Jung von Matt/Limmat is represented twice in the final at the London International Advertising Awards 2007. In the running for gold are the "XXL campaign" poster series for Health Promotion Switzerland in the "Outdoor" category and the "Love curves?" ad for Mini in the "Print" category. The winners will be announced on November 12.

Just three months after the young German radio presenter Katrin Wilde took up her position at the station Energy Zurich, accompanied by much media hype, she is fleeing back to her home country. The 22-year-old from Saarbrücken had provoked strong reactions from the station's listeners. While some were delighted to hear the young, High German voice, who presented the program "Energy Mein Morgen" together with Reto Peritz and Roman Kilchsperger, and showered Wilde with praise and marriage proposals, others reacted extremely aggressively. Unknown persons smashed the window of her car and sent her threatening letters. In the end, the radio producer only left the house with an alarm button, which she could use to call a security company for help in an emergency. "My colleagues at the radio station had warned me. Nevertheless, I was overwhelmed by the fuss," Wilde told the German magazine "Focus". Now, as was announced on Wednesday, she is resigning. She cites personal reasons for her decision to leave our country. She expressed her wish to be able to work for a broadcaster in Germany again soon. Our guess: Wilde's departure has nothing to do with smashed rear windows and threatening letters. Either she had a hard time getting up early, or she couldn't come to terms with the slick Mr. Peritz and Mr. Kilchsperger. No more energy.

Ringier is taking over the second-largest Czech newspaper Aha! from the Czech publishing house Ebika with immediate effect. Launched in October 2004, the daily tabloid currently has a circulation of around 194,000 copies. The employees will be taken over by Ringier. Ringier is strengthening its leading position on the Czech newspaper market with this acquisition, according to a press release. Ringier already publishes the newspaper Blesk in the Czech Republic, the country's best-selling newspaper.

