TV ProSieben is kicking off its programming block with a celebrity show—just before «Glanz & Gloria» on SF1. Seven years after the end of the RTL-Pro7 programming block, ProSieben is once again taking a shot at offering its own programming content to Swiss audiences. Starting August 31, the German commercial broadcaster will air a 12-minute magazine show called «Faces TV» every Friday at 6 p.m., focusing on celebrities, fashion, style, and stories. “We’ve had good experiences with the programming block on our partner station Sat1, and we also want to give ProSieben a stronger Swiss touch in the viewer market,” says Mike Gut, managing director of ProSieben Switzerland.
Faces TV is used to fade in and out of the station’s German regional news segments, which are scheduled between the tabloid show *Taff* and *The Simpsons*. Gut says these news segments are so unappealing to Swiss viewers that they’re changing the channel in droves. «Our goal with Faces TV is to bridge the ratings gap between »Taff’ and ‘The Simpsons.’”
Interesting fact: Just half an hour after «Faces TV,» at 6:40 p.m., SF1 airs its daily celebrity show ’Glanz & Gloria,« which will also air on Saturdays starting August 25. Last year, the show averaged 293,000 viewers and a 28 percent market share. So has the success of »Glanz & Gloria« piqued Gut’s interest, and does he now want to take on the SF celebrity magazine with Faces TV? »Not at all,« Gut dismisses the idea. »The fact that the programming block is launching with a celebrity show is more of a coincidence.« He was convinced by the concept. In addition, two sponsors—Coca-Cola Light and the cosmetics company Astor—have already been secured. Gut is also thinking about expanding his programming block: »A twelve-minute cooking show—probably for Wednesdays—is practically ready to go; the only thing missing is the funding,” he says.
Faces TV is hosted by Claudia Lässer, a former StarTV employee. Lässer is also a co-producer, along with Fairlane Consulting GmbH, which publishes the lifestyle magazine Faces. At Fairlane, Faces Managing Director Stefan Berger is responsible for production. In the ProSieben press release, Berger is quoted as saying: «With Faces TV, we are taking a decisive step closer to our vision of a cross-media lifestyle brand. ProSieben is the leading brand for youth entertainment and thus offers the ideal platform for this format.»
By the way: Aside from sponsorship opportunities, the ProSieben programming block does not have any direct offers for advertisers, as there are no transition ad breaks. However, there are commercial breaks at 5:45 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. during *Taff* and *The Simpsons*.
Markus Knöpfli

Television ProSieben launches a new Swiss program window with Faces TV. This is intended to offer more Swissness for viewers and attractive program environments for advertising customers. The first program will be broadcast on Friday, August 31, followed by weekly broadcasts. The twelve-minute people and lifestyle magazine will be presented and co-produced by Claudia Lässer in collaboration with Fairline Consulting, which also publishes Faces magazine.

 American billionaire Sam Zell acquired the Tribune Group, which includes such illustrious names as the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, for 13 billion dollars. The US antitrust authorities must now approve the change of ownership. According to the SDA, the empire, which comprises a total of eleven daily newspapers, 23 television stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball club, has run into difficulties due to a loss of readership as a result of the Internet and the subsequent advertising slump. There were several potential buyers, but the deal has now been won by real estate mogul Sam Zell. In recent months, several large media groups have changed hands in the USA, including the Dow Jones Group, which also owns the Wall Street Journal.

 The planned service company Netz.lokalpresse.ch, which aims to strengthen the independence of SME publishers, is taking shape: The project team led by Winterthur Stadtblatt publisher Guido Blumer and media lawyer Franz A. Zölch presented the business model to a group of 16 publishers in Bern on Tuesday (see ). A total of over 70 people were invited. According to a press release, all those who have already been personally informed about the concrete plans have shown great interest in this cooperation opportunity. Each individual partner will remain autonomous and independent, but will be able to reduce costs and increase revenues in the individually selected areas by cooperating with other local press publishers. For example, cooperation is possible in printing and infrastructure, prepress, logistics or IT, advertising acquisition, training, editorial work, staff shortages or succession planning.
The Swiss Press Association is also involved: it is contributing to the joint representation of interests in professional policy issues such as VAT and transportation. In talks with the managing director of the publishers' association, Hanspeter Kellermüller, on Tuesday, any overlapping problems with the tasks were resolved, it is reported. The company is to be founded in the course of the fall. Its supreme body will be the company meeting, which will be managed strategically by a board of directors and operationally by a managing director.

