Former Key Account Manager André D. Dummermuth is taking over as Sales Manager of the trade press division of Publimag in Berne. He replaces Daniel Stolina, who moved to Berner Zeitung as Sales Manager in mid-August. Dummermuth has worked for Publigroupe since 1991. Among other things, he was product manager for the Bern newspaper pool, head of the technical school at Publipresse's internal training center in Baden and, for the last three years, key account manager at Publimag Bern for the agricultural, municipal and forestry press. The Publimag trade press team will be strengthened by Patrick Leuenberger as a customer consultant. He gained his previous experience at Publicitas in Biel, at BAT and in the catering and event sector. He will look after the customers of Gewerbekombi, Panissimo, PolyTECKombi and Schweizer Gemeinde.

 The Basel-based advertising agency SMP is taking over the communication tasks of the Grand Hotel Bellevue in Gstaad. According to a press release, the focus is to be increasingly placed on the Internet as a sales channel; Internet bookings are increasing worldwide and the internationally oriented five-star hotel must keep pace with this development. SMP is also working for its sister hotel Les Trois Rois in Basel. With two hotels as clients, the agency is hoping for synergy effects in advertising and promotion. The first implementations for the Grand Hotel are to be seen in selected national and international media from fall or spring 2008.

 The Lowe agency, part of the Draftfcb/Lowe Group, has won a new mandate: After an extensive competitive presentation, it was commissioned by Cablecom as lead agency for the future brand identity. It prevailed against two other Swiss agencies. According to Kurt Schmid from Lowe, the agency has already started work. As Cablecom's Head of Communications Hans-Peter Nehmer told Werbewoche, the company has not previously employed a lead agency: "We have worked with various agencies on a project basis". In this sense, therefore, no agency is losing the account. Previous agencies include McCann Erickson, Werbeanstalt and Krieg Schlupp Bürge/Springer & Jacoby. Cablecom intends to continue working with some of the existing agencies on a project basis. At this stage, however, it is not yet possible to say who will continue to receive orders and who will not, explained Nehmer.
Christoph Bürge, Managing Director Consulting at Krieg Schlupp Bürge/Springer & Jacoby, confirmed to Werbewoche that his agency is still working for Cablecom Digital TV and is currently working on a sequel to the campaign launched in early summer.
Hans-Peter Nehmer remains silent on what exactly is planned in cooperation with Lowe: "For strategic reasons, we can't say anything about this at the moment". What is clear, however, is that the company will not undergo a rebranding, as its competitor Sunrise intends to do in October.
The Head of Corporate Communications went on to say that he could not deny that Cablecom was struggling with an image problem. The company is already working on this: "We want to win back trust". In order to improve the image, however, all disciplines of the company must be involved.
Carole Scheidegger

 The 14th Swiss PR Symposium will focus on the 50-and-over generation. The event will explore the opportunities and challenges in communication that arise from the fact that today’s «silver generation» is considered to be both highly consumer-oriented and pleasure-seeking, while at the same time quality-conscious and discerning. Speakers include German trend researcher Prof. Peter Wippermann from Hamburg, journalist Beat Kappeler, and banker Dr. Hans Vontobel, who, at 91 years old, remains actively involved with the «Kreatives Alter» foundation. In addition, marketing and advertising specialist Benno Frick, who specializes in the 50+ demographic, will offer tips and advice on what to keep in mind when dealing with the «new seniors.» The symposium is organized by the Professional Register of the Swiss Public Relations Society (SPRG) and will take place on the afternoon of October 17 in Basel. The detailed program and registration information are available on the website of the Professional Register (BR-SPRG).

