The PR and communications agency Karl F. Schneider will now be supporting Perspektive Schweiz with its public relations and media outreach. The nonprofit organization launches a representative online survey each year that provides insight into the political issues of concern to the Swiss public. Through this initiative, Perspektive Schweiz aims to make the political decision-making process in Switzerland more efficient and, ultimately, to improve it. This goal is to be achieved by involving the public in the political discussion at an early stage. Every November, citizens are invited to share their views on topics from various political areas via an online survey. This year marks the fourth time the study has been conducted.

 
Legislative Initiative: 18 National Council members led by initiator Andreas Gross (SP) want to impose legal obligations on the SRG should it fail to grant political parties free access to its broadcast channels. 
WW: During the deliberations on the RTVG, broad segments of society were opposed to political advertising. The commission has now unanimously decided otherwise. Why this cross-party consensus? Andreas Gross: It reflects the general recognition that political parties play almost no role anymore in referendums, and that everything is in the hands of financially powerful associations and committees. If these groups don’t provide funding, the political parties have little influence on shaping public opinion. This is to be balanced by campaign spots aired for three weeks prior to referendums by all parties represented in the parliamentary groups. Political advertising under the RTVG would have been something entirely different and would have merely favored the financially powerful groups once again.
You and your colleagues expressed dissatisfaction or only partial satisfaction with the SRG’s stance. Why aren’t their proposals sufficient? The SRG—especially its television division—showed no understanding of the problem whatsoever. Now the SRG will have to comply with the legislature, as is only to be expected in a democracy.
Producing radio and TV spots costs money. This can lead to a distortion and, in fact, prevent a fair election campaign. Doesn’t this contradict the basic idea behind your initiative? Producing the spots may cost something, but it doesn’t have to. What would be expensive is paying for airtime, but that cost is eliminated here. The production costs are affordable and do not unduly distort the level playing field.
Why is the Internet completely left out of this proposal? It is important to appeal to the vast majority of eligible voters. The Internet is not—or perhaps not yet—a decisive factor in shaping the opinions of the vast majority of people. You must not jump to the conclusion that everyone thinks the same way you do.
Email Interview: Nick Lüthi
See the main article «Federal Ordinance on Political Advertising»

 
Trade Publications Guhl/Partners is launching a campaign for the new htr hotel revue. 
Astrid Kägi is the new publishing director, and Elsbeth Hobmeier is the new editor-in-chief. The layout is new, as is the name. «These are completely new pages!» Guhl/Partners rightly notes in its new campaign for the Hotel- und Tourismus-Revue—which is now called htr hotel revue. This conveys that the highest-circulation publication in the restaurant, hotel, and tourism industry has undergone a comprehensive relaunch.Comparing the former, dated layout with today’s fresh and colorful design, the Zurich-based agency led by Ursula Guhl and Hans-Joachim Timm builds on this new visual identity with an equally fresh and clear perspective. The «new pages» are highlighted with subtle humor and understated, elegant colors. Several ads communicate the new layout, covering everything from its reach to the price of a trial subscription.
In addition to the trade press, the ads appear in the *SonntagsZeitung* and will soon be featured in other third-party media and tourism publications. This demonstrates that htr hotel revue aims to be more than just an association publication for hoteliers; it also seeks to be a newspaper of broad interest covering the world of tourism and Switzerland as a vacation destination.
Andreas Panzeri

 The German media conglomerate Bertelsmann generated more revenue in the first half of 2007 but posted significantly lower profits. For the first time in its history, Europe’s largest media company employed more than 100,000 people worldwide. Adjusted revenue rose by 1.3 percent compared with the same period last year to 9.0 billion euros, Bertelsmann announced on Tuesday. Operating profit climbed by 1.9 percent to 714 million euros. However, net income plummeted from 354 million euros to 51 million euros. According to CEO Gunter Thielen, this was primarily due to costly settlements in the dispute over the music-sharing service Napster.
The various Bertelsmann units performed differently in the first half of 2007. The RTL television division continues to gain momentum and posted a new record result. The Gruner + Jahr magazine group also performed well. In contrast, the Direct Group club division slipped into the red.

 The Swiss business search engine Help.ch is now calling itself a search portal. Following the continuous expansion of its information offerings and a redesign, Help.ch has decided to reflect this change in its name. According to a press release, interested visitors have long been able to find more than just businesses on the site. News, events, business information, a marketplace with free classifieds, local information, and a consumer platform with money-saving tips are also available. In addition, users can find, for example, more affordable health insurance plans, the latest products from their favorite companies, or promotions and weekly specials from major retailers.

For those interested in pursuing a career in the media industry, a new opportunity will open up in Chur next year. Starting in September 2008, the Chur University of Applied Sciences (HTW Chur) will offer a bachelor’s degree program in «Multimedia Production.» Over the course of three years, media professionals from the fields of television, radio, print, and multimedia will receive a solid academic education there. After completing the foundational studies, students can choose from the following specializations starting in the fourth semester: TV Production, Net Production, Digital Design, PR and Communications Management, Media, Sports, and Event Management, and Sports Journalism. In addition to the practice-oriented training, great emphasis is placed on scientific research methodology. The goal is to enable students to enter a wide range of media professions.

