The agency Inhalt&Form has won a competitive presentation for Zürich Tourism's new line of advertisements. According to a press release, a fresh, creative approach was expected that deliberately sets itself apart from other tourist destinations. The new advertisements will be used from January 2008. Responsible at Zürich Tourism:
Marianne Gut (Head of Communications). Responsible at Inhalt&Form: Serge Riedener (CD), Daniel Käser (AD), Philipp Stamm (graphics), Andrea Egger and Christian Jost (consulting).

 There are now many freelance specialists in the Swiss communications market. Acquiring orders should now be easier for these lone fighters: Freelance consultant Monica Miraldi is launching Freelancerportal.ch, a platform where freelancers from all disciplines can present themselves on the Internet for a fixed annual fee. Freelance communication specialists can register online and upload their work samples to the site. Those who register by December 30, 2007 at the latest will pay CHF 890 instead of CHF 990 for a year's presence. All portraits will be activated from January 7, 2008.
Well-known representatives from the agency side welcome the new portal, according to the press release. Markus Gut from the new Young & Rubicam Group says: "The idea is very good. Because nobody can remember the individual homepages of the various freelancers." Daniel Krieg (KSB/SJ), Alexander Jaggy (Jung von Matt/Limmat), Jürg Aemmer (Euro RSCG), Ralph Halder (Publicis) and Markus Ruf and Danielle Lanz (Ruf Lanz) also welcome the portal. They want to "fall back on it when the man or woman is in need".
The initiator, Monica Miraldi, is a qualified marketing communications manager. She is familiar with both the agency side (Guye & Partner, Publicis, Lesch + Frei) and the client side (UBS Marketing). Today she works as a freelance consultant.

 Shortly after the news agency SDA was able to win back Blick and Sonntagsblick as customers, it has lost two other publications: The Neue Luzerner Zeitung and the Mittelland Zeitung have canceled their subscriptions. This is reported by the media magazine Klartext in its latest issue. Peter Buri, editor-in-chief of the Aargauer Zeitung and thus a member of the Mittelland-Zeitung group, explained to Klartext that his newspaper had canceled its subscription because it had to shift resources to other areas. In his eyes, the SDA model no longer corresponds to the realities of today's media world; the price/needs ratio is not right for him. Buri envisages that individual media houses could exchange short reports with each other. However, he does not rule out the possibility of returning to SDA one day if it offers modular services.
SDA editor-in-chief Bernard Maissen told Klartext that he was open to revising his agency's offering and enabling specially tailored services, but that he did not want any "cherry-pickers". He is critical of the fact that the exchange of short news items between individual newspapers could work.

 After Axel Springer attempted a takeover of ProSiebenSat.1 last year, the publisher now wants to sell its shares in the TV group. The company has reached an agreement with investors Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts (KKR) and Permira to sell its 12 percent stake in the broadcasting group, Springer announced on Tuesday. KKR and Permira, who already hold a majority stake in ProSiebenSat.1, will pay just under EUR 20 per share, which will flush more than half a billion euros into Springer's coffers. The sale still has to be approved by the Commission on Concentration in the Media (KEK).
Springer had attempted to take over ProSiebenSat.1 completely last year. However, this was prohibited by the Cartel Office (see
). The majority shareholder of the broadcasting group at the time, US billionaire Haim Saban, then sold his shares to US fund KKR and UK-based Permira. The latter had already attempted to take over the company in full with a takeover bid at the beginning of the year, but failed at that time due to Springer. The price now paid to Springer is significantly lower than the bid made in January.

 
The Baar-based Adcom Group is taking over Harri Kunz Kommunikation (HKK) in Biberist as of January 1, 2008. Company founder Harri Kunz will remain responsible for the major projects at HKK after the sale of his shares and will act as an interface between Adcom and HKK. The operational management of HKK will be transferred to a commercial director. Within the Adcom Group, Kunz will be responsible for the development and launch of new strategic projects and will work closely with Michael Fischer, member of the Board of Directors and Managing Director of the Adcom Group. According to a press release, HKK fits perfectly into the concept and structure of Adcom Group. With its core competencies of promotion, communication and flagging, Adcom is active in similar or the same segments as HKK. Synergies are therefore obvious. HKK was founded ten years ago and today employs over 20 permanent staff. As an event supporter, it works for companies such as Swisscom, Credit Suisse, Würth, Carlsberg, the Swiss Football Association and Ochsner Sport.
The Adcom Group was founded in 1996 by Michael and Serena Fischer in Zug and comprises four subsidiaries: Adcom Production (CD and DVD productions), Adcom Communication (communications agency), Adcom Motion (merchandising) and Keller Fahnen (mail order). Adcom has had its own Asian branch in Shanghai for three years. In July 2007, the Group took over the mail order company Hach Switzerland. The Group generates annual sales of over CHF 60 million and employs around 175 people.

 
The Swiss Press Council has partially upheld a complaint by the political community of Rorschacherberg against the Bodensee Nachrichten and the Rheintaler Boten. The newspapers published articles in January and February 2007 about various alleged grievances in the St. Gallen municipality. In March, Rorschacherberg appealed to the Press Council. The Council declared that three points of the "Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Journalists" had been violated: the two newspapers would have been obliged to hear the mayor about the accusations made against him and to grant him the right to the best argument. In addition, an excessive number of anonymous letters to the editor had been printed. Finally, the Press Council criticized the omission of important information. For example, readers should have been informed that the editorial director had filed a supervisory complaint with the Department of Home Affairs of the Canton of St. Gallen because of the alleged abuses in the municipality.
The newspapers criticized an allegedly exorbitant salary for a secretary to the mayor, allegedly overpriced street lighting and other alleged abuses in the political municipality of Rorschacherberg. The editorial director of Bodensee Nachrichten rejected the municipality's complaint to the Press Council, which was launched in March, as unfounded.

