The furniture store Fly, a Manor franchise, has a new Head of Marketing Communications. Karin Hodel took up her post at the beginning of January. She replaces Bettina Lyner, who has moved to another sector after two years at Fly. Karin Hodel had already worked in marketing at Manor for two and a half years before spending time abroad.

 The Swiss magazine Anthrazit reports on the Internet, digital life and the mobile world. Every February, the editorial team of the magazine, which is published both in printed form and as a website, selects the two hundred best Swiss websites. This year, it criticizes the neglect of mobile sites. "The mobile web is on the verge of a breakthrough", explains Anthrazit editor Christian Schwegler in a press release on Monday. "Unfortunately, too many companies are still neglecting the mobile user." As a result, they are missing out on the opportunity for more sustainable customer contact, Schwegler continued. By recognizing mobile sites in the best list and with a separate mobile guide, Anthrazit aims to create the necessary transparency to make it easier for users to find the most useful sites on the move.

 The Bernese communications agency Hofer has a new PR manager as of March 3. Barbara Perriard, previously General Secretary of FDP Women Switzerland, will take over from Peter Matthys. Matthys will become Head of Campaigns and Marketing at the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (BFU).Perriard, a lawyer, joined the FDP party secretariat seven years ago after working in the administration of the canton of Baselland and the federal government. Initially working as press officer, she took up the post of General Secretary of the FDP Women in 2004. Until the end of May 2008, the 38-year-old will continue to be active as General Secretary in parallel to her new role as President of the FDP Women. She has also been a member of the Diplomatic Service Admissions Commission since 2006.
As part of the planned rejuvenation of the Hofer agency, Perriard will specifically expand the client portfolio towards lifestyle, according to a statement on Monday. "Fashion and lifestyle are my passion. As a discerning woman and consumer, I know the wishes and needs of the target group," says Barbara Perriard with conviction.

 The advertising agency By Heart has grown by four new employees. Alan Castioni has joined the creative team as Art Director and Sonja Viola Wolf as Junior AD. Alan Castioni was previously Creative Director at Dynamite Advertising as well as Designer and Art Director at agencies in Germany and abroad. He completed his training at the Munich Academy of Design. Following her training at the Basel School of Design, Sonja Wolf worked as an art director at various Zurich agencies, according to By Heart. Also new on board is production specialist Dominik Mory. The trained lithographer has worked as a DTP professional in various agencies and most recently spent several years as Studio Manager of the McCann-Erickson subsidiary K Zurich, which is responsible for DTP and production.
Aurel Trüb is the fourth new face to join By Heart. After graduating from commercial college in Reinach, he is entering the advertising industry as a Junior Marketing Communications Planner.

 Former Kuoni Head of Communications Andrea Hemmi has opened her own PR agency called The PR Company. The agency in Zurich's Seefeld district specializes in corporate PR, crisis PR and media relations and advises clients on the development and implementation of communication strategies. According to a press release, Hemmi has already been entrusted with several mandates in the tourism, food, information technology and education sectors in recent weeks. Depending on the project, the PR specialist intends to work together with specialists in order to be able to handle extensive mandates. In her previous role as Head of Communications at Kuoni Travel Holding, Hemmi built up Group-wide corporate and crisis communications and managed communications for change processes and the company's 100th anniversary. Prior to this, she was Head of Communications at McDonald's Switzerland, media spokesperson for the private broadcaster TV3 and a consultant at the communications agency Trimedia. She began her professional career in 1993 as a ghostwriter for Stéphanie Mörikofer, a member of the cantonal government in the Aargau Department of Health.

 After it was already known that Yahoo was planning to reject the billion-euro takeover bid from Microsoft, the US Internet company has now officially turned down the offer. According to a statement on Monday, the offer clearly undervalues Yahoo. A potentially long tug-of-war has thus begun. Yahoo will continue to examine all strategic options, the company announced. The Board of Directors is unanimously of the opinion that the offer is not in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.
Microsoft offered 31 dollars per Yahoo share at the beginning of the month, valuing Yahoo at 45 billion dollars. Analysts believe a higher offer from Microsoft is conceivable in view of the company's bulging war chest. Yahoo's refusal is seen as an attempt to at least drive up the price if a takeover cannot be avoided in the end.
As a defensive strategy, Yahoo is reportedly exploring a cooperation with Google or with the US media giant Time Warner's Internet service AOL. A counter-offer to Microsoft is not yet on the table.
Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo as amicably as possible with the management, according to analysts. Otherwise there is a risk that many important employees will leave the company. Yahoo is currently on the verge of cutting 1,000 of its 14,300 jobs worldwide following a renewed slump in profits. Activities in Europe are also under scrutiny.

