As of March 4, 2008, the Swiss commercial channels marketed by IP Multimedia - Prosieben, RTL, Super RTL and Vox - will be added to Cablecom's basic digital service, replacing the previous German versions. As a result, the commercial Swiss programming of these channels will gain more than 253,000 digital households. Digital distribution via the cable network complements the previous analog distribution channels. The commercial Swiss channels M6 and Cartoon Network in French-speaking Switzerland have already gone digital.

 
The Board of Directors of Agen Holding has rejected a takeover offer from current publishing director Yves Claude Aubert for the Swiss business newspaper Agefi. Following the failure of negotiations, the two parties have decided to end their business relationship by mutual agreement, according to a press release. Aubert will therefore leave the company. The media division of the Agen Group, which produces several press products and accounts for around ten percent of total sales at CHF 13.2 million (2007), has been in the red for some time and made a loss of CHF 0.58 million in the first half of 2007. The figure for the year as a whole will be announced at the end of April 2008. There has also been speculation that the Group intends to separate from the press division and only operate in the health division (see:
However, it appears that the restructuring of the loss-making media division is now to be continued under the leadership of Agefi Director Eric Valette. To this end, it is planned to open up the division's capital to new, strategic shareholders, according to the press release. Crédit Suisse has also been commissioned to examine the various development options in cooperation with the newspaper's management and staff.

The various Swisscom brands will be brought together under the single Swisscom brand, as the telecommunications company announced on Thursday. The Biel-based agency Orange8 is responsible for the changes to the website. It has worked closely with Swisscom and the Moving Brands agency to design the structure and visuals of the new Swisscom.ch homepage, as detailed in a press release. The Swisscom.ch/brand-2008 website went online in December 2007 to introduce the new website. Orange8 also supports various Swisscom segments in their e-marketing activities, such as SMEs and large companies.

 Kurt Schibler, editor-in-chief of the Olten Tagblatt, is retiring after 17 years in office. He spent a total of 27 years on the editorial staff of the daily newspaper, which has been part of the Mittelland newspaper group since 1994. Beat Nützi, with whom Schibler has shared the editorship in recent years, will now be the sole editor-in-chief. Ueli Wild will be Nützi's deputy, as the Aargauer Zeitung reported on Friday. Schibler began his career at the Oltner Tagblatt in 1981 and is described by the Aargauer Zeitung as an "old-school generalist" who created a medium with its own opinion with his editorials and commentaries. However, he also had to cope with difficult tasks and, like many medium-sized publishers, had to contend with dwindling advertising income and rising production costs. In 1994, the cooperation with the Mittelland newspaper association took place. The last major challenge for Schibler, who will continue to write for his paper, was the publication of the Sunday edition as part of the MZ.

 He is apparently no longer wanted at Blick, but he is at the Aargauer Zeitung/Mittelland Zeitung and Sonntag: the well-known cartoonist Nico has been signed up for a regular collaboration with these newspapers. From March 1, 2008, he will be drawing world events two to three times a week. Nico's cartoons will complement those of the in-house cartoonists Silvan Wegmann and Jürg Furrer. This will increase the proportion of cartoons in the editorial section, AZ Medien announced. Before his three-year stint at Blick, Nico had worked for the Tages-Anzeiger for 37 years. Before that, he was editor of the Nebelspalter from 1968 and also drew for various Swiss television programs. Nico - whose real name is Klaus Peter Robert Cadsky - has lived in Cannes and Solothurn for 15 years.

 Barbara Meier is the Confederation's new head of communications for Euro 2008. She succeeds Christoph Neuhaus, who is leaving the Public Authorities Uefa Euro 2008 project organization at the end of February 2008 following his election to the Bernese government council. Barbara Meier will take up the post on March 1, 2008, as announced by the Federal Office of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport on Thursday. In her previous position as Head of Information at the Federal Office of Sport Baspo, she had already worked closely with the team in her new position.

 Sunrise is launching a new free e-mail service called Sunrise Mail in cooperation with Google. Users of this service will receive a personalized start page with news, downloads, free SMS and e-mail. It remains to be seen whether advertising space will also be offered. "This is an option worth considering. Nothing has been decided yet," said spokesman Konrad Stokar when asked by Werbewoche. As the mail service is realized in collaboration with Google, Sunrise also adopts the search engine giant's algorithm, which is used to capture certain keywords such as product names in the mails. "This is regulated in the general terms and conditions that our users sign when they switch to the new service," explained Stokar. This also applies to customers who have had an account with the telecommunications company for years. The Google algorithm has been criticized by data protectionists on various occasions in the past, as the internet company uses the data obtained from it for context-related advertising placements.
Sunrise Mail will gradually replace the company's existing mail services by the end of June 2008. Customers will receive a new e-mail address ending in @sunrise.ch. The new service includes over 6 GB of memory, spam protection, calendar and address book.

 The Neue Zürcher Zeitung has deleted an article from its archives in which it made critical comments about UBS and its Chairman of the Board Marcel Ospel. This was reported by Cash daily about the competitor from Falkenstrasse. The NZZ itself wrote in a short message on Wednesday that the article would be withdrawn from the archives and databases and that the editorial team regrets "any misunderstandings that may have arisen". In the text in question, a commentary from 15 February, author Beat Brenner criticized Marcel Ospel's absence at the annual media conference two weeks ago and Ospel's "flagrant violation" of the company's internal separation of powers in the downfall of Swissair. The unusual sharpness of the commentary in the "usually bank-friendly NZZ" was apparently too much for UBS, speculates Cash daily. In response to the retracted article, the NZZ said that "very abbreviated conclusions were drawn for Ospel and UBS that were misleading in the overall result and in no way intended". A media lawyer contacted by Cash daily suspects that the correction and deletion of the article was done in advance of a possible legal dispute.

