The St. Gallen cantonal council committee approved a new trade law that includes a total ban on tobacco products. The bill will go before the cantonal parliament in September. In addition to the existing ban on billboard advertising for smoking products, the canton of St. Gallen now wants to introduce a ban on tobacco advertising in cinemas. According to the news agency SDA, this would not only affect cinemas per se, but all public film screenings.

 It was announced on Thursday that the Competition Commission has no objections to the takeover of Espace Media by the Zurich publishing house Tamedia. However, the effects on the individual newspapers are still unclear. Tamedia is keeping a low profile regarding the consequences of the merger. "At the moment, the focus is on the legal merger of the two publishing houses," said Group spokesperson Christoph Zimmer at the request of SDA. Before a decision can be made on the effects of the merger on the publishing houses' services, the structure of the company must first be clearly defined.
"We don't have a big master plan in our pocket as to what the company should look like down to the last detail," Zimmer explained to Werbewoche. The first step is to clarify what the merged media company should look like in its main features. Only then will it be decided where service areas such as corporate communications or human resources should be integrated and what development opportunities exist for the individual media.
It also remains to be seen whether the Tages-Anzeiger and Berner Zeitung will seek a joint editorial office. A reduction of jobs in the editorial offices is possible, Zimmer said. However, the launch of a new commuter newspaper and an online news network by Tamedia, Espace Media Groupe and Basler Zeitung Medien shows the synergy potential of the merger of the two publishing houses.
Tamedia intends to implement the legal merger by the end of the year. However, according to Zimmer, a process of one to two years is expected before the two companies have grown together operationally. "It would be wrong to turn everything upside down at the same time," Zimmer continued. However, the implementation of the merger is a very high priority for the Zurich media company.
In addition, the editorial teams of the Berner Zeitung, the Tages-Anzeiger and the Basler Zeitung are currently working flat out on preparations for the new commuter newspaper, which is to be published in boxes in the cities of Basel, Bern and Zurich before the end of this year (see
).

 After massive criticism and poor ratings, the SF program "Leben live" is returning to the screens despite all the prophecies of doom. With an optimized concept, the show will be vying for viewers' favour again from Friday. In the media, the successor to "Quer" was eloquently laid to rest after the first season: "In its last throes" was the headline in Blick, and industry publications such as TV Star also sang its death knell. Even the Audience Council, which always strives for tact and constructiveness, let it be known at the beginning of the summer that it had little hope for "Leben live". The viewing figures also gave no cause for celebration: around 325,000 people watched the program on average - 100,000 fewer than "Quer" presented by Patrick Rohr.
Nevertheless, the format was further developed during the summer break. As "Leben live" boss Andrea Pfalzgraf revealed to the Aargauer Zeitung, the interactive elements were reduced to a minimum. The studio décor and lighting have also been improved. The "Relationship Check" was removed and replaced by the "Debt Stop" section. Presenter Fabienne Pfammatter, who has been criticized in many quarters, remains the face of the show, although she still needs to improve in her role as host. The aim is to regain a higher market share in the medium term.   

 The Competition Commission (ComCo) has given the green light for the takeover of Bern-based Espace Media Groupe by Zurich-based Tamedia. This creates the second-largest publishing house in Switzerland after Ringier. The takeover of Espace Media Groupe does not give Tamedia a dominant market position, says Patrik Ducrey, Deputy Director of the Competition Commission. The competitive pressure from other media companies remains relatively high. "We have no indications that a dominant market position is being created or strengthened," explained Ducrey in response to an inquiry from the SDA news agency.
In the national markets, the advertising market in particular was examined. Concerns about the threat of a monopoly position were not confirmed. The Competition Commission also has no concerns about the free newspapers, where Tamedia intends to launch another product this year in addition to 20 Minuten.
In the regional markets, there will be practically no overlap in market shares as a result of the merger, said Ducrey. The position of the newspapers in their previous sub-regions would hardly change.
The Tamedia flagship Tages-Anzeiger continues to concentrate on the Zurich area, while the Berner Zeitung and the Bund are targeting readers in the Bern region and the Mittelland.
Reaction from Tamedia and Espace Media The two publishing houses announced the merger in May of this year. Tamedia paid a good CHF 300 million for the deal. It is acquiring an 80 percent stake in Espace Media, which publishes the Berner Zeitung and the Bund.
Tamedia and Espace Media Groupe welcomed the decision in a communiqué. In recent months, the two publishing houses have provided the Competition Commission with a wide range of market data and internal earnings figures. At the Commission's request, over 100 markets were included in the final submission. This shows that the takeover has been carefully examined. The two companies now want to press ahead with the merger quickly and implement it before the end of 2007.

