Publigroupe announces a further stage in its reorganization: the marketing of electronic and interactive media in Switzerland is being regrouped. Ueli Weber, currently Managing Director at Web2com, will head the new "Electronic & Interactive" unit. Under his aegis, the businesses of Cinecom, Radiotele and Web2com will be managed from a single source; the unit will be divided into the Interactive, TV national, Cinema, TV local and Radio divisions. The Interactive division will be managed by Philipp Scheidegger and includes search engine marketing, display, performance, mobile, IPTV and ITV. Karin Frautschi continues to be responsible for TV national. This area includes the marketing of the channels Sat.1, Kabel eins and 3+. Local cinema and national cinema will be managed by Jean-Claude Bruhin. TV local will be managed on an interim basis by Urs Gerber. The marketing of TeleNewsKombi (TNC) is the main focus in this area. As before, Felix Kilchsperger will manage the Radio division. The previous CEO of Cinecom, Matthias Luchsinger, is leaving Publigroupe.
The separate sales teams for TV, regional TV, radio, cinema, Internet, mobile and ad screen will remain in place, according to the press release, but will be brought closer together. With the new organization, the marketer wants to be fit for all-media marketing, which the new Publicitas is to ensure.

 Swiss Television has responded to the communiqué from PresseTV and Ringier, which had accused "Kassensturz" of one-sided and biased reporting on the "Krebsgala" and its producers: There can be no question of one-sided and biased reporting, explains "Kassensturz" editorial director Wolfgang Wettstein. The consumer magazine found a lack of transparency in the financing of the fundraising gala and mainly criticized this. The donors did not know that the program had been purchased by the Cancer League. The accusation made by PresseTV and RingierTV that Swiss television had abused its monopoly position on its own behalf in order to denigrate its unwelcome competitor Presse TV was absurd. This is not how Kassensturz works, Wettstein continued: "We don't do corporate journalism. We are interested in good stories". The report on the "opaque financing" of the "Krebsgala" is a good story.
PressTV Managing Director Fibo Deutsch and Ringier's media office were invited several times to comment on the accusations in front of the camera, explains Wettstein: "This would have given Ringier a better opportunity to put forward its own point of view. But Ringier declined to do so. In addition, Managing Director Meili from the Cancer League was able to comment on the points of criticism for more than eight minutes in the television studio. The Cancer League had had its say in detail and had been able to put forward its point of view.
Incidentally, Fibo Deutsch again disagrees with Wettstein: Kassensturz had announced that it wanted to investigate the Cancer League's fundraising methods. However, Deutsch told Werbewoche that he was not aware that the SRG's financial contributions to PresseTV would also be discussed in the program.

 The circulation figures for 2007, which have been definitively certified by Wemf, have been available to view since Friday. As the advertising media researcher announced, the circulation bulletin containing the final figures is available for download on the Wemf.ch website. The circulation figures were audited by the external auditors PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young. The preliminary figures were already published in October (see
Free press on the upswing unabated
). The certification is based on the principle of self-declaration: circulation figures submitted by the publishers by September 15, 2007 were made available on the Wemf website for the first time. However, this was still an incomplete list, as publishers have the opportunity to submit their figures by September 30. With the circulation bulletin, the circulation figures for all titles that have participated in Wemf's certification process in the current year are now available.

 
It's going to be a blog for women: Fraulich.com, the fifth themed blog from Zurich-based online publisher Blogwerk, will be launched on November 30. It will not be limited to "classic women's topics" between beauty and fashion, but will pursue a more open topic concept, according to a press release. "We are interested in the special female perspective on the world," explains Ruth Bossart, editor of Fraulich.com. "Within this, no topic is safe from us." Fraulich.com will report on the latest mothers-and-stoves debate as well as the influence of US talk show host Oprah Winfrey on the presidential election campaign, provide a cultural history of the headscarf as a means of subjugation and show what the work of the world's only sleeping concierge at New York's Hotel Benjamin looks like. Ruth Bossart most recently worked as a Japan correspondent, mainly for Swiss daily newspapers and radio stations. She is supported by six equally experienced journalists.
Blogwerk also maintains the gadget blog Neuerdings.com, which is launching an Advent calendar competition for the second time on December 1, 2007. The total prize money is over 12,000 francs.

 
The international branding and corporate identity agency Metadesign has appointed Michel Gabriel as a new member of the Board of Directors of its Zurich office. Michel Gabriel is a proven branding and CI expert, according to the press release issued on Friday. The trained business graduate joined Metadesign in 1996, where he helped build up the client Audi as project manager. He then gained further professional experience at Wirz Identity and Wolff Olins. Michel Gabriel has been Managing Director at Metadesign since 2003 and is responsible for one of the large business units in Berlin. The other members of the Board of Directors are Dr. Alexander Haldemann, Bruno Schmidt and Stefan Kirschke. Haldemann and Schmidt manage the agency as managing partners and have also been the company's main shareholders since 2003. Stefan Kirschke has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2001.the new Board of Directors (photo from left to right): Bruno Schmidt, Stefan Kirschke, Dr. Alexander Haldemann and Michel Gabriel.

Roger Schawinski's new station Radio 1 is gaining new staff: David Karasek will host the evening show between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. from Monday to Friday. The 29-year-old has been presenting the Radio 24 morning show for five years, having previously gained his first radio experience at Radio Zürisee. Schawinski comments on this new addition: "David Karasek - who joined Radio 24 when I was still there - is now ready for the next level as a presenter to really realize his potential. We will completely reposition him at Radio 1." 
Schawinski has also gained a radio celebrity in Sabine Renz. The 38-year-old has been a presenter for DRS 3 since 1994, where she was responsible for the "Music Special" programs. Schawinski: "Sabine is the most sensual voice on DRS 3. I am particularly pleased that she will be heard exclusively on Radio 1 in future."
 
