Marion Starck founds a communications consultancy. Starck Public Relations will focus primarily on mandates in the areas of crisis, change and reputation management for global and national companies. With this step, the American-born consultant is entering into an office partnership on Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse with Schürmann Management Beratung für Kommunikation, with whom she also intends to collaborate on selected mandates.
Marion Starck was most recently a member of the Executive Board and Head of Corporate & Financial Communication at Burson-Marsteller. Prior to that, she was a partner and member of the executive board at Trimedia Communications, having previously held various management positions in agencies and on the client side in Zurich and London. Starck is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and has been President of the Swiss Public Relations Institute (SPRI) since 2006. She is also a guest lecturer at the University of Lugano and the Swiss Public Relations Institute (SPRI).
Peter Schürmann, owner of Schürmann Management-Beratung für Kommunikation, worked for more than 20 years in top management positions and as a partner at the Wirz communications group before setting up his own business in 1999.

Ruf Lanz advertises a rare drop from the Al Mulinetto vineyard high above Lake Maggiore. To dramatize the exclusivity of the Ticino wine - only 248 bottles are produced each year - the agency is advertising with a bunch of grapes that suddenly bears a striking resemblance to caviar when scaled down. The motif is currently appearing on 2/1 pages in the trade press.

Responsible at Al Mulinetto: Stefano Haldemann (oenologist) and Moritz Gut (owner). Responsible at Ruf Lanz: Danielle Lanz and Markus Ruf (Creative Direction), Lorenz Clormann (Art Direction), Markus Ruf (Text), Ernesto Vitale (Photography) and Michèle-Claudine Leibacher (Consulting).

Startbahnwest has created a year-round poster series for the Rathaus Apotheke. It focuses on the competent and varied advice offered by the Wettig pharmacy. The posters are intended to draw attention to health ailments in a friendly and humorous way - from vitamin deficiency to sunburn and digestive problems.
The posters appear throughout the year. Startbahnwest has been responsible for the Rathaus Apotheke poster campaigns since 2005.

Responsible at Rathaus Apotheke, Wettingen: Ursula Getzmann. Responsible at Runway West: Hartmut Vetter (Strategic Planning), Denise Heusser (Consulting), Rüdiger Flothmann (CD), Gesine Dittrich (AD), Natasa Maricic (Text), Joely Tafanalo (DTP).

Christoph Müller, chief reporter and head of the DOK editorial team at Swiss Television, was arrested on Friday last week when he entered Thailand. The Thai police released Müller on bail after 24 hours in custody, as SF announced on Monday. They took Müller's passport. He is not allowed to leave Thailand and must make himself available to the authorities. No date has been set for a hearing or court appearance.
The exact reason for his arrest and the arrest warrant against him has not yet been revealed to Müller in detail. The arrest warrant dates back to 2006 and is apparently based on a defamation complaint filed by a Thai organization. According to Müller, the accusations were probably triggered by a report about a Swiss man living in Thailand, which he filmed for the program "Reporter" in 2002. The trained brewer posed as a fake doctor in Asia for years and ran several highly controversial aid organizations for which he collected donations in Switzerland. However, Müller's report was only broadcast in Switzerland. That is why SF does not understand why a Thai court would even consider the complaint.
"We do not understand the arrest of our chief reporter," said SF editor-in-chief Ueli Haldimann. SF demands immediate clarification from the Thai authorities. SF is granting Christoph Müller full legal protection. The Swiss embassy in Bangkok and the FDFA have also assured Müller of their support within the framework of consular protection.

Axel Springer Switzerland is to become the exclusive media partner and thus a sponsoring member of the Swiss Derivative Institute (SDI), supporting its efforts to promote and disseminate knowledge about structured financial products. To this end, Axel Springer will regularly report on the market for structured products in its business and financial publications, the publishing house wrote in a press release on Monday. The SDI was founded by Derivative Partners, Fineo and Fundabilis last year.

