Column A well-behaved treatment of symptoms à la "Your contribution to combating climate change" is no longer enough to turn the tide. A plea for good-humored criticism of capitalism.LOHAS journalism (LOHAS = lifestyle of health and sustainability) is becoming increasingly colorful. That is good. But it would be better if, in addition to eco-trend stories and politically correct consumer tips, overdue fundamental questions were also asked. A plea for good-humored criticism of capitalism and its organs: it doesn't get any greener than this. After the "Green Issues" of established mainstream magazines, a new niche title in this country is now telling us what needs to be done so that Mother Earth can recover or at least not perish completely. And we with her. We, that's you, me and - if you believe the market research - the almost 30 percent of the Swiss population with eco-social self-confidence. Conversely, two thirds are as interested in rising temperatures and declining biodiversity as they are in the proverbial sack of rice in China. And rightly so, because we can set ourselves apart from this ignorant mob relatively painlessly and celebrate ourselves as representatives of the "lifestyle of health and sustainability" from which, according to the crystal ball of the Frankfurt Future Institute, "the power consumers of tomorrow" will emerge.
Which brings us swiftly back to the new, self-proclaimed Swiss Lohas central organ called Todo, which can/should mean both "to do" and "everything" (todo). This universal guide to doing things differently is self-published by dedicated media professionals. The look is trendy, the topics are not unoriginal ("Ethanol to burn yourself") and the diction is strikingly neutral. Todo aims to provide orientation knowledge "so that we can continue to enjoy our lives, despite all the doomsday scenarios".
This credo is refreshingly honest, certainly capable of winning a majority among the aforementioned 30 percent and therefore probably lucrative in the medium term. Advertisers such as Manufactum, Swisscom and Bank Sarasin are already making their presence felt in the pilot edition, which you would still look for in vain in a WOZ, for example.
At the same time, however, such and similar do-it-yourself world improvement journalism is boundless, no, downright dangerously naive. Doing things yourself or doing things differently is a good thing. However, it is no longer possible to turn the tide by treating symptoms like "your contribution to combating climate change". After all, our problems are not gradual, but fundamental. More and more people want more and more prosperity faster and faster. This truth, which is even more uncomfortable than Al Gore's, is both simple and difficult. Without an alternative to the all-pervasive logic of growth and its accompanying phenomenon of consumerism, there can be no sustainability worthy of the name. And without journalism that dares to present a radical alternative, there can be no truly critical public.
Oops, as soon as it gets a bit basic, the pointing finger and curmudgeon trap snaps shut. It mercilessly exposes the humorless ideologue and envious grumbler who would be a grateful victim of an ecodictatorship. In fact, sympathetic and yet substantial criticism of the system is the squaring of the journalistic circle, both linguistically and financially. Linguistically ... okay, we just had that. Financially, the dilemma is ideally illustrated by the aforementioned weekly newspaper (WOZ). Its blows to the soft parts of the almighty market are occasionally well targeted and good-humored, but even the more sensual presentation hardly brought in any new advertising customers. Only the founding of the "Ecopool" (with Work and others) was able to dispel fears of contact among some former class enemies. After all, there could be a LOHAS target audience behind it. Seldom has label fraud been so effective and honorable. Because there is still a lot, in fact everything, to be done.
Oliver Classen is press spokesman for the development policy organization Berne Declaration (EvB).

 The Zurich agency Zürich Tokio has realized a cantonal campaign for the car cleaning company Autop. According to a press release from the agency, service is the top priority at Autop - the company not only washes, but also vacuums, polishes and waxes. And in addition to the car, customers are also looked after. However, according to the claim "Wash without scratches", customers do not have to worry about scratching themselves or their cars.
Responsible at Autop:
Janine Meyerstein, Beat Meyerstein (management).responsible at ZürichTokio:
Daniel Donati (CD), Niels Schäfer (AD), Karin Glarner (graphics), Adrienne Purkert (text), Rahel Isler (consulting), Micha Schmid (DTP) Jonathan Heyer (photography).