 
Publishers Andreas Zehnder is working hard to further expand the already high capacity utilization of his Zehnder Print AG. 
 Andreas Zehnder and father Peter Zehnder.
The Zehnder Group, based in Wil, can justifiably be described as exceptional. Founded in 1856, it is divided into three business areas: the publishing division with 22 weekly newspapers and four magazines, the graphic production company division and the service company division with cinemas, fitness centers and restaurants. The production companies include a copy center, Zehnder Print AG in Rickenbach and Rolf Peter Zehnder AG in Wil. The group of companies currently employs over 400 people.
Zehnder Print AG in Rickenbach near Wil produces a total of 22 free newspapers, making Andreas Zehnder the undisputed "king of free newspapers". "Despite a less than favorable economic environment for the graphic arts industry, we have managed to hold our own on the market in recent years. Not least thanks to newspaper customer printing. We have had good years since 2000 and the signs are good that this will continue for the next seven years." However, times were not always as rosy as they are today. Until the end of 1999, newspaper printing at Druckerei Zehnder was based on Hubstrasse in Wil. Under the same roof as sheetfed printing.
After signing a five-year contract with the Swedish Metropol, no stone was left unturned for newspaper printing. In order to produce the first free newspaper in Switzerland, a new building was needed. Land was found in neighboring Rickenbach, where a modern building was erected in record time. Time was short, the first issue had to be produced on April 8, 2000. At that time, no printing press had yet been purchased. A new single-width machine had to be purchased for the existing Solna Distributor. Andreas Zehnder opted for a hybrid Goss Universal with a dryer oven.
Expansion at full steam barely six months later, the first issue of Metropol was printed on the Goss, albeit under unfortunate circumstances because the new building was not yet ready. The end of Metropol after just two years was a bitter blow for Andreas Zehnder. However, with the printing of the two English-language daily newspapers International Herald Tribune and Wall Street Journal, the resulting hole was filled again. The International Herald Tribune has been printed in Rickenbach six times a week for Switzerland since 2002 and the Wall Street Journal for Switzerland and northern Italy since 2000. And after Huber & Co. was acquired by Tamedia, Zehnder Print took over the printing of the regional newspaper Hinterthurgau. Since September 19, the newspaper printing company has had another "big fish" in its portfolio with .ch. It prints a partial run of the new free newspaper.
More and more weekly titles have been added in recent years. Today, with 22 titles, they account for the lion's share of capacity utilization. Today the Zuger Woche, Züri Nachrichte, Züri Rundschau and the newly founded Uster Rundschau still belong to Peter Zehnder, and he sold another 15 titles to his son a year and a half ago. Andreas Zehnder emphasizes that there is no question of an advance inheritance, as has often been rumored. Zehnder recently bought 12 of the 15 titles from the St. Gallen News Group. The Appenzeller Rundschau, the Herisauer Zeitung and the Bündner Nachrichten are not family-owned.
Andreas Zehnder has a minority shareholding in the Toggenburger Zeitung/See&Gaster Zeitung. He is a busy businessman, owner of Zehnder Print AG, owner of the sheetfed offset of Peter Zehnder AG since 2000 and recently also publishing director of Zehnder Verlagshaus in personal union: "This is only possible thanks to competent employees in the key functions." After graduating from high school and studying esig+, Andreas Zehnder worked alongside his father in the management of the family business for seven years before taking over the management of Imsag, which he held for five years.
Customized printing technologyAfter several moves, two interconnected Solna Distributor presses and the aforementioned Goss Universal with drying oven are now located in Rickenbach. With the purchase of a second Solna, Zehnder Print AG now has a unique configuration: printing is done on 16 Y printing units (2+1). The machine is equipped with two folders, one of which is a balloon folder that also allows special effects. Zehnder Print can glue up to 128 pages in tabloid format in a bundle. Printed products can be trimmed inline on the Goss Universal with a three-page trim, newspapers can be strapped inline on the compensating stacker in postpress and bars are used for the gentle processing of sheet signatures.
Zehnder is the only newspaper printer in Switzerland that can produce any page format from 140×200 mm to 500×630 mm. Thanks to the freely selectable paper web width, there is no additional, expensive waste, even with special formats that are effective for advertising. Thanks to the three-sided rotary cut, the Goss can also be used to print with a margin waste. Zehnder is one of only two newspaper printing plants in Switzerland that can also glue products in the tabloid format range (160×240 mm to 250×315 mm) in a bundle. Thanks to the seven-metre-long drying oven, commercial web printing on the Goss Universal also enables printing on a wide range of coated papers with grammages between 40 and 120 g/m2 glossy paper. Simultaneous printing and merging with newspaper printing enables a newspaper to be finished economically and in top quality with an effective cover printed on glossy paper. All services relating to the print product, such as pre-press, post-press or publishing services, e.g. subscriber management, mail route sorting, fine distribution, etc., are offered from a single source in Rickenbach. A service that is appreciated by the printing customers of what is probably the only contract printing company in Switzerland.
To ensure smooth data handling in the editorial offices, Zehnder Print AG has been using the K4 publishing system for almost four years, to which all external editorial offices are directly connected. Currently, 26 employees create the various newspapers using Adobe InDesign and K4. The editorial team also works with InDesign. "The production of our newspapers is subject to special framework conditions because the advertisement acquisition should only end one hour before the printing presses start up. This means that we have to provide the advertising departments and editorial teams in the respective branch offices with functionalities that go beyond normal standard workstations. Flexibility is the be-all and end-all for us in every respect and gives us a decisive competitive advantage," explains Roger Staub, Head of Publishing Coordination.
Strong partner Swiss PostForty years ago, Peter Zehnder launched Switzerland's first free newspaper. Today, 22 weekly newspapers are published by the Zehnder publishing house in Wil. Swiss Post distributes the majority of the more than 790,000 newspapers each week. When asked why he relies on Swiss Post for distribution, Andreas Zehnder says: "Delivery on the exact day is crucial because we have a lot of deadline advertisements. Most of our titles have to reach readers by Thursday lunchtime at the latest. Why delivery by Swiss Post? Swiss Post works more flexibly and reliably than private distributors. Private distributors only offer a particular route once or twice a week. The slightest delay can therefore jeopardize delivery on the exact day. This is not a problem with Swiss Post because it serves all letterboxes every day." Zehnder also has the post office certify the print runs.
The figures are therefore always up to date and not based on the past like the Wemf figures, explains Andreas Zehnder: "Why should I have a Wemf certification carried out when the one from Swiss Post is much better in my opinion. Swiss Post doesn't actually do anything other than certify how many copies I have posted with them. The bottom line is that it's faster, better and cheaper." A motto that would also suit Zehnder Print AG, a vibrant, young company with young, motivated employees whose hunger for more newspaper titles is far from being satisfied. "In any case, we still have free capacity for additional orders. And when we look at the current developments in the free newspaper market, we are also optimistic about the near future."
 
Daniel Bishop

 
Newspaper printing The addresses of newspaper subscribers have long been printed on the front page of newspapers using inkjet technology. At this year's ifraExpo in Vienna, MAN Roland presented a new development that makes digital inkjet printing possible at full press load in newspaper printing. The Integrated Inkjet system solution, developed by MAN Roland in cooperation with the Kodak Graphic Communications Group, uses the proven technology of the Kodak Versamark DH6240 inkjet printhead, which can be integrated into new MAN Roland presses or retrofitted to existing printing systems. Integrated Inkjet is suitable for personalization, graphics, address and barcode printing as well as numbering. Print jobs can be handled at a print speed of up to 90,000 copies per hour.

