The online job portal Medienjobs.ch has given its website a visual and functional overhaul and updated its IT infrastructure. A new information service was also introduced: complete overviews of all apprenticeships and further training courses in the media and communications industry in Switzerland. A distinction has been made in the further education courses between the levels of school diplomas without federal recognition, BP professional examinations, HFP higher professional examinations, HF higher professional colleges, FH universities of applied sciences and NDK/NDS postgraduate courses/studies. The respective courses are also linked to schools, associations and continuing education portals to provide further information. This constantly updated overview enables those seeking further education to gain a comprehensive overview of the entire further education market in the respective specialist area, as detailed in a press release. The offer is also supplemented by a further education guide in which training institutes from the communications industry advertise their specialist courses and training programs.
The new design was created by Dieter Amstutz from Cypro, and the Zurich web agency Mitlinks was commissioned with the IT implementation. The usability agency Zeix was responsible for optimizing the user interface.

 
Free newspaper Tagi and Zürcher Oberländer made life all too difficult for Zehnder's free paper. 
The empire of the Zehnder publishing house in Wilhelmshaven comprises 22 regional free titles. For now. Soon there will be one title less. "It's true, the Uster Rundschau, which we launched in September 2007, will be published for the last time on May 8," confirms senior publisher Rolf-Peter Zehnder, who was responsible for the Zehnder titles. Almost all of the company's free papers are in the care of his son Andreas, who explains the decision with the competitive pressure from the Tages-Anzeiger and Zürcher Oberländer. The Tages-Anzeiger used dumping measures to acquire advertisements for its new Oberländer split edition, so that the Uster Rundschau was unable to keep up. "The advertising prices with a wide range of discount and PR opportunities made things difficult for us", he states in a short press release. Major advertisers such as Coop and Migros also failed to support him. When Zürcher Oberland Medien AG recently announced the founding of five small weekly newspapers for the fall (see page 13), Zehnder didn't hesitate. "It's no good like this: we were already missing out on 20,000 francs in revenue every week," says Zehnder. The publisher can continue to employ most of the staff, but the dismissal of one editor is unavoidable.
The Swiss "free newspaper king" founded the Uster Rundschau (42,688 copies) just last fall, shortly after Tamedia discontinued its Uster Nachrichten - a paper that Zehnder had also launched 25 years ago. "I was of the opinion that this region needed an independent newspaper again - and the response from the population was good," says the senior citizen. But then he had to realize that the market had completely changed with the Tagi-Split and Tagi-Grossauflage.
Nevertheless, Zehnder will not be withdrawing from the region completely. Another of his free titles, the Zürich Rundschau, which is also based in Uster, will be published with 50,000 copies from next week instead of 35,598 copies and will also cover the area from Volketswil to Schwerzenbach in addition to its current distribution region. This will shift the title towards the city of Zurich, says the publisher. "Wetzikon and Pfäffikon, on the other hand, will be left uncovered in future." The advertising rate for the expanded free newspaper will therefore increase from the current CHF 1.32 per millimeter to CHF 1.49.
 
Markus Knöpfli 

 
Suzanne Regez has joined the consultancy team at the Rotor communications agency. After dropping out of her studies in journalism, Regez has spent the last four years gaining experience in the marketing and events sector. Regez is switching from a client's marketing team to the agency side. The career changer has been working for Rotor on Zurich's Dienerstrasse since the beginning of the year.

 
 
In the wonderful world of branded products, everyone has their own personal favorites. Cats would buy Whiskas, dogs swear by Chappi and baked goods clearly prefer Floralp butter. At least that's what the new poster campaign by Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett wants to suggest. For example, it shows a croissant that doesn't want to let go of Floralp butter. Or a plait of butter gently nestling against a block of butter. Both posters can be seen throughout Switzerland from mid-May:
Peter Ryser (Managing Director BO Butter), Charlotte Hofstetter (Head of Advertising & Media SMP), Daniela Schmutz-Beutler (Project Manager Butter SMP). Responsible at Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett: Maren Beck (text), Karin Estermann (AD), Martin Spillmann (CD), Pam Hügli, Tatjana Meichtry, Isabelle Meier (consulting); photographer: David Willen, image processing: Tanja Willen, food stylist: Marc Wyss.

