The circulation figures for Swiss print media published by WEMF on Wednesday show another increase in commuter newspapers at the expense of paid daily newspapers. The big winner in the annual figures is the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten, whose circulation rose from 435,000 in the previous reporting period to 526,000 copies during the period from July 1, 2007, to June 30, June 2008. Its French-language sister publication, *20 minutes*, also saw an increase, from 210,000 to 222,000 copies.
However, 20 minutes was outpaced by its direct competitor, Matin Bleu, which saw its circulation surge from 183,000 to 231,000 copies. In contrast, the circulation of the paid edition of Le Matin fell by about 9,000 copies, and that of the Sunday edition, Le Matin Dimanche, by about 8,000 copies.
Blick am Abend, which has served as the successor to Heute since early June, entered the market with a circulation of 211,000 copies. According to WEMF, this figure is provisional. No figures are yet available for the other free newspapers, News and .ch. The two papers were first published in December and September 2007, respectively.
Circulation figures for commuter newspapers once again came at the expense of paid newspapers. Among the larger papers, only the *Südostschweiz* saw a very slight increase, from 126,613 to 127,428 copies. All others suffered losses of varying degrees. The Blick fell from 240,000 to 231,000 copies, and the Tages-Anzeiger from 216,000 to 214,000 copies. Only marginal declines were recorded for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, the Berner Zeitung, and the Basler Zeitung. The St. Galler Tagblatt fell below the 100,000-copy mark.

With crunchy radishes, tender beans and sweet cherries against fish and chips: On October 2, the first Tibits will open in London with a bang. This is a dream come true for the founders of the chain, which is successful in Switzerland. London and Paris were to be the first offshoots of their idea of a trendy "food to go" restaurant outside Switzerland. Even when the first Tibits opened in 2000, the plan was to expand abroad with Tibits. Now the idea has come to fruition.
In 1998, brothers Reto, Christian and Daniel Frei took part in the Venture business plan competition organized by ETH Zurich and management consultants McKinsey with the concept of setting up high-end vegetarian fast-food restaurants "for part-time vegetarians". The idea corresponded to their own need for enjoyable vegetarian food in a relaxed atmosphere. The business plan convinced the jury and the concept was awarded two prizes. The positive reactions from the community and the media interest in the project were so great that the Frei brothers decided to implement the idea.
For the grand opening on Heddon Street in London, to which over 500 guests have been invited, Wirz Advertising has developed three motifs that will be on display around the new Tibit. A red carpet in the form of a green real grass carpet will be laid out, and butchers disguised as vegetarians or converted butchers will show guests the way. They will hand out crunchy apples with the words "I love veggie" on them.
Wirz already drew attention to the "growing" Tibits with a mega poster on the construction wall in London in the run-up to the opening. The creative team in Zurich also designed the interior of the new restaurant. As many advertising agencies are based in the area surrounding the London Tibits, the creatives in Zurich felt particularly challenged with all these jobs, as CD Matthias Freuler, AD Barbara Hartmann and copywriter Tom Zürcher reveal.
Andreas Panzeri

Michael Sokoll is to become the new program director of Radio Argovia. At the end of January 2009, the 40-year-old will replace Michel Erismann, who in the middle of the year moved to TMT Productions, which produces programs for Tele M1 and Tele Tell television in Central Switzerland.
As program director, Sokoll assumes responsibility for the moderation department and the entertainment concept of the private radio station. Together with Editor-in-Chief Jürgen Sahli and Managing Director Roland Baumgartner, he is a member of the overall program management team and sits on the Executive Board.
Michael Sokoll has previously worked for AZ Medien's electronic media. From October 1993 to the end of 1999, he was head of the entertainment department at regional television station Tele M1. Sokoll is currently responsible for the content and organization of live sports coverage at Schweizer Fernsehen.

Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft (APG) is adapting its structures as part of the management succession plan. The company, which is part of Affichage Holding, will operate with three business units and new managers from January 1, 2009. The future Managing Director Ivan Schultheiss will be responsible for sales. Beat Hollenstein will take over the Procurement and Marketing unit and will also become Deputy Managing Director. Walter R. Oeschger will be responsible for logistics.
The structural adjustments will enable APG to better meet future market requirements, writes future CEO Ivan Schultheiss in a press release issued by the poster company. "At the same time, we are unbundling certain responsibilities with Affichage Holding, our parent company. This reallocation of tasks will enable APG to work even more closely with its sister companies and profit centers in the future."
As part of the reorganization, the two long-standing members of the Executive Board, Claude Miffon (previously Procurement) and Roger Möschler (previously Marketing), will leave APG. They will be offered suitable positions within the Affichage Group, according to the press release issued on Tuesday.

The fall campaign launched by ViznerBorel for the fashion house Schild is based on the same foundation as the new communicative appearance conceived in the spring. The interplay between men and women is staged in a deliberately provocative way. According to the agency, it is intended to surprise with truths that life writes: self-confident and always with a wink.
Responsible at Schild: Stefan Portmann (Management) and Sascha Bättig (Marketing Coordination). Responsible at ViznerBorel: Lajos Vizner and Guillaume Borel (overall responsibility). Hanna Zimmermann (Art Direction). Sascha Knauer (consulting/strategy) and Patricia Tschumi (consulting). Photography: Daniel Aeschlimann.