 
Humor From 1 May, listeners of various Swiss local radio stations can treat themselves to a short laugh break every day. From Monday to Friday, well-known comedians will be making short appearances on the radio. Swiss cabaret artist Andreas Thiel will kick things off. He will be followed by the duo Hinterletscht, Blues Max, Piet Klocke, Ingo Oschmann, Jess Jochimsen and the Chaostheater Oropax. ÖKK produces the Lachpause. The artists are free to choose their own topics. The health insurance company complements its humorous commitment by sponsoring the Swiss Comedy Award and various Swiss comedy festivals. The idea behind this: Laughter is known to be the best medicine. It reduces mental stress and strengthens the immune system at the same time. The new ÖKK campaign, which was launched in January, also focuses on humor: it is about new illnesses that you can get when dealing with other health insurers. The focus on humor is part of ÖKK's repositioning on the Swiss health insurance market, which was developed last year.

German private broadcaster Sat.1 is revamping its entertainment and information divisions. The entertainment division will be taken over by the Swiss Christoph Bürge from August. Born in Baden, he is currently Managing Director of SBS Romania, where he is responsible for the channels Prima TV and Kiss TV as well as various radio stations. ProSiebenSat.1 acquired the SBS station chain last year. In his new job, he will be responsible for shows, comedy and weekday daytime. Until he takes up his post, station boss Matthias Alberti will head the entertainment division on an interim basis. In addition, Sat.1 wants to focus more on infotainment and is creating a separate division for this purpose. From May 15, this will be headed by Edda Kraft, the current head of entertainment. She will be responsible for the externally produced magazines, docusoaps and series, third-party broadcasting commitments and the late night show. Kraft will report directly to Managing Director Torsten Rossmann.
Sat.1 has struggled with weak ratings in recent months. According to Matthias Alberti, the station now has an 11 percent share of the advertising-relevant audience in the current year. The restructuring of the program areas is intended to continue the renewal of Sat.1.
Alberi went on to say that he had "many intensive and good discussions" with the designated Head of Entertainment Christoph Bürge in the run-up to the appointment. Bürge worked from 1999 to 2001 as program director at the former Swiss private broadcaster TV3. From 2002, he advised TV2 in Hungary on strategic issues and was then Creative Director at TV2 in 2003/04. He then spent a year as Head of Development at Swiss Television before moving to Bucharest in 2005 to work for the SBS Group.

