The new Transplantation Act has been in effect since July 1, 2007. The introduction of the new law was accompanied by a national information campaign carried out by the Lysser-based agency Publix. At the end of last year, Publix was commissioned by the Federal Office of Public Health to carry out the follow-up campaign, which is launching these days. In addition to posters and TV spots, hanging cardboard displays with dispensers are also being used to distribute flyers featuring organ donor cards. These measures are also supported by web banners and the website, where the donor card can be downloaded.
According to a press release issued on Monday, the new campaign no longer focuses on publicizing the contents of the new law. Rather, it calls on the public to engage with the issue, make a decision, and share that decision with those around them.
Person in charge at the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH):

Adrian Kammer (Head of Campaigns), Karin Wäfler (Transplantation Section). Publix team: Fredy Obrecht (Overall Responsibility, Consulting, Concept, Idea), Pascal Leibundgut (CD), Claudia Shatri (Media).

 As part of the consultation process for television license applications in Valais, the State Council has come out in favor of Canal 9 and against the Valais Wallis TV project (see ). The Upper Valais project involves the Walliser Bote, the Rhone Zeitung, Radio Rottu, the Swiss University of Applied Sciences in Brig, and Valaiscom, which currently operates Tele Oberwallis. In a press release, Tele Oberwallis expressed its displeasure with the State Council’s decision. Once again, the State Council has disregarded the concerns of Upper Valais, and once again, Upper Valais is to be dominated by Lower Valais.It is incomprehensible that the project has not found favor with the State Council—with one French-language and one German-language program, both broadcast throughout the canton, the project would do justice to diversity, culture, and languages, the statement continues.
According to Canal 9’s license application, Tele Oberwallis is to receive a 10-minute time slot within a French-language program from the Lower Valais region, Monday through Friday. Currently, Tele Oberwallis broadcasts a 30-minute program, including an information channel, seven days a week. The State Council thus intends to scale back Upper Valais regional television and shut down the information channel.
For the organizers of the Valais Wallis TV project, it is clear that this decision cannot be accepted as is.

 On March 5, Blick will appear for the first time with a new look. Former Blick journalist Kurt-Emil Merki has struck again and talks about the new face of the tabloid in the current Sunday edition. He confirms Blick's return to the single-bundle system with a separate front page for sport on the last page of the paper. The Sonntag also states that pages 2 and 3 will be reserved for the cover stories. Domestic, foreign and weather would follow. On the two middle pages, the picture of the day is generously spread out, followed by a richly illustrated, three-page report. This would be followed by the People, Style, Culture, Science and Readers' Echo sections. The columns by Eliane Schweitzer and Jürg Ramspeck would continue to appear in Blick. The columns with the short news items would occasionally be placed in the middle of a page as a separating element, which would take some getting used to, Merki continued in the article. The fine dots, which would take over the function of the previous vertical column line, would appear somewhat unflattering.
The new Blick is to have an average size of 56 pages.

  Roland Baumgartner, responsible for electronic media at AZ Medien, sees a "need for clarification" with the Aargau cantonal council. He is pleased with their recommendation to award licenses to the two broadcasters Tele M1 and Radio Argovia. However, the government criticized the quality of local electronic media both in its consultation response and in an interpellation response on Friday and called for measures to improve it. The government does not explicitly refer to the AZ Medien stations. From the context, however, it is clear who the media scolding is aimed at. Baumgartner emphasizes to Werbewoche that the government council would be "knocking down open doors" with its demand for quality: "Radio Argovia has been committed to quality programming since it started broadcasting in 1990 and has well-trained, long-standing program staff," he says. They are also already in the process of implementing additional measures for the quality assurance system required in the new performance mandate. He expresses the opinion that his stations broadcast a "high-quality program". In the last two years, Radio Argovia has continuously expanded the editorial services in its program and reported very intensively on the federal elections, for example. "The government council obviously has a different perception than we do," says Baumgartner.

However, he admits that there is "room for improvement" in the TV sector. The financial framework conditions are tight here, but this is a structural problem: "After all, apart from Tele Züri, no other regional television station in Switzerland is in the black". Like other broadcasters, Baumgartner also struggles with high staff fluctuation: "We're a training flow heater. As soon as we have trained people well, they leave us for Swiss television". Should Tele M1 receive the license, he hopes that the fee money will ease the situation somewhat. This is where Baumgartner meets with the Aargau cantonal councillor, who also hopes that the local television stations can be obliged to provide "more quality information" with the fee money.

