From August 21 to 23, 2007, the SuisseEmex'07 marketing and event trade fair will take place at the Zurich Exhibition Center. It is the result of the merger of the X-Marketing and Celebrationpoint trade fairs. Under the motto "Power days for marketing shopping, networking and know-how", the event is divided into the Marcom, Event and Promex sections. Around 300 exhibitors from Switzerland and abroad will be showcased in five exhibition halls. Around 12,000 trade visitors are expected to attend. The aim is to offer them "living marketing", as Managing Director Ewa Ming is quoted as saying in a press release. The focus is on emotions and a structured staging of the trade fair. The Emex Forum, a congress for marketing, communication and events, will take place at the same time. Under the guiding theme of "Innovations and Trends", industry experts will speak in five specialist half-day modules on the topics of customer relationship management, new media/electronic sports/digital marketing, e-marketing, event marketing and innovative branding. The program includes a networking aperitif after each topic module. According to the press release, the congress is the first climate-neutral event of its kind: CO2 emissions will be calculated in Swiss francs by the strategy consultancy ClimatePartner and the amount will be invested in environmental projects.

 Opinion pieces and columns on the website of the major American daily newspaper, the New York Times, are currently still subject to a charge. This is soon to change. According to a report in the NZZ, the top management of the media company has decided to stop charging for access to these texts in future. The New York Times is presumably reacting to Rupert Murdoch's announcement of plans to soon offer the online edition of the Wall Street Journal free of charge. So far, however, the New York Times has not wanted to confirm anything.

 After months of turmoil and periods without an editorial team, the fortunes of the Davoser Zeitung now seem to be returning to a more orderly course: Hanspeter Lebrument has been appointed president of the publishing house, Thomas Günter will take over as editor-in-chief in November and Hans Zimmermann, the former editorial director, is returning to the paper.The Davoser Zeitung has had a turbulent time: due to profound disagreements between the editorial team and the publishing house management, the twice-weekly newspaper suddenly found itself without an editorial team in June (see
). In July, the publisher, Buchdruckei Davos, changed hands (see ). Now the situation has normalized. Thomas Günter, a native of Davos with a doctorate in natural sciences, has joined the newspaper's management team. Günter earned his journalistic spurs as the editor in charge at Der Schweizerische Hausigentümer, according to SDA. Former boss Hans Zimmermann has been recruited for the second editorial position, while the third editorial position will be filled at a later date.

 In July, Parliament decided to abolish subsidies for the delivery of member newspapers of commercial institutions by means of reduced postal rates. However, even without press subsidies, the Coop newspaper still reaches letterboxes at low cost: Coop took precautions in the spring and negotiated reduced rates with Swiss Post, meaning that the retail giant's market weight alone ensured that it could continue to send the 2.4 million copies of the Coop newspaper at favorable rates. The abolition of the subsidized low rates means that the market has started to play, postal regulator Marin Kaiser is quoted in Cashdaily. He believes that other providers will soon be entering the newspaper delivery market. The example of the Swiss Post subsidiary Direct Mail shows how competition will express itself in figures: It is to charge just 7.2 centimes per copy for the distribution of the new free newspaper .ch. This is still considerably less than the average postal rate of 30 centimes under the old Press Subsidies Act.

 The Tages-Anzeiger's online presence has been given a new look. The revised design is intended to facilitate faster orientation and improve readability. In addition, the culture section now complements Tagi.ch. "This is not a relaunch, just a revision," said editorial director Sandra Manca to Werbewoche. The articles appear in larger font sizes and the formats of the images have been adapted. The website continues to show the top story in a single-column layout at the top, followed by other reports in a two-column design; both columns now feature images. A large advertising space is now available below the first tears.
There is also a Web 2.0 component: The articles can now be equipped with comment functions. "However, we will only use these functions selectively, for stories that really move people," says the online boss. These could be topics such as weapons or nuclear power, which, according to Manca, have already preoccupied users of the Tagi.ch forums. She also explains the reluctance to use the comment function by the fact that the editorial team has to administer readers' contributions. "With our 8.5 posts, we don't have enough capacity to have every article commented on".
The culture section is a new addition to the online presence. "Previously, we dealt with cultural topics under "Miscellaneous", which didn't really satisfy either the readers or the editorial team," says Manca. In this section, as in all other sections, both the print and online editors provide the content for the website: "During the day we provide the content, and from the afternoon the print articles for the coming day are posted," explained the online manager.
According to Manca, the Tagi is still working on another online project in addition to the overhaul. She did not want to divulge any further details about this, only revealing this much about the time horizon: "The new website will certainly not be launched this year". Rumor has it that the online editorial team will be increased from the current 8.5 positions to around 30. The editorial team will produce more of its own content and send out reporters. As was reported in the press a few weeks ago, Tagi.ch is to be expanded into a national news network in cooperation with the Bern daily newspapers and the Basler Zeitung, which now belong to Tamedia. However, Baz publishers told Werbewoche that this project is "not ready to go".

 The music group Universal Music wants to offer songs for download without copy protection in future. The music group announced in New York on Thursday that a test project in collaboration with various Internet platforms will be launched in August. According to Pressetext.ch, Universal is following in the footsteps of its competitor EMI, which made its music catalog available for sale without copy protection some time ago. The songs from the Universal catalog will be playable on all MP3-capable devices, including iPods, but will not be sold via iTunes like those from EMI. The company initially prefers to work with partners such as Real Networks, Amazon, Google and the online portal of the Wal-Mart retail chain. It is still unclear whether Universal will stick to the copy protection-free course for good. The management wants to make a decision after the end of the test run next January. The first step will be to clarify whether demand is correspondingly high and whether the move away from copy protection will lead to a reduction in the illegal distribution of music.