 The top managers at Tamedia presented the business figures for the past year on Wednesday with great self-confidence. And rightly so: in 2007, the media group increased its profit by 45 percent to 143 million Swiss francs, thus achieving the best result in its history. Turnover rose by 17 percent to CHF 772 million. A very good result was achieved in a super environment, said a delighted Martin Kall, Chairman of the Executive Board. The release of tax provisions, the utilization of losses carried forward and the sale of Radio Basilisk contributed significantly to the increase in net profit.
The most important topics last year were the takeover of the Bern-based Espace Media Groupe and the launch of the commuter newspaper L'Essentiel in Luxembourg, according to Chairman of the Board of Directors Pietro Supino. Espace Media Groupe, which has been fully on Tamedia's books since October 1, 2007, contributed CHF 69 million to sales and CHF 4.5 million to operating profit (EBIT).
Group-wide operating profit rose by 19 percent to 141.1 million Swiss francs. This is the highest level since 2000, as Kall explained. All business areas were in the black at EBIT level. An increase in the dividend by one to four francs will be proposed to the Annual General Meeting.
One downer in view of the excellent result, however, is the development of the share price for CFO Christoph Tonini: it was below the SPI value and also below that of SPI Medien, which in addition to Tamedia includes Publigroupe, Affichage, Edipresse, Orell Füssli, Agen and Goldbach Media. Tonini expressed confidence that the market will be more friendly towards Tamedia in the future.
Newspapers account for the lion's share The most important sales driver for Tamedia was once again the Newspapers division. It increased sales by 16 percent to CHF 547.7 million. In addition to the integration of Espace Media Groupe, an increase in job advertisements at Tages-Anzeiger and 20 Minuten contributed to this growth. Kall pointed out that the EBIT margin would have grown by 9 percent since 1990 even if all job advertisements had been excluded.
Kall was also very pleased with the development of the French-speaking Swiss commuter newspaper 20 minutes. 18 months after its launch, it had already achieved a reach of 390,000 readers, putting it ahead of all the paid-for newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland. However, it is still in second place behind the free newspaper Le Matin Bleu.
Magazine sales increased by 12 percent to CHF 92.9 million. Schweizer Familie, Das Magazin and Annabelle were the main contributors to this growth. Following the discontinuation of the news magazine Facts, profitability was almost on a par with the newspapers.
Decline in sales in radio and TV Tamedia was able to increase sales in electronic media by 14 percent to CHF 58.6 million. The online sector grew particularly strongly, said Kall. The additional investments in 20minuten.ch and 20minutes.ch and in other online services had paid off. The company is apparently less satisfied with the development of radio and television: Capital FM, Radio 24, Tele Bärn and Tele Züri all recorded a decline in sales.
The Services business division increased its sales by 45 percent to CHF 72.7 million. The newly integrated Espace Media Groupe printing center, Production Services, the Zuvo delivery organization and the Bubenberg printing center in Zurich contributed in particular to this growth.
Investments are being made onlineSupino is cautiously optimistic about the current year. A stable volume of job advertisements is expected, but not a boom. The first weeks of 2008 did not show a slump in advertising revenues, it was said. For Tamedia, the focus is on investment in online offerings.
According to Supino, the consolidation in the Swiss newspaper market is not yet complete. Tamedia wants to continue to play a leading role in this process. The focus is not on takeovers, but on cooperation between independent publishers. With this in mind, Kall also answered the question of whether the publishing house was considering a purchase of Basler Zeitung Medien: Firstly, he does not believe that there is a need for a buyer from the Basler's point of view. Secondly, Tamedia is currently focusing on cooperating with reliable partners. But, Kall continued, opportunities are always examined when something is up for sale.
Tamedia is putting out feelers abroad The purchase of the Swiss media company on the banks of the Rhine does not appear to be an issue, but further expansion abroad certainly is. The publishing house's management was satisfied with the launch of the free newspaper L'Essentiel, which it publishes together with the Luxembourg publishing house Editpress. Further steps abroad are conceivable "in the longer term", explained Supino. There are no concrete plans yet, but the company is open to any opportunity where it sees clear competitive advantages. Would it be conceivable to launch a (free) newspaper in the northern neighboring country together with a German publisher? "That would be a bold idea," Supino replied to the question. "But we're not ruling anything out in principle." The idea doesn't seem completely far-fetched: in Germany, which has resisted the free newspaper trend up to now, Tamedia could contribute its now extensive know-how in the field of commuter newspapers. Together with a strong partner, it might also be possible to crack the difficult German market. (SDA/cs)

 The PR and communications agency Burson-Marsteller Switzerland, with offices in Bern, Zurich and Geneva, is expanding its team of consultants. According to a press release, journalist Bettina Mutter will be joining the agency on August 1, where she will work as a consultant in the areas of corporate communications, crisis communications and media relations. She currently works as a parliamentary correspondent for the Tages-Anzeiger. Previously, she worked as an editor and reporter at Swiss television for "Kassensturz" and "Rundschau", among others.Katrin Nesemann will support national and international clients in the areas of issues management and change management from June. She most recently worked as International Public Policy Manager in Frankfurt. She previously worked as a consultant at A+B One communications agency in Frankfurt and at Burston-Marsteller Germany in the areas of public affairs, corporate affairs and crisis communications.
Max Brugger will join the Energy & Environment team on May 1. His area of responsibility will include scientific editorial work for clients in the energy industry. He is a mechanical engineer and completed a postgraduate course in science communication at the ZHW. After completing his training, he worked as a technical editor and product manager.

