Philipp Bareth is the new Head of Sales and New Business at the student portal Students.ch, which has been part of Axel Springer Switzerland since last year. The business economist FH previously worked for the marketing company IP Multimedia as Project Manager Crossmedia. Before that, he worked in the Corporate Branding department at Novartis International in Basel. At Students.ch, which was founded 10 years ago, he will coordinate the sales department and contribute his experience to the development and expansion of innovative and cross-media concepts.

 
The personnel changes in Belcom's sales team continue: Francesco Nesci, Rico Krebs and Manuela Birghan are joining the company, and Brigitte Urfer is stepping down. Francesco Nesci is to become the new Business Development Manager for Radio 24 and Tele Züri. In this role, the 35-year-old, who has been working for the company as a cross-media sales consultant since September 2005, will focus on new customer business and cross-media customers. In addition, Nesci will take over as deputy sales manager for Radio 24 and Tele Züri, according to the press release. He will report directly to the new Head of Sales, Philip Hofmann.  
Rico Krebs will join Radio 24 and Tele Züri as a sales consultant at the beginning of May 2008. The 30-year-old worked at Espace Media Groupe in Berne as a key account manager and media consultant. Brigitte Urfer, Head of Agency Consulting at Tele Züri, will be leaving the company at her own request at the end of May after more than five years. A successor is already in place in the person of Manuela Birghan. She has been working as a sales consultant for Radio 24 for almost two years and will take up her new position immediately.

 
It has long been known that the new Blick will be launched on Wednesday. But now there is brand new information: Ringier is launching a free Blick am Abend. The newspaper with the working title Blick am Abend is to replace the evening newspaper Heute and will take over "all elements that have been successful in the reader market". The existing Heute editorial team will produce the free Blick. Ringier made the announcement on Tuesday evening after the blog Medienlese.com had already spread the news and Daniel Pillard, interim Head of Ringier Switzerland, told Werbewoche that "a surprise" would be announced at the relaunch event for Blick. Blick am Abend is scheduled to see the light of day at the start of the European Football Championship on June 7, 2008. It is part of the strategic expansion of the Blick media platform. In addition to the daily newspaper Blick, this also includes Sonntagsblick and the Blick.ch web portal with a daily web TV program and three web radio stations.
In March last year, Werbewoche speculated that the evening newspaper Heute was to become Blick am Abend (see
View today
). Heute appeared for the first time on May 15, 2006. In the highly competitive market of free newspapers with 20 Minuten, News and .ch, Heute is the only one that appears in the evening.
The Blick newspaper will appear in a new look from Wednesday. It will become a 56-page newspaper with two front pages: The back page is the introduction to the sports section. The new Blick focuses more on magazine elements. There will be new sections alongside tried and tested ones: the page 3 girl and the Blick beetle will be brought back to life.
At the same time, Blick is coming up with a new distribution concept: Subscribers in the largest conurbations in Switzerland will receive the newspaper between 5 and 6.30 in the morning. Blick is also now available in 230 additional newspaper boxes.

 
Schweizerischer Beobachter has been managed by the Hamburg-based dialog marketing agency Rosenzweig & Schwarz since the beginning of the year. The agency was commissioned to create a new concept for acquiring subscribers for the magazine, which has belonged to Axel Springer Verlag since 2007.  
The campaign is intended to highlight the Beobachter's special position in the magazine market, according to the agency's press release: on the one hand, the Beobachter has been fighting for justice as a magazine for over 80 years, and on the other hand, it provides its subscribers with a wide range of advisory services.
 
Founded in 2000 by Mike H. Rosenzweig and Michael Schwarz, Rosenzweig & Schwarz employs 25 people and looks after major German publishing houses such as Gruner+Jahr with Stern, GEO and the entire GEO family and the P.M. family as well as Gong Verlag and F.A.Z.-Verlag. In addition, the competition service Win24, the ARTE TV magazine and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

