The response Aegis Media CEO Central Europe, Andreas Bölte, did not give an interview. He stated that Ruzicka's claims were "untrue and misleading". 
Aegis Media lawyer Johann-Christoph Gaedertz took on the role of press spokesman for the German industry magazine Horizont. He countered Ruzicka's statements (see "No matter why - the man must go"
) vigorously. According to Gaedertz, the collusion of three people (i.e. Ruzicka and the media purchasing managers Linn and Jackson) was decisive. This "pact of injustice" is said to have been created with the intention of damaging Aegis Media. As Gaedertz goes on to explain, the accounting and billing system at Aegis Media is said to have been manipulated by Jackson and Linn. They had stored in the system that the invoice came from Emerson FF and not from the TV marketers, and the broadcast times, price and discount details stored in this way were then reported by Jackson to Emerson FF's accounting department: "Emerson FF then sent an invoice with these booking details to Carat," Gaedertz explains further. As a result, the invoices are said to have automatically passed through the Aegis Media accounting department without anyone noticing: "This meant that Aegis was unable to check them," Gaedertz is quoted as saying by Horizont. "Due to identical invoices sent by Watson and Camaco to Emerson FF, these funds flowed back to their trustees (Ruzicka, Linn, Jackson, note)," said the lawyer for Aegis Media.
Aegis Media and attorney Gaedertz did not want to answer questions such as why the free spots in question came from the TV marketers to Carat, at what point the free spots were returned to the TV stations (where they can only be used for specific customers) or whether invoices were not paid if the money was supposed to have gone to Emerson FF instead of the TV marketers.
Nevertheless, there is still a well-founded suspicion that money has flowed into private pockets. The Wiesbaden Regional Court must decide whether to admit the charges. The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court is examining whether Ruzicka should be ordered to remain in custody.

Michael Ziesmann

 
Design Mixer was founded in Lucerne in 2003 with the vision of creating inspiring communication. The plan has paid off, as Pyramid Verlag in Paris proves. A book from the "Design & Designer" series about the young Lucerne designers has now been published there. On 120 pages, important and favorite works by Mixer from the four design areas of concept, graphics, photography and display are presented. A documentary about the Swiss designers Ruedi Baur and Niklaus Troxler has also been published in the series, which has 59 books to date.

 The Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM) Group has closed the 2006/2007 financial year with its best result for over ten years. The consolidated group income of 8.1 million francs was 3.8 million above the previous year's result, the publishing house announced on Tuesday. Total sales amounted to 280 million francs, which represents an increase of 3 percent. EBITDA, i.e. earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, amounted to 30 million francs, or 10.7 percent of total sales. In a report in the Basler Zeitung, the fact that Ebitda fell in contrast to the reported consolidated profit is explained by the continuing erosion of margins in printing, particularly in commercial printing.
The increase in Group profit is the result of a long-term strategy, according to the press release. The aim is to secure the autonomy and independence of Basler Zeitung Medien. The Baz article also refers to the good economic situation, such as the large number of job advertisements.
Newspaper printing generates good margins. The printing plant of Basler Zeitung Medien benefited from new orders; among other things, it produces 20 Minutes for Lausanne, the Tuesday edition of 20 Minuten for Basel and St. Gallen and the evening newspaper Heute for north-western Switzerland.
In terms of publishing and advertising, these free papers are tough competition for the Baz. Nevertheless, the parent company's turnover increased by 2.6 percent to CHF 137.6 million.
The latest commuter newspaper News, in which Basler Zeitung Medien is involved with Tamedia and the Espace Group, will also be published soon. All in all, BZM boss Beat Meyer hopes that the new free papers will bring in more for his company than they lure away, as he told the news agency SDA when asked.
Tight cost management, which also meant a reduction in jobs, contributed to the result: as of June 30, 2007, the parent company Basler Zeitung and its fourteen subsidiaries employed 1748.4 full-time equivalents. In the previous year, there were still 1777.9 full-time positions, so just under 30 jobs were lost. In addition, a total of around CHF 6 million was invested in new facilities and business areas. For the current financial year 07/08, Basler Zeitung Medien expects the positive result to continue, assuming the economic situation remains unchanged.

 The Board of Directors of Affichage Holding has decided to reorganize the Group. The reason for this is the changed market requirements resulting primarily from the internationalization of activities, according to a press release. In the coming year, 25 percent of consolidated sales are to be generated abroad. The new organizational structure will come into effect on October 1, 2007. The company is now divided into three organizational units and a Group-wide staff unit:
Affichage International now includes all of the Group's activities that do not take place in Switzerland, supplemented by a team of specialists in the areas of innovation, tenders, research and development.
Affichage Switzerland comprises the Swiss business. It includes the Group companies APG, APG-SGA Traffic, Bercher, Paron, Sportart, Visiorama, the profit centers such as eAd and APGMontagne as well as the investments Impacta and Ecofer.
The Finance & Services division is responsible for the strategic and operational financial management of the Group as well as central services such as IT and Real Estate & Supply Management.
Finally, Corporate Center brings together Group-wide Human Resources and Corporate Communications.