Web advertising US publishers are banking on rising sales from online videos.
Newlyweds in New York, who until now could only hope to appear with a short message on the "Weddings" page of the print edition, now also have the opportunity to share their happiness with the whole world by submitting a video to the Times under the motto "How we met". If the piece is decently made, it has a good chance of also appearing on the NYTimes.com website.The project is the paper's first foray into user-generated content, which means that not only videos made by newspaper professionals will appear under the Times brand name, but also the creations of its readers. "We're going to focus more on that next year, we're still experimenting right now," says Vivian Schiller, Senior Vice President and General Manager of NYTimes.com. "We want to hear what our readers have to say."
Although most US newspapers have discovered online video, the Times has one of the most innovative strategies. In early August, NYTimes.com launched a series of so-called long-form advertising clips for FedEx. The five-minute clips feature FedEx employees around the world telling their stories to a wide audience. The publisher also equips reporters and photographers who are interested in producing video reports with cameras. Around 25 to 30 new features, each between three and seven minutes long, are published each week, bringing the Times an average of five million streams per month.
Technology reporter David Pogue recently broke all records when he turned the launch of Apple's iPhone into a satirical story, making it the second most popular video on YouTube. The Times videos are also dedicated to political and cultural developments. "The topics of our videos run the gamut from cooking recipes to the recent atrocities in Chechnya," says Schiller. The Washington Post video "Hi, I'm Art Buchwald and I just died" caused a similar stir to Pogue. In it, the terminally ill, popular newspaper columnist, who died shortly afterwards, gave his own obituary in a cheerful tone.
TV stations left behindThe print publications want to use their online strategy to counteract the declining circulation and advertising revenues of their print editions with new sources of income in the multimedia sector. For this reason, many newspapers are experimenting online with "pre-roll advertising", i.e. a short, approximately five-second commercial is shown before each video clip. According to a report by the research institute Borrell Associates, newspaper publishers are the ones who have been able to book the largest share of decisive local advertising online this year at 35.9 percent. Even TV stations are at the bottom of the table with 7.7 percent. In 2006, the advertising industry spent 5.7 billion dollars on local advertising, of which local and regional newspaper publishers accounted for 2.6 billion, or 45 percent.
The New York Times wants to generate 30 million dollars a year in the long term with advertising revenue from its online video business alone. "But that doesn't mean that newspapers can already make up their losses from print editions through online advertising," says Colby Atwood, President of the aforementioned research institute, which specializes in the US newspaper market. "I'm not sure that will ever happen," he warns. "Ads on the Internet are far cheaper than in print because there is more competition from online ad services."
In order to make even more curious people aware of their online videos, three of the most important US newspapers, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post, have already started or at least announced that they will make the codes for their videos publicly accessible. This means that the videos can also be viewed on other websites such as YouTube or as part of blogs.
Online service sites of local newspapers, such as Shopminnesota.com, operated by the Minnesota Star Tribune, where visitors receive shopping tips and listings of local stores in the Minneapolis area, are also proving successful. Particularly attractive for marketers is the ability to define precise target groups using demographic data collected from newspaper readers.
In this way, for example, the Dallas Morning News managed to strike a deal with the local opera house. Opera fans registered in the newspaper's database were given the opportunity to reserve tickets for the next season in advance. In this way, the newspaper secured a certain volume of advertising for the opera and the stage got rid of all the tickets for the season. "If the offer can be tailored to a precisely selected target group, you can also charge correspondingly high advertising rates," says Colby Atwood. "Local newspapers in particular benefit from this because they have less competition in rural areas and can establish a direct relationship with readers."
Gerti Schön, New York

