Change at the top of the Swiss airline Helvetic: CEO Bruno Dobler will be replaced with immediate effect by Chief Operating Officer Bruno Jans, Helvetic Airways announced on Monday. Jans will continue in his current role as Accountable Manager/Chief Operating Officer in the future. In addition, the second member of the Executive Board, Chief Financial Officer Tobias Pogorevc, will now also be responsible for Marketing/Sales, the press release continues. Bruno Dobler has been head of Helvetic since the beginning of 2006.
The company owned by financier Martin Ebner announced at the end of June that it would cease its scheduled flight business in the fall. In future, Helvetic intends to limit itself to the charter and rental business. The company plans to make its four Fokker F-100 aircraft and 125 employees available to other airlines in future.

Zurich has a new marketing agency in Boomerang unlimited. Narcisa Grgic and Stephanie Alder are the founders of the company, which opened at the beginning of July. The agency focuses on the food and consumer goods sector, but also offers in-depth knowledge of the tourism and service sectors, according to a press release issued on Monday. Boomerang unlimited aims to support clients in all marketing matters and provide the tools needed for products to be successful on the market. The young agency has already acquired a number of clients, namely Delverde, La Alternativa, Toula Olive Oil and Netco. The two owners have a wealth of experience in marketing: Narcisa Grgic worked for ten years at food distributor Gustav Gerig, where she was most recently Head of Brand Management and Purchasing with overall responsibility for the portfolio of all national and international brands. Grgic has completed further training to become a federally certified sales coordinator and has completed a course in marketing management. Stephanie Alder worked at Kuoni as Team Leader Marketing Retail until 2004. The marketing planner was then responsible for international marketing measures at coffee machine manufacturer Franke and most recently managed her own brand portfolio as Brand Manager at Gustav Gerig.

 The Luxembourg satellite operator SES significantly increased its profits in the first half of 2008. On balance, SES earned 235.8 million euros. This is 13.5 percent more than in the same period last year. However, according to information published on Monday, both turnover at 788.5 million euros and the operating result (EBITDA) at 550.2 million euros remained virtually unchanged. SES CEO Romain Bausch nevertheless spoke of "excellent results".
SES raised its revenue forecast for the full financial year slightly to between EUR 1.57 and 1.60 billion. Demand for satellite capacity remains high, the company explained.

 The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been criticized in recent days for its handling of Chinese censorship. When asked whether the belief in a change in China's attitude towards the internet was naive, IOC President Jacques Rogge said at a media conference on Saturday: "I would say we are idealists. Idealism is linked to a certain naivety." However, Rogge emphasized that the situation has improved in his eyes and that the current access to the Internet is unprecedented for China. At the same time, he rejected reports that IOC representatives had agreed with Chinese authorities to accept restrictions on internet access (see ). Following international pressure, China had in recent days unblocked websites for journalists such as those of the human rights organization Amnesty International or broadcasters such as Deutsche Welle and the BBC. However, other websites, such as blogs of US daily newspapers, remained blocked. In the rest of the country, access to the internet is still strictly controlled.

 For the current issue of Sonntagsblick, the editorial team was able to count on prominent support: National team captain Alex Frei, Denner boss Philippe Gaydoul, Miss Switzerland Amanda Ammann, TV presenter Matthias Aebischer and the party presidents Toni Brunner (SVP) and Christian Levrat (SP) worked as department heads and helped shape the magazine: Amanda Ammann interviewed Nadine Strittmatter, Philippe Gaydoul suggested an interview with French fries manufacturer Hansheinrich Zweifel and also squeezed Alex Frei in conversation. All the celebrities also provide information about their experiences as temporary newspaper makers in a questionnaire. And dare to predict what the newspaper will look like in 20 years' time. "Newspaper format with more SVP content, for a sensual reading experience," wishes media prophet Toni Brunner. "A little more interactive, but otherwise similar," is Christian Levrat's tip. "I believe that newspapers are then even more tabloidized," says Amanda Ammann. Finally, Alex Frei has some visual wishes for the newspaper of the future: "I hope it has the same format as the Sonntagsblick today and doesn't come in pink, yellow or green." In view of this statement, we would be interested to hear the national team captain's opinion on the "blackberry" color of Blick am Abend.

Publisher Hanspeter Lebrument has filed a criminal complaint against Radio 1 initiator Roger Schawinski for defamation. The Grisons media entrepreneur alleges that Schawinski disparaged Lebrument in a statement to the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom). Schawinski had launched a veritable "all-round attack" against him at Bakom, said Lebrument in response to a corresponding report in the Sonntagszeitung newspaper. Schawinski claimed that Lebrument had disregarded his employees' freedom of expression and had dismissed people without a social plan.
On July 3, Lebrument filed a complaint with the Chur District Court for defamation. A "neutral body should decide", said the Südostschweiz publisher and president of the publishers' association. Mediation between the two parties has been scheduled for September 22.
Roger Schawinski described Lebrument's accusations to the Sonntagszeitung as "grotesque". There had been no defamation. In the non-public statement to Bakom, he had "in no way" criticized Lebrument as a person.
The two media entrepreneurs are competitors for the radio license for the area of south-eastern Switzerland. Lebrument is applying as the current license holder with Radio Grischa, Schawinski and his partners Stefan Bühler and Daniel Sigel as challengers with Radio Südost.