  
The focus of this year's general meeting of the Swiss copywriters' association Script was on personnel issues. The 25 members present elected Roger Hausmann and Rinaldo Dieziger as new members of the Board and confirmed Robert Sulser, Patrick Zoll and Managing Director Christoph Fuchs for two years. The Board now consists of a total of eight members. Hélène Apel, Paul Girard and President Stephanie Hugentobler had already been confirmed for a two-year term of office last year. Script has a special system of succession planning within the Board of Directors. The permanent appointment of Board aspirants is intended to ensure continuity of work. Barbara Sollberger and Kathrin Oppliger are new candidates. The replacement of President Stephanie Hugentobler, who is relinquishing her office at the 2009 AGM for personal reasons, has already been initiated. The Board of Directors is proposing Roger Hausmann as her successor. Until the 2009 AGM, he will lead the presidency as President-designate in cooperation with Stephanie Hugentobler and is then expected to stand for election.

 
The production of the annual farmer's calendar with the scantily clad farmer's daughters is entering its hot phase. After the application deadline has just expired, in which 250 young women have registered this year, the remaining 40 will have to undergo a further selection process on Friday, May 9. The jury, made up of National Councillors Alice Glauser and Marcel Scherer, photographer Alberto Venzago and ex-Mister Switzerland Renzo Blumenthal, will select 13 of them for the 2009 Farmers' Calendar (Girl Edition). The number 13 will be on the cover. It is no accident that two members of the Swiss National Council are on the jury. Former Federal Councillor Joseph Deiss had already given the calendar a state-preserving significance when he said that upstanding female farmers were very important for agriculture in the 21st century. The otherwise dry-cheeked Deiss may turn out to be a true cynic here, considering that every third farm in Switzerland has already closed down since 1990 due to structural adjustments, and the trend is continuing. With these prospects, we should be a bit prepared. Increased competition is the order of the day.

 Comedia is paying compensation to Tamedia for a strike in a printing plant in August 2003: The media union and the publishing house have agreed on a settlement that includes a payment of 35,000 Swiss francs. With the settlement that has now been reached, the two parties have agreed to end a lengthy legal process, as was reported in a joint press release on Tuesday. According to the communiqué, Comedia is transferring the 35,000 francs "without acknowledging any legal obligation". The money will be used to cover the additional costs incurred by the strike in the production and delivery of the news magazine Facts. Tamedia had originally sued for damages of 130,000 Swiss francs.
As early as November 2004, an arbitration tribunal with equal representation from the graphic arts industry found that the Facts printing strike was in breach of the peace obligation in the collective labor agreement, according to the press release. In February 2007, the same arbitration court had rejected a claim for damages submitted by the business association Vscom on behalf of Tamedia. An association cannot assert such claims on behalf of its members, it said at the time.

 
Manuela Kern joined the In Flagranti advertising agency on May 1, 2008. The qualified marketing communications manager has worked in several communications and PR agencies as well as on the client side, mainly in the health and medical sector. Manuela Kern is now also responsible for this area in Lyss. According to the press release issued on Tuesday, in flagranti is already looking forward to her recipes. The advertising agency In flagranti, number 3 in the canton of Bern according to the BSW ranking, is a full-service agency with 27 employees. It is managed by Michael Hählen (consulting), Lorenz Schmid (consulting) and Marcel Wälti (visual design). Founded in 1990, the agency concentrates on marketing communication and special tasks for large companies and on integrated communication with a strategic focus for SMEs.