 The French celebrity magazine Paris Match has retouched out French President Nicolas Sarkozy's flab just above his swimming trunks in vacation photos. This digital intervention came to light when the weekly newspaper L'Express published the original photo by an agency photographer and the Paris Match version on its website on Wednesday. The photo shows the 52-year-old in the USA with a naked upper body during a boat trip. Paris Match then explained that the President's pose in the boat and the way the light fell made Sarkozy's stomach fold look exaggerated. For this reason, they merely "corrected the shadows". The tabloid belongs to the Lagardère media empire, whose boss Arnaud Lagardère is a close confidant of Sarkozy. The editor-in-chief of Paris-Match was dismissed last year after the paper printed a photo of Sarkozy's wife with her lover on its front page.
Note: Sarkozy doesn't like shadows - neither on himself nor accompanying his wife. It is reassuring, however, that Paris Match reports more on celebrities than on politics. It's hard to imagine what other dark secrets would otherwise be censored.

Commentary by René Worni on Ringier-BoulevardWhile Bernhard Weissberg is in the starting blocks to climb into the Blick hot seat after the industry has had to speculate for six months about the successor to his predecessor Werner De Schepper, the group has sent him into exile in French-speaking Switzerland as a journalistic assistant to l'Hébdo and l'Illustré. It seems as if those responsible at Ringier wanted to throw a spanner in the works for interested media outlets with news like this so that they wouldn't have to make a fuss about what was going on at Blick. Weissberg and De Schepper have been involved in the further development of the tabloid. But just like the appointment of the Blick boss, which the industry dismissed as a half-hearted solution, the same applies here: Compromises as far as the eye can see. On the basis of De Schepper's exposé, which calls for the classic, visually image- and title-heavy tabloid and its complete opposite, a domesticated version from the kitchen of Axel Springer man and former Bild editor-in-chief Claus Larass, a kind of magazine is to be created. Only magazines are still resistant to the flood of free titles, said Daniel Pillard, the new interim publishing director of Ringier Switzerland, recently in the SonntagsZeitung, graciously dropping a few hints.
With such a significant realization, the people at Dufourstrasse should finally and honestly admit that the Swiss Ringier Boulevard in the form of its flagship has had its day. The publisher, who is rumored to have little interest in Switzerland, was never really comfortable with it. The East, on the other hand, is much more exciting. That's where the action is. There's no squeamishness and no obstructive consideration for the prerogatives of long-established companies.
In addition, audience needs have changed. Soon every medium from 20 Minuten to Swiss television and the NZZ will be serving more or less boulevardesque needs. Now would be a good time to save the ageing readership in a "gmögiges" Blick magazine. The SoBli would still pass as a Sunday title. For Blick, this would be an end without horror. And the Blick platform (see Cash daily) would provide space for a long-overdue Blick TV format.
René Worni, Editor