 
The Zurich agency Publicis has realized a new advertising campaign for the NZZ Business Combi, consisting of NZZ and Le Temps. The theme is team spirit, according to a statement from the agency: "If you take away one name from a famous double name, the power of the partnership becomes clear. Who, for example, is Davidson? Only with the name Harley would the brand's global fame shine through. The combination of the two newspaper titles should also lead to success. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Responsible at NZZ Business Combi:
Markus Ehrle (Head of Advertising Market NZZ), Grazia Ganci (Marketing Advertising Market NZZ), Walter Vontobel (Head of NZZ Media), Valérie Boagno (Head of Publishing Le Temps), Marianna Di Rocco (Head of Advertising and Management Le Temps Media). Responsible at Publicis: Ralph Halder (CD), Nik Hodel & Dominik Krattiger (AD), Johannes Jost (text), Nik Hodel (graphics), Christina Hengstmann (art buying), Myriam Mojon and Stephan Lanz (consulting), Andreas Caruso (production), Schaub Stierli (photography & image processing).

 
Training Maurice Codourey is working with the Swiss Advertising Association to obtain a specialist certificate for copywriters.  
"Become a writer for toothpaste and birdseed" was the recent call in advertisements from the agency network Scholz & Friends. The industry is on the lookout for young talent with strong words, because the demand for formulation artists is currently greater than ever. But where can copywriters be found when there are none? Unlike creative professions, training to become a copywriter is not regulated. There are no schools in Switzerland that teach you the craft. The agencies have to take the training into their own hands. Copywriting is a vocation, not a profession. Since there is no federally recognized training, it is difficult to get started. It is a Darwinian profession. If you convince an agency with your talent, you can write brochures and later perhaps even design headlines for campaigns. In Switzerland, the ADC/BSW creative school has so far been the only school-based training option for learning the basics of copywriting. However, you had to have proven yourself in a larger agency beforehand.
Copywriting for everyoneThe profession of copywriter should now be open to everyone. At least that is what Maurice Codourey is aiming for. The owner of the Fish Wishion agency wants to make copywriting a recognized profession with a specialist certificate. In December, a sponsoring body, which includes the Swiss Advertising Association, the copywriting association Script, the cantonal vocational school for further education EB Zurich and the Fédération romande de publicité et de communication (FRP), applied in Bern for a federal certificate with the title "Fachfrau/ Fachmann Text und Konzept".
"Our aim is to create solid basic training for copywriters," says Maurice Codourey. When asked by Werbewoche, Swiss advertising agencies confirmed that there is a need for trained copywriters. The basic tenor of the agency bosses is that there is currently a lack of good people with industry experience. Maurice Codourey estimates that there is an annual demand for 100 to 150 copywriters throughout Switzerland. Not only agencies, but also larger companies are increasingly looking for copywriters. In order for the Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology in Bern to approve the certificate, at least 80 people must register for the exam each year.
ADC President Jean-Etienne Aebi confirms that copywriting training is neglected in Switzerland: "Every effort to strengthen the copywriting profession should be taken seriously." Aebi attests that word artists in the country generally score well when ADC-ready ideas or headlines are in demand. However, the work of a copywriter is not limited to writing snappy advertising slogans. A copywriter must also be able to write brochures for a wide range of industries. "I clearly see a need to catch up here," says Aebi.
Training on the jobAlexander Jaggy, Head of Creative at Jung von Matt Limmat, is also in favour of efforts to establish a recognized certificate for copywriters. "When I started out, I only had one book by Robert Stalder," recalls Jaggy. He is therefore calling for an easier entry into the profession. A specialist certificate is a first step in this direction. This would only benefit the agencies if they knew in future what the candidates already had in terms of skills and basic knowledge. The creative director believes there is a chance of success if the training is practical: "There is no cure for copywriting practice. You just have to practise, practise and practise again." Alexander Jaggy also wants to promote copywriting training at the ADC/BSW creative school. A new course is currently being launched.
Codourey's efforts are therefore going in the right direction for the industry. The Freiburg native has not reported any resistance to a copywriting certificate. He says that the industry had conducted a series of preliminary soundings and had not received any negative reactions. Once the vocational experts at OPET have developed the examination and implementation regulations, Codourey plans to run a copywriting course at the cantonal vocational school for further education EB Zurich, a slimmed-down version of which can already be attended today. "The copywriting practitioner course can be considered a forerunner," says Codourey. However, the 128-lesson course is more of a quick fix. Codourey: "In the course, we emphasize teaching the basics and simple methods so that participants can better understand their work and sell it later." Provided everything runs smoothly at the BBT, Codourey intends to offer the course, which runs under
"The way it is now would not be enough for a specialist certificate. "Christian Lüscher