Catalog

In his latest blog post, the head of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and - not entirely unimportant for the industry - Communications drew some parallels between the office of a Federal Councillor and that of Miss Switzerland. Moritz Leuenberger wrote that presidents of the Swiss Confederation are also subject to the rotation principle and, like the Misses, are elected anew every year. The different parts of the country are also taken into account in both offices, and the Federal Council is only just catching up in terms of gender (with currently only three women).
Leuenberger even thought that the two spheres of federal politics and pageants could learn something from each other. For example, the Miss Switzerland pageants had adopted the deeper meaning of the political rotation principle when the criticism that only blonde Swiss-German women were chosen for several years had an effect. Hefti from Zurich was followed by Gilliéron from Vaud and Rigozzi from Ticino.
Despite all the rapturous musings about the Miss Switzerland contest, the politician in Leuenberger came out at the end of the blog entry. He obviously couldn't resist taking a little swipe at the SVP by writing that, conversely, politics could perhaps learn something from the Miss Switzerland elections: never before had an ex-Miss Switzerland stood for election again.

Urs Ellenberger will take up his post as the new head of news and pagemaker at Sonntagsblick on February 1, 2009. The 39-year-old has also worked as a pagemaker at 20 Minuten. After Claudia Schlup, another member of the editorial staff of 20 Minuten is thus moving to Ringier within a very short time. At Sonntagsblick, Ellenberger replaces Hannes Britschgi, who has been editor-in-chief since September 1 and thus performs a dual function until Ellenberger takes over.
Ellenberger already worked for Sonntagsblick from 1988 to 1990, for which he spent a year in Paris. He also worked as a reporter for Cash, Channel Thirteen/WNet in New York, Sonntagszeitung and Tages-Anzeiger, and then as head of the online portal Tagesanzeiger.ch and producer at Weltwoche.

In a multi-stage presentation, the Young&Rubicam Group was able to prevail against the competition and is now responsible for the overall communication of the energy company Axpo. This is the agency group's second major account win within a short space of time, after Baloise. According to a press release, Axpo was impressed by the innovative ideas and, above all, the integrated proposal of the team led by Markus Gut and Andreas Widmer.

To celebrate Pronto Reinigung's 50th birthday, the agency is organizing a party at the airport in the spotlessly clean St. Gallen Lokremise. For once, the heroes of everyday life are to take center stage at the event. Using a microfiber cloth, customers are invited to "clean up the buffet". In addition to the event, mailings will be sent out over the course of the fall to draw attention to the cleaning company's anniversary.
Responsible at Pronto Reinigung: Hans Herzog, Werner Herzog (owner). Responsible at the agency at the airport: René Eugstair (CD), Dominique Rutishauser (AD), Désirée Schmid (text), Miriam Egli (consulting).

Art critic Barbara Basting takes over as head of the specialist editorial department "Culture" at Radio DRS 2, where she is responsible for the structure programs "Reflexe" and "52 Best Books," among others. Thus, in January 2009, she replaces Peter Burri, who is taking the opportunity of early retirement and will continue to work as a journalist.
Basting, who studied Romance languages and German, worked for ten years as an editor at the cultural magazine Du. After an interlude as a freelancer for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Weltwoche and the Tagesanzeiger in the areas of art, new media and literature, Barbara Basting most recently worked as a drawing editor in the culture department of the Tagesanzeiger.

Tempobrain has transferred its public relations tasks to the Klaus J. Stöhlker agency with immediate effect. The aim of the collaboration is to establish the disciplines of marketing and corporate communications and to position itself in the area of public affairs. The provider of outsourcing models and call center teams, which is primarily known in German-speaking Switzerland, wants to expand its level of awareness to all parts of the country in the medium term and increasingly train people who are not yet integrated in the market.

The accident prevention campaign «A Seatbelt for Life,» launched by Saatchi & Saatchi Simko back in 2005, is being extended. Starting this month, radio spots, a TV commercial, print ads, bus rear posters, and sponsored Inforoute announcements will promote not only the general use of seat belts but specifically the use of seat belts in the back seat. In a second phase in February 2009, print ads and additional radio and TV spots will remind the public that it’s worth buckling up even on short trips within town limits. The campaign is being carried out jointly by the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (Bfu), the TCS, and the Road Safety Council on behalf of the Road Safety Fund.

Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi Simko, Advertising Film: Olivier Girard (CD), Philippe Schwaar, Isabelle Wilden (AD), Boris Declerck (Concept/Copy), Laurent Chanez (Director), SAB Mucho, Brussels (Production), Vanessa Van der Elst, Laila Grosfils (Account Managers). Print: Olivier Girard (Creative Director), Jennifer Freuler (Art Director), Boris Declerck, Annelore Richard (Concept/Copy), Christèle Benoit (Typesetting), Jean-Pierre Van der Elst (Photographer), Vanessa Van der Elst, Laila Grosfils (Account Manager). Zenithmedia Geneva, Gérald Le Meur (Media Agency). Contact at the Bfu: Peter Matthys, Nathalie Wirtner Julmi (Marketing and Communications).