Cosmetics Fruitcake launches a body cosmetics line for Spirig with Denise Biellmann as its flagship product. The leading Swiss dermatics specialist can also count on a good image for its therapeutic skin care products in the Excipial line. Spirig is now launching its own body cosmetics for the first time. The new product is being launched by the Bern-based agency Fruitcake. The slogan: "Spirig - If your skin is really important to you." The family business, which is now run by five managers following a management buyout and emerged from the former Spirig pharmacy in Olten, carried out an agency evaluation and a pitch. Fruitcake's "comprehensive concept" was convincing, as project manager Simona Amsler from Spirig explains. The agency developed "an innovative brand concept as well as an aesthetically pleasing packaging design and a credible communication strategy with a perfect product ambassador."
Denise Biellmann had to fulfill several main criteria: A prominent and attractive "personality with an impeccable reputation in all parts of the country, who shows skin professionally as an athlete or show star, is around 40 years young and unspent as an advertising medium". The ice princess has long been a satisfied Spirig customer and also wanted to test the new ES Excipial Sensitive product over a longer period of time first.
For CD Lahor Jakrlin at Fruitcake, the assignment is "a stroke of luck" because "an agency can rarely participate on all fronts of a product launch". In the case of Excipial Sensitive ES, Fruitcake had a prior influence on the naming as well as the brand and package design. "This was the ideal starting point for the creation of convincing communication measures." These are intended to make it known that Excipial Sensitive is aimed at women over 35 and is used to care for dry, sensitive or stressed skin. The lotion, which does not contain any preservatives or emulsifiers, "penetrates the skin perfectly and significantly shortens the regeneration time".
The brand is based on the patented term Excipial, a Spirig range of therapeutic skin care products with maximum compatibility that is well established among dermatologists and in pharmacies and drugstores. The addition of "Sensitive" underlines the reliability and is intended to give the brand a gentle, feminine touch.
Andreas Panzeri

 
The Swiss media scene remains in flux: The art and culture magazine Du is changing hands. After Tamedia sold the magazine to Niggli Verlag in 2004, it is now going to Persönlich Verlag.   
Niggli Verlag is giving up the internationally renowned cultural magazine, which was founded in 1914, because it wants to concentrate entirely on the book business. Nevertheless, the magazine will continue to be produced and distributed by Niggli, according to a press release from Persönlich Verlag. According to the new owner, not much will change editorially: the focus, format and layout will remain the same. However, the editorial concept is to be expanded and refined. An expanded team will be put together by Persönlich for the editorial and publishing departments of Du, and talks are underway with the current Du employees, according to a statement from SDA.

Gratispresse I A commuter newspaper is to be launched in the Zurich-Berne-Basel triangle. Speculation is rampant.
The announcement of a new free title for commuters in the Basel, Bern and Zurich media triangle has so far mainly raised questions. This is shown by skeptical statements from media planners contacted by Werbewoche. As those responsible are still unable or unwilling to say much about the concept of the newspaper or the Internet platform that will apparently accompany it, much remains speculation. What is certain is that the Bund, as part of the Bern model, will not be involved in the project. This is confirmed by editor-in-chief Artur K. Vogel. Based on the statements made by BaZ publisher Matthias Hagemann, the primary focus is on gaining reach and a young audience. An initial suspicion that the project is merely a threatening gesture with a Tamedia counter-product to the announced free newspaper .ch by PR consultant Sacha Wigdorovits is quickly dispelled in view of the publishers involved in Basel and Bern. No, the creators are serious about their cause, although the project will massively accentuate the competitive situation in the Swiss-German newspaper market and the advertising pie will not simply grow along with the new newspaper products.
The question remains as to why the young people and young adults targeted by this still nameless free newspaper should be inspired to switch to the Tagi, BaZ or BZ. Even if the associated platform is available on the Internet and will certainly be of great value with YouTube films and all kinds of interactive options, this is no guarantee of the desired effect. Although more young people are turning to newspapers thanks to the free press, the desired effect of switching to the subscription press has so far remained wishful thinking on the part of publishers.
René Worni