This year's youth hostel campaign by Werbeanstalt Schweiz with the irritations on the youth hostel logo is entering its second round. The autumn campaign features five new subjects with different headlines: "Where there's no stopping for city dwellers" with a Zurich VBZ stop sign (only shown in the city of Zurich), "Where the cheapest autumn vacations spring up" with an oversized mushroom, "Where there's no way around nature" with a signpost, "Where the whole world is warmly welcomed" with a satellite dish and "Where nothing obscures the senses" with a fog line. According to the press release, the claim "Beautifully located" is intended to ambiguously address what guests can expect from Swiss Youth Hostels. The nationwide campaign includes posters and advertisements, with Tobias Thut (Head of Services) responsible at Swiss Youth Hostels. At Werbeanstalt Schweiz: Reto Dürrenberger (strategy), Sarah Hiltebrand (CD), Michael Manzardo (text/concept), Patrick Berger (graphics), Christina Reuss (consulting) and Andi Laub (DTP).

 There will be a change of leadership at the Wirz Group: Peter Strub will hand over the chairmanship of the Group Management to Geri Aebi, who is currently CEO of Wirz Werbung and a member of the Wirz Group Management, at the beginning of 2008. The 54-year-old Strub was brought in as turnaround manager in mid-2002 and took over as CEO of the Group Management Board in 2003. Under his leadership, the Group was financially restructured and its structure consistently simplified and streamlined following a strategic realignment, as detailed in a press release. Among other things, Wirz Corporate - resulting from the merger of Wirz Identity and Wirz PR - was relaunched and a majority stake in Assai Interactive was acquired. A management buy-out also took place in 2005. With the current handover from Strub to Aebi, the management of the Group is being returned from the hands of a turnaround manager to those of an advertising executive, the press release continues. The 48-year-old Geri Aebi has been CEO of Wirz Werbung for five years. In addition to Aebi as the new Chairman, the Wirz Group Executive Board will continue to consist of Urs Binggeli, CEO Wirz Corporate, and Michel Juhasz, CEO Assai Digital+Dialog, following Peter Strub's departure.
After handing over his role to Geri Aebi, Peter Strub will continue his work as a change manager in the context of new mandates: "It's a great feeling to be able to say: I have fulfilled my mission. The Group has been generating stable, rising profits again for four years and gross operating income per employee has increased by over 50 percent during this time. Now is the right time for Wirz and for me to put the management of the Group back into the hands of an industry insider," Strub is quoted as saying in the press release.

 The German media group Bertelsmann has finally settled its legal dispute with competitors over the once illegal music sharing platform Napster. Bertelsmann had granted loans amounting to 80 billion dollars to the then still illegal file-sharing platform. According to the Gütersloh-based company, the aim was to pave the way for Napster to become legal so that it could be taken over in a second step. From the point of view of its competitors, however, Bertelsmann kept it artificially alive with its loans and thus caused the music industry billions in damages.After reaching settlements worth millions with the record companies Universal, Warner Music and EMI, Bertelsmann has now also reached an agreement with the American Music Publishers Association NMPA, as reported by SDA on Monday. This brings the legal dispute to a final conclusion. However, as this was a class action lawsuit, the agreement still has to be confirmed by a court, the music publishers' association NMPA announced in New York.
The competitors from the music industry had originally sued Bertelsmann for damages in the amount of 17 billion dollars. However, the parties have agreed not to disclose the amount of the settlement to the music publishers. Observers assume that Bertelsmann will have to pay at least 130 million dollars to the publishers. This would bring the total amount of Napster compensation to date to around 400 million dollars. In addition, there are further sums in the millions for legal fees.