 Roger Schawinski's attack on the Aargau media monopoly has political repercussions: The SP parliamentary group in the Aargau cantonal parliament is calling on the cantonal government to support the media man's Radio AG radio project. The SP interpellation was also heard by the conservative parliamentary groups on Tuesday. By 117 votes to 6, the Council voted in favor of dealing with the request as a matter of urgency.
Roger Schawinski's application for a license for Radio AG brings movement to the Aargau media landscape, explained SP parliamentary group leader Markus Leimbacher. This is a serious project that is supported by well-known personalities. The SP believes that not granting the radio license back to the previous owner, Radio Argovia, is currently the only way to partially break through the "monopolized media landscape" in Aargau. Although it is the federal government and not the Aargau government that decides on the license, the position of the government council will be very important in the public hearing process, as the SP has stated.
The SP is of the opinion that the diversity of opinion in the Aargau media landscape has been in a poor state for years. Peter Wanner's AZ Medien Group, to which Radio Argovia belongs, owns all opinion-relevant media. Via the Mittelland Zeitung, it had secured a monopoly on opinion "from Baden to Solothurn". According to SDA, SP parliamentary group leader Markus Leimbacher noted that Aargau has practically the only multimedia monopoly in Switzerland that is controlled by a single person.

 
While SF already had a high market share of 34.4 percent in October 2007, the public broadcaster was even able to increase this to 34.8 percent in November. Compared to the same month last year, this corresponds to an increase of 1.6 percentage points. The figures relate to the all-day average of SF 1, SF zwei and SF info. According to the press release, November 2007 was up on November 2006 in almost all time periods, which can be attributed to the audience hit "Die grössten Schweizer Hits", football coverage and the cultural theme day "Singen ohne Grenzen", among other things. The strongest increases are on prime time and late evening. At 33.5 percent, SF's annual average for 2007 is one percentage point lower than in 2006.

 
Anatole Taubman is our new man in the realm of movie stars. The 36-year-old, who was born and raised in Zurich, told the Tuesday edition of "Glanz&Gloria" that he had landed the role of co-villain in the next James Bond film. "For a European, a role in a James Bond film is like a golden ticket," he said happily. "There's nothing better, I'm over the moon." Filming is due to start in Bregenz in January 2008. He wants his family to ride the Bond wave, regardless of whether he is in his penthouse suite in London or in South America, he said in the celebrity and star show. Everything is contractually regulated: "I am allowed to fly my family in first class to all places in the world". The father of two daughters has lived in Berlin with his partner for several years.
Taubman has already appeared in several international productions, including the Hollywood thriller "Taken" with Liam Neeson, the US TV series "The Tudors" and the BBC production "Waking the Dead". The fact that he is now starring in "Bond 22", directed by Marc Forster, who is also Swiss, is almost a major event for Switzerland. The rest of the world probably doesn't care, and Ursi National will have a few nostalgic moments.

 Goldbach Media subsidiary Adlink Media is taking over the exclusive marketing of Car4you. Founded in 1997, the Internet platform specializes in cars and motorcycles and is one of the largest portals for new and used vehicles in Switzerland, according to a statement from Adlink. By handing over the marketing to Adlink Media, Car4you is entering into an exclusive marketing partnership for the first time.

 The National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (Nagra) has a thankless task. The aim of its geological investigations is to find safe sites for the deep disposal of toxic waste in Switzerland. For the Federal Council's announcement of the potential siting areas in the first half of next year, the cooperative has now enlisted professional help in the communications sector. The communications agency Matter & Gretener and the event agency Merz + Partner have now been entrusted with the management of the information events in the locations concerned. According to project manager Armin Murer, both agencies impressed Nagra in the pitch with their emotional and integrated approach, which will prove that they take the fears and questions of the population seriously.

 Disappointment in Lucerne: Swiss dairy products manufacturer Emmi is unable to meet its rosy forecasts for the 2007 financial year. On Monday, it revised its profit margins downwards from 2 to 2.5 percent to 1.5 to 1.7 percent. However, as one might expect, this is not due to DJ Bobo and his reduced consumption of energy milk after his low flight at the Concour d'Eurovision de la Chanson. No. The reduction in profits has other, much more complicated reasons. The cheese glut, for example: The Swiss cows supplied an extremely large amount of milk, the cheesemakers did their bit, and so too many wheels of cheese simply rolled into neighboring Italy, which was by far the most infatuated with the holey substance, causing prices to tumble. Several million francs were lost in the process. According to the communiqué, however, Emmi was hit even harder by another circumstance: sales of the fresh product Caffé Latte, which had been advertised with a lot of money, suffered from the "wet and cold summer". Perhaps Emmi should seek to cooperate with Mr. Bucheli or Mr. Kachelmann in future. Who would have thought that the sale of dairy products is dependent on the weather. At least the Board of Directors continues to believe in fresh products from Europe, the press release continued.