Anyone who does the Milchbüechli calculation will see the advantages of the Carte Blanche - this is the message of the Heads advertising campaign, which calculates how worthwhile the Tages-Anzeiger's "Ausgeh-Sparkarte" is on going-out calendars. The four advertisements are intended to show in concrete terms that with the Carte Blanche you can save the subscription price of the Tagi in no time this year - regardless of whether you are interested in classical concerts, trade fair visits, sporting events, cinema visits or wellness weekends.
Responsible at Tamedia: Dominique von Albertini (Head of Marketing Communication) and Cyrill Hänggi (Assistant Marketing Communication). Responsible at Heads Corporate Communication: Marco Simonetti (CD), Ralph Hermann (text), Donovan Szypura (graphics), Ralph Hermann and Nadia Francioso (consulting).

 
The Zug-based marketing and consulting agency VitaminD cultivate emotions has opened a branch in Zurich's Maag Areal with five employees. The agency, which was founded in 2001 and operates in the below-the-line sector, has initiated projects such as the Nokia Wakeboard Tour, Lipton Surf Sessions and Stimorol Poolbombs. The managing director and owner is Daniel Schärer.

The state-subsidized association Berufsbildungplus.ch has angered Zurich's liberal politicians with an advertising campaign for the promotion of apprenticeships: postcards and flyers read: "Better to create cleverly than to be clever", as the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper reported on Friday. This sensationalist slogan not only ridicules vocational schools, but also all other post-secondary education - especially grammar schools. According to the FDP, it is not acceptable to exclude pupils who want to become smarter at school and play them off against apprentices. For the party, this campaign is "state-approved stupidity". Well then, cheers to the beetles with sweat on their foreheads and down with the head-smoking smart alecks - state-qualified stupidity or not...

 In the fight against the decline in viewership, "Tagesschau" boss Heiner Hug is focusing on "more foreign affairs and more sport", as can be read in the Sonntagszeitung. According to Hug, foreign topics have been somewhat neglected from time to time. Sports reporting is also to be expanded: "We don't just want results, but more background and preview reports." The "Tagesschau" boss wants to promote "breaking down" in particular: The individual aspects of a topic are to be separated from each other more frequently by intervening moderations. Another program innovation was buried shortly after its introduction at the beginning of January: the summary of the three most important news items at the end of the program, called Sommaire. Hug's reasons for the discontinuation include the negative reactions of viewers - they had accused the program makers of "selling them as morons".
With the renewed restructuring of the program, Hug is reacting to a massive decline in viewership: In 2002, an average of more than one million people watched the "Tagesschau" main edition, last year it was still 800,000.
However, viewers would not turn to news from other channels, Hug is quoted as saying in the Sonntagszeitung. The competition is mainly home-made, for example from the news channel SF Info.

Peter Rothenbühler is the new President of the Conference of Editors-in-Chief. The editor-in-chief of the French-speaking Swiss newspaper Le Matin was unanimously elected at the General Assembly in Bern on Friday, as reported by SDA. His predecessor Res Strehle, who chaired the association for five years, reminded the General Assembly of the drafting of the "Code of Conduct" completed in 2007 for the strict separation of journalistic content and commercial advertising. The next goal is to extend the Code of Conduct to sponsorship, says the outgoing President. For his part, Rothenbühler spoke out in favor of publishers joining the Press Council in the near future. Dominique von Burg, President of the Press Council since the beginning of the year, expressed the same sentiment.

The Conference of Editors-in-Chief represents the interests of editorial offices and journalists. The association has around 60 members from all over Switzerland and is affiliated to the Press Council.

Editor-in-chief Stefan Aust (see ), who has been dismissed from the news magazine Der Spiegel, and the management of the publishing house have reached an out-of-court settlement after a long back-and-forth. The 61-year-old will leave the magazine without any further disputes in court, as the law firm representing him, Matthias Prinz, announced on Friday.Aust had filed a complaint against his dismissal with the Hamburg Labor Court. The case was to be heard again at the beginning of May. Aust was of the opinion that he could continue in his role as editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel until 2010 and as publisher of Spiegel TV until 2013. After an unsuccessful conciliation hearing at the beginning of February, Aust was released from his duties.