Non-fiction In the coming years, sponsorship as a marketing instrument will show "double-digit growth rates". The global volume will rise from 33.7 billion (2006) to 43.6 billion dollars (2008). This and much more can be found in the Sponsoring 2007 yearbook, in which 44 experts provide an insight into the impact, development and implementation of sponsoring. Award-winning activities, including those from Switzerland, document how professionally the link between culture or sport and business works today. Available from www.jahrbuch-sponsoring.de.

 Neue Lgk, with offices in Bern and Zurich, has been awarded a new account: Following an agency evaluation, Greepeace opted for the communications agency. According to the corresponding press release, the agency's first work for the environmentalists will be seen as early as September. Neue Lgk is still silent about what exactly is planned in the press release.

Mobile advertising reaches the mobile web. Marketers see great potential in banner advertising and are gearing up.
For a long time, the advertising industry kept its hands off the cell phone. For a long time, cell phones were declared to be an advertising-free zone where advertising had no place as an uninvited guest. This opinion has changed. Today, the industry is largely in agreement: the technology and the market are ready for mobile business. The advertising market of tomorrow belongs to those who can retain users with their content and services. The mobile data world promises attractive opportunities for advertisers. The mobile web in particular is seen as a beacon of hope for the advertising industry. Coca-Cola is already working hard to gain a foothold there: The beverage manufacturer launched a social network for cell phones in June. The company is working on a Myspace version for cell phones. It is called "Sprite Yard" and is intended to connect young people with each other and anchor the Sprite brand more firmly in this target group. Coca-Cola officially communicates that mobile marketing measures offer the greatest opportunities to win over new generations of customers.
Here in Germany, too, companies are investing in mobile web projects. They are experimenting with all kinds of services. The focus is on business models based on advertising. Experts have no doubt that the success story of banner advertising on the Internet will be repeated on cell phones. Marketers are working on making advertising space available on the mobile Internet.
Mobile accepted as a form of advertisingActive Mobile is playing a pioneering role in this area. The full-service agency, which belongs to Goldbach Media, already offers advertisers a pool of high-traffic mobile sites on which banner campaigns can be launched. The offer includes well-known portals such as mobile.cash.ch, mobile.20min.ch and mobile.meteonews.ch, which was one of the first service portals in Europe to bring up-to-date weather information to cell phones. No official figures are available on the use of these portals. Active Mobile Managing Director Mike Weber says: "We are recording access figures that are higher than we ever suspected at the beginning." According to Weber, it is not yet possible to establish a clear ranking of the mobile sites. However, benchmarks will become apparent this fall.
The marketer's experience shows that the new form of advertising is accepted by consumers and that click rates tend to be higher than on the web. According to Mike Weber, demand is predominantly for directories and news services. The situation is different in the USA. Overseas users mainly surf on sports platforms and show less interest in political offers.
According to market researchers, the market for mobile advertising (mobvertising for short) is very attractive. The industry expects spending on this still young form of advertising to triple in just a few years. In Germany, the one billion euro mark could be exceeded as early as 2010. Weber predicts a similar development for Switzerland. "Unlike online advertising, mobile advertising will not take ten years to reach today's media spending levels." For Weber, it is important that the still young Goldbach unit positions itself well today. "We want to be a first mover in this area with an attractive portfolio and new formats for the advertising industry," says the head of Active Mobile.
"Huge challenge "After initial experience with Peter Wick's Meteo-News service, the agency now offers around ten mobile sites on which banner advertising can be booked. The company's technical infrastructure makes it possible to adapt the campaigns to the respective cell phone type. Goldbach Media and the portal providers have not yet agreed on what a mobile campaign will cost in future. Mike Weber: "As we currently offer an unrivaled advertising environment, the CPM is set in the higher price segment. However, pricing is still being negotiated."
And what do the strategists in the advertising agencies think about the young advertising platform? Pascal Schaub, President of the Account Planning Group Switzerland: "Mobile banners are of course a fantastic new touchpoint for planning." However, Schaub warns against expecting too much: "The challenge is huge in this pocket format. People don't surf on their cell phones. Only offers where the user can participate immediately and receive added value will be successful in the long term."
It is difficult to estimate the extent to which the mobile web will become the linchpin of cell phone use. The operators' tariffs will be decisive. For those who do not purchase an Internet add-on to their subscription for surfing the mobile web will be charged a rate of between 10 and 20 centimes per 10 kilobytes of data, depending on the company. The transmission of one megabyte of data therefore costs 10 to 20 francs. This corresponds to about two to three normal homepages that are not optimized for cell phones. This is why there are calls for data flat rates, which could cause another problem if introduced. If cell phone flat rates were introduced, this could lead to network congestion, as can already be observed on the Internet.
Attractive target groupWho uses the mobile Internet? According to the latest Kommtech study (in collaboration with IGEM and Publica Data), 3.4 percent of the Swiss population surf the mobile Internet. This target group is nevertheless interesting for advertisers, as the end devices that access mobile sites are predominantly high-quality business cell phones. This indicates an exclusive user group. However, this fact could also be one of the reasons why the rates for surfing with a cell phone will remain high. In Switzerland, 85% of the total population has a cell phone. 22% of all households already have more than three cell phones.
Mobile marketing: Advertising via SMS has become established. The impulse for such an approach almost always comes from the consumer and is triggered via traditional advertising channels. In view of the new technical possibilities, display advertising is becoming increasingly interesting. This form of advertising is still not very widespread. It includes small banners, sponsor logos and interstitials, displayed as short interstitial ads when switching to another page. Spots in mini format can be shown on UMTS-enabled cell phones.
Mobile Content Event Mobile Marketing is the topic of this year's Digi Trend Forum in the fall. The experts will be asking themselves a whole bundle of questions: Which content is suitable? Who uses mobile services? Which devices are popular? You can register at www.digitrendforum.ch. Cost: 550 francs.
Users critical of mobile advertisingA recent study by the agency Universal McCann shows that 61 percent of users surveyed strictly reject advertising on websites designed for mobile devices. The study also makes it clear that consumers would particularly reject mobile advertising if they felt that their activities were being interrupted in any way. A total of 9500 people from 21 countries were surveyed for the study.
   