In addition to Renz, two other women will be joining the station: 25-year-old Nina Blaser has been recruited as editor and 27-year-old Bea Jucker as presenter, according to a press release issued on Thursday. Both are currently also working at Radio 24. Schawinski is also delighted about these two additions: "With Nina Blaser and Bea Jucker, we are taking on two younger, very talented employees to round off our team."
 
 
 

 
The website of the Swiss business newspaper Handelszeitung is now online with a completely new look. In addition to a new design, users will find a greatly expanded range of content. The Handelszeitung is now opening its online archive of the last five years on its Internet portal free of charge. The articles produced in cooperation with the Wall Street Journal are also now available. In addition to a range of market and share price information, the stock market report produced by Handelszeitung for Radio 24 can also be accessed as an audio file. The company information section has also been expanded, according to the press release. Based on the Handelszeitung ranking "Top 2007 - The largest companies in Switzerland", Handelszeitung.ch offers company profiles of the 1600 largest Swiss companies. Handelszeitung subscribers also have the opportunity to access all articles from the current issue the evening before.

 After Tamedia and Basler Zeitung Medien announced the launch of an online network, a group of other publishing houses is now going on the offensive. Among the initiators are the NZZ Group and the Mittelland-Zeitung. An Internet portal is planned where the content of various regional newspapers will be bundled, as Persoenlich.com reported on Thursday. To this end, a working group has been set up to drive forward the online activities. The working group includes Südostschweiz publisher Hanspeter Lebrument, Peter Wanner and Christine Rennhard from the Mittelland-Zeitung, Thedi Gut from the Zürcher Landzeitungen and Beat Lauber from Freie Presse Holding, which represents the NZZ titles St. Galler Tagblatt and Neue Luzerner Zeitung. The plan is to publish the best articles from the affiliated regional newspapers on the as yet unnamed online portal. A small editorial team of five to ten people will collect the content and prepare it for the portal. The individual regional editorial teams would provide support. However, the meta-portal is not intended to replace the websites of the various newspapers, but merely to supplement them.  
It is still unclear which newspapers will be connected to the new online network, as well as whether the project will be realized at all - this is to be decided in mid-December.

 20 Minuten is expanding its web TV offering: A quick menu for singles at home and supermodels for the eye - that's the new cooking show on 20 Minuten TV. The main protagonist is celebrity chef Stefan Schüller, who also runs the Zurich restaurant Oskar. He shows how to conjure up a gourmet meal in no time at all. The show is sponsored by Uncle Ben's. Schüller will be accompanied through the program by the supermodels from the 3+ casting show. Four episodes are planned for the time being, the first of which will be broadcast this Friday.

 From December 1, 2007, SRG will be broadcasting programs produced in widescreen format in 16:9 format. This innovation will lead to an improvement in picture and sound quality. The prerequisite is that the television viewer has digital reception and a wide screen. The switch to the new format is usually automatic, writes SRG in a press release on Thursday. However, due to the large number of devices and numerous possible combinations and settings, image distortion may occur in individual cases. The switch to the 16:9 format will also improve the quality of television sound. Previously, only the sound in the respective national language was broadcast in stereo. Any sound on the second channel, such as the original sound for feature films, was mono. From December 1, Swiss Television (SF) and Ticino Television (TSI) will also broadcast this channel in stereo. This changeover will take place on March 1, 2008 for Welsche Fernsehen (TSR), which will also require digital television reception.
 
The SF programs "Schweiz Aktuell", "Rundschau" and "Glanz & Gloria" have been broadcast in widescreen format since August 2006.

 The Zurich agencies Jung von Matt/Limmat, Ruf Lanz and Publicis scooped prizes at the Midas Awards in New York. This prize is the international award of the New York Festivals, which honors the most creative campaigns for financial service providers and insurance companies worldwide. Ruf Lanz won gold for the Suva and BFU bicycle helmet prevention campaign.
The most recent example of the campaign is the "Wear a bike helmet. Or pray". Ruf Lanz made it to the final with a total of five campaigns for Bank Coop and Suva.
Jung von Matt/Limmat won a gold medal in the "Banking" category with the "Pickpocket" TV commercial for Migros Bank. The agency also won two finalist places for the same client. Another finalist certificate was secured by JvM/Limmat for Bank Julius Baer.
Publicis received silver with "Art Investment" for Zurich Financial Services. The agency also received seven finalist certificates.

The PR and text agency Complecta is shaking up the media landscape in the St. Gallen region with the magazine Citylife St. Gallen. It is a premium lifestyle magazine that is specially tailored to a particularly affluent clientele, according to a press release from the agency. The magazine focuses on the fine art of enjoyment, cultural developments, education and careers, as well as leisure and consumer trends in and around the city of St. Gallen. Citylife St. Gallen is published in a print run of 10,000 copies and is delivered directly to households as well as being distributed in selected locations. The plan is to publish four issues a year; the first issue has just been published. Stefan Grob, owner of the agency, came up with the idea of launching a magazine for the city's high-earning residents in August of this year. He had noticed that although Switzerland had a very high media density by international standards, there were only a few offerings for the regional premium segment. Now it remains to be seen how the magazine will be received by recipients.