Franjo Pooth, husband of TV starlet Verona Pooth, is facing bankruptcy with his company. The electronics company Maxfield has filed for insolvency proceedings, as reported by SDA. The company, which mainly sold MP3 players, is said to have debts of up to 14 million euros. According to well-informed sources, Pooth filed for insolvency because he was no longer able to pay the salaries of his company's twelve employees. The background to the payment difficulties was the extreme drop in prices for MP3 players. This comes less than three years after Pooth had achieved a spectacular increase in turnover from 10 to 35 million euros with the company within a year. It is not known whether this was due to the legendary Verona MP3 player (in pink, for sport and fitness). In any case, Pooth worked in a similarly volatile business as his wife. At least there is a positive side to this. While his star is falling in the business world, it is rising slightly on the celebrity side. In the vanity charts, he has climbed one place to 533rd place in the overall celebrity ranking.

 
From April 2008, the Bern University of Applied Sciences will be offering a part-time Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Marketing and Sales. In 20 study days spread over six months, participants will learn how to systematically develop the marketing planning process and create strategic and operational concepts. According to the University of Applied Sciences, they will be introduced to the basics of marketing, market analysis, market research and marketing strategy and learn about the most important concepts, methods and tools. Case studies, presentations by external lecturers and case studies supplement the theoretical part and are intended to guarantee a high level of practical relevance. Admission is open to people with a university degree and at least two years of practical experience or equivalent previous education. The course is held in Bern.

Olivier Laube has come on board as the new Deputy Head of Sponsorship at Swiss private broadcaster 3+. For the past five years, the 41-year-old has worked as head, producer and presenter at Primetime in the area of sponsorship and marketing. Laube joins Mehmet Inan's team at 3+ with immediate effect. He has built up the sponsorship sales department since April 2007 and is responsible for all previous sponsorship acquisitions for in-house productions such as "Supernanny", "Wissen der Welt" and "Supermodel". According to Managing Director Dominik Kaiser, 3+ has had good experience with sponsorship for the latter casting show and the channel therefore wants to expand this area further. The aim is to bring more Swiss in-house productions to the screen.

 Following a multi-stage evaluation process, the Zurich-based PR agency Jenni Kommunikation has secured the client Tchibo Switzerland and will be responsible for the company's public relations with immediate effect. Tchibo awarded the PR mandate following an international tender, as detailed in a press release. The Group has opted for new agencies in various countries. The lead agency is the German Jeschenko. Jenni Kommunikation is an independent part of the European PR network Jeschenko Alliance. Tchibo, originally exclusively active in the coffee trade, has greatly expanded in the non-food sector in recent years. The company now employs over 12,500 people worldwide. Tchibo entered the Swiss market in 2001 and has since expanded rapidly.

Pierre-André Schmitt will take over as Editor-in-Chief of Tamedia's specialist media Mobil on July 1, 2008. The 49-year-old will be responsible for the journalistic management of Automobil Revue/Revue Automobile and the motorcycle magazine Moto Sport Schweiz/Moto Sport Suisse. Schmitt is currently deputy editor-in-chief of the business magazine Bilanz. He previously held the same position at the news magazine Facts.
Schmitt will join Fachmedien Mobil even before he starts as Editor-in-Chief: From spring, he is to define the future strategy of Fachmedien Mobil together with the new Managing Director Lorenz Brügger. Schmitt will replace the current Editor-in-Chief Max Nötzli at Automobil Revue. He took over as Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director on an interim basis last year and will return to his role as Senior Editor at Automobil Revue from July, according to a press release. The editors-in-chief of the French-language magazine Revue Automobile and the motorcycle magazines Moto Sport Schweiz and Moto Sport Suisse will continue in their current roles.
Since January 1, 2008, Fachmedien Mobil has been part of the magazine division of Tamedia headed by Uli Rubner and belongs to the new "Media Switzerland" division. Rubner is leaving Tamedia at the end of April 2008 and will be succeeded by Christian Haberbeck.

 The two Zurich publishing houses Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Tamedia are jointly reviewing the expansion of their delivery business. In addition to a possible merger of the Bern distribution organization Bevo with its Zurich counterpart Zuvo, the media houses also want to "clarify the relationship with Swiss Post", as stated in a press release. These options are being examined as part of a project that is also dedicated to the future organizational structure of the delivery division. The companies have appointed a project manager for this, Jürg Brauchli, and Tamedia spokesperson Christoph Zimmer did not want to reveal which options the two media companies are examining with regard to delivery. "The project is just starting and we will examine various options," said the spokesperson. The future relationship with Swiss Post is also still open. "The situation has changed for us since we acquired around 50 percent of the Bern delivery organization Bevo with the integration of Espace Media. There is therefore a need for clarification in our relationship with Swiss Post, which also holds 50 percent," said Zimmer.
Zimmer did not want to speak of a declaration of war on the postal service, which has not exactly made itself popular with publishers with its price increases: Early delivery is at the center of the considerations. A merger of Zuvo and Bevo would lead to "synergies" in administration and the offer to customers. Zimmer described it as "unlikely" that the balance of power between NZZ-Verlag and Tamedia would shift after such a merger of the delivery companies.
Jürg Brauchli, who is now in charge of the delivery project, has worked for Tamedia since 1978. He was a member of the Management Board from 1992 to 2007 and its Deputy Chairman from 1999 to 2006. Most recently, he was Head of the Printing & Logistics Division.
He already knows a thing or two about delivery: As the initiator of the cooperation between NZZ and Tamedia in the area of delivery, he took over as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zuvo in 1993. Under his leadership, this organization has built up stakes in several early deliveries over the past 14 years. Brauchli has also been a member of the Board of Directors of Bevo since 1998.
Espace Media Groupe, Swiss Post and Tamedia are involved in the Bern distribution organization Bevo. The delivery and distribution organization (Zuvo) has been a joint subsidiary of Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Tamedia since 1993. The two media companies each hold a 50 percent stake.

