The eastern Swiss newspaper Wiler Nachrichten is expanding its distribution area and will now also be distributed to all 6,635 households and postboxes in the Flawil/Degersheim region. In order to be even closer to the readers, a separate split with several alternating pages will be produced for the Uzwil/Flawil area in future, announced the St. Gallen publisher Zehnder Medien on Wednesday. The Wiler Nachrichten with 68,000 readers (Wemf Mach-Basic 2008-2) also wants to offer information and entertainment in the additional localities and be an advertising platform for SME companies, it added.

The Council of States wants to ban alcohol advertising in domestic television programs and foreign advertising windows. On Wednesday, it voted 22 to 19 in favor of a radical solution.
The background to the discussion about alcohol advertising is the media-film promotion agreement with the EU. If Swiss film wants to continue to benefit from this program, Switzerland must relax its advertising bans as a political price. In 2007, the Federal Council presented its dispatch on the continuation of the media agreement with the EU. Parliament rejected the deal with the instruction to renegotiate with the EU. The Federal Council then submitted a supplementary dispatch. In talks with the EU, it found a solution that allows Switzerland to impose stricter rules on political and religious advertising as well as alcohol advertising than in the broadcaster's European country of origin.
The Council of States has now decided by a relatively narrow margin that all advertising for alcoholic beverages in TV programs on Swiss and foreign stations is illegal if they are specifically aimed at the Swiss public. The decision, which now goes to the National Council, was motivated by the idea of prevention and the protection of minors.

Startbahnwest has two new clients in its portfolio, although their names cannot be disclosed for the time being. The Zurich agency has been commissioned by a fashion multibrand with over 30 stores in Switzerland to develop the name, corporate design and overall communication as well as to launch the brand in Germany as part of a brand change. In addition, Startbahnwest will develop a new brand for the international market for a leading Swiss manufacturer of hygiene products.
The name has not been given because in one case the trademark registration is still in progress and in the other case the new name of the trademark is still being clarified. The first works should be on display from May 2009.

Digital communications solutions provider Premiere Global Services Switzerland (PGI) has a new country manager. Stratos Prodromakis will take over management of the Swiss branch with immediate effect, succeeding Antonio Sirera, according to a statement Wednesday. Sirera will take up a new challenge on April 1.
Before joining Premiere Global Services Switzerland, Prodromakis worked as Sales Director for Orbit-iEx, the marketing trade fair X06 and Ifas, among others. Prior to that, he was Sales Director at various ICT trade publishers such as IDG and Compress Information Group. In 2007, he joined Premiere Global Services as Key Account Manager to build up the Swiss market in the field of telephone and web conferencing and to look after important customers.

After the USA, the increasing economic difficulties in the media industry are now also having an impact in the UK. As the Guardian reported in a press release, thousands of journalists will be venting their discontent in the form of strikes in the face of an impending wave of redundancies at the British broadcaster BBC. Work is to be stopped for two days next month. The drastic measures will affect both the TV and radio programs as well as the company's extensive website, whose news production is to be completely shut down on April 3 and 9. The aim of the staff protest, for which 77 percent of voters had previously spoken out in a nationwide vote, is to get the BBC management to give in. They should enter into "meaningful negotiations" with the National Union of Journalists in order to avert the danger of compulsory redundancies, the BBC employees demand.
In Switzerland, colleagues in the industry are showing solidarity with the striking BBC journalists. A strike is a perfectly legitimate means of drawing attention to grievances and problems, Urs Thalmann, Managing Director of Impressum, told Pressetext. In order for the concerns to be heard by the public, it is often necessary to resort to drastic measures. The possibility of Swiss journalists taking strike action in the face of this development is real, but not very likely, Thalmann continued. Journalist strikes are a rare exception in Switzerland.

The agency Leone Ming, based in Schaan, has created a new umbrella brand with three sub-brands for the Liechtenstein Seniors' Association. The new image reflects the vitality and activity of the organization, it says in a statement - a fresh appearance for sprightly pensioners. In addition to the entire business stationery, an image folder and the homepage have also been redesigned.
Responsible at the Liechtenstein Seniors' Association: Franz-Josef Jehle. Responsible at Leone Ming: Leone Ming (concept), Christine Böhmwalder (concept, design), Andreas Schenkel (DTP), Kathrin Konzett (project management), Melanie Frommelt (production).