 Tamedia wants to ride the online wave this year. The announced online network, which now bears the name "Newsnetz", will be launched on August 8 - just in time for the Olympic Games. By the end of 2008, the network will comprise a total of around 43 full-time positions, 24 of which will be in the editorial office in Zurich. Partners in the Internet project are the Tages-Anzeiger, the Basler Zeitung and the Berner Zeitung, with other newspapers such as the Landbote to join later. There will not be a common address, but the website will run under the existing Internet address for all partners. Tamedia CEO Martin Kall defended this approach when asked whether this was not a missed opportunity to create a strong new brand: He assumes that readers will remain loyal to their regular platform and will quickly realize that there is now a lot more content to discover. "The traditional brands have a very good starting point," says Kall. Tagesanzeiger.ch has been operating with a very lean editorial team for years, yet the website is still one of the ten most used portals in the country. He attributes this to the reputation of the Tages-Anzeiger brand.
The company now wants to massively increase its content together with its partners. The fact that all websites attached to the network will then have the same content is not a problem: the overlap of users is less than 10 percent. In addition, each publication can determine the weighting on the front page itself, and local editorial teams are to ensure regionalization.
The development of the editorial team and the technical platform is "on track", according to the media conference. However, much still needs to be clarified, such as the question of the extent to which the regionalization of the various newspapers should be reflected on the Internet.
However, there is no doubt for the publishing house that online offerings have a future. Proof of this is the 20minuten.ch portal, which has massively increased its reach after the editorial team was expanded. "In the medium term, 20 Minuten will have more employees in the online editorial team than in the print editorial team - that is unique in Switzerland," says Kall. He hopes that the advertising industry will also make a strong commitment to the online medium - in his opinion, Switzerland has some catching up to do here.

