Jürg Rötheli, CEO of Swisscom Participations and a member of Swisscom's Group Executive Board since 2001, will leave the company at his own request at the end of August 2009 after more than ten years of service, the company announced on Thursday. He will be succeeded by Dieter Bernauer, previously Head of Business Steering Swisscom Switzerland. The new Head of Business Steering will be Mario Rossi, who is returning to Swisscom from Fastweb. Peter Burmeister will take over his role as CFO Fastweb as of July 1, 2009.
Jürg Rötheli joined Swisscom in 1999 as General Counsel and has been CEO of Swisscom's investment portfolio since 2005. In this role, he restructured and strategically realigned several companies. He also made various acquisitions in Switzerland and abroad, which he integrated into the company and managed. He also carried out a Group-wide space optimization and outsourced facility management.
In his role as CFO Swisscom Mobile, his successor Dieter Bernauer had built up and further developed the financial area of the mobile division since 2001. Since mid-2007, as Head of Business Steering Swisscom Switzerland, he has integrated the financial areas of the three Group companies Fixnet, Mobile and Solutions in terms of organization, processes, culture and IT architecture and introduced a new financial management system.

Google presents itself as a "friend" of all newspapers and reacts to the measures announced by the Associated Press (AP) news agency against news aggregators. After the AP announced at its annual general meeting that it would be taking tougher action against Internet providers that exploit unlicensed content in the future, the head of Google is now trying to calm things down. According to Pressetext.ch, Schmidt does not want to accept the frequent accusation that Google News undermines the copyrights of newspapers. "From our point of view, there is always a tension around the issue of fair use and it's about balancing consumer interests," says the Google boss and calls on newspapers to think in terms of readers' needs.
Over the years, Google has repeatedly been criticized for its news search, but has now been able to achieve numerous collaborations, most recently with various news agencies. Schmidt told Pressetext that he was surprised that many media reported that the AP was directly attacking Google with its announcement. After all, the company has only recently concluded licensing agreements with the news agency and can therefore use AP articles legally, he emphasizes.

The Ruf Lanz agency has developed a campaign for Lienhardt & Partner to draw the attention of potential clients to the Zurich-based private bank. According to a press release, Ruf Lanz has succinctly summed up the advantages of Lienhardt & Partner - and is not stingy with topical allusions. One of the subjects reads: "We are an old-fashioned bank: tax money flows from us to the state, not the other way around." In another, the headline reads: "Many banks are posting record figures today. But ours are in the black."
The advertisements appear full-page in NZZ and Bilanz.
Responsible at Lienhardt & Partner Privatbank Zurich: Dr. Markus Graf, CEO . Director Private Banking, Christian Lienhardt, Managing Partner, Director Risk Management & Finance. Responsible at Ruf Lanz, Zurich: Danielle Lanz, Markus Ruf (CD), Andreas Hornung (text), Lorenz Clormann (AD), Michael Gassler, Michèle Leibacher (consulting). Photography money clip logo: Felix Streuli.

Preventing a slump in demand: against the backdrop of the economic crisis, the Bernese cantonal government wants to promote tourism marketing. To this end, it is now making an additional 700,000 francs available to the tourist destinations over two years.
The funds are to flow in part into Switzerland Tourism's marketing offensive, in which the Bernese destinations will have to contribute between 200,000 and 300,000 francs, as the canton of Bern announced on Thursday. The destinations had not budgeted for these funds. Switzerland Tourism will fight against the expected slump in demand with a campaign in the most important markets. The federal government has earmarked 12 million
francs are available. The tourism industry is contributing CHF 3 million.
The additional funds are limited to the next two years, according to the press release. They come from the accommodation tax, which is temporarily being passed on in full to the destinations. Normally, tourism destinations only receive 90 percent of the levy.
As a result of this reallocation, less money will flow into the tourism fund. According to the Bernese cantonal government, this fund currently contains sufficient funds so that the increase will not lead to any reductions in services.

Are we Swiss all criminals? Many Swiss are currently asking themselves this question - the issues of banking secrecy and tax fraud are making waves both nationally and internationally. The agency JWT+H+F worked with Are-we-swiss-all-criminals.ch has created a website to facilitate public dialog on the topic. The website is intended to provide a non-partisan platform for discussion on the subject of banking secrecy and tax fraud, according to a press release. The accompanying advertisement shows a normal Swiss family peacefully enjoying a fondue. The only striking feature: the family is wearing black masks.
"In the current debate, class politique and high finance are only trying to push through their own interests. What citizens really think is not being discussed at all. We want to change that. From now on, we will have our say," JWT+H+F CEO Remy Fabrikant is quoted as saying in the press release. No economic interests are being pursued with the project.

Advertising slogans in times of crisis: According to the latest advertising trends study, copy is currently being written with more of a "we" feeling, more English and more artificial words.
For their latest study, representatives of the German Trend Office and the online platform Slogans.de examined 5196 newly introduced advertising claims. The result is the realization that in times of crisis, branded goods manufacturers are focusing their advertising language across all sectors on conveying a sense of community, high quality, performance and optimism. As a result, the "we" is currently gaining ground as a principle for success in slogan language. Words such as "Together" have increased significantly in 2008 compared to previous years. The English language is also increasingly finding its way back into advertising jargon: the word "We" is among the 15 most frequently used terms in German claims for the first time this year.
In addition, advertising today makes significantly more promises of quality. "Clear information is on the rise," Inga Wermuth, founder and managing director of Slogans.de, told Werben & Verkaufen. After the extremes of "stinginess is cool" and a luxurious premium image, there is now a return to pure value-for-money promises.