 Eight months after its launch, the management of the commuter paper .ch is making changes to the content of its newspaper. From Wednesday, the daily newspaper, which has an average of 24 editorial pages, will include a daily people page, a weather page and a comic page. To this end, .ch has secured the exclusive rights to the comic strip "Hägar the Terrible", which previously appeared in Blick. From now on, four additional cinema pages will also fill the paper on Thursdays. The aim of these measures is to bring the newspaper "closer to public transport", explained Sacha Wigdorovits, Executive Board Delegate, when asked by Werbewoche. "You shouldn't expect a comprehensive relaunch. Nothing fundamental will change. We have simply checked where there is potential for additions and improvements," Wigdorovits continued. As the weighting of the newspaper distribution had developed differently than planned and public transport users were now being catered for to a much greater extent, their reader behavior had to be taken into account. In addition to the permanently allocated pages, minor typographical and layout changes have also been made. Certain titles are now larger and various sections are more clearly differentiated. "We have noticed that our layout is very well received overall, but in certain areas it seems a little too calm."
Further adjustments are to follow at the beginning of June. Newspaper initiator Wigdorovits did not want to comment on which areas these will affect. However, he is very happy that they have succeeded in recruiting the experienced Ringier journalist Andy Maschek to relieve deputy editor-in-chief and newspaper editor Marcel Siegenthaler. Maschek will head the sports department in future. The departure of deputy head of news David Schaffner to the Tages-Anzeiger is to be offset by changes in the .ch editorial team of around 40 people.

 
Frontwork, based in Winterthur and Wallisellen, is separating its production and agency divisions. Production retains the name Frontwork and remains domiciled in Wallisellen under the management of Fabio Vareni. The advertising agency based in Winterthur will be renamed Frontwork Communication and will continue to be managed by Ruedi Huber. Although the two divisions have been operating separately for years, they were still linked financially and in terms of personnel. In future, both companies will operate completely independently. The reasons for the separation are the desire for complete independence and a better focus on the needs of clients, according to the press release. Nothing will change for customers and employees. Both companies are planning a new visual identity.

 
Giger Com in Baar, a new PR agency operating throughout Switzerland, commenced operations this month. The consultancy is managed by Judith Giger, formerly co-owner of Birchmeier Giger in Zug. Together with Karin Organiska, who also has several years of agency experience, they manage and implement communication projects for various pharmaceutical, service and industrial companies throughout Switzerland. The team has a broad network of freelancers who are deployed according to client requirements and project size.Giger has been working as a consultant and manager on the agency side for more than 20 years. For the last three years she has been Managing Partner and co-owner of Birchmeier Giger. Prior to that, she was a member of the management team at Wirz Corporate, where she was responsible for public relations.
Her new business partner Karin Organiska has been in the agency business for over six years. For the last three years, she has worked as a consultant at Birchmeier Giger, supporting clients from the financial and service sectors as well as SMEs.
Giger Com offers consulting, conception and realization for all aspects of communication work.

 Paper trader Sihl+Eika sold more paper in 2007 than ever before. The volume of paper sold rose by 3.6 percent to over 108,000 tons compared to the previous year, while sales increased by 6.9 percent to CHF 208.5 million. The operating result of the Thalwil-based company grew even more strongly. It rose from CHF 12.9 million in 2006 to CHF 13.9 million last year.The Sihl+Eika Group was also able to increase its market share in Switzerland again in 2007. According to its own figures, this amounted to just under 33 percent. Two years previously, the country's second-largest paper wholesaler only had a share of around 30 percent. Company boss Daniel Meier is also confident about the current year: he is expecting further growth despite poorer economic forecasts. At least in the first quarter of the year, sales and turnover have developed as expected and the necessary price increases due to high raw material prices have been implemented on the market, he told the media on Tuesday.
The recent change of ownership should have no direct impact on Sihl+Eika. The Papyrus wholesale organization, which includes the Swiss company, was spun off from the Finnish company Stora Enso at the end of April. Since then, it has been in the hands of the Swedish financial investor Altor. The aim is to make Papyrus the largest paper merchant in Europe. According to Meier, the independence of Sihl+Eika will not change. This is because paper sales are a locally anchored business.