 
Swisscom is launching its previously announced new image these days. It focuses on uniformity and a moving logo. The Swisscom umbrella brand replaces the previous Swisscom sub-brands Fixnet, Mobile and Solutions.  
>> To the moving logo
Over the coming weeks and months, vehicles, stores, buildings and the website will be gradually adapted to the new image. The renewed appearance also includes an adapted logo with moving image element (see
). Bluewin will be retained as the product name, but the Bluewin appearance will disappear. The news portal under Bluewin.ch will be launched in the new look in the next few days, Swisscom spokesman Sepp Huber told Werbewoche.
Accompanying the new Swisscom appearance, a service campaign from Jung von Matt/Limmat will be launched in the next few weeks, focusing on customer proximity and the great importance of customer service.
Swisscom hopes that the uniform appearance will also increase the efficiency of its communications and enable it to make better use of advertising funds. The introduction of the new logo will entail one-off investment costs in the single-digit millions, according to a statement. The company is relying on the moving logo because most communication services today are controlled via a screen. "We believe that such moving logos will be used more and more in the future and, as a telecommunications company, we want to play a pioneering role here," Huber explained.
Contexta's popular Beck & Bondi campaign, on the other hand, will not be continued, Huber confirmed
told Werbewoche about a report from Persönlich.com. It does not fit with the new image and the strategy being pursued.

 75 entries have been nominated for the 48th Rose d'Or in Lucerne. They will be vying for a Golden Rose in eight categories at the Festival of Television Entertainment at the beginning of May. Swiss television is taking part with "The Magic Flute". Never before has the number of participants been so high: 402 TV programmes from 34 countries have been submitted to the committee - 50 more than a year ago, as the organizers announced on Thursday. An international jury has now made a preliminary selection and nominated 75 programs from 19 countries for the festival in Lucerne.
"The record number of entries speaks for the high international significance of this festival," said festival director Urban Frye in the press release.
The 75 nominees can look forward to a Golden Rose in eight categories: Arts Documentary, Comedy, Drama, Sitcom, Entertainment, Game Show, Performing Arts and Reality. In addition, Best Entertainer and Best of 2008 will each be honored with a rose.
Most of the nominated entries, namely 31, come from England, with eight each from Germany and the Netherlands. The remaining nominated programs come from the rest of Europe, but also from Australia and Japan. "The Magic Flute - in front of and behind the scenes" from Swiss television is the only Swiss entry.
The Rose d'Or takes place from May 2 to 6, 2008 at the Culture and Convention Center Lucerne (KKL). It is one of the most important festivals for the TV entertainment industry.

 A jury of experts led by TV chef Annemarie Wildeisen advertised in various Swiss newspapers and magazines to find candidates for the election of the worst cook in Switzerland (see also "Schlecht gekocht" (Badly cooked)
). From hundreds of entries, eight were selected for the grand finale of the campaign developed by the Reinhold agency. On the website Maenner-an-den-herd.ch they had to compete against each other in a voting over the last three months. Now the winner is known: The worst cook in Switzerland is Bränteli Franz, and with over 3000 votes ahead of Auflauf-Werni. The real name of the worst cook in Switzerland is Franz Gassmann-Wyss and he is from Lucerne. He lives and works as a teacher in Zell. Why he had applied to the magazine Kochen as the worst cook in the first place? "At first, I was incredibly ashamed of my cooking misfortune," Gassmann-Wyss says looking back. "But I'm now amused by my misdeed." He had put frozen chickpeas, complete with protective foil, into the oven. "Suddenly it smelled beastly and the kitchen was full of smoke," he says with a wink. After all, the result was the title of Switzerland's worst cook.

The new BMW 1 Series Convertible is coming to BMW dealerships in Switzerland from March 28, 2008. Based on the international claim "Bring summer to every street", the Lowe agency, part of the Draftfcb/Lowe Group, has declared the Swiss launch date of the new BMW 1 Series Convertible to be the early start of summer.
A combined off- and online campaign with a multi-stage dialog process tells the target group why summer feelings are already emerging at the end of March this year. At the heart of the campaign is the online platform Bmw-1ercabrio.ch, which was realized in collaboration with Orange8 interactive.
On this microsite, users can experience all the special features of the new model and find out which convertible routes and leisure destinations in and around Switzerland will provide the most exciting summer feelings this spring. The campaign is now being used throughout Switzerland with web banners and direct mailings. Communication via traditional media (posters, advertisements, radio) will follow from mid-March.
Responsible at BMW (Switzerland) AG:
Roger Calisi (Head of Marketing Communication), Philippe Franke (Direct Marketing Specialist), Marco Mobiglia (IT). Responsible at Lowe: Marc Ziegler, Alessandra Ira (Consulting), Keith Loell (Creative Direction), Urs Hartmann (Art Direction), Marcel Elsener, Ivan Madeo (Text/Concept). Responsible at Orange8 interactive: Mike Schwede (consulting), Stefanie Hodapp (project management, concept), Fabian Buergy (screen design, art direction), Raphaël Liechti (banner design), Lennart Jegge (IT).