The Erlenbach-based agency Metzgerlehner Worldwide Partners welcomes the Neidhart + Schön Group as a new client. The contract was awarded after a competitive presentation against renowned competitors, according to a press release issued by the agency. The first results of the collaboration will be on display from November 2007. The Swiss company Neidhart + Schön Group is active in the areas of printed and digital communication solutions.

  Energy Zurich is giving the many Germans in the city on the Limmat a voice: From now on, the German Katrin Wilde will present the station's morning show together with presenters Roman Kilchsperger and Reto Peritz. As 20 Minuten writes, she will read out the weather, for example, and co-host the daily news. She will also talk about her experiences as a new German resident in Switzerland. Energy Zurich Managing Director Dani Büchi considers it a risk for Energy to be the first private radio station in Zurich to employ a presenter who speaks High German. However, he is confident that Wilde will meet with approval. "With over 22,000 Germans in the city of Zurich, it can also take a likeable German voice on the radio," said Büchi. For the producers of many private stations, however, presenters who speak High German are not an issue, as a survey by Werbewoche revealed. They attach greater importance to the local roots of the presenter team and believe that presenters from Germany would be more likely to annoy listeners.
For Markus Mager, program director and editor-in-chief at Radio 24, presenters who speak High German are out of the question: "We are a Zurich radio station that speaks dialect". The argument that German presenters would do something for integration doesn't work for him: "Then you would also need an Italian, Serbian or Spanish presenter". In his eyes, it would make more sense for Energy Zurich to also broadcast the news in High German, as Radio 24 does. He sees the move by the Zurich competitor as a "good coup to get back into the conversation". It remains to be seen whether Energy will be successful. However, Mager has had good experiences with presenters who speak other Swiss dialects: "The only dialect that wouldn't go down well in Zurich is Basel German". A presenter from the city on the banks of the Rhine will therefore not be hired for the time being - "unless it is an incredibly talented presenter", Mager continues.
Tony Immer, editor-in-chief of Radio Zürisee, will also not be hiring any German presenters in the foreseeable future: "That would not be appreciated by listeners. It is important to us that our presenters come from the broadcasting area." Local roots are very important for his station, Immer continues. For presenters with other Swiss dialects, they make sure that they are perceived as pleasant by the Radio Zürisee audience, such as the Bernese dialect. Basel German and strong eastern Swiss dialects are less popular. "There can also be practical problems: If a person from Bern writes a news item in dialect, a person from Zurich hardly understands it," explained Immer.
There's no chance for German presenters at Radio Top either: "We differ from the German stations primarily in our regional reporting and our dialect," explained Managing Director Günter Heuberger to Werbewoche. In Radio Top's broadcasting area, which includes the cantons of Zurich, Schaffhausen, Thurgau, St. Gallen and Appenzell, there are already five different dialects. Heuberger therefore sees no need to hire a German-speaking presenter. After all, the regional anchoring is also to be achieved via the dialect.
Even at the Basel station Radio Basilisk, a presenter who speaks High German is unthinkable. "Since the private radio station in Basel was founded, only presenters and editors who speak perfect Basel German have worked here. They are also selected accordingly," explained program director Raphael Suter. Basel is very special in this respect, as can be seen time and again in everyday life. Since Radio Basilisk became part of Tamedia, listeners have been paying even more attention to whether the station really sounds Basel German. "Other dialects stand out in the program. But they are appreciated when it comes to correspondents, for example from Bern, or special programs such as CH-Szene," continues Suter. However, entire non-Basel-based presenters would probably not go down well with listeners. "Two years ago during the Basel carnival, we had Andi Meier from Radio 24 present the morning show from Zurich: Some people found it very funny, but many also thought it was completely out of place because it wasn't Basel". This gag was a talking point, but according to Suter it would not be sustainable as an institution.
Frederik Stucki, program director of the Bernese regional station Capital FM, also waves off the question of German presenters: "A presenter has to create proximity to the listener and, not least, has the task of creating a community. Different Swiss dialects, on the other hand, are the rule at Capital FM: "After all, we are the capital city radio station, and many people from all over Switzerland live here". This is also well received by listeners. Stucki has also already experienced the interest of Germans in presenting jobs at Swiss radio stations; he has already received applications from experienced German radio people.
Dominique Hofer, program director of BE1, however, does not generally rule out the possibility of a High German voice doing the co-presentations on his station: "That would have to be looked at on a case-by-case basis". However, a German presenter would not be the first choice. This would not meet the needs of most listeners in the Bern region, even though the number of Germans in Switzerland is increasing: "I don't want to upset the Bernese just because I'm doing the Germans a service". He adds that they are generally open to presenters who speak other Swiss dialects. "Here too, I decide on a case-by-case basis. There are studies that provide information about which dialects the people of Bern like. I would consult these studies if someone from another region applied," explained Hofer.

