Andrej Vckovski (l.), President Simsa, with Claudio Dionisio, President Best of Swiss Web.

Jury members Dieter Jäpel (l.) and Andreas Fuhrer, both IT SBB.

Roman Hirschbrunner, Maxomedia, Stefan Haas, SBB, and Markus Schärer, Web2com (from left).

Patrick Gschwind, Nina Portmann and Andreas Plattner, all from X-Site and winners in the Public Affairs category (from left).

Winners in the Online Marketing category: Lukas K. Smith, Liip, Anja Schuster and Stefan Dingerkus, both Unic (from left).

AZ Medien has merged the previous online presences of its newspapers in a new website. Under www.a-z.ch news by department and region as well as event tips are now also available. AZ Medien announced on Friday that the new website has significantly expanded its offering. The new online face also applies to the Solothurner Zeitung newspaper and its supplements.
The Basellandschaftliche Zeitung is also part of the new website. The other two partners in the Mittelland Zeitung media network, the Oltner Tagblatt and the Zofinger Tagblatt, continue to operate their own websites.

Under the motto "Why wander far away, the good things are so close", the Diebündner agency has designed images for the opening of an Asian Fusion restaurant. The new restaurant of the gastronomy group of the Zurich Women's Association is now being advertised at APG poster sites. The campaign is being supported with print subjects and below-the-line measures. It cannot be ruled out that the campaign will also be used for other Mishio locations in Switzerland, according to a statement from the agency.

TBWA/Zurich designed and realized the website for Say Chocolate. Who is interested in Saychocolate.ch can choose the number and flavor of the pralines and label them themselves online with letters or symbols. The finished culinary message is then sent to the customer by post.
The web design is deliberately based on the traditional craft of typesetting and thus forms a contrast to modern programming methods, according to a press release from the agency. The aim is to transport users back to a world of days gone by, in which the best materials were lovingly crafted into high-quality products.
The Seefeld agency is also responsible for the product design and packaging of the individual pralines.
Responsible at Say Chocolate, Zurich: Pino Nocilla (owner). Responsible at TBWA/Zurich: Frederick Rossmann (CD), Peter Bietenholz (text), Laura Grümann, Sabrina Gorgi (graphics), Vera Süssli (consulting), Raphael Brugger (web).

The Hamburg-based magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr suffered significant losses in sales and earnings in the 2008 financial year. Compared to 2007, sales fell by 2.2 percent to 2.77 billion euros, the operating result before special items fell by 14.8 percent to 225 million euros and the return on sales was only 8.1 percent (2007: 9.3 percent). There was also a slump in EBIT, which fell from 226 to 170 million euros. After a satisfactory performance in the first half of 2008, "the economic recession in the second half of the year left its mark on all European advertising markets and thus also on G+J's sales and earnings," the publishing house said in a press release. Growth areas are seen in international markets, in the Expand your Brand process and in a further diversification of business in corporate publishing or in digital marketing.

The tender documents and regulations for the 2nd Award for Marketing + Architecture have been published. Architects, clients and marketing experts can enter their corporate architecture project with immediate effect. The competition documents are available at Marketingarchitecture.ch viewable.
The award ceremony will take place on April 23, 2010 at the Culture and Convention Center Lucerne KKL. The Award for Marketing + Architecture is presented to those who have planned and realized projects in an exemplary manner according to the principles of high-quality corporate architecture (CA). The competition is explicitly aimed at SMEs as well as large companies.

The agency Megura from Wettingen is expanding its expertise in the web sector. With the takeover of the web design agency Flickflauder GmbH, Megura now offers classic communication services and web measures from a single source.
The previous owners of Flickflauder, Emil Enzler and Yvonne Canonica, are setting up their own web department at Megura. The two companies have already worked closely together in the past on the realization of Internet solutions.

(Image: Yvonne Canonica and Emil Enzler)

Wolfram Scherer worked for 20 years as a permanent copywriter/concept developer in various Swiss agencies. Bosch & Butz, McCann Erickson, Smart Factory, Weber, Hodel, Schmid and most recently the Reinhold advertising agency were Scherer's previous stations. He now wants to write and design copy freely. From individual writing jobs to project-related assignments in agencies, including art direction, Scherer will be available for almost anything in future.