Remodeling Hanspeter Rohner, CEO of PubliGroupe, is filling the management of the new Media Sales division with younger PubliGroupe insiders.
As you know, PubliGroupe is undergoing a major reorganization as of 2008. The group will now be organized according to activities and no longer primarily according to geographical criteria. Print and online marketing worldwide will therefore now be bundled with the marketing of cinema, radio, websites, TV, AdScreen and mobile - in the largest new division "Media Sales". Niche activities, such as the marketing of in-flight media, will be housed in the "Custom Publishing" division. In the "Search & Find" division, PubliGroupe primarily subsumes the marketing of the White and Yellow Pages. And the "Marketing & Digital Services" division is responsible for e-consulting and advising advertising clients. PubliGroupe CEO Hanspeter Rohner had already appointed the four division heads before the summer break: Media Sales will in future be headed by Robert Schmidli (57), Custom Publishing by Monica Woo (42), Search & Find by Jean-Pascal Michel (47) and Digital & Marketing Services by Thomas Kaiser (41). The industry here in Switzerland has been waiting with bated breath to see how Schmidli and Rohner will organize and staff the Media Sales division, PubliGroupe's core business. This has now been clear since August 21:
Media Sales will comprise the four operating divisions Switzerland, Europe, Asia/Pacific and Americas and will be supplemented by the five Group staff divisions "Media Partners Relations & Marketing", "Business Engineering", "Strategy Development Media Sales", "Finance & Controlling" and "Human Resources".
Thomas Bargetzi (47), an independent entrepreneur with international management experience, will take over responsibility for the "Switzerland" division. In recent years, he has worked for Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich and Europa-Fachpresse-Verlag, among others. Bargetzi currently works for PubliGroupe on a mandate basis.
Grace Palacios (48), previously CEO of Publicitas Latin America, will now head the "Americas" region. Anthony Turner (53) and Moritz Wuttke (42) will retain their current roles as heads of "Europe" and "Asia/Pacific" respectively.
The heads of the staff departments have been appointed as follows: Christian Gartmann (42), previously Head of Electronic Media at PubliGroupe, will take over "Media Partners Relations & Marketing". In his new role, he will be responsible for the entire marketing activities of Media Sales and for contractual relations with all media, as well as coordinating the international growth of cross-media activities.
"Business Engineering will be headed by Markus Bieri (41), previously CEO of Publiconnect. Bieri's new role involves aligning and developing processes and IT systems with the strategy of the Media Sales division and managing the portfolio of defined business engineering projects.
Lionel Flückiger (39) will be responsible for "Finance & Controlling" from January 1, 2008. Thierry Schmid (36) will take over the "Human Resources" division. And Tim Dührkoop (36) will now be in charge of "Strategy Development Media Sales". Flückiger, Schmid and Dührkoop have all previously worked for PubliGroupe.
He is pleased that the top management of Media Sales has been filled with younger people who "largely come from the company's own ranks", Rohner said. Over the next few weeks, "the development of sales structures for the Swiss market and decisions on future brand policy will be the focus of planning activities within Media Sales", said Rohner.
Markus Knöpfli

Football SRG SSR idée suisse is the official and exclusive TV broadcaster in Switzerland for Euro 08. The agency TBS Identity communicates this with co-branding. The annual countdown began this summer: The Uefa Euro 2008, the biggest sporting event ever to be held in Switzerland, will take place from June 7 to 29. All matches will be brought to the home audience exclusively by Swiss television. This is of course not only a top event as a street sweeper, but also a good opportunity for advertising on its own behalf. For one year, SRG SSR idée suisse and all its business units will therefore carry the "Uefa Euro 2008" brand in their institutional presence. The Zurich-based design agency TBS Identity was awarded the corresponding contract. The team led by consultant Michael Schädelin and CD Christian Tobler was allowed to define the consistent co-branding and implement its appearance on all SRG SSR idée suisse media and its TV and radio units. 
Image clip in the run-upIn order to show that SRG SSR idée suisse is making a significant contribution to sparking football fever in Switzerland with its competent and comprehensive reporting, the brief also included the development of an image clip that can be seen on the SRG corporate units' channels in the run-up to Euro 08. TBS Identity brought the Zurich-based film, video and post-production company Frame Eleven on board to design this clip, which was also produced.
 
As the production will be used over a long period of time, the clients and the film concept developers Marc Haas and Christoph Müller opted for a modular solution consisting of a large number of short football stories, each of which is broadcast individually as a short clip. In the long version consisting of modular sequences, director Lukas Frieden shows how football fever is sweeping across Switzerland. A corresponding jingle will be heard on the radio units.
The measures are also intended to convey the abstract facts of the public service in a concrete and sensual way: Thanks to SRG SSR idée suisse, we will not only experience all the matches live and up close, but will also receive professional coverage of the entire Uefa Euro 2008 from a Swiss perspective.
Andreas Panzeri