 
Economy The Swiss Packaging Institute (SVI), together with the paint and varnish industry, the printing industry and the food industry, is opposing the planned change in food legislation regarding the approval of printing inks for food packaging. The reason for this is the technical and economic restrictions that a change to the permitted printing inks for packaging printing would entail for the Swiss industry. The new list proposed by the FOPH contains only a fraction of the printing inks currently in use and would put Swiss companies at a disadvantage compared to foreign competitors.

 
Internet Roman Hanhart is a passionate blogger. He wants to make the subculture more attractive to the masses with blog parades. 
Roman Hanhart is tormented by society's changing values. He wonders what home means to him. Is it just him? To explore the concept of home and its meaning, he writes an article on his blog and calls on the web community to go in search of home. The call generates an echo. Within four weeks, other bloggers from Switzerland and abroad wrote articles on the topic. Hanhart accompanies the process, links the texts and summarizes them on his weblog. In the end, more than 30 comprehensive articles and authentic texts were published. Hanhart is satisfied. And so is the blogosphere.
This "brainstorming" has a name: Blogparade. The term is relatively new in the German-speaking world. Originally, such events were known as "blog carnivals". The concept originates from the English-speaking world and is called "Blog Carnival". The exact translation did not last long. In a vote in spring 2007, the blog community agreed on the term "blog parade".
The idea is very popular. For a long time, such parades were only held in the USA, but today German-speaking bloggers also launch blog parades practically on a weekly basis. In Switzerland, however, they are still very rare. Alongside Roman Hanhart, Reto Stauss from Nachhaltigbeobachtet.ch also regularly organizes blog parades.
The motives for organizing or participating in such joint campaigns are completely different. While Roman Hanhart is interested in the diversity of contributions on the subject of home, other bloggers want to prove themselves with good texts. The advantage of the parades is obvious: entire topic dossiers are generated within a certain period of time, thoughts are bundled and contacts are made. "As the initiator, you can control the process and tell the participants exactly what you expect," says Roman Hanhart.
Mobilizing parade participants is not complicated. On the contrary. As can be seen from the relevant Parade directories, 30 amateur copywriters can be recruited for a project within a very short space of time. Depending on the topic - the IT sector is popular - hundreds of bloggers contribute. "Many of the texts are extracts from long deliberations and discussions," says Hanhart. The fact that the posts sometimes take on bizarre forms is not a problem for Hanhart. This ultimately reflects the blog culture, which is deliberately diverse and not always comprehensible.
Although many blog parades shine in terms of content and offer their initiators added value, they are coming under increasing criticism. It is predominantly top bloggers in the scene who boycott such campaigns because they see abuse behind them. The accusation is that blog parades are started in order to generate better search engine results, higher traffic and therefore higher advertising revenue by linking to other bloggers. Roman Hanhart finds such accusations justified in individual cases, but not as a rule. "The majority of blog parades are interested in knowledge and not in good rankings on search engine pages."
Aiming for a new imageHanhart's parade has another purpose than just creating a sense of home. The computer scientist from St. Gallen wants to use blog parades to organize the scene and help it gain a new public image. He has been observing the development of the blogosphere closely for some time. His conclusion: it offers hardly any relevant content. Many entries are meaningless to the masses. "With the blog parade, I want to call on bloggers to produce their own interesting content," says Hanhart.
He describes himself as a community person who wants to move forward collectively. He has a mixed relationship with the Swiss blogger scene. "There are far too many individualists who don't create anything new, but always pick on what already exists." The blogosphere needs a new identity if it wants to be taken seriously. He does not want to accept the idea that bloggers only deal with topics on the surface. "Our environment is not only biting, but also creative."
With his statements, Hanhart is regarded by many bloggers as a provocateur and lateral thinker. But that doesn't bother him because he cares about development. At the current blog camp, Hanhart wants to shake up the scene and point out the shortcomings. He already did this in March, when the community met on the ETH premises. In a lecture entitled "Community in the blogosphere - opportunity or hype?", he called on bloggers to organize themselves. His vision: to organize 100 to 300 blogs together in an association and ensure quality. Hanhart wants to present a united front to the outside world and put the focus back on people. Organized in this way, it would be easier to clarify legal protection and copyright issues, work to improve the language, and the scene could market itself better. "There's nothing wrong with bloggers earning money with their content on the side," he says. Above all, Hanhart wants to promote marketing, as it guarantees good quality texts in the long term.
It remains to be seen how his ideas will be received by local bloggers. "I expect fierce resistance from the dinosaurs of the scene. But we all know what happened to the dinosaurs."
Christian Lüscher
Blog paradesBlog parades
are held all over the world. In Germany, the website blog-parade.de provides comprehensive information. In the USA, blogcarnivals.com provides information. In Switzerland, the website blogclub.ch, whose founder and operator is Roman Hanhart, is the central point of contact. In Switzerland
is launching a blog parade on the topic of blogging on October 26. The campaign will run until December 3. Information can be found on the web at blogpraxis.ch. (cl)Roman Hanhart on keywordsSwiss bloggers:
"We learn and find our position in the media and in the economy. This requires a strong community, perhaps an association or club. "Schweizer Medien:
"Unfortunately, many small offerings have disappeared from the print sector." Internet:
"A chance to finally deal with each other responsibly. But we have almost missed this opportunity." (cl)