 The private radio station Radio Aktuell in Eastern Switzerland is pleased with its good figures and is looking for new talent through casting. The station, which is part of St. Galler Tagblatt AG, announced on Monday that listener numbers had grown by 15 percent in 2007 compared to the previous year. Every day, 90,000 listeners were reached. In order to attract not only new listeners, but also new radio talent, the station is currently running a casting. This week is the hot phase. The four finalists have to prove themselves in a live test in the morning. Listeners will be able to vote via SMS for the candidate they want to hear on the radio in the future. According to the station, the winner will be offered a position on Radio aktuell.
From May this year, Radio Aktuell and Radio Ri will go on air together as Radio FM1 in Eastern Switzerland.

 Last year, advertisers in Switzerland spent more than CHF 4 billion on advertising for the first time. This represents an 8.8% increase in advertising pressure compared to the previous year. This is according to the latest figures from Media Focus. 35.5 percent of the advertising pie went to daily newspapers, 26.0 percent to television, 16.6
percent went to consumer magazines, 4.8 percent to trade journals, 3.4 percent to radio, 10.9 percent to billboard advertising, 1.2 percent to cinema and 1.3 percent to Internet advertising. Television advertising saw the strongest growth, while daily newspapers suffered a loss. The relatively low share of internet advertising, which is surprising in view of the continuing online enthusiasm, is due to the fact that Media Focus does not survey online classified ads and the entire search engine marketing sector. Broken down by sector, political campaigns recorded the strongest growth last year (+94.9%) due to the federal elections. Advertising for food, cosmetics/personal care, charitable campaigns and services increased by around a quarter. As expected, there was a massive decline in advertising for tobacco products (-60.6%).
Along with the annual figures, Media Focus also reported on developments in December: last month, advertising pressure increased by 2.8% compared to the same period in the previous year. However, there was a decline compared to November and December proved to be the weakest month of the year in terms of advertising. In September and October, there had still been double-digit growth rates.
The energy advertising market recorded the highest growth of all advertising markets in December with an increase of 92.4% (CHF +1.4 million) compared to the same period in the previous year. The cosmetics market also grew by a further 33.6% (+7.2 million Swiss francs) in December.
Among the losers in the advertising month of December was the financial sector with a drop of 15.9% (-4.0 million francs). Advertising for household articles fell by 23.4%.

 Only 37 percent of taxpayers in the canton of Bern submitted their tax returns conventionally on paper last year. The remaining 63 percent completed this obligation on the computer and then submitted the forms online, as reported by SDA on Monday. This corresponds to an increase in online submissions of over a third compared to the previous year, and the Bernese tax administration wants to further expand its online offering as it obviously meets a need. In addition, the administration saves costs when tax returns are submitted online. The electronic processing of data is also ecologically advantageous. The tax administration is therefore now providing a simulation calculator on its website. Anyone who enters changes in income and assets will receive the corresponding tax amount.
In addition to the online offering, the Bernese tax administration also wants to further improve its communication. To this end, it is launching a newsletter entitled "10 minutes". The first one was published on Monday.

 On Monday, Cablecom moved the TV channel U1 TV to the digital service. Nevertheless, U1 TV was able to say goodbye with a ratings record: the live broadcast of the SVP Albisgüetlitagung on Friday attracted 200,000 viewers, which equates to a market share of 3.7 percent. The market share over 24 hours was 1.1 percent. U1 TV has thus set itself apart from all other Swiss private broadcasters. The broadcaster has no intention of giving up: in addition to digital distribution, U1 TV will remain on the analog network with some smaller network providers even after Cablecom's withdrawal. The final ruling of the Federal Administrative Court is also still pending, but the forecasts for a return to Cablecom's analog service do not look rosy.

 "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" is a song by the Beatles from 1964, but ex-Beatle Ringo Starr has probably spoiled one party. In any case, he is not particularly helpful in promoting his native city of Liverpool as the new European Capital of Culture. He rarely comes to Liverpool anymore and doesn't really miss anything, Starr explained on British television. According to the former drummer of the cult band, who owns a property in the county of Surrey and an apartment in London's Chelsea district, he would definitely not move back there. As The Sun reported in its online edition, there was a wave of calls from angry viewers and complaints on the internet. "I want to know how much we paid him to show up," wrote one angry Liverpool resident. He should have remembered what the Beatles already knew in the 1960s: "Can't buy me love".

 Publigroupe is expanding its online business in China. As part of a strategic alliance, it will acquire a 17 percent stake in Huashang Interactive Media, the Internet division of the Chinese Huashang Media Group.According to a press release issued on Monday, Publigroupe will take over the commercialization of Internet portals for the agglomeration with national advertising clients in Beijing and Shanghai as part of the agreement with Huashang Interactive Media. The agreement also provides for the development of cooperation between Huashang Interactive Media and Publigroupe's technology companies in Switzerland and China. The aim of this cooperation is to transfer and introduce the Internet technologies developed by Publigroupe.
 
 
Huashang Interactive Media is a division of the Huashang Media Group that specializes in the development and operation of internet portals for urban areas. This is a publishing house that publishes regional daily newspapers with a total circulation of around 2 million copies.