 The City of Zurich and Zurich Tourism will present the international «Living Zurich Media Award» for the first time in 2008. The award recognizes entries that explore the Zurich way of life both at home and abroad and present it in a journalistic format, as Zurich Tourism announced on Tuesday. The prize is worth 26,000 euros. Anyone who has produced a print, TV, radio, online, or photo piece related to Zurich’s Euro 2008 motto, ’We Live Zurich,« is eligible to enter. Entries must have been published between January 1, 2007, and February 29, 2008. The deadline for submissions is March 4, 2008.

 Anyone running for a seat in the National Council or Council of States will now receive a 10 percent discount on election advertising from PromoPost. PostMail is using this special campaign to draw attention to its special PromoPost offer. As the campaign by the Bern-based advertising agency In Flagranti makes clear, the candidates thus avoid being defaced by felt-tip pen offenders - as is usual with poster advertising. PromoPost is sent by direct mail and therefore reaches all households undamaged despite the stop-advertising sticker.responsible at PostMail:
Silvia Stucki (Marketing Services). Responsible at In Flagranti Werbeagentur BSW: Consulting: Lorenz Schmid, Yves Kamber; AD: Lorenz Killer; Graphics: Adrian Remund; Text: Jon Florin; Photo: Michael Sieber; Image processing: Silvio Truffer. 

 Copywriter and concept developer Adrienne Purkert has joined the ZurichTokyo agency's creative team. She previously worked in Vienna at Euro RSCG Vienna. She will complete ZürichTokio as a classic agency.

 The media and healthcare group Agen Holding, formerly the Agefi publishing group, posted a loss of CHF 3.4 million in the first half of the year. In the same period of the previous year, the loss amounted to CHF 0.25 million. In addition to investments in the clinic division, the press division also contributed to the loss-making result: It posted a loss of 0.58 million francs in the first half of 2007 after a minus of 0.25 million francs in the same period of the previous year. The daily newspaper L'Agefi is now to be redesigned. According to a press release, the paper is to become a leading title in the business and financial press in French-speaking Switzerland once again. The other magazines are also to be modernized in the near future. The press division, headed by COO Eric Valette, editorial director Yves Claude Aubert and Agefi editor-in-chief Sylvie Gardel, is to benefit from the acquisition of Profil in the first half of the year and the redesign of the publication Evasion. In addition, a new website is currently under construction.
In response to speculation about an imminent divestment of the press division, which has been loss-making for some time, Agen Chairman of the Board of Directors Reymond Loretan told SDA that measures had been taken to strengthen the press division. "At the moment, however, we are keeping all our options open," said Loretan. A balanced result should be achieved towards the end of the year. Next year, the division is aiming for sales of CHF 12 million and an operating result of CHF 1 million.

 In future, knowledge about new media can be called up from a database. Web2com, the consulting and service company for online, mobile and search engine marketing, is launching a new web-based platform on which around 1500 studies, presentations and news on the topics of affiliate marketing, cross-media, mobile, online, streaming media, search engines and Web 2.0 can already be viewed. The child called "KIM" (Knowledgebase - Interactive Media) can be accessed in over 10 different languages. It can be integrated into the information management of a company and can be used especially in the area of market research and internal knowledge transfer.

 Internet giant Google is taking a step towards better coordinating its own advertising activities by founding an in-house advertising agency. The department will be headed by Andy Berndt, who was previously Co-President of Ogilvy & Mather New York, as Adage.com reports. Until now, Google has neglected consumer marketing, as Tim Armstrong, Google's advertising manager, told the industry magazine Adage.com. The establishment of its own agency is probably the result of the fact that the company now offers a wide range of products that are not all equally well-known. The popularity that Google's search engine enjoys has apparently not automatically been transferred to the other products in its portfolio.
Although the Internet giant has worked with various advertising agencies on a project basis, Google has largely relied on word-of-mouth advertising and the huge media response that always accompanies the company. Now Google apparently wants to market itself more aggressively.

 Swiss Television has been thinking for some time about a news program explicitly tailored to a younger audience. According to SF spokesperson David Affentranger, this is still on their medium-term agenda. It should also serve as a talent factory for young presenters. At the moment, however, the station says it does not have the necessary funds for this. The German private channel RTL 2 successfully mixes pop culture stories with news from around the world in its daily news program.

Gérard Schoch, the former owner of Radio Lac, becomes a new member of the Board of Directors at Publi Annonces. As publisher of the free monthly magazine Nouvelles, the company focuses primarily on the regional press. Publi Annonces also handles the advertising for the magazine of the airline FlyBaboo, as well as the magazines Genève Sur la Terre and Zurich Sur la Terre. Having sold his Radio Lac station to Rouge FM-Edipresse, Schoch now wants to bring his experience and contacts to Publi Annonces.