Q publications are reader-focused, journalistically independent, competent in terms of content and transparent in terms of media technology. With regard to these criteria, the Q certification commission at the Swiss Press Association examined the applications for certification for the "Q Publication" seal of quality for 2009. The result: according to a press release issued on Thursday, the number of Q publications in 2009 is significantly higher than the previous year's level (97 titles) at 109. 15 new titles have been added. Three titles were no longer registered or have withdrawn their registration.
The quality of the titles hardly gave rise to any complaints, and the documents submitted have generally improved. Reservations had to be made for some publications, which should be rectified within a reasonable period of time. As a rule, the main problem was the clear declaration of the certified editions in the imprint and in the media documentation. With the planned adjustment of individual criteria in the current edition regulations, security in handling the declaration should be better guaranteed again, as the press release goes on to say.
The Commission also suggested that the calls for proposals for the next "Q Publication" seal of quality for 2010 should be brought forward by one month in future so that any adjustments relating to publication can be incorporated into the new award documentation in good time.

Members of the Q certification commission:
Roland Enz, Publicitas Publimag AG
Dr. Jaromir O. Löffler, Marketing & Communication
Christian Rufener, Medialogics
Martin Stadelmann, Association of Swiss Specialist Journalists SFJ
Ulrich Utiger, Büchler Grafino AG.

The telecoms group Swisscom rejects the accusation by the Competition Commission (Weko) that it has abused its market power with regard to ADSL tariffs. In an initial statement, Swisscom expressed its surprise at the "content and timing" of the publication of the accusation, as proceedings are currently pending before the Federal Administrative Court. In these proceedings, the court will assess the question of possible market dominance. According to the criticism from Swisscom, this court is the supreme authority of the Competition Commission.
The Competition Commission's application provides for a fine of around CHF 237 million due to the prices for ADSL wholesale services which, according to the Competition Commission, were set too high. However, Swisscom will not make any provisions until there is legal certainty on these issues, the statement continued.
Swisscom doubts that it can dominate the market at all. Swisscom spokesperson Christian Neuhaus told SDA in response to an inquiry that the competition is playing a role, as 80 percent of Swiss households can choose between broadband Internet via copper cable (ADSL) and cable Internet, which can be obtained from Cabelcom and around 200 other providers. Competitors would have the option of offering basic ADSL.
According to the Competition Commission Secretariat, however, this is precisely one of the points of contention: According to the other providers, the technical feasibility is problematic, said Rafael Corazza from the Competition Commission Secretariat on request.
Sunrise satisfied
The reaction of Swisscom's competitor Sunrise was clear. The illegal behavior of state-owned Swisscom has finally been established, it said in a statement. The application to the Competition Commission is a milestone on the way to more competition. Sunrise hopes to finally be in the black in broadband Internet thanks to lower wholesale prices. The decisive factor now is what prices the Competition Commission considers appropriate.
Sunrise is hoping for a "thaw" in the battle between the telecoms groups. On Tuesday, Swisscom announced that it would accept the price reductions ordered by the Federal Communications Commission (Comcom) for the so-called last mile, among other things.

Since the beginning of November 2008, Roger Baumann has been the new Head of Communications and Media Spokesman at the Association of Public Transport (VÖV), as was reported in a press release on Thursday. The 48-year-old, who succeeds Ruedi Helfer, is a PR consultant and was media spokesman for SBB in Zurich for six years. Most recently, he was Head of Corporate Communications at DHL Switzerland.

The advertising agency Lowe, part of the Draftfcb/Lowe Group, has created a new print motif for Cablecom. The entire Cablecom product range is advertised in the image campaign. The subjects are used on posters and in special formats in 20Minuten.
Printsujet reports that one million customers have tested the products. According to Lowe, they are the true experts for digital television, internet and telephone. The subjects are broken up with the slogan "And there's something going on at home".
Responsible at Cablecom: Oli Bergmann (Head Marcom & Brand), Anna-Marie
Siroka (Marcom Specialist Broadband). Responsible at Lowe: Nicolas Vontobel (CD), Sebastian Hugelshofer (AD), Dominique Wegmann (text), Rolf Jeger, Sarah Dovlo,
Gina Armellino (Consultant), Melanie J. Auerbach (Art Buying). Photographer: Scheffold Vizner.

