Jan Leube, Managing Director Creation at Scholz & Friends Zurich, is leaving the city on the Limmat to take over the creative management of BBDO Berlin as Chief Creative Officer in the first half of 2008. Leube has been a member of the management of the Zurich branch of Scholz & Friends for the last two years. His successor has not yet been appointed. Talks are being held with potential candidates, Leube told Werbewoche: "A decision on who will succeed him should be made within the first two months of 2008. Leube will still be working in Zurich during the first half of the year. He is returning to Berlin for purely private reasons, Leube continued. The departure is not easy for him, even though he is looking forward to the new challenge: "Scholz & Friends Zurich has grown to 22 employees in just over two years and is now in a very good position. It's hard to say goodbye."
Leube joined Scholz & Friends as a copywriter in 1998. He worked in Hamburg for the first two years and was Creative Director in Berlin from 2000 to 2006. Before moving into advertising, the English graduate worked as a business editor for the German stock market journal Wertpapier. The 37-year-old German is a member of ADC Germany, ADC Switzerland and D&AD. At BBDO Berlin, he will share management responsibility with the two managing directors Franziska Hollmann and Florian Schindler, as the agency announced.

 Among young people, chamber orchestras aren’t exactly considered the trendiest musical groups of our time. Of course, they, too, are eager to welcome young blood into their audience alongside the gray-haired regulars. For this reason, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra—which specializes in Viennese Classical music by composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn—hired the advertising agency Euro RSCG. The agency developed the core concept «Great Emotions,» based on the broad emotional spectrum of classical music. Euro RSCG Zurich packaged this message into a campaign consisting of posters, ads, flyers, web content, and a
takes place. Set to the dramatic music of composer Ferdinand Ries, the film depicts a virtual ride along staves that form a roller coaster. It will air on TV and be shown in 85 movie theaters in the Zurich region in December 2007 and January/February 2008. On the orchestra’s side, evenings featuring young artists, cocktail concerts, and other innovative concert series mark the beginning of a corresponding reorientation.
Responsible at the Zurich Chamber Orchestra:
Dr. Aviel Cahn (Overall Responsibility), Nicole Sandmeier (Communications), Carola Fischer (PR). Euro RSCG team: Axel Eckstein (Creative Director), Nemanja Gajic (Copywriter), Isabelle Bühler (Graphic Designer), Andreas Sedmak (Consultant), Sarah Gianesi (Consultant), Frank Bodin (Overall Responsibility). 
 
 

 Former Zurich government councillor Dorothée Fierz did not violate official secrecy in spring 2006. The Zurich District Court acquitted her and three former employees on Thursday. In contrast, the then head of communications was convicted. The court hearing revolved around the publication of confidential documents from the construction department to the Tages Anzeiger and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on April 27, 2006, against the backdrop of a public dispute over the civil engineering department between Construction Director Fierz (FDP) and Economics Director Rita Fuhrer (SVP).
The acquittal of Fierz and her employees was based on the principle of "in case of doubt for the accused", as the single judge explained in the brief oral reasons for the verdict. Fierz and the three co-defendants were awarded trial compensation of between around CHF 29,000 and CHF 34,000.
The only guilty party is therefore a fifth defendant, the then Head of Communications at the Construction Directorate. He had passed on confidential documents to individual media. He had denounced himself and confessed. He was sentenced to a conditional fine of 45 daily rates of CHF 120 each and an unconditional fine of CHF 1,000 by the public prosecutor's office.
The head of communications stated that he had pointed out at a meeting that the press would report differently on the dispute between Fierz and Fuhrer if they could see certain documents. His suggestion to hand over documents to selected media was approved by Fierz and the others. The unanimous response was: "Do it, I just don't know anything about it".
Fierz and her three co-defendants strongly disputed these facts. According to the judge, the statements of the four did not appear to be coordinated and credible. In contrast, the statements of the head of communications made a "stereotypical, contrived and rehearsed impression", which the court considered to be "signals of lies".