The Institut Schreibszene Schweiz is offering a new diploma course from September 2009: Corporate Publishing - Print & Online. This course is aimed at communication specialists, copywriters and journalists who want to learn about corporate publishing in a practical and well-founded manner, according to a press release issued on Monday. The main lecturers are Christa Löpfe-Feldmann, former editor-in-chief of Annabelle magazine, and Steven Schneider, columnist and author.
Practical days are an important part of the course and are designed to give students an insight into key areas of corporate journalism. They take place in newspaper editorial offices, agencies, print shops and with clients. On site, the students discuss with professionals, develop concepts and case studies and thus supplement their theoretical knowledge with practical experience.

Despite the economic crisis, the French media group Vivendi expects an increase in operating profit and is increasing its dividend. In 2008, the provider of music and video games increased its turnover by 17.2 percent to 25.39 billion euros. The surplus stagnated at 2.6 billion euros. For 2009, Vivendi expects a significant increase in operating income excluding special items. The Group intends to increase its dividend by 7.7 percent to 1.40 euros per share.
Vivendi has 44,000 employees in 77 countries and includes the Universal Music Group, the games provider Activision Blizzard, the mobile phone companies SFR and Maroc Télécom and the TV provider Canal+.

Renzen Communications from Aarau becomes a member of Bsw leading swiss agencies in the advertising agency category and is thus included in the circle of leading Swiss advertising agencies. Renzen Communications, based at Gönhardweg 48 in Aarau, was founded in 1988 and currently employs 17 people. The agency is managed by Frédéric Renzen, Emmanuelle Friedli and Hanno Lietz. Clients include Coop, Helvetia, Die Post, Neue Aargauer Bank, Lumimart, KWC Armaturen and Union Glashütte.

RTSI, the radio and television station for Italian-speaking Switzerland, changed its logo on Sunday and became RSI. This change reflects the new organization of the company, RTSI announced in a communiqué on Saturday. The move away from the old logo is the logical consequence of a "progressive convergence of radio, television and the internet as well as a consolidation of structures and resources", writes the RTSI management. The three red capital letters now stand for the two television channels, the three radio stations and all other publications of the company.

Two traditional Zurich companies from the graphic arts industry are merging their printing capacities: J. E. Wolfensberger and Printlink - a Linkgroup company - will produce their print products under one roof in Birmensdorf from January 2010.
J. E. Wolfensberger, now in its fourth generation of ownership and with 25 employees, specializes in art printing, large-format offset printing in the high-end sector and lithography. Printlink - formerly Vontobel Druck - which is now based in Zurich-Wipkingen, offers high-quality offset printing and is also a manufacturer of postcards in Switzerland. The partners of the joint venture meet the Minergie quality label with their printing center, guarantee certified FSC processes and CO2-compensated production on request.

The Swiss Advertising Association SW has chosen "Schweiz aktuell" presenter Sabine Dahinden as Communicator of the Month for March. The 40-year-old news presenter was surprisingly named "best presenter in the German-speaking world" at the Berlinale.
However, the award appears to be a PR campaign by the television station Art-TV to promote the gala celebrating the fifth anniversary of the cultural channel, which Dahinden will host on May 16. No criteria were made transparent, nor were any other competitors named. The only argument put forward was that Dahinden has an IQ of over 150. According to Swiss Advertising, however, such an award - even if it is contrived - is remarkable and reason enough to celebrate Sabina Dahinden as Communicator of the Month.

At the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, Automobil Revue magazine is presenting its new glossy magazine Drive Style. The 84-page publication is dedicated to the "beautiful side of the automobile" - the joy of driving, as editor-in-chief Pierre-André Schmitt writes in the editorial.
The first issue focuses on the Geneva Motor Show, which takes place from March 5 to 15, 2009. There is also a dossier on electric cars, a story about Marilyn Monroe's Ford Thunderbird and an interview with Federal Councillor Hans-Rudolf Merz about cars and the Motor Show.
The magazine is published six times a year. The first issue will be available from March 4. Subscribers to Automobil Revue receive it free of charge.