 SF presenter Mona Vetsch is ill and cannot present any programs until further notice. The new quiz show "1 against 100", which starts on September 1 on SF 1, will therefore be hosted by Susanne Kunz. Mona Vetsch has contracted an infection, SF spokesperson Urs Durrer confirmed a report in the Sonntag newspaper. The 33-year-old was traveling in the Mediterranean in early summer as part of the travel series "Fernweh" for SF. On the recommendation of her doctor, she will be taking some time off in the near future to recuperate. According to Durrer, it is not yet clear when Vetsch will return. The Thurgau native is also currently unable to work as a presenter on DRS 3 due to her illness.

Despite the financial crisis and record gasoline prices, the Swiss are still in a buying mood. Retailers achieved a 4.6 percent increase in sales to 19.2 billion Swiss francs in the first half of 2008. The year-on-year increase of 837 million Swiss francs came primarily from food products, sales of which rose by 6.1 percent to 11.1 billion Swiss francs. This is shown by a survey of 19 retailers conducted by the market research institute GfK.So-called convenience products such as ready meals, pre-packed sandwiches, ready-made salads and salad dressings (+11.4 percent) are becoming increasingly popular. Bread (+8.8 percent) and dairy products (+6.7 percent) also recorded significantly higher sales.The non-food market achieved an overall increase of 2 percent in the first half of 2008. Sales of detergents, cleaning products, personal care and pet food increased by 3.4 percent. Sales of furniture, household and garden products and stationery rose by 3.5 percent.Euro 08 kept the beer flowing The European Football Championship helped to boost sales of beer, sausages and potato chips: In June, 15 percent more beer flowed down throats than in the same month last year. In addition, 11 percent more sausages and 9 percent more potato chips were eaten.Sales of sporting goods soared by 15 percent in June. Sales of bags and backpacks were 18 percent higher than in June 2007, but TV retailers were left out in the cold: sales of TV and video sets fell by 3 percent in June. Photo cameras even slumped by a quarter. Despite the pre-European soccer championship advertising buzz, only 4 percent more TVs and video sets crossed the counter in the entire first half of the year. Camera retailers had to cope with a drop of 9 percent.

The Eurobest Awards, previously presented on the Internet, will take place in 2008 as part of the first Eurobest Advertising Festival. Registration is now open for the event, which will take place in Stockholm from December 1 to 3. The program includes exhibitions, interactive events, the Eurobest Awards ceremony and an after-show party. A package for people under the age of 25 is also on offer to enable the creatives of the future to take part in the festival. The festival is organized by Cannes Lions and The Advertising Association of Sweden, and further information and registration can be found on the festival website.

 The US news channel CNN has illustrated its coverage of the nationalist riots in Belgrade on Tuesday after the Karadzic arrest partly with pictures from Budapest. According to SDA, CNN confirmed a report by the Hungarian Internet newspaper Index.hu on Wednesday. CNN had used video material from APTN, the TV subsidiary of the AP news agency. It also included images of protests in Budapest from last year. The broadcaster apologized for the error and removed the incorrect material, and according to Index.ch, a several-minute-long video of the Belgrade events was available on the CNN website. The first and last seconds clearly showed images from Budapest, including the Hungarian sign "földallati" (subway) in the middle of burning barricades, as well as cars with Hungarian license plates.

 Global advertising expenditure rose by four percent in the first quarter of this year. Despite the economic downturn in many regions, more was invested in advertising, as Pressetext reported on Thursday. The Asia-Pacific region saw the strongest growth with an increase of ten percent, according to the latest surveys from . The fastest growing market is China, but India and Indonesia also contributed significantly to the increases, while growth in the more developed countries of North America and Europe was rather flat. Most recently, the weak economic developments in the USA also affected the TV advertising market (see 
). Over the last three months, Europe only achieved growth via the advertising medium of television, which accounts for around 50% of all advertising expenditure in this region - the TV sector grew by 2.2%. Most money is currently flowing into advertising from the healthcare sector. At just over ten percent of all advertising activities worldwide, this sector accounted for the largest expenditure. In terms of individual media, television remains the medium with the most advertising expenditure. Worldwide, investments here are increasing by 6.9 percent annually - with growth in all regions. TV currently accounts for 60 percent of international advertising expenditure. Newspapers remain at a constant level and magazines are losing ground slightly. According to Alessandra Rossi, Marketing Manager Nielsen Global Adview, the Internet is the medium with the highest growth rates and will certainly increase. Nevertheless, the increases will slowly slow down and show lower percentage values.

Switzerland is sweating in the summer heat - Max Shoes and Jung von Matt/Limmat, on the other hand, are making sure that the advertising doesn't cool down even after the summer. With the continuation of the Lolita campaign, the shoe store wants to show what is particularly hot this fall. The new subjects can be seen on posters around the various Max Shoes stores in Switzerland in the near future. Responsible at Max Shoes:
Daniel Widmer (Head of Marketing), Carmela Vetsch (Head of Marketing Services). Responsible at Jung von Matt/Limmat: Lukas Frei, Alexander Jaggy (Creative Direction), David Hanselmann (Art Direction), Samuel Knaus (Text), Matthias Fürst (Graphics), Martin Samsel, Sebastian Durband, Jasmin Schmid (Consulting), Ilonka Galliard, Jil Rottmann (Art Buying), Diego Alborghetti (Photography). Red Department (image processing).