The six channels of Swiss Radio DRS achieved a market share of 64.2% last year, 0.3% less than in the previous year. More and more people are using the new digital radio.
The programs on Swiss-German radio reached an average of 2.9 million listeners in 2008, 0.7 percent more than in the previous year, as the station announced on Thursday, according to SDA. Last year, the German-speaking Swiss listened to an average of 123 minutes of radio per day, six minutes more than in the previous year.
Digital radio (Dab) was on a growth trajectory in 2008. Following the closure of the Beromünster medium-wave transmitter in the autumn, a large proportion of former medium-wave listeners have now switched to digital radio, with sales of digital radios soaring to over 200,000 sets in 2008.
According to Radio DRS, the expansion of the digital transmitter network is almost complete, including in the mountain regions.
Last year, Radio DRS was also able to significantly expand its interactive offering via the Internet. All in all, the six DRS stations offered 55,000 hours of radio, more than ever before thanks to the launch of DRS 4 in November 2007.

Daniel Weick will take over the management of the Basel Publicitas branch on June 1. He succeeds Regional Director René Gehrig, who currently holds the position of branch manager in a dual mandate.
Weick was already Product Manager at Publicitas from 1983 to 1988. Later, the Basel native moved to Swiss Bank Corporation (now UBS) and was then Director of the Baslerstab newspaper for eleven years before returning to P as Head of Sales in December 2008.
In addition to day-to-day business, Regional Director René Gehrig will in future be heavily involved in publisher contracts. He is quoted in a press release issued on Thursday as saying that there is great interest from publishers in the new Publicitas business model. The handover to Daniel Weick will allow him to drive the project forward even more intensively and with all his energy in the entire central region, from Basel to Ticino.
In the meantime, telemarketing is to be intensified in Basel as part of an intensified marketing campaign. At the same time, the counter on Nauenstrasse will be closed at the end of April 2009 and the counter business will be concentrated at the Kornhausgasse branch. A solution is being sought within the company for two of the employees affected, P writes in its press release.

The Valora Group increased its sales by 3.9 percent to CHF 2.93 billion in the 2008 financial year. Adjusted for currency effects, the retailer reported in a press release on Thursday that it could even have achieved an increase of 5.7 percent. Valora Retail and Valora Media benefited in particular from the distribution and sale of EM articles in the first half of the year. The third division, Valora Trade, grew by 3.3 percent in local currency terms in a difficult market environment.
The "Valora 4 Success" strategy program was unveiled in autumn 2008, with the aim of achieving a sustained improvement in earnings from 2009 onwards. Restructuring costs were announced in connection with this program, which impacted operating earnings (EBIT) by a total of CHF 25.2 million in 2008. Valora closed the 2008 financial year with a net profit of CHF 39.9 million.

33 journalists received their diplomas from the Swiss School of Journalism Maz on April 2. According to a press release issued on Thursday, they have spent two years intensively studying journalism alongside their careers. Almost all of the graduates have a job with a print medium, a radio station or a TV station.
These are the graduates of the journalism diploma program: Corina Amrein, Radio Pilatus; Marc Bürgi, SDA; Anita Cassese, SFA Media Department; Eric Dauer, SRDRS; Claudio Donati, Der Rheintaler; Christina Duss, 20 Minuten; Lea Gnos, Webcast Internet TV; Noëlle Guidon, Radio Munot; Nora Hesse, Blick am Abend; Anne Honisch, Dussmann AG Berlin; Chatrina Josty, Radio Rumantscha; Irena Jurinak, Aargauer Zeitung; Denise Krummenacher, Willisauer Bote; Sarah Kuhni, Blick am Abend; Sabine Kuster, Aargauer Zeitung; Philipp Lenherr, Radio Munot; Florian Leu, Tages-Anzeiger; Thomas Leuzinger, Schaffhauser Anzeiger; Anna Luethi, 20 Minuten; Carol Mauerhofer, SDA; Melissa Müller, Schweizer Familie; Gaudenz Oetterli, Solothurner Zeitung; Eveline Rutz, Schaffhauser Nachrichten; Niklaus Salzmann, Tages-Anzeiger; Claudia Schön, SDA; Daniel Schriber, Neue Luzerner Zeitung; Andreas Schwald, Volksstimme; Silvan Schweizer, Tages-Anzeiger, Natascha Schwyn, TeleBärn; Judith Steiner, ERF Medien; Benno Tuchschmid, Aargauer Zeitung; Lukas Walde, Wohler Anzeiger; Heinz Zürcher, Tages-Anzeiger.