 Zurich's public transport company is celebrating its 125th anniversary this week with a 125-hour spectacle. The Manu Wüst promotion agency is responsible for the concept and media work. Part of the festivities, which run from September 5 to 9, is a photo campaign sponsored by APG. At Bellevue, star photographer Alberto Venzago will be taking pictures of passengers and passers-by in a Mirage that has been converted into a photo studio. Some of the portraits selected by Tages-Anzeiger readers will soon adorn the poster sites and rear panels in the streetcars, and in a further campaign, all VBZ supporters will have the opportunity to immortalize their solidarity with public transport on a special kind of greetings card. The messages collected on foils will finally be put together on a special streetcar. Guests of honor such as Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberg, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, footballers from the two city clubs and many other celebrities will also leave their mark on the rolling card.

 Zurich-based Atelier Olive planned and developed the E-Planner for PostMail: This tool can be used to coordinate dates for events with several participants. The E-Planner does not require any special software: from the Postmail.ch/e-planner website, the organizer of an event sends a survey to all those to be invited. They receive the survey in the form of an e-mail with a description of the event and suggested dates. The invitees can now mark their favorite dates. As soon as someone has taken part in the survey, the organizer is informed by e-mail about the current status of the date requests. If the location of the event is already specified in the survey, the E-Planner generates a detailed map section in collaboration with Map.search.ch. In addition to dates, the E-Planner can also be used to coordinate menu suggestions, choice of movie, evening attire and more.

 The former publishing director and editor of the free newspaper Uster Nachrichten, Hannes Frei, is leaving Tamedia at the end of 2007. He was responsible for the operational management of the Oberländer Wochenzeitung for around 17 years and also took over the management of advertising sales for the new Tages-Anzeiger regional edition Zürcher Oberland in November 2006. Tamedia discontinued the Uster Nachrichten last May.

Weathermen are lonely animals. Day in, day out, they stand all alone on skyscrapers or in television studios in front of their charts and predict the weather. The only contact they have with the outside world is by telephone, when viewers once again complain about an inaccurate forecast and complain loudly about a rainy barbecue or a ski run on brown slopes. At the end of September the loneliness has an end for three days: At the "1st summit meeting of the weathermen" the weather people of the prominent German-language broadcasting corporations meet to an exchange of experience on the Tiroler Rübezahlalm. On the initiative of the Pro.media press agency, the TV people from Germany, Austria and Switzerland can share their woes there from September 27 to 29 and network eagerly. In addition to the major German TV stations such as ARD, ZDF, RTL and SAT1, a pair of Swiss weathermen will then also join their fellow weathermen. According to Thomas Bucheli, editorial director of the Meteo program at Schweizer Fernsehen, presenter Sandra Bohner and meteorologist Peter Böschel will represent the station. "I know relatively little about the event yet, but I can imagine that this could turn into a good panel," Bucheli said. So far, he said, there has been a lively professional exchange among meteorologists, but little contact with other weather broadcasters. According to an amused Chief Frosch Bucheli, however, there is no reason to fear that the place on the roof of the Leutschenbach will remain empty because of the event, at which, among other things, the "most successful weather presentation on German-language television" will be chosen: "We are always here, four times a day, seven times a week."

 The Frankfurt agency OgilvyOne has cemented its position as the most creative dialog agency in the German-speaking world: It takes first place in the current medal table, which is determined by the dialog marketing specialist title Fischer's Archiv. In second place is Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett, a Swiss agency that appears in the listing for the first time. According to a statement from Fischer's Archiv, SFLB owes this jump above all to its good performance at the Swiss Dialog Marketing Awards, where the agency won seven awards, including one gold for the multi-stage dialog campaign "Mary Woodbridge" for Mammut Sports, which also won prizes at the ADC and Cross Media Award Switzerland.
Tribal DDB in Hamburg came third with 25 points, ahead of local rivals Nordpol, Viennese agency PKP Proximity and Fisch.Meier.Direkt in Zurich, who each scored 24 points. Publicis Hamburg and Jung von Matt came seventh with 21 points each. FCBi in Vienna and Heye 121 in Munich complete the top ten.
In contrast, the Swiss agency at the airport no longer made it into the top ten. It dropped ten positions to 13th place.
The annual ranking is based on the lists of winners of the most important creative awards presented to German, Austrian and Swiss agencies for dialog-oriented campaigns between September 2006 and August 2007. The medal table lists a total of 131 agencies with dialog marketing expertise from German-speaking countries. The detailed results are published in the yearbook "Dialog Marketing Trends 2007/2008".

 The advertising agency In Flagranti from Lys can now count six new customers among its clients. The Bieler Tagblatt newspaper, the BEA Bern Expo and the pharmaceutical company Vifor with its memory loss remedy Symfona opted for the agency from the canton of Berne in competing presentations with the verdict "sound strategy - independent implementation". The vegetable wholesaler Avola, the trailer hitch manufacturer Hirschi and the Heimberg residential center in the Bernese Oberland also joined the client base.