 Cablecom may remove U1 TV from its offering. In the opinion of the Federal Office of Communications, the program of the Zurich-based private television station does not meet the conditions for an obligation to switch on. This was announced by Bakom in a press release on Wednesday. In order for OFCOM to oblige a cable network operator to broadcast a channel free of charge, it must make a particular contribution to fulfilling the constitutional mandate. The constitution requires contributions to opinion-forming, information and education, the promotion of Swiss culture and consideration of federal diversity, writes OFCOM. U1 TV has not been able to demonstrate that the program provides the required services. Both the main channel and the newly launched sports channel had too many unknowns. In addition, U1 broadcasts numerous programs that are financed by fee-based telephone services and in some cases contradict the constitutional performance mandate.
U1 TV has announced that it will appeal against the decision by OFCOM. "We terminated the contracts with the erotic providers at the end of the year in response to Bakom's complaint. We would have done the same with the value-added telephone services if we had known that Bakom would take issue with them," U1 spokesperson Peter Heeb told the press. The successful show by cartomancer Mike Shiva would also be terminated if necessary if it endangered the continued existence of the station.

 The new free newspaper News is just as well known in its launch phase as the free newspaper .ch was shortly after its launch and is similarly moderately well received. This was the result of a representative survey of 762 German-speaking Swiss conducted by the Demoscope opinion research institute. Demoscope wrote on Wednesday that 42 percent of the Swiss-German population surveyed spontaneously recognized the free newspaper by name around a week after its launch. This level of awareness is comparable to that of .ch shortly after its launch in September (38 percent).
A good third of respondents have already seen or read the commuter magazine. In the overall assessment of those who are familiar with News, it performs moderately like .ch: On a scale of one to six, the average rating of News is 3.7 - that of .ch was 3.5 shortly after its market launch.
The study also shows that a quarter of those surveyed are happy about the rapid increase in free newspapers. Another quarter, however, are annoyed by it. The remaining half of respondents are unperturbed by the increasing density of free newspapers.

 A national advertising campaign by the Geneva agency Saatchi & Saatchi Simko for the Make-A-Wish foundation, which grants wishes to seriously ill children, has been running since the beginning of December. Posters, radio spots and TV spots in "stand-by" status and advertisements for print media were realized. These are to be seen and heard in various media and at various times during the month of December. The subject of the campaign shows an electrocardiogram, which is intended to symbolize the monotony of the daily routine of a seriously ill child. When a wish is granted, the curve changes; this is represented on the diagram by a dolphin.

 From April 1, 2008, Patrick Hässig will host the morning show "Ufsteller" on Radio 24. The 28-year-old has presented the hit parade on DRS 3 and Virus since 2005, where he also works as a music editor. Before moving to DRS 3, Hässig was on Radio Sunshine and Radio Energy Zurich. Since 2006, he has been in charge of the hit parade page in the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten. He has also hosted the gameshow program on SF 2 since 2007.

 The online entry portal for the Xaver Awards has recently been opened. In response to many requests from interested participants, who are currently under increased Advent and year-end pressure, the Xaver organizing committee has decided to extend the deadline for entries until 20 January 2008. The Xaver Award, which has honored outstanding achievements in Swiss live communication since 1999, is now returning as The Swiss Live Communication Award. In addition to the new name, the content of the award has also been changed. Three new categories have been added to the previous Best Expo and Best Event categories: Best Live Communication Campaign, Best Promotion and Best Supplier. The judging criteria will now be evaluated by the jury in two rounds - in a first step, general criteria such as initial situation, objectives or implementation control will be assessed. In the event of a nomination, criteria such as material mix, functionality, creativity or originality are then added. The contemporary criterion of climate protection will also be assessed.
The Xaver.08 award ceremony will take place on April 9 at the Kaufleuten in Zurich.