The internet is the most important medium for the Swiss. This is shown by a study conducted by the Young & Rubicam Group. Under the leadership of Chief Strategy Officer Caspar Coppetti, the media usage behavior of 1,500 people in Switzerland was analyzed. The most important media brands, the credibility of various media and the popularity of media for entertainment and news were also examined. The "Media Use Index" study, which was conducted for the first time, is to be repeated annually.
What are the most important media brands for the Swiss personally? Among the under-29s, it is the social media platform Facebook with a share of 48.5%. People over 50, on the other hand, prefer SF 1 (with 50.4%). Among the young, 20 Minuten (42.2 percent approval) and Pro 7 (35.3 percent) follow, while among older people it is local radio (36.2 percent approval) and DRS 1 (32.3 percent). The analysis relates to German-speaking Switzerland.
When consumers are asked which channels they use for entertainment, current affairs, sport and product information, it is clear that the internet dominates in three out of four areas: Current affairs, sports information and product information. The Internet is most dominant in the search for product information: almost 80 percent of respondents use the Internet as their most frequent source of information. Only when it comes to entertainment is television still in first place: 54.4% of consumers prefer to be entertained by TV. Looking only at the under-20s, the Internet is already on a par with TV as an entertainment medium.
The sources from which consumers obtain information on products/services depend heavily on the product category. Advertising is most frequently used as a source of information for beauty and cosmetic products, fashion and food. In other words, products that tend to be classified as low-involvement and are impulse-driven.
Online comparison services are the first choice as a source of information for banks, insurance companies and health insurance providers. The customer advisor is the most important source of information for cars, furniture, over-the-counter medicines and sporting goods. In other words, where professional advice is important for consumers.

Gemi. The Goldbach Index (Gemi) shows the strength of electronic media in February in an adverse economic environment: Internet continues to grow in February with 8 index points to 386. The medium thus continues its relatively strong growth since July 2008 and continues to position itself as the leader among electronic media. Radio rose by 3 index points to 249 in the month under review. TV and teletext each fell by just one index point to 446 and 160 respectively. The e-media together maintained their previous month's level of 429 index points, while the index for all media fell by one point to 191. When assessing the index, it should be noted that the thirteen previous months are seasonally smoothed in the short-term analysis.
The Gemi provides information on the indexed development of the various electronic media in comparison to the overall market since the introduction of the first advertising window in 1993. The monthly seasonality is filtered out of the time series in a two-stage process. In the short-term view, the past thirteen months of the electronic media TV, radio, online and teletext are shown.

Building a New Electric World. That is Schneider Electric's corporate promise. Using energy more efficiently, reducing environmental impact and "providing access to energy for all" is the declared aim of the pioneer in global energy management. Schneider Electric has 120,000 employees in 102 countries. The headquarters are located in Paris. The Swiss branch employs 160 people.
The experts at Schneider Electric calculate that 40 percent of the energy consumed on this planet is accounted for by industry and infrastructure. Up to 30 percent of this could be saved with new technologies such as those offered by Schneider Electric. A rewarding task for the creative minds at Cosmic in Berne to come up with an innovative approach in the B2B sector. The team led by CD Thom Pfister launched the first image campaign for Schneider Electric three years ago. Innovative themes such as hydropower and wind energy are now being visually incorporated into the continuation. There was also a redesign for the versatile and cross-thematic Schneider Electric collage. This all-encompassing form of visualization is used from the corporate level to cover page designs and product advertisements.
Andreas Panzeri

Under the leadership of CEO Alfonso von Wunschheim, the Swisscom subsidiary Local.ch is on course for growth. Following a successful start-up phase, the platform is now set to grow rapidly and is therefore creating new jobs. According to an OTS press release, ten new jobs are to be created this year. The current 26-strong team is looking for reinforcements in the areas of software engineering and marketing.
Von Wunschheim is convinced of local.ch's business model. The platform is benefiting from the fact that more and more SMEs are recognizing the benefits of the Internet as an advertising platform. It currently has around 2.5 million users per month.
Local.ch is Switzerland's regional search engine for private and business directory entries, events and classified ads. The merger of the official telephone directory and the Yellow Pages on the Internet at local.ch has created one of the most widely used web platforms in Switzerland. Last year, the platform generated over 41 million Swiss francs. The Swisscom Directories company was founded in November 2005. This makes local.ch part of the joint venture between Swisscom and Publigroupe, which is responsible for the joint marketing of printed and electronic directories.

Gérard Tschopp, Director of Radio Suisse Romande, was elected as a new member of the Publisuisse Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday. He succeeds Walter Rüegg, Director of Swiss Radio DRS. Net turnover fell from 342 million to 327 million.
Following Tschopp's departure, the Board of Directors is now composed as follows: In addition to TSR Director Gilles Marchand as Chairman and Paul Nyffeler (Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks) as Vice Chairman, Dino Balestra, Director of RSI, Roger Basler, Managing Director Europe Dyson SA, Ingrid Deltenre, Director of SF, Nico Issenmann, owner of Issenmann AG, Daniel Jorio, Director of Finance & Controlling at SRG, are also members.
The business figures for last year were also published: Publisuisse reported total net sales of CHF 327 million for 2008. The previous year's result (CHF 342 million) was therefore not quite reached (-4.5 percent).
The marketing of traditional television advertising for SRG channels generated net sales of CHF 293 million (-5.3% year-on-year). The other business areas (television and radio sponsorship, Tele News Combi, Tele Romandie Combi, "Espace TSR" screens, crossmedia, UBS Arena) achieved a positive result totaling CHF 34 million (+3% year-on-year).
Operating income amounted to CHF 308 million (-4.6 percent compared to the previous year), while net profit after tax was around CHF 2 million.