 The Museum of Communication in Bern is showing the exhibition "Pictures that lie". Fake cover pictures of Princess Stephanie with her baby and the Blick photos of former ambassador Thomas Borer are just two of more than 300 examples from the last 100 years. The exhibition, which the museum is showing from October 19, 2007 to July 6, 2008, questions the objectivity of images and shows the basic patterns of manipulation of and with images, according to a press release.
Visitors are immersed in an "ABC of lies" and learn, for example, why former ambassador Thomas Borer is skeptical about photos of evidence, why an ice hockey puck is not always where it seems to be, and why a surgical scar sometimes looks worse than it really is. It also reveals that a popular General Guisan was not wanted in the press and shows how the BSC Young Boys jersey advertisements made picture editors reach for the Tipp-Ex.
The touring exhibition "Pictures that lie" was developed by the Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Foundation and realized with financial support from the German Federal Agency for Civic Education. For the presentation at the Museum of Communication, the exhibition was expanded to include Swiss examples.

 
User-generated content The second edition of Stylebook, a magazine made exclusively by users, comes combined and large. 
The magazine is made entirely by the readers and is published this time as Styles & Notes. It is the combination of the titles Stylebook and Notebook, two so-called interactive print magazines, which for once also unites the two communities of Stylebook.ch and Notebookmagazine.ch in a special edition - in the spectacular, because dying large format (A3). "That works really well in times when everyone just wants to produce tabloids," says initiator Rainer Kuhn, recalling the Swiss edition of the French Jardin des Modes, a large-format fashion magazine that disappeared again in 1991 after six years. The combined edition is also intended to provide a good mix of text and images. Style and Notes presents itself as a truly colorful collection of photographs and photo reportages from the glamorous world of outward appearances - mostly at a high level. The flood of images invites the reader to linger, as do the texts, a random mixture of everyday notes, everyday poetry and short political manifestos.
Direttissimo on the InternetThe ex-advertiser and publisher of the former magazine Kult founded this unparalleled genre, which in the nine years of its existence went through various phases to become a glossy magazine with literary aspirations and a prominent editor-in-chief (Sibylle Berg). Stylebook and Notebook are directly linked to the Internet, with readers uploading their ideas and views as texts and images to the Internet, generating the content of the print edition themselves and thus becoming part of a constantly growing community.
Notebook has been published for over two years in eight editions a year, with a print run of 30,000 copies, which are available free of charge and mainly in the Zurich, Bern and Basel triangle "at selected places of urban pleasure and shopping". In contrast, Stylebook is made by and for the fashion- and style-interested and notabene zeitgeist-conscious scene, for photographers, model agencies, stylists and so on, and has a circulation of 50,000 copies. These are distributed in "places of consumer-oriented life in German and French-speaking Switzerland, mainly in boutiques and style-oriented locations", according to the media documentation.
René Worni

 
Distribution The new postal rates for 2008 are too high for publishers. Now it's up to the price watchdog. 
The Swiss Press Association recently approached the price watchdog for the second time regarding newspaper transportation tariffs for 2008. The current reason: if Swiss Post has its way, publishers who will no longer benefit from press subsidies from 2008 will face hefty rate increases - in some cases up to 40 percent. "Press products with a low circulation, low weight and an insufficient degree of sorting in particular must expect a higher price increase," says Catherine Müller, legal advisor at the association. She has therefore submitted a few sample calculations to the price watchdog. The answer is still pending. The association had already made representations to DETEC and the price watchdog in August: Swiss Post applied for a rate increase of 4.4 percent from 2008 for titles that continue to benefit from press subsidies, citing inflation since 2004 as the reason. However, the publishers recalled that they and Swiss Post had reorganized newspaper logistics in 2004 and made it cheaper, ostensibly to prevent further rate increases. A retroactive inflation adjustment was therefore not justified. However, the publishers fell on deaf ears at DETEC. It agreed to the postal application. It remains to be seen what the price watchdog will say.
There is growing resentment among publishers, especially because Swiss Post talks about "market prices". "In fact, it still has a monopoly position," says Müller. And she adds that the association is now pushing even harder for liberalization of the postal market. DETEC has promised an initial draft at the beginning of 2008.
Markus Knöpfli