 The contract between publisher Presse TV and SRG expires at the end of 2008. Negotiations are underway for the new contract, but nothing has been decided yet. What is clear, however, is that Presse TV cannot be outsourced to SF info. "A transfer to SF info is not possible, the new SRG concession does not permit this," SRG spokesperson Daniel Steiner told Werbewoche. "Certain first broadcasts may now also take place on SF info, but only under very strict conditions." According to Steiner, now that the new concession has been signed and sealed, SRG wants to start negotiations with the publishers: "Over the course of next year, a decision will be made as to whether and in what form Presse TV will continue to be shown on Swiss television." The lawsuit that Presse TV and Ringier have filed against the program "Kassensturz" should have no influence on the negotiations, according to Steiner.According to Fibo Deutsch, Managing Director of Presse TV, there have been good relations between Swiss television and publishers' television up to now. However, the outcome of the contract negotiations with the SRG is still open to him: "In its new concession, the Federal Council has signaled that it welcomes cooperation between the SRG and private providers such as Presse TV. I therefore assume that the contract will be continued in some form". He explains that the framework conditions have changed in the twelve years of Presse TV's existence: "Digitalization has brought about changes, there are many more platforms for television than before. Presse TV's current broadcasting slot on Saturday evenings on SF 2 could change during the negotiations: "We would like to remain on SF 2; however, there may be more optimal broadcasting slots for some of Presse TV's programs". Deutsch does not believe that the lawsuit filed will have an impact on the contract negotiations: "And even if it does, I have to accept that." It is important to him to defend himself against the reporting of "Kassensturz", which he felt was inappropriate.

 As last year, the most popular presenters are Stephan Klapproth ("10 vor 10") and Bernhard Thurnheer (sport). This was the result of a survey conducted by UPC Broadband, the European umbrella company of Cablecom. Susanne Wille and Katja Stauber followed in second and third place in the news category, and Matthias Hüppi and Rainer Maria Salzgeber in the sports category.The data on the most popular presenters was collected as part of a Europe-wide study on children's television viewing habits. It was found that 42% of children and young people in Switzerland watch at least one and a half hours of television per day. This figure puts Switzerland well below the European average of 60 percent. The starting age is also lower in Switzerland: 32% of parents only allow their children to watch television from the age of five, while in the other countries this age limit only applies to 18%.
Nevertheless, according to the study, parents in Switzerland believe comparatively strongly in the educational power of television. Three out of four parents state that TV consumption improves general knowledge (only 68% abroad), and 60% believe that it also improves language comprehension.
Swiss parents are more restrictive when it comes to the consumption of films with violent content: while only 55 percent abroad prohibit their children from watching such programs, the figure here is 67 percent.

 Following OFCOM's decision that the U1 TV channel does not have to be switched on, cable network operator Cablecom now has room to expand its HDTV offering as announced. The British channel BBC HD will be the fourth channel to be added to Cablecom's program in high-definition quality from 22 January. It complements the channels HD suisse, Sat.1 HB and Pro7 HD, which have already been broadcast via Cablecom's services since the beginning of this month. The discontinuation of U1 TV in the analog program, originally planned for the end of August 2007, will now be completed next Friday following today's decision by Bakom. However, according to a statement issued on Wednesday, Cablecom is still prepared to distribute the channel digitally.
The HDTV offer is reportedly meeting with great interest among Cablecom customers. Since its launch, several thousand HD boxes have already been delivered, Cablecom writes in its press release. The HD offering is to be further expanded in the first half of 2008.

 The successor to Felix Erbacher as head of the Basler Zeitung's business section has been announced: 50-year-old René Sollberger will take up his new position at the Baz on January 1, according to a press release issued on Wednesday. The effective change in department management will take place on February 1. Erbacher will remain with the editorial team as an author with a reduced workload. The graduate physicist most recently worked for Cash as head and editor of the Markets section (politics and economics). He was previously deputy head of the economics department at the Berner Zeitung.