Jung von Matt/Limmat have realized three new subjects for the spring collection of Max Shoes. In keeping with the warmer half of the year, the Max Shoes - Lolitas are not skimpier, just more lightly dressed. This is entirely in line with the latest trends, the agency said in a press release.
The spring motifs will be on display in various Max stores in Switzerland from the beginning of March.
Responsible at Max Shoes: Daniel Widmer (Head of Marketing), Carmela Vetsch (Head of Communications), René Minder (Head of Sales Organization Max Shoes), Yvonne Kälin (Head of Visual Merchandising). Responsible at Jung von Matt/Limmat: Lukas Frei, Alexander Jaggy (Creative Direction), David Hanselmann (Art Direction), Samuel Knaus (Text), Matthias Fürst (Graphics), Martin Samsel, Petra Gayko, Jasmin Schmid (Consulting), Ilonka Galliard (Art Buying), Diego Alborghetti (Photography).

Compared to the previous month, advertising pressure fell by 9.4 percent in February. As the market research company Media Focus announced on Monday evening, all media groups were affected by the decline, with the exception of the internet, radio and the trade press. As in January, the cinema media group was hit hardest with a drop of 44.7 percent and the consumer, financial and business press (-26.3 percent).
Some key markets developed positively despite this negative trend. The entire cosmetics industry recorded an increase of over 30 percent. According to the Media Focus report, the growth drivers were almost exclusively newly launched products. The pharmaceutical and healthcare market also successfully bucked the negative trend, growing by almost 27%.

The business and finance platform Cash will focus on paperless distribution from March 23, 2009. As Ringier-Verlag announced on Tuesday, the free newspaper Cash will be discontinued. However, the range of daily business information will continue to be available on the Internet and via mobile applications. The Cash.ch platform, Cash TV and Web TV will continue to be offered.
The Cash.ch platform has recorded sales growth of 30 percent in each of the last two years. In February alone, 2,522,000 visits were recorded with 330,000 unique clients. In the next phase, the information will be offered via e-reader technology and other mobile applications.
According to Ringier spokesman Stefan Hackh, 17.9 full-time positions will be cut as a result of the closure of the daily newspaper. This affects 23 people. A social plan is in place for them. At Cash, nine employees will remain in the editorial department and seven in the publishing house. The changeover to paperless distribution had previously been planned for 2012. Due to the downward trend in the advertising market, Ringier's Board of Directors has approved the management's proposal to take this step now.

The NZZ Group has created a new position within its new management structure. Bettina Schibli will take over as head of corporate communications at the end of March. Schibli has served as head of PR and communications at the LZ Medien Group, a subsidiary of the NZZ, for the past nine years. Prior to that, she worked at the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, where her roles included deputy editor-in-chief.
Hedi Studer, who has been responsible for communications and other duties at the NZZ business unit, will retire in the middle of the year.

Wirz Corporate has produced a customer magazine for Toyota. The 52-page magazine provides information about the car manufacturer's models and features news from the automotive industry in the form of reports and interviews. The magazine is published twice a year with a circulation of 204,000 copies in German, French and Italian and is sent to subscribers free of charge with the aim of building brand loyalty. Wirz Corporate was responsible for the chief editorship and the design development of the print product.

Responsible at Toyota Switzerland: Philipp Rhomberg (overall responsibility), Mark Strähl, Emanuel Steinbeck (publishing, PR & sponsoring). Responsible at Wirz Corporate: Urs Binggeli, Marcel Niedermann (Editor-in-Chief), Janine Greuter (Editorial Assistant), Philipp Studer (AD).

Snap Film has created a TV commercial for the new Maserati Gran Turismo S. It shows the 440 hp car on a high-speed drive along a mountain pass in the Bernese Oberland. The driving shots in a gloomy atmosphere were staged by director Nico Beyer and captured by French cameraman Jean-Louis Bompoint. The sports car was driven along the closed-off road by one of the factory's own sports racing drivers.
>To the spot