 For two months now, the polar bear cub Flocke, domiciled at Nuremberg Zoo, has been eliciting an enthusiastic "Jöö" from viewers of numerous press photos. Pop star Patrick Lindner apparently preferred to hear a different sound, that of ringing cash registers. He claimed that his partner at the time, Michael Link, had registered the "Flocke" trademark in April 1994. This would have meant that the singer might have made money from the marketing of the little furball. Linder's lawyer with the beautiful name Alexander Unverzagt told the German communications journal Kontakter that he was working intensively on the Flocke issue. This probably didn't suit the city of Nuremberg, which would prefer to profit from the moderate marketing of the polar bear cub itself. The all-clear now seems to have been given for the city fathers. The website Flocke-eisbaer.de states that Lindner has no longer paid the trademark fees and the protection has therefore lapsed. If this report is confirmed, Lindner will no doubt be furious that he can't make a killing with the snow-white polar bear.

 The "Free Internet" campaign sparked discussion among bloggers. They suspected that Sunrise was behind it. After the Swiss Metablog discovered that the Freeinternet.ch website already contained Sunrise content years ago and the Tou-Blog reported that, according to "a person from the media sector", Sunrise was indeed the originator of the campaign, the conclusive proof now appears to be available on the website of the marketer Publisuisse. The Freeinternet commercials are listed there - with Sunrise as the client, as the Abendzeitung Heute reports. Anyone can check this by searching for "Sunrise" on Publisuisse.ch. However, the telecommunications company does not want to confirm that it is behind "Free Internet": "We find the Publisuisse images interesting, but we still can't say anything about them," Sunrise press spokesman Konrad Stokar told Heute.

 In future, Sunday Talk will also be held in the Swiss Plateau and Central Switzerland. Every weekend on TeleTell and Tele M1, three prominent people from the worlds of politics, business, culture and entertainment will discuss the events of the past week in front of a live audience. The discussion panel, which will be held at various locations in Central Switzerland and the Mittelland, will be moderated by nationally renowned journalists. "In addition to the well-known Regiotalk, our viewers will thus have a discussion round in which politicians and business leaders from our region engage in controversial debate," TeleTell Managing Director Bruno Hollweger happily announced in a press release on Monday.The program will be produced in close collaboration with the editors of the new Sunday edition of the Neue Luzerner Zeitung and the Sonntag newspaper. The latter is published by AZ Medien, which also owns Tele M1 and TeleTell. Hollweger went on to say that the collaboration with the newspaper editors should ensure a thematic and professional link.

 Marketer Publisuisse increased its sales in the 2007 financial year, but suffered a decline in net profit compared to the previous year. It reported total net sales of CHF 342 million in the 2007 financial year. This exceeds the previous year's result of CHF 337 million by around 2 percent and sets a new record, as Publisuisse announced on Monday. The marketing of traditional television advertising for SRG channels generated net sales of CHF 309 million, an increase of 1.3% on the previous year. The other business areas, namely television and radio sponsorship, Tele News Combi, Tele Romandie Combi and the "Espace TSR" screens, achieved a total turnover of CHF 33 million, an increase of around 6 percent compared to the previous year. Publisuisse's operating income amounted to CHF 323 million (+1.4 percent). Net profit after tax amounted to CHF 3 million, compared to CHF 3.9 million in the previous year. The active customer base grew in 2007. Across all business areas, the portfolio comprises 840 clients, which represents an increase of 4 percent compared to 2006.
The television advertising year 2008 also looks promising, as bookings for the first quarter of 2008 were significantly higher than the previous year's figures, the marketer added. It assumes that electronic media will continue to gain in importance. Publisuisse intends to further strengthen its position through a targeted expansion of its portfolio.
Last year, the company entered the radio advertising market with the founding of Mediasense. Publisuisse now also has commercial communication opportunities in the programs of SF info, HD suisse and World Radio Switzerland in its portfolio. This year, it has high hopes for the marketing of the European Football Championships and the Summer Olympics in Beijing. Comprehensive cross-media packages are being offered for both events.

 The German TV channel RTL II is considering suing its shareholder, RTL Group, for millions in damages, writes Der Spiegel in its Monday edition. The background to this is the dispute over the behavior of the major broadcasters in connection with the marketing of TV commercials. RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 had already paid a fine of 96 and 120 million euros respectively last fall to end proceedings by the Federal Cartel Office. The broadcasters were suspected of putting the smaller stations at a disadvantage through anti-trust agreements in advertising marketing. RTL II considers itself to have lost over 60 million euros. The broadcaster now wants to claim the sum in a lawsuit against the advertising marketers of both TV groups. The RTL II owners have allegedly agreed to this. However, this has not yet been formally decided. After all, RTL II believes it has a good chance because the TV groups accepted the cartel fine last year. However, RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 emphasized at the time that their payment was not tantamount to an admission of guilt.

 The Ron Orp newsletter is entering its third round with the PDF magazine "Anleitung für die Stadt Zürich". The monthly magazine covers topics from city life and is announced in the newsletter. According to Ron Orp, between 5,000 and 10,000 people have downloaded each of the two previous issues. The PDF magazine offers advertising customers four advertising spaces, namely full-page advertisements that can be linked to the web. This can be used, for example, to refer to a commercial, link to a YouTube video or launch a competition, according to the press release. The Ron Orp newsletter has been published since April 30, 2004 and was initially aimed at Zurich residents. It is now also available for Basel, Bern, Lucerne, Winterthur and Vienna. The newsletter reaches around 27,000 readers every day.