 The Marketing Trophy was awarded at the Swiss Marketing Day 08. The jury of ten experts awarded three gold medals, to Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, Present-Service Ullrich & Co. and Best of Swiss Gastro. The Audience Award also went to Present-Services Ulrich & Co. with the FamExpo project. Present-Service was awarded a prize in the small business category. The Zug-based company has been working closely with manufacturers and suppliers since 1972 to put together gift and information packs and guidebooks aimed at expectant and young families. The jury was convinced by the FamExpo concept, a children's and family fair. Through clear target group segmentation, the new trade show was successfully positioned in the market. A total of 120 exhibitors came together last year in the ABB halls in Zurich.
In the large company category, the pharmaceutical company Sandoz took the coveted trophy. The Swiss generics supplier has successfully relaunched its brand. The broad "More than Generics" campaign was responsible for this. With innovative advertising, unusual for a pharmaceutical company, Sandoz made it to number two in the local generics business and grew by 8.9 percent last year. The jury's verdict: Sandoz has succeeded not only in positioning itself as a generics supplier and raising its profile accordingly, but also in building trust with healthcare professionals and consumers. The agency responsible for Sandoz's communications is Werbeanstalt Schweiz.
In the category non-profit organizations Best of Swiss Gastro has convinced the jury. The Best of Swiss Gastro Award is something like an Oscar for restaurant operators and is awarded through a guest rating system. In the last four years, the number of participating restaurants has risen from 135 to 300, and last year a total of 70,000 guests took part in the voting. According to the jury, the seal of approval is based on a holistic and professional marketing approach. Clear, measurable measures are shown, which allow a precise control of success. Last year, the pharmaceutical company Helvepharm, sports equipment supplier Mammut, meat supplier Bell and the Minergie association, a quality label for new and renovated buildings, had won the award.
The Internet as a focus The competition was open to marketing concepts that had been implemented or completed in the past year. Already demonstrable success or convincing future prospects were prerequisites to be admitted to the award. All companies based in Switzerland or Liechtenstein were eligible to submit an application. The jury was made up of well-known marketing professionals. Among others, Peter Felser and Frank Bodin as representatives of the advertising industry judged the participating companies and their concepts.
During the course of the day, hundreds of guests also heard presentations on the latest marketing insights. The organizers of this year's Marketing Day focused on the Internet and its influence on marketing. Under the title "Digital Marketing ¬ Hype or Revolution?" the speakers explained the dominance of the new forms of communication on marketing and what the networking of consumers entails.
Christian Lüscher

 The German TV group ProSiebenSat.1 suffered a fall in profits last year. A cartel fine and the costs for the takeover of the SBS station chain are to blame. Profits amounted to EUR 89.4 million, which is less than half of last year's figures. Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) nevertheless increased by 8 percent to 521.3 million euros. Without the fine, it would have been 36 percent higher than in 2006.
In the opinion of the Federal Cartel Office, ProSiebenSat.1, like its competitor RTL, had unfairly favored major customers in the marketing of television advertising time. The Group therefore paid a fine of EUR 120 million and changed the way it sold advertising time. The investigations were then discontinued (see
). Last year, ProSiebenSat.1's revenues rose by 29 percent to EUR 2.7 billion as a result of the takeover of the SBS station chain. For 2008, the media group expects a further increase in revenues thanks to SBS.

 The Best of Swiss Web award ceremony will take place on March 11. In the Euro year 2008, there is also a football prize up for grabs there. Which is the best web project in the football marketing category will now be determined in a special competition under the motto "The web is round". Users can vote on Punkt.ch until Saturday, March 8. The votes from this poll will be counted 50 percent - the final decision will then be made by the jury and a surprise football guest at the "Award Night" on March 11. An award will also be presented for the best website of the football associations participating in the European Championship finals in Switzerland and Austria. The "Award Night" will be held in the main hall of the Kongresshaus Zurich. The program will start at 6:00 pm. In addition to the announcement of all the winners in the eight categories, it will also include the presentation of the "Master of Swiss Web 2008" and a show block with Fabian Unteregger, who parodies Christoph Mörgeli on the Giacobbo/Müller show on SF. See also:
,

 
The commuter newspaper News will be the City of Zurich's print media partner during the 2008 European Championships. The aim of the partnership is to provide Zurich residents, guests and fans with fast, competent and comprehensive information about the major event, according to the city's press release. News is intended to supplement the information services of the Tages-Anzeiger, which will produce a daily European Championship bundle during the European Championships, and the city has also concluded a host city sponsorship agreement with the Tages-Anzeiger as part of the European Championships. The first of the four local sponsors for the so-called "Uefa Fan Zone" has thus been defined. According to the press release, the sponsor will benefit from logo presence, hospitality opportunities and other services. Thanks to the commitment of the host city sponsors, fans and guests will be able to experience the matches in the fan zone in Zurich in a stadium atmosphere. 