 
Internet Starbucks asks consumers on the Internet to improve its products. The question is whether this is really about innovation.  
Starbucks is in crisis. There are many reasons for this. The US coffee house chain is struggling with declining sales in its home market, its competitor McDonald's performs better in taste tests and its shares have lost 50 percent of their value on the stock market within a year. Because the empire is running out of customers, the management is currently investing a lot of money in advertising, which contradicts the company's previous policy. The paradigm shift cannot be overlooked on US television. The company launched its first image-oriented TV campaign in November last year. And Starbucks boss Howard Schultz recently announced that the marketing budget would be increased. The company plans to invest 100 million US dollars in the brand this year. This represents a doubling. "Democratic idea machine "The situation is very serious. In order to hold its own against the competition, the company is also spending a lot of money on Internet activities. Starbucks is currently tapping into the creativity of consumers to ensure that the coffee house chain remains one step ahead in the future. To this end, the company has launched the website Mystarbucksidea.com. The site can be described as a "democratic idea machine" or "innovation pool". The offer works along the lines of current Web 2.0 offers. Consumers can write down their suggestions for improvement and other ideas on the site free of charge and thus participate in the development process of new products. Experts talk about the principle of "crowdsourcing" when a company lets its customers work for it. Without payment, of course.
However, the platform launched in mid-March has obviously been well received. Within a few days, the site had thousands of entries. And there are more every day. The wealth of ideas is enormous. For example, one participant called on Starbucks to produce coffee-flavored ice cubes to enhance the taste of the cold drinks on offer. Around 8,000 consumers are in favor of the suggestion. Others call for shelves in the toilets so that the drink can also be enjoyed in a quiet place. However, there are also less unusual demands such as free coffee on birthdays, premium cards for loyal customers or the suggestion to lower prices in general. As can be read in the US newspaper Washington Post, around four dozen Starbucks employees are busy keeping an eye on input from coffee fans.
Poor reward systemFor American media critics, the big hits have so far failed to materialize. The use of the site has even been called into question in the media because the meagre reward system has been questioned. The reason: participants are not paid for their contributions. "Why give ideas to a company if you still have to dig deep into your pocket to pay for the coffee," is the tenor of the critics. Jim Romenesko, operator of the Starbucksgossip blog, even suspects that Mystarbucksidea is more of a "propaganda campaign". The blogger is of the opinion that the increasing criticism of Starbucks on the Internet has prompted the company to polish up its image with the participatory project. Computer giant Dell tried this a year ago with a similar 2.0 thing called "Ideastorm". The hardware manufacturer made negative headlines due to faulty production. "The point is: if we don't offer something like this ourselves, customers will write it down somewhere else. I'd rather it was done by us. That makes us more trustworthy and we can react to it," said CEO Michael Dell a year ago.
Many experts doubt in their specialist blogs whether the Starbucks management will respond to customer wishes. Their assumption is that too much customer orientation poses great risks for a company. The widespread opinion in the boardroom that customer loyalty can simply be built up by listening to your own customers and simply implementing their wishes has proven to be a mistake on several occasions. Focusing too closely on customer needs can quickly lead to a very conservative innovation policy. In principle, customers only act as rear-view mirrors. Their imagination is limited to what they already know. Brand guru Bernd M. Michael, who spoke at this year's Publisuisse Mediavision, has a clear answer to the question of whether brands will be controlled by the consumer or the manufacturer in future: "As a rule, people know exactly what they don't want. But they find it difficult to describe what they want. People's imagination is extremely limited." And trend researcher Norbert Bolz said at this year's Marketing Day in Lucerne: "It's a big misunderstanding to think that if you bring together as many people as possible and get them to work for you, you'll come up with something clever."
In the focus of market researchersThe extent to which the Mystarbucksidea ideas portal will help the coffee company to compensate for the decline in sales will become clear in the coming months. In any case, the project will arouse the interest of market researchers due to the amount of data accumulated. A look at the statistics of its predecessor Ideastorm only gives a rudimentary idea of the dimensions behind such projects: A total of 8,000 ideas were submitted, more than 50,000 comments were written and 500,000 ratings were given. Experts consider traditional focus group models to be obsolete due to such volumes of data. "It's better to listen to what tens of thousands of customers write than to sit ten consumers in a room, feed them sandwiches and then watch what they say about the products," Bob Pearson, who manages community projects for computer manufacturer Dell, is quoted as saying in the Washington Post.
Christian Lüscher

 Pakistani children may have sewn together promotional footballs for Credit Suisse. In a communiqué, the bank writes that the involvement of children cannot be completely ruled out. This is despite the fact that contractual assurances were obtained when the order was placed. Credit Suisse sets itself high ethical standards and is aware of its social responsibility, the communiqué continues. The mere suspicion that the production of the footballs could involve a violation of the ban on child labor is unacceptable. As one of the main sponsors of the Swiss national team, the major bank had distributed red and white balls in its branches to get children and young people in the mood for Euro 08. A few days ago, "10 vor 10" reported that some of the balls had been sewn together by Pakistani children (see
).

 There is a change in the moderation of the hip-hop program "105 Dope" on the youth radio station 105: After two years, MC Samurai is handing over the microphone to two new radio voices: Annina Wenger (aka Nanalee Vaonger) and Giuseppe Audino (aka Giuzz). Both are anchored in the hip-hop community and will bring a great deal of music and scene expertise with them, the station announced. The rap show "105 Dope" has been running on Radio 105 for around eight years.