 
As has already been announced, Ringier is launching a free evening Blick entitled Blick am Abend (see ). In the morning, you have to pay CHF 1.80 for Blick, but in the evening it will be distributed free of charge - a strategy that is likely to cause irritation among the public, writes former Blick journalist Kurt-Emil Merki in Sonntag. Marc Walder, Editorial Director of the Blick Group, takes a different view. He is quoted in Sonntag as thinking outside the box. That's why he wants people to see that all Blick Group titles come from one brand. Sonntags-Blick, Blick and, from June, Blick am Abend are to benefit even more from the umbrella brand "Blick", which has a good reputation among young people in particular. Advertisers have reacted "extremely positively" to these ideas, and readers will do the same, and the individual titles will have a correspondingly uniform look. In terms of content, however, Walder attaches great importance to strict differentiation: Blick am Abend will be true to the law of the free newspaper: short, concise, factual, entertaining and informative. Half of the newspaper will offer after-work tips and life advice, the other half information and news. The stories will be "neatly staged", there will be no commentary. If Blick runs a campaign for days on end, then Blick am Abend will present the same topic in an "unagitated" way. Blick am Abend does not want to be a second Blick - it is totally different in tone.
In order to emphasize the independence of the paper, Blick am Abend will have its own editor-in-chief, Merki writes in Sonntag. It is unclear whether this will be Daniel Steil, currently interim editor-in-chief. Apparently, other candidates could also be considered. Walder simply says that he wants to have the personnel issue off the table in two weeks at the latest. The product will have 32 pages. Like the free newspaper Heute, it will be distributed in Zurich, Basel and Berne.

 In the last five months, three new owner-managed communications agencies have applied to the Alliance of Swiss Advertising Agencies (ASW), undergone the admission procedure and finally passed the quality assurance admission test, as announced by the ASW. Planet Kommunikation & Gestaltung, Lucerne, Interaction Communications, Aarau and Kovikom Koller Visuelle Kommunikation, Goldach, now bear the ASW quality label.

 
The job advertisement Stellefant, which is published on Fridays in the large circulation of the Basler Zeitung, has recently been repositioned. As of Friday, the supplement will be published with a revised appearance and, for some time now, with new services and in a larger distribution area with a total circulation of around 225,000 copies. The Stellefant is the largest job advertisement in north-western Switzerland and, with the exception of management and apprenticeship positions, the previous categorization in the Stellefant into specific specialist areas has been discontinued; according to a statement from Basler Zeitung Medien, this is intended to increase the level of attention paid to the individual advertisements. However, a new section "The Greens" for private advertisers and non-profit work areas has been added. In addition, the job advertisement is to be enriched with information on the topics of work, training and further education. In future, color advertisements will be possible at no extra charge.
The Internet platform Stellefant.ch was launched at the beginning of March to supplement the print edition. The printed job advertisements are published there in their original size free of charge for ten days. In addition to the Basler Zeitung, the Stellefant is also inserted in the Neue Fricktaler Zeitung and the Volksstimme Sissach. The Oberbadische, the Markgräfler Tagblatt and the Weiler Zeitung in the southern German border region were added at the beginning of January.

 
The cantonal government of Aargau rejects the demand of the SP parliamentary group to disclose donations to parties and campaigns. The creation of a legal basis at cantonal level to increase transparency would be "disproportionate", it stated in a statement on Friday, according to SDA. Cantonal measures for transparency and equal opportunities are "inappropriate". A disclosure obligation could deter potential donors from financially supporting campaigns and parties, and monitoring would require a large control apparatus. The government council also has no interest in radio and television having to make broadcasting time available to parties and groups. If broadcasting time were offered, the oversaturation with election and voting propaganda could increase. He went on to say that democracy thrives on public debate. These are the basis for forming the opinions and will of those entitled to vote. Although advertising plays an important role in this, it is by no means the only decisive factor.

 With Brigitte Urfer, Tele Top will have a new overall head of marketing and sales by June 1 at the latest. Urfer is moving from Tele Züri, where she has been Head of Media and Advertising Agency Consulting since December 2002. At Tele Top, she succeeds Peter Bronhofer, who is taking on a new challenge after more than eight years in this position, as the regional broadcaster from Eastern Switzerland announced. Before joining Tele Züri, Brigitte Urfer was a customer advisor at Publimedia and AWI Aussenwerbung Intensiv in Zurich. She then headed the Espace Pub office of Publicitas in Zurich.

 
The Board of Trustees of the Swiss Public Relations Institute SPRI has appointed Markus Berger as its new Director with effect from April 1, 2008. The 42-year-old PR professional is a successful graduate of the federal PR specialist and PR consultant courses. He has been running his own agency, BPR Communications, in St. Gallen for 15 years, which handles mandates in education marketing, among other things. He has been President of the PR Society of Eastern Switzerland/Liechtenstein since 1999 and a member of the Central Board of the Swiss Public Relations Society SPRG since 2000.Markus Berger's appointment fills the gap left by the departure of former Director Christoph Ottinger at the end of January (see:
). Marion Starck, President of the Board of Trustees, has taken over the management on an interim basis. In a press release, she expressed her conviction that Berger has the right qualifications to position the SPRI more strongly on the market and consolidate it as a successful institution in the communications industry.