The advertising agency BSSM has launched a poster campaign for the Arlesheim Demeter Association. The campaign advertises biodynamic foods such as cheese, honey and wine. According to scientific studies, the products are not only more ecological, but also more vital, according to the advertising agency. The posters for wine, cheese and honey feature the slogan "excellent biodynamic".
Responsible at Demeter Verband, Arlesheim: Susanna Küffer Heer (overall responsibility). Responsible at BSSM Basel: Urs Schneider (CD), Hans Peter Brugger (text), Eveline Spitz (graphics), Roger Berthoud, Sylvia Halbeisen (consulting). Photographer: Antal Thoma.

Anyone who takes a closer look at the topics of service marketing, customer satisfaction or CRM will soon come across the term "empowerment". The focus is on expanding the scope for action and decision-making of "ordinary" employees with the aim of making customers more satisfied in particular. More satisfied because questions or problems can be solved right from the customer's first contact with the company - without repeated queries to superiors or team leaders. Empowerment is therefore particularly important in direct customer contact, especially when it comes to solving problems (complaint management in the broadest sense). A classic example is the "empowered" receptionist at a hotel, who can decide for herself whether to grant a guest a room upgrade for their next stay or send a bouquet of flowers to their home address in the event of a complaint.
Employees are the second key target group for empowerment. By enriching their work and extending their powers, their work becomes a little more responsible and interesting. However, this requires that employees are not only "allowed" but also "able" and "willing". The extended scope will only achieve the desired effects if employees have the skills to competently assess a situation or solve the problem themselves. They must also be happy to take on the greater responsibility. Some employees do not want to make decisions at all and would not appreciate the increased scope for action. On the contrary, they may even feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable. This once again demonstrates the need for a "fit" between people and tasks and for employees to be deployed in the right places according to their personality and skills.
Anyone who fears that empowerment only increases costs should also calculate the costs of dissatisfaction. What turnover/profit do we lose if a dissatisfied customer often switches to another provider because of a minor issue - and stays there? What damage does this customer cause if he spreads the unpleasant experience in his environment? And what can we gain if this customer stays with us because of an uncomplicated problem solution and tells others about the positive experience? The result has often been a positive surprise.

The winners of the "German Prize for Political Caricature 2008" will be honored this week in Pforzheim. The award is sponsored by the Academy for Communication in Stuttgart, among others. Silvan Wegmann, a cartoonist from Werbewoche, is one of this year's winners. His illustration "Prosit auf Al Gore" was published in Nebelspalter.

The dispute over the claim of Roger Schawinski's radio station has been settled. As was announced on Wednesday, Radio 1 from Zurich and Radio Eins from Berlin have buried the hatchet. "We have reached an agreement with Schawinski and will not be going to court", said Ralph Kotsch, spokesman for Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), when asked by 20 Minuten. This was after Schawinski had agreed to change the claim on his station's website. In addition to the advertising slogan "For adults only", the addition "The best music from Zurich - the best news from Zurich" will now be used. "This is a good compromise," explained Kotsch. This could prevent confusion with the Berlin radio station. The chances of achieving anything in court were too slim. He also emphasized that no money was involved in the settlement. Schawinski did not wish to comment on the settlement of the dispute.
Radio 1 presented the agreement as a major victory in a media release on Wednesday afternoon. "The dispute was without any substance from the outset. The outcome of this Hornberg shoot-out with the help of license fee money does not surprise me in any way", Schawinski was quoted as saying. There are over a dozen broadcasters in Europe with the same name. Finally, the Berliners complained that there was a risk of confusion on the Internet, although the spelling of the two stations is different. As part of a redesign, Radio 1 recently emphasized the station's location in Zurich a little more clearly. RadioEins then let the matter fall asleep.

