zurich.

Cult band (from left to right): David Hugentobler, Alex Flach, Rainer Kuhn, Midi Gottet, Thomas Meyer). (Photo: Oliver Nanzig).

Manuel Staub took over as Head of Corporate Communications at Basler Zeitung Medien on June 1, 2009. Prior to this, the 35-year-old held various positions in the company, most recently as Deputy Head of Corporate Communications. Staub replaces Walter Schäfer, who took early retirement.
Manuel Staub worked for several years in program management at Radio Edelweiss (now Basel 1) and presented for Radio Basel 1 and Telebasel. He worked in marketing and communications at "Der Leader Personal" in Basel. He is also involved in the organizing committees of many major events in Basel. He will complete his Master's degree in Communication (MAS Corporate Communication Management) in spring 2010.