 Although the report aired nearly a week ago, it’s still stirring up controversy. We’re talking about the «Kassensturz» segment titled “Commercials: Deception with Fake Customers”—which ruthlessly exposed the fact that commercials are increasingly featuring customers who appear to be real but are, in reality, merely actors.  What a scam—who would have thought! And viewers are reacting on the “Kassensturz” forum exactly as one would expect from more or less intelligent people: Instead of expressing shock at this scandalous revelation, they feel insulted and taken for fools.  Maybe the segment did open the eyes of one or two viewers after all and shatter their illusion of an authentic advertising world… who knows. It’s kind of funny how naive *Kassensturz* thinks its viewers are. What’s not funny at all, however, is the Cancer League ad featuring Reto, the terminally ill boy—that ad was the focus of the segment. Kassensturz wanted to know how Reto was doing and found out that Reto isn’t actually named Reto, but Adrian. Hard to believe! And surprise, surprise: Adrian is in perfect health…

 
The Heye DDB Health agency in Zurich has hired Vera Schnitzlein as Account Director, effective immediately. Schnitzlein, a naturalized Swiss citizen, comes from the agency Euro RSCG Life, where her responsibilities included establishing the Düsseldorf branch. In Zurich, she will be responsible for managing existing and new clients. As Heye Managing Director Bernd Hofmann stated in Tuesday’s press release, the pharmaceutical agency needs employees who understand both the pharmaceutical industry and advertising. In Ms. Schnitzlein, they have found just such a person. From its Zurich office, the agency serves clients including Novartis and Pfizer.

 
The media landscape in the canton of Ticino is on the move. In March, the Sunday newspaper Il Caffè is launching the online free newspaper Caffè quotidiano, which will be available to download from Tuesday to Friday shortly before the end of office hours. The link to the four-page print edition will be sent to Caffè subscribers. This means that Il Caffè, which is supported by Ringier and Rezzonico Editore, is ahead of Corriere del Ticino. The latter had published a free daily newspaper on a trial basis until October and then also started thinking about a free newspaper. According to the report in the Ticino newspaper, however, concepts that have been tried and tested elsewhere are hardly applicable to Ticino, which speaks in favor of the online model. On the one hand, commuter flows on public transport are too low, and on the other, the advertising market is already being fought over by the three daily newspapers Corriere del Ticino, La Regione Ticino and Giornale del Popolo.
A completely different innovation concerns the left-wing weekly newspaper Area. According to the Tessiner Zeitung, the trade union Unia, as majority owner, has effectively booted out the SP of the canton of Ticino, which holds a 20 percent stake in the newspaper. According to Unia's plans, Area will focus less on Ticino politics and more on issues for Italian-speaking trade unionists throughout Switzerland.

 
According to a report by the German news agency Kress, Ringier plans to sell its tabloid *Blik* and withdraw from Ukraine. Apparently, the launch of the paper was too costly and may also have been handled in an unprofessional manner. As expected, press spokesman Marco Castellaneta stated that his company generally does not comment on «market rumors.» According to Kress, negotiations regarding a sale are underway with, among others, the publishers of the Ukrainian market leader Segodnya (Today). Blik employs approximately 125 people. The paper has been published in Kyiv since May 2006 (see:
) and reached a print run of 93,000 copies in January 2008. In January, the publisher also launched a major marketing campaign and had the magazine distributed for free in Kyiv to increase its reach to the planned circulation of 150,000 copies and a readership of 500,000 people. Apparently, it didn’t do much good. An insider told Kress that Ringier would have to spend around ten million euros to break even. But the publisher is not willing to do so. Furthermore, breaking into the Ukrainian market is apparently difficult due to the disparate distribution system, and the print advertising market is small to begin with. But Kress speculates that poor decisions—such as half-hearted and poorly executed marketing campaigns—likely also contributed to Blik’s failure.