 
Swiss television's all-day average market share in July 2007 was 32.5%. This means that the figures have practically stagnated, even though the deciding matches of the football World Cup were shown during this time last year. The late evening program on SF 1 performed the worst, with the market share of SF 1, SF zwei and SF info down 0.2 percent in July of this year compared to July 2006. However, the ratings in the previous year benefited from the World Cup finals. In the corresponding media release, SF sees the result as an endorsement of its summer program. A detailed look at the figures shows that the early evening program on SF 1 (4.30 to 7 p.m.) in particular was able to increase by three percentage points. SF 1's late evening program (10.30 p.m. to 1.00 a.m.) suffered the most significant decline, with a drop of 4.6 percent compared to July of last year.

The annual average for the current year lags behind that of the previous year by 1.1%. However, it must be taken into account that, in addition to the final round of the World Cup, the Winter Olympics were another major sporting event that had a positive impact on the figures. Compared to the annual average for 2005, SF is on a par with the average for the first seven months. On an annual average, the night program in particular performed better overall than in the previous year, recording an overall increase of 1.6 percent.

 On Thursday, Mobile TV Switzerland announced its plans for mobile TV. Like Swisscom, the company has applied to the Federal Communications Commission (ComCom) for a license for mobile TV. Bruno Bucher, the initiator of the start-up company, has been able to win over two foreign partners for his project: "T-Systems Media & Broadcast is our technical partner and South Korean Telecom is supporting us primarily in terms of consulting," he told Werbewoche. If Mobile TV Switzerland is awarded the contract by ComCom, the company plans to offer 26 channels from May next year. Of these, 16 are already occupied by the most popular TV stations in Switzerland, while the remaining ten are available, Bucher continued: "We don't just want to offer mobile TV. For example, the company is planning music channels, radio stations and cooperations with various local media for news reporting. The service should be interactive wherever possible. "Anyone who hears a nice song should be able to download it directly from one of our partners with just a few clicks," says Bucher.
Traditional spot advertising will be possible on Mobile TV Switzerland, but there are no plans to aggressively acquire advertising customers right from the start. "For advertising, we first have to build up reach," explained Bucher. Financing will primarily come from subscriptions, download fees, mobile shopping and sponsoring; only then will advertising come, according to Bucher's plans. However, he went on to explain that advertisers who want to be involved have already contacted him.
Bucher does not yet want to say anything about how many customers are to be reached in the first year and what the subscription price will be. Such estimates would be up to the mobile operators who will offer mobile TV.
In the event that the ComCom license does go to competitor Swisscom, Mobile TV Switzerland will set up MoTV, a made-for-mobile channel. The plan is to develop the content already planned for mobile TV and sell it to the mobile providers.
However, Bucher is very confident that he will receive the license: "We are now globally positioned and have strong partners behind us. We can learn from the experiences of others abroad." And although some people wonder why they should watch a football match on a cell phone screen, Bucher is convinced that the service will catch on: "People are watching less television because they don't want to sit on the sofa at home. Mobile television for mobile people is in demand". ComCom's decision is expected at the end of September.
 
 
Carole Scheidegger 

 The online giant has introduced a special comment function in the US version of Google News: In a test run, those people or organizations mentioned in the texts can comment on the articles with posts. According to Google, this is intended to broaden the spectrum of information. As Pressetext reports, the comment function is now being tested in the USA. After evaluation, it will be decided whether the service will be continued and extended to other countries. The restriction of the comment option to the persons and organizations named in the texts is intended to ensure that the number of comments does not grow immeasurably. In addition, comments cannot be posted anonymously; the possibility of verifying identity, for example by means of a callback number, is a prerequisite. The service is Google News' response to disputes in the past. The internet giant has repeatedly been accused of using its content unlawfully and without paying for it.

The Zurich Film Festival has pulled off a minor coup: The internationally renowned industry magazine Variety is presenting the "Variety New Talent Award" at the awards ceremony of the third Zurich Film Festival on October 6 to honor particularly outstanding cinematic work. The American magazine Variety is not the international film and media industry's favorite magazine for nothing: since 1905, it has been delivering the top news of the scene, now in 84 countries, and is the media partner of the film festivals in Cannes and Berlin. This glitz and glamour of superlatives is also the real prize for the lucky future winners of the "Variety New Talent Award" in Zurich, as there is no cash prize. As Regula Bigler from the Zurich Film Festival confirmed in response to an inquiry from Werbewoche, prestige and contacts are to be gained first and foremost. According to the festival's press release, the winner will be featured in detail in the editorial section of Variety.

 At least on the internet: As expected, the Net-Metrix audit for July shows a drop in usage compared to the previous month. The audit evaluates the usage data of a total of 151 websites. A total of 127 million visits were counted for the websites included in the audit in July, compared to 131 million in the previous month. The decline was to be expected, writes Net-Metrix in its press release, as the trend traditionally points downwards during the summer vacation period. However, some sites, particularly in the leisure/travel and weather sectors, were also used more frequently due to seasonal factors. It is therefore not surprising that the frontrunners in the top list in July are MySwitzerland, Swissinfo/SRI and Topin.travel.

Andreas Schelbert is now supporting the Zurich event agency ID Event in the area of customer consulting and as project manager. The agency is a member of the Compresso network. Schelbert previously worked at UBS in the sponsoring department and then as a sports commentator and editor at the former Zurich Radio Z. Most recently, he was employed by the Zurich Athletics Club and contributed to the success of several "Weltklasse Zürich" events. Schelbert is studying business administration at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland in Windisch while working. He is still a member of the organizing committee of Weltklasse Zürich.