Here's what's going on" - with this claim, Scholz & Friends Zurich is entering the second round of its advertising for Blick am Abend. The first campaign was launched on May 24, 2008 with the tongue-in-cheek announcement that the evening newspaper will soon be "eaten". Pacman ate his way through headlines with the word "today".
Now comes the first image campaign. This is intended to position Blick am Abend as an up-to-date, entertaining companion to the evening. Various motifs show why it is worth reading the evening newspaper. A couple at dinner, for example, is commented on in the text with the words "The fresher fish is in the restaurant next door". The situation is clarified by the claim. The campaign can be seen on various media channels over the next six weeks. It kicks off with advertising motifs and streetcar hanging boxes. The message will also be communicated directly to the target group through BTL measures. These are mainly commuters between the ages of 14 and 32. (pan)

It was extremely appealing to me to work for a company in which the Internet is the most important business area. In my previous jobs, something else always had priority," explains Oliver Schibli. So he didn't have to think twice when he was offered the chance to join Tilllate Switzerland as Head of Sales a few weeks ago. Schibli now leads a team of three sales consultants and four campaign managers and is tasked with further expanding the company's leading position among nightlife platforms. At tilllate.com, online advertising is the main source of revenue. "This excites me, and the trend of online advertising is increasing. I'm on the right train," says Schibli, who describes himself as an "online junkie."
At the age of seven, little Oliver got his first computer. "The thing totally fascinated me," he recalls. The first thing he did was copy out the introduction to the manual. Later, he programmed games himself. "I wasn't allowed to buy any games and was only allowed to play with ones I invented myself," he laughs. However, the fun was then limited. As the designer of the games, the later user also knew about their mechanics and knew the solution in advance.
Pioneer in the online world
Already after his apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory technician, Oliver Schibli started his own business. He designed video animations and was allowed to project them onto screens at major events for Parisienne or Sony. He was able to "make quite a good living" from this. He also learned all this technology for the shows "autodidactically". In addition, the young inventor constantly tinkered further, for example, how he could compress the images to produce the cleanest possible picture.
During all this time, it was Schibli's dream to be able to work in television one day. "But you don't get there if you're self-taught," he knows. But instead of burying his career aspirations, he said to himself, "Then I'll just make my own television." This is how Oliver Schibli became a pioneer in the ¬online world. As early as 1997, he founded Switzerland's first Internet television station. Schibli programmed a website together with a colleague. On it, he was able to make the images flow better and better thanks to the know-how gained from party films. "That's how we started putting videos on the Internet." That was around the same time that broadcast.com went "on the air" from Yahoo.
Schibli worked with Reuters for his channel. "For two years, we were the only website in the world that was allowed to show video news from Reuters." Schibli got this news on a VHS tape because he didn't have a satellite dish at the time. Later, technology developed step by step, and Switzerland's first Web TV also showed live broadcasts of fashion shows in Paris or press conferences of the soccer federation Fifa, for example. The ISDN lines, however, only allowed small jerky images. The network pioneers financed their experiment with advertising. At the time, however, this still worked in a very rudimentary way. "We sold advertising at a fixed price, mounted it around the news, and that was the end of the matter for our sponsor." Traffic developed fairly quickly, however, because Reuters regularly referred to the new medium on its news ticker. Nevertheless, Schibli realized in 1999 that he was still too early for an entrepreneurially interesting future with this advertising model. "So we had to approach it differently."
With a new business idea, he offered his technology to companies that needed filmed information in-house. He broadcast press conferences for Fifa. For Credit Suisse, Schibli and his team developed the first analyst call solution, which was used for a very long time. UBS then joined the company in a financing round, and Schibli was able to expand ITV Media to 35 people. His competence was subsequently business development. His next step was to develop software that made it very easy to put video content on the web.
When the imminent bursting of the Internet bubble made daily work increasingly tough, Schibli, who had been running at full speed for years at the time, saw the moment had come for a break. He enjoyed traveling all over Switzerland for nine months.
He returned to Bluewin. There, Schibli was responsible for the Bluewin portal in the Business Development department. He developed the toolbar and optimized various processes "to make things faster and easier.
When Bluewin was due for reorganization, the e-commerce division was freed up. Display advertising was added later. For the first time in his life, Schibli was allowed to manage sums in the double-digit millions and discovered that such responsibility brings him satisfaction. After five years, when he knew the Bluewin portal from all angles, the time had come for something new.
Better infrastructure than at Ringier
Schibli wanted to return to the media and switched to Blick. For the last 18 months, he was in charge of product management for the online portal, which meant he was also responsible for supporting agencies and agents in the sales department. From programming to sales? For Schibli, it wasn't a big change. "You constantly sell something in business. Even if I'm developing a new technology, I have to sell someone my idea," he says, explaining his relationship to the job.
The sales aspect has now become even stronger since Schibli took over responsibility as Head of Sales at Tilllate Switzerland. What attracted him to this nightlife portal was that tilllate.com has a very strong community and, above all, operates internationally. "An extremely exciting challenge. The company is very well positioned in terms of brand. And in terms of customer management, we could only have dreamed of such an infrastructure at Ringier," Schibli reveals.
His new task is to maintain and inform all agencies and marketers about what Tilllate can offer them in Switzerland. Following the re¬design, the platform has now been reduced to just two forms of advertising that are visible at the same time. The adjustment has already had a "very positive" impact on performance. So far, Tilllate has been able to report 500,000 unique clients and 35 million page views in Switzerland. Now the company wants to focus even more on performance and has also adjusted prices "so massively" that tilllate.com is now on the same price level as the big media sites and portals. "Now we first have to observe the behavior of our customers and users, give the development time and then introduce the appropriate measures," explains the new Head of Sales.
Andreas Panzeri