 Migros is launching a new magazine on the topics of lifestyle and health. It is to be added to the Migros-Magazin customer magazine in September with an initial circulation of one million, as Migros spokeswoman Monica Glisenti confirmed at the request of Pressetext.ch. The as yet unnamed magazine will be delivered to Migros cooperative members and Cumulus customers. The reason for the launch was Migros' already strong connection to the topic of health and wellness, said Glisenti: "Migros is predestined for this topic with its fitness centers, courses at the club schools and its products. The idea for a dedicated lifestyle health magazine arose from the marketing for Migros' Actilife product line. However, the magazine should be more than just a marketing tool for the Actilife products. It is not a PR brochure, but a journalistic magazine on wellness and healthy eating, Glisenti explained to Pressetext. In the initial phase, the company will work with lean structures, i.e. many freelancers, and see whether the product is well received by readers.
Migros' competitor Coop has been publishing the beauty, wellness and lifestyle magazine Beauty & Life since last year. It has a circulation of around 145,000 in all major Coop supermarket branches and Coop City department stores and is published six times a year plus two special editions.

 The Hamburg copywriting school and the Swiss agency scene are moving closer together: At Cannes Day, the copywriting school will be represented at a Swiss advertising event for the first time. The advertising school was invited by Cannes Day co-organizer Alex Schmid Direct from Zollikon. On August 28, starting at 1:30 p.m. in Zurich's Maag Music & Event Hall, the works that won awards at the Cannes advertising festival and the Cannes reel will be shown. The award-winning dialog advertising can be seen in the Härterei, where Texterschmiede is also presenting itself together with its patron member Alex Schmid Direct. Two of the works exhibited there are by Texterschmiede graduates: Anna Lena Garde, TBWA, won a silver Dialogue Lion with "The Singing Bus Stops", the other silver Lion went to Dennis May, DDB Germany, for the "Orientation Guide".
Texterschmiede now also has a second partner in Switzerland, the advertising agency Favo from Basel, which has just joined the support group. This means that the school's support group now comprises 67 advertising agencies, most of them German, and nine partners from business and the media.

 Hildegard Hirzel was elected as the new President of the Advertising Club Biel at last Friday's General Assembly. She succeeds Bernhard Rentsch, who handed over the office after two years but will continue to be involved in the Board. Hildegard Hirzel is a media professional and Managing Director of the Hirzel media agency, according to a press release from the Biel Advertising Club. All previous members of the Board have stood for re-election.

 The Affichage subsidiaries Impacta and Ecofer will continue to manage SBB's advertising spaces in the future. Following a Europe-wide invitation to tender in March of this year, SBB decided to award the contract to the existing contractual partners. With the tender competition, SBB was looking for a partner to manage and market the approximately 8,000 poster sites and eleven fixed mega poster sites at the stations. A partner company was also to be found to market the 130 or so illuminated signs and advertising lettering on SBB buildings and along the railroad lines. The decision to continue the collaboration with the previous partners was based on the marketing concepts and financial offers submitted, according to a statement from the Federal Railways. The new contracts will apply from January 1, 2009.

 The internet telephony service Skype was offline for two days. The service, which has more than 220 million registered users, did not provide any further explanations as to how the outage occurred on Thursday until Monday. So far, it has only been stated that the reason was an "error in the algorithm of the Skype network software", as SDA writes. Skype had also emphasized that it had not been the victim of a hacker attack. This had been speculated after instructions circulated on the Internet on how to attack Skype. Skype's head of security Kurt Sauer told the New York Times on Friday that the disruption was caused by a unique chain of events "and the exact evolution is not yet fully understood".
Skype's software allows users to make free calls and send text messages to each other over the internet. In contrast to other similar providers, communication with Skype does not take place via a central server, but directly between users' computers using the so-called peer-to-peer principle. Founded in 2002 and based in Luxembourg, the company is owned by online auction giant eBay, which paid 2.6 billion dollars for it.