 
Following the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG) Public Council’s rebuke of Swiss Television, published in January, the advisory body for Swiss radio and television is now taking a more conciliatory stance. At the time, the Council expressed irritation over the prominence Swiss Television gave to the role of the SVP (see: ). A press release issued on Friday now states that the Council has gained the impression that Swiss Television is committed to maintaining high journalistic standards while maintaining an independent and credible stance toward all political parties. A constructive and objective discussion on this matter was held with SF Editor-in-Chief Ueli Haldimann.The Audience Council heaped praise on DRS 2«s »Hörpunkt« theme day. It called it »a brilliant feature in a media world accustomed to bite-sized content” and a welcome change from everyday radio programming. The variety of topics and the surprising approaches offered listeners a wealth of new insights. However, the decision to air the program on a weekday was unfortunate.
The weekly SF sports program «Euro 2008 – Das Magazin» also received praise. It was described as varied, exciting, and thematically diverse. The segment focusing on Swiss soccer players abroad was considered a success. The host, Rainer Maria Salzgeber, who was perceived as confident and likable, received a great deal of praise. However, viewers felt that a critical overview was missing—one that would shed light not only on soccer itself but also on its immediate and broader context.
While the Council finds the concept of the entertainment show «Euro 2008 – The Great City Duel» interesting, it considers the language used less than ideal and the show, overall, simply too long. The tension often has to be created artificially, and several Council members were annoyed by host Roman Kilchsperger’s remarks. The Council finds it rude that dialect is spoken on a show featuring guests from Austria and French-speaking Switzerland.

 The new program director at Radio 24 is Karin Müller. The 42-year-old will succeed the station’s current editorial director, Markus Mager, no later than June 1, Tamedia announced on Friday. Müller is currently a freelance communications consultant and works part-time at Radio DRS. She also teaches at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), the MAZ School of Journalism, and the Swiss Training Center for Marketing, Advertising, Communication, and PR (SAWI).
Müller began her career in journalism in 1988 as a host at Radio Basilisk. She then held various positions at Radio DRS3 before moving to Radio Pilatus as program director in 2002. From 1995 to 1997, she also hosted the program «Kulturzeit» on the television channel 3sat.

 Following the acquisition of the *Basellandschaftliche Zeitung* last December, AZ Medien has now restructured the newspaper’s management team: Sabine Galindo-Fässler, former publishing director at AZ, will take over as publishing director. Peter Roth will also join the executive board, which has been led by Urs Lüdi on a contractual basis since January 2008, to oversee the finance and controlling division. Lüdi is the former CEO of the Thurgauer Medien publishing house and of Huber & Co. Sabine Galindo-Fässler joined AZ Medien’s magazine publishing division in early 2001. Starting in April 2004, she served as Head of Reader Marketing, and from February 2006 onward, she was Publishing Director of the Aargauer Zeitung, before deciding to pursue a new career path in the summer of 2007. In a statement, AZ Medien expressed its delight that Galindo-Fässler is returning to the publishing house.
Peter Roth has been working at AZ Medien since 2004 on financial projects and in controlling. Prior to that, he worked as a group controller at Atel.
Mathis Lüdin, who sold the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung to the Aargau-based media group shortly before Christmas, will remain the publisher. As chairman of the board of directors, he is responsible for the company’s strategic direction, together with the other board members.

 Although the Aargau cantonal government had spoken out in favor of Radio Argovia from the AZ Medien Group on Tuesday with regard to the awarding of the concession, it now writes that it is precisely this media company with its media concentration that poses "a certain risk" to the diversity of opinion. However, the AZ Medien Group does not engage in corporate journalism, according to the government in a statement issued on Friday in response to a motion tabled by the SP parliamentary group in the Grand Council (see
). Every medium in the group, which includes the Aargauer Zeitung, Radio Argovia and the TV station Tele M1, is also in competition with other providers in the national environment. However, this also poses problems: Economic competition could lead to a homogenization of content through editorial cooperation and multiple exploitation. According to the Government Council, competition for advertising shares could lead to further concentrations on the Swiss media market in the not too distant future. The effects of this development on the media coverage of cantonal politics are not yet foreseeable. The Aargauer Zeitung is usually the only newspaper to report with its own journalistic output. As a result, there is "only one newspaper that determines opinion" in cantonal politics.
According to the SDA, the government council also cites job losses and a lack of alternative jobs for journalists as risks of media concentration, as well as the implementation of a media policy in line with the group.