 The Basler Zeitung (Baz) and the Sonntagszeitung are agreeing to cooperate extensively in the subscription and reader market. The two papers are launching a voluntary annual combined subscription from the beginning of September. For CHF 399 instead of CHF 506 compared to the combined subscription prices of the two titles, readers will receive both newspapers. With this cooperation, the Basler Zeitung and the
Sonntagszeitung to attract new readers in economic region 31. Together, the two titles will provide readers with news and background reports seven days a week in future. From September 15, 2007, the Basler Zeitung will also publish a new, sixth newspaper bundle every Saturday under the title "Wochenende", which will initially comprise eight pages (see ). The combined offer is not a reaction to the new Sunday edition of the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, said Markus Jörin of the Baz when asked by SDA. The Sunday edition of the Mittelland Zeitung will be published from September 16; the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung will also be part of this combination. Baz publisher Matthias Hagemann had always emphasized in response to the Mittelland Zeitung's announcement that it would publish a seventh edition that he had no plans to launch his own Sunday paper.
The collaboration with the Sonntagzeitung is a further cooperation with the Zurich publishing house Tamedia, which Basler Zeitung Medien announced in recent weeks. Together with Espace Media, the two companies will publish a commuter newspaper. The three publishing houses are also planning a national online network.

 Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) is the first art academy in Europe to launch its own three-year Bachelor's program in content production for the new digital and mobile media. The new "Cast" specialization at the ZHdK trains students for creative and design work in online media, Web 2.0 platforms, web radio and mobile TV. Cast graduates are to help shape the mobile media worlds in a way that creates identity, according to a statement from the university. The Austrian Martin Zimper has been appointed head of the new course. Zimper holds a doctorate in journalism and has management experience in radio and television projects. He has previously taught at art and journalism colleges in Vienna and Salzburg and runs his own media consultancy firm in Vienna.

 
In addition to the original Ittinger Klosterbräu, the Zurich advertising agency Hesskiss is now also advertising the trend beer Wartmanns from Eastern Switzerland. This is in agreement with the Dutch beer group Heineken, which bought both brands from the well-known Eastern Swiss brewer Martin Wartmann in recent years. According to a press release, the positioning of the new customer will focus on its exclusive character: "Wartmann's beer for friends" as a series of very special beers that are brewed, bottled by hand and signed in very small quantities of around 1000 each at the Sternen brewery in Frauenfeld.

As in the previous year, Dr. Oetker has commissioned the advertising agency Matter & Gretener with a sales promotion campaign for its Ristorante pizzas. The campaign is running in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland and includes a competition and a collective promotion. They will be publicized via distribution campaigns, mobile marketing and a cooperation with DVDfly.ch - the largest Swiss online DVD rental company encloses a competition and collection card with each shipment. In addition, Switzerland's first letterbox poster will be used, according to a press release from the agency: this is a flyer with a flap that uses the front of the letterbox as advertising space. It should also be noticed by those who have a stop-advertising sticker. Responsible at Dr. Oetker: Beat Stroo (Head of Marketing & Sales), Joëlle Rütti (Product Manager); at Matter & Gretener: Daniel Matter (Creative Direction), Dominik Imseng (Text), Franziska Langenbacher (Art Direction), Marcus Gretener, Martina Schörghofer (Consulting); at PostMail (Direct Marketing): Detlef Böhler; at Action (distribution campaigns): Annette Weisskopf, Marco Schlatter; at MySign (mobile marketing): Reto Baumgartner.

 Pascal Schaub is moving to the Zurich agency Wirz Werbung at the beginning of November to take over as Head of Strategic Planning. Schaub is leaving Publicis, where he was also Head of Strategic Planning (see ). What appeals to him about his new job is that he can work across disciplines there, Schaub told Werbewoche. As a planner, it is important to him that he can work across different areas of communication. Schaub is also pleased that his new employer is a member of the international BBDO network, which was awarded Network of the Year in Cannes this year. This puts Wirz in an excellent position; nevertheless, the necessary independence is also guaranteed, as the agency is a partner of the network but has no financial ties with BBDO. Schaub went on to explain that he was leaving Publicis with a smile and a tear in his eye. His decision to leave the agency had to do with the departure of Kaspar Loeb; he had worked closely with the former CEO. Schaub does not want to miss the experience he gained during his time at Publicis: He benefited a great deal during the 14 years. It was enriching to build up strategic planning and to see Publicis become the largest agency in Switzerland.