 If you want publicity, take your clothes off. Not Paris Hilton, but Greenpeace has once again confirmed this rule. In a campaign against global warming, 600 people posed naked on the Aletsch Glacier for US photographer Spencer Tunick on Saturday. With this action, the environmental organization Greenpeace wanted to draw attention to the effects of global warming, according to SDA. Greenpeace campaign manager Markus Allemann expressed his satisfaction with the march when asked. The group of participants was a diverse mix: people of advanced age also posed. The nude models came from German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland and from abroad. The nude models were lucky with the weather: the temperatures were relatively mild and the wind was light, said Allemann. With terrycloth slippers and small mats, the organization ensured that the posers did not freeze to the glacier. According to the climate reports of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there are still eight years left to take steps to drastically reduce greenhouse gases. The facts alone were clearly not enough to get decision-makers to act, said Allemann. That is why emotions are now needed as arguments.

 A Schawi Weekend at Tamedia to mark the release of his latest book, *Die TV-Falle*: In both *Magazin*, the weekend supplement of the *Tages-Anzeiger*, and in a major feature interview in the *Sonntagszeitung*, Zurich-based radio and television pioneer Roger Schawinski talks about his time as head of Sat. 1. Speaking on behalf of all private broadcasters—who can’t take ratings quite as lightly as public broadcasters—Schawinski’s pulse still races when he checks Sat.1«s numbers early in the morning—even though he now works for the station only in an advisory capacity. The former Sat.1 boss is highly critical of TV director Deltenre. He says no outstanding new shows have been launched in years and—the ultimate sin in the TV business—successful shows have been replaced with less successful ones. He attributes an image problem to Deltenre, which he says affects the entire company: employees, viewers, and advertisers. Speaking of advertising: The rapidly advancing shift toward ever-better recording devices poses major challenges for commercial broadcasters, because improved technology allows viewers to filter out advertising in particular. According to Schawinski, this requires a high degree of risk-taking, as one must invest in new channels before knowing if and when they will be profitable; he estimates that in just five years, our TV landscape will be unrecognizable.

 Christa Rigozzi did it, Gardi Hutter too, even Raymond J. Bär was involved: alongside global brands such as Gucci and Riri, they took part in Corriere del Ticino's major image campaign for modern Ticino. Now comes the second part of the successful advertising campaign. The campaign aims to do away with the Zoccoli polenta image: "We always surprise", promises the claim. Together with marketer Publicitas, the daily newspaper Corriere is trying to make this clear to marketing experts and advertisers on this side of the Gotthard in particular. The campaign of what it claims to be Switzerland's strongest media package (Corriere, eXtra, Piazza del Corriere on TeleTicino, Ticino 7 and Ticinoonline.ch) provides a number of examples of Ticino's innovative strength and attractiveness as a location: The Locarno Film Festival, but also the Lugano Festival or technology start-ups such as Bedano or Datamars. Ticino is also a production and logistics center for major brands such as Gucci and Bally, according to the Corriere press release. Such success stories were translated by the agency Immagina/Adriano Heitmann, Stabio, into reportage-like advertisements that will soon be distributed directly to the target group via the advertising trade press.

 At the General Assembly, the members of the Zurich Advertising Club (ZW) elected Carlo Steiner as the new President of the Board of Directors. Steiner succeeds Reto Kammermann, who handed over the office after nine years. The new president works full-time in advertising sales at Finanz & Wirtschaft, according to a press release from the advertising club. Andy Hostettler, the new CEO of TBWA, was also newly elected to the board. He replaces Ingrid Zaissenberger from O2. The other four board members, Hubert Boog, Susanne Holthuizen, René Meyer and Olivier P. Scholl, were confirmed in office.  
The new board has set itself the goal of bundling the club's activities. The ZW Board wants to set fresh accents with a small number of attractive events "in order to position the association even more strongly", the press release continues. No sooner said than done: on August 23, the Head of Sports Sponsoring at UBS will talk about her experiences with Alingi.

 The Chinese civil rights activist Chen Shuging was sentenced to four years in prison for publishing political statements on the internet. This was deemed by the judiciary to be "incitement to subversion". The 43-year-old Chen criticized the Chinese leadership in various articles published on the Internet, which is why he was arrested last September. The SDA reports that the Chinese government's promise to relax media controls in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games has by no means been kept. Human rights organizations attribute this to the growing discontent among the population, which has prompted the authorities to continue their strict crackdown. The organization Reporters Without Borders ranks China 163rd out of a total of 167 countries in terms of press freedom.