Christian Lüscher

 
Next Saturday is the day: "G&G Weekend" goes on air. In the first edition, Viktor Giacobbo and Patrick Frey will be guests of presenter Christian Franzoso. Every Saturday at 6.10 p.m. on SF1, they will "review the celebrity week", according to the station's press release, and comment on the "weirdest, most interesting and funniest moments of the past seven days". Presenter Franzoso describes the program as a combination of tabloid and talk show. With his humorous studio guests Giacobbo and Frey, Franzoso will cover the following topics in the premiere program: Lys Assia's comeback, Bligg's preference for mature women, the Pfahlbauer stars and, in the "Doppelpack" section, Fiona Hefti and Karina Berger will give surprising answers to indiscreet questions.

 Next Saturday, "Handelszeitung-Börsenstandpunkte", a new TV investor magazine, will be launched on SF zwei. The show will flicker across the screen once a month as part of PresseTV. The presenter is Martin Spieler, editor-in-chief of Handelszeitung. He previously hosted the TV stock market magazines "Money" and "MoneyTalk" on Tele24. With the new TV show, the Handelszeitung/Jean Frey publishing group wants to expand its electronic foothold to television in addition to the daily stock market news on Radio24 and its presence on the Internet. In the new program, viewers will receive tips on how to make more of their money, according to a Handelszeitung communiqué. Topics will include what investors can expect from the stock markets in the coming months, what risks they are taking after the latest turbulence and how dangerous the US real estate crisis is for investors in Switzerland. "Unlike comparable business magazines, we not only describe what is happening in the corporate world, but also give viewers concrete decision-making aids for their future financial investments," says Martin Spieler, describing the concept of the new program. In the first episode, Spieler discusses with investment experts Klaus Wellershoff, Chief Economist at UBS, and Thomas Lips, Chief Investment Officer at AIG Private Bank. Another prominent interview guest is Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher.

Self-promotion Invite customers at least once every year. This is a self-promotion requirement at Atelier Heinzelmann ASW in Winterthur. The seven-strong team offers a full service. Clients range from the film and cinema industry to IT and consumer goods. The company was founded in 1992 and always finds a special motto to celebrate its existence. This time on August 30. The barbecue party takes place at the Sulzer site in Winterthur. André Heinzelmann has sent out his invitation in proper style with a metal label like the ones you used to find on Sulzer products. After all, it is no coincidence that the party is being held under the motto "Ideas Factory".