 
Mobile TV After the positive decision for Swisscom, competitors fear for their business model. 
Swisscom Broadcast was recently awarded the contract to set up a network for television on cell phones. Competitor Mobile TV Schweiz (with German partner T-Systems Media & Broadcast) came away empty-handed, although the company of Biel founder Bruno Bucher - in stark contrast to Swisscom Broadcast - has developed special applications for mobile-friendly preparation of TV content for the cell phone small screen. For the time being, Swisscom Broadcast will content itself with transmitting TV programs one-to-one to the mouse cinemas, according to Giovanni Conti, head of Swisscom Broadcast, who recently told the Berner Zeitung that the company is in contact with Swisscom, Sunrise and Orange. A business model for Euro 08 is already in place.
In order to be able to implement its business model after all, Bucher's Mobile TV Switzerland is trying to obtain free access to Swisscom Broadcast's antenna systems, not least with the consent of the largest user, SRG. However, if no agreement is reached, Bucher is considering taking the matter to the Competition Commission because Swisscom Broadcast is exploiting a monopoly position. It is not yet clear whether his business model is secure, Bucher said on request. However, he does not intend to announce whether he wants or needs to take legal action until the Biel Communications Days.
René Worni

 
Sunday press The SonntagsBlick is published in a new look for the first time on October 21. First impression of the Werbewoche editorial team: Good. 
The first prints of the new layout of the redesigned SonntagsBlick inspired the editors of Werbewoche to spontaneously carry out a short test. Motto: "Tell me which newspaper this page comes from?" The result was surprising: the first example, the prelude to the politics section from the first bundle of the new SoBli, would clearly be assigned to a Sunday title by editors, but would never be associated with the SonntagsBlick. The impression is restrained, serious, well-behaved and more in keeping with the new Sonntagsblatt from Wanner, according to the unanimous tenor. The assessment of a double-page spread in the first Bund is more SoBli-compatible. It is the one with "Tagesschau" and "Telex", which is also familiar from the previous paper. This also gives you an idea of what it means that the SonntagsBlick needs to become more "magazine-like". Even in the old SoBli, there were continuous attempts to interpret the strict division of a double-page spread more freely and, above all, to allow pictures and titles to grow over into the opposite page. The new layout seems to follow this maxim, and the example shows that this is not only possible with monothematic pages. A whole range of different forms coexist side by side: the image with integrated extended legend, which extends from the center to both sides in five columns. Illustrated short texts in variable columns as well as short news items, some of which are highlighted in color.
The magazine aspect is more noticeable (and in the opinion of the Wewo editors closer to the tabloid) in the sports section, where the large picture dominates the double page and where quotes illustrated with people and listed in bold as well as small picture sections, for example on the course of a football match, dominate. SonntagsBlick's tried and tested two-bundle concept has not been shaken; for some readers, the world is still divided into those interested in sport and those who put the second bundle aside without looking (or vice versa).
The new SoBli front page has become more concise and free of domesticating lines and frames. The horizontal line dominates, which is best suited to a headline. This also applies to the title of the sports section. On the front, the SonntagsBlick is now more like a news magazine and is strongly reminiscent of the front pages of the buried Facts from Tamedia.
At the end of the impromptu review, the Wewo editorial team's impressions are condensed into a picture of a SonntagsBlick that, all in all, appears calm and balanced. However, the selected layout examples are still too balanced and not bold enough. At this stage, the paper's visual appearance even comes close to that of free titles such as .ch or the planned News or the recently redesigned 20 Minuten. It remains to be seen how the concept will develop and mature in its editorial application. After all, the layout allows for a variety of styles ranging from a calm, all-round style to a lavish explosion of text and images.
Newspaper designer Stéphane Carpentier, who has already designed the new SoBli magazine from Sie+Er, is responsible for the new SonntagsBlick. Carpentier is also responsible for the new Blick. It is therefore becoming increasingly clear what the new tabloid newspaper will look like and whether it deserves this name.
René Worni
 
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