Since the beginning of October, Tillate has had a new look in Switzerland.

Stocks editor wins Friedrich Vogel Prize
Ulrich Hanke has been awarded the Friedrich Vogel Young Talent Prize for his article "Energy mix of the future". The article was a cover story in the Swiss investor magazine Stock published by Axel Springer Switzerland. In the article, the 31-year-old highlighted the importance of alternative energy sources and showed how the supply of households and industry will develop over the next ten years, the publisher wrote in a press release. The Friedrich Vogel Prizes are awarded annually in memory of the work of "Handelsblatt" founder and publisher Friedrich Vogel.

Newsnetz the most popular Swiss media site
Success for the online network of Switzerland's largest daily newspapers: Three months after its launch, the news network of Basler Zeitung, Berner Zeitung and Tages-Anzeiger is in first place among Swiss media sites. This is shown by the Net-Metrix figures for the month of October compiled by AG für Werbemedienforschung. As Head of Advertising Market Dominik Lämmler reports, the Newsnetz recorded around 1?,638,000 unique clients last month. This corresponds to growth of 135,000 unique clients or around nine percent compared to the previous month of September. Newsnetz is now 11,000 unique clients ahead of Blick Online, 24?,000 unique clients ahead of 20 Minuten Online and 55?,000 unique clients ahead of NZZ Online.

The planning for the BCP 2009 - Europe's largest corporate publishing competition - has begun. To mark the tenth anniversary of Forum Corporate Publishing, there will be a number of specials for BCP 2009. The congress and award ceremony will take place on June 24, 2009 in Berlin. The application forms for the BCP are available from January 12, 2009 to February 22, 2009 at www.bcp-award.com unlocked.
Since 2003, Forum Corporate Publishing, together with the leading industry magazines Acquisa, Horizont and w&v, has honored the best corporate publications with the BCP Best of Corporate Publishing award.