 
The Bern agency Neue Lgk is launching an awareness-raising campaign for Bernmobil to combat the growing problem of litter on buses and streetcars. Floor stickers and streetcar hangers in special formats are used: subjects such as oversized ketchup sachets or paper cups show the scale of the problem for the Bern transport company. This is combined with a request to passengers to be more considerate when eating and drinking on the streetcar or bus. The streetcar hangers with dispensers therefore do not contain flyers, but napkins with a message printed on them. The campaign is accompanied by an installation in the visitor center and brochures on the subject of safety and cleanliness in public transport.
Responsible at Bernmobil:
Monika Scheiwiller and Franca Heller (Marketing Communications). Responsible at Neue Lgk: André Benker (CD), Andreas Szentkuti and Lukas Schmid (text), Stephan Wittwer (AD), Andreas Wyss (graphics) as well as Alfredo Trasatti and Nicole Brunner (consulting).

 
The Metzgerlehner agency has been commissioned by the Swiss Fruit Association (SOV) to show that local fruit is one of the healthiest snacks around. To this end, the Erlenbach-based agency is using rail posters in the S-Bahn and intercity trains as well as advertising screens at points of sale and various occasional advertisements. At the same time, Swiss SMEs will receive a tasty apple mailing that draws attention to the SOV's new fruit subscription, according to the agency's press release. The fresh apples for the mailing come from farms all over Switzerland. Responsible at the Swiss Fruit Association:
Bernadette Galliker. Responsible at Metzgerlehner Worldwide Partners: Felix Dammann (CD), Patrick Meyer (text/concept), Marco Hert and Christoph Schiess (AD), Giovanni Bucca (production), Silvan Metzger and Silvan Hafner (consulting); photography: Jonathan Heyer.

 
Roger Schawinski plans to position his Radio 1, which launches on March 17, as a «breaking-news station» and is counting on columns by Roger Köppel and Peter Rothenbühler. Radio 1 will offer something completely different from its competitors, Schawinski told the media on Tuesday. «We want to revive radio as the fastest medium of all.» The station is therefore consistently positioning itself as a «breaking news station.».
The station’s crew is expected to report important news as it breaks and quickly supplement it with additional information, analysis, and background. At 6 p.m., a program on a specific topic will follow, provided that current events warrant it, the media executive explained. If no topic emerges during the day that warrants a program, the program will not be aired.
Columns broadcast every morning will add some color to the lineup. To this end, the station has recruited Felix E. Müller, Roger Köppel, and Peter Rothenbühler—among others—the editors-in-chief of *NZZ am Sonntag*, *Weltwoche*, and *Le Matin*. In addition to them, Roger Schawinski himself, sociology professor Kurt Imhof, and Matthias Ackeret will also serve as radio columnists.
A political satire show will also air daily. Schawinski’s own talk show, «Doppelpunkt,» which airs on Sunday mornings, is making a comeback. On Saturday mornings, Radio 1 plans to keep listeners engaged with an educational program.
According to Schawinski, Radio 1 will feature a broad repertoire of songs from past decades. Only two or three songs per hour will be current hits. In terms of hosting, the new radio station aims to provide continuity by having each show hosted by the same people every time. The station plans to avoid phone-in games and contests for the time being.
Whether Radio 1—which moved into a newly built studio near the Zurich Schauspielhaus on Monday—will continue to exist in the long term depends on whether the station is granted a license. For now, Radio 1 can be heard on the frequency formerly used by Radio Tropic. Schawinski acquired the niche station five months ago.
Schawinski is now applying for one of a total of five licenses to be awarded for the Zurich/Glarus region and the city of Zurich. Schawinski could not say what would happen if he did not receive a license. «I’m not the kind of person who always plays it safe,» he explained. In any case, he said, the risk is smaller than it was in the early 1980s, when he founded Radio 24. Schawinski estimates that launching Radio 1 will require an investment of 8 to 10 million Swiss francs.

 
The German media group and publisher of the Bild newspaper Axel Springer posted a loss in 2007 due to a write-down on the Group's postal service provider Pin.  
Last year's balance sheet now shows a loss of 288 million euros, after the company had generated a profit of 291 million euros in the previous year. Springer announced this in a press release on Monday. However, in view of the positive operating earnings development in the core business, the dividend is to be raised to a record level of 4.00 (previous year: 3.50) euros. Earnings before interest, taxes and goodwill amortization, adjusted for non-recurring effects, increased to EUR 422 (375) million.
 
Axel Springer's consolidated revenues increased by 8.5 percent to 2.58 billion euros last year. This figure does not include revenues of the Pin Group. Springer plans to publish the complete financial statements for 2007 and a forecast for the current fiscal year on March 12.