 The publisher of the Valais daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste has a new Chairman of the Board of Directors: Hildebrand de Riedmatten takes office under difficult circumstances. At the last meeting of the Board of Directors of Rhône Media, two minority shareholders came to blows. Although the two camps are bound by a shareholders' agreement and hold more than 60 percent of the votes, as SDA writes in a press release, they had fundamental strategic differences. In order to break the mutual deadlock, four members of the Board of Directors decided not to stand for re-election. Among them was the previous Chairman of the Board of Directors, Jean-Marie Fournier - who changed his mind at the last second, whereupon the third major shareholder, Edipresse, refused to vote for him (see
). After the AGM, only four people remained on the Board of Directors, including the now elected de Riedmatten. As he told SDA on request, he now wants to repair the relationship and personal meetings with the most important shareholders are planned.

Column In times when information only adorns the back of advertisements, the "character bark" of yesteryear, before which advertising managers stooped, would be a publishing risk. Or do you know the editor-in-chief of the Blick, the Basler Zeitung, the SonntagsZeitung? conquer India or would you prefer Russia? asked a little Corsican in Egypt. Own Gretchen or the world formula? pondered Faust. Atomic bomb or hands off it? weighed Einstein. A ray of sunshine or the great Alexander's favor? thought Diogenes. Those were still dilemmas. Today we have Shakira's panties. "Where, with the almighty Murdoch?" asks the modern editor-in-chief, furrowing his receding brow decoratively: "Where, in which of my papers do I place the red-hot story about the latest amours of the beautiful Trällerin? In the Globalwoche? In the Lookout? Or in the Sunday facts?"
Cultural pessimism! cries the person described (every era has the killer arguments it deserves). For the time being, this is only about identifying a trend - the trend towards a total editor-in-chief.
Like any self-respecting trend, this one is also made up of tendencies: the tendency towards total press concentration. The tendency to place various newspapers under the same editor-in-chief or (Ringier variant) an "Editorial Director Newspapers". The tendency to subordinate editorial offices to the publishing house management, or (increase) to entrust one and the same person with editing and advertising sales, or (climax) to give ownership of the newspaper directly to the editor-in-chief (Springer variant).
Until now, we have only known this kind of thing from Baron Childerich von Bartenbruch, i.e. from literature. In "The Merovingians or the Total Family" by Heimito von Doderer, the aforementioned Bartenbruch succeeds in becoming his own father, grandfather, son-in-law and father-in-law through a clever marriage and adoption policy. If the author of the fable were alive today, Bartenbruch would be called Frank Toppler and would not be a baron, but an editor-in-chief.
Actually logical, one would like to say to those who nostalgize for better times, when editors-in-chief were "barkers of character", bear-bitten cheroot smokers or elegant world travelers, thinking heads in any case, who accomplished a great deal through their own writing and before whom the advertising managers stooped slightly. But where information no longer has any value other than simply adorning the back of advertisements, where journalists have degenerated into content managers, where the profession no longer has any concept of a qualified public, society and democracy, it is hard to see why content and commerce should be separated - such figures would be a miscast, a publishing risk, a corporate governance accident. Or do you know the editor-in-chief of the Blick, the Basler Zeitung, the SonntagsZeitung? - Exactly.
This is how the total editor-in-chief grows up. Profile: young, politically right-wing, worshipping the dead religion of the free market, versatile, good manager. Frank Toppler in a nutshell. At some point we will get to the point where Frank Toppler not only has to solve the dilemma of Shakira's panties, but also gives his head of culture Frank Toppler the task of asking society reporter Sandra Meier (one of Frank Toppler's pseudonyms) to copypaste 213 characters about Shakira into the paper from the global text pool of all freelance text producers. It may be that Meier, alias Toppler, then suspects for the duration of a blink that Shakira is also just a pseudonym of Fra...
Oh yes, one more thing. In 1949, Marshall McLuhan noted on the publication of George Orwell's "1984": "The misleading effect of books like 1984 is to project into the future a state of affairs that already exists. This draws attention away from the present facts."
P.S. A little coup de gueule between friends, which of course has absolutely nothing to do with the matter at hand: Enough! Enough of the racist bleating of the followers of that other little man who hands out business cards saying he is Minister of Justice (the total super editor-in-chief?). Enough of the media rewarding this sleazy revanchism with coverage, according to the old tabloid motto: scandal over nude photos - here are the pictures. I finally fall completely silent before the caricature that the SP comes up with...
Oliver Fahrni is a freelance journalist and media ecologist