Internet agency Planetactive Zurich has developed the cooking portal M-Cooking for Migros in collaboration with B&B Endemol. It is designed to show users how little effort it takes to conjure up a three-course meal in the shortest possible time. Every week, a three-course meal is presented on the website to encourage viewers to cook it themselves. The entire website and the videos are available in three languages. A user area allows users to write menu comments, print out shopping lists or recommend menus to others. According to the press release, the central element of the website is the video player specially developed for M-Cooking. Users can navigate between different content such as menu videos, side dish videos, tips & tricks videos or downloads on the player interface. The platform will be continuously expanded in the future.

 The NZZ Group and Publigroupe are strengthening their cooperation in two regional media. The aim is to strengthen the NZZ subsidiary FPH Freie Presse Holding (FPH), according to a joint press release. Publigroupe is transferring its 25 percent stake in the publisher of the St. Galler Tagblatt and its 10.7 percent stake in LZ Medien Holding to FPH. Among other things, LZ Medien Holding publishes the Neue Luzerner Zeitung. For its part, the NZZ Group is transferring its 50.8 percent stake in LZ Medien Holding to its subsidiary FPH. The NZZ subsidiary will therefore now hold 95.1 percent of St. Galler Tagblatt AG and 61.5 percent of LZ Medien Holding. As part of this share transfer, Publigroupe is also increasing its stake in FPH, as it last did in March (see
). It will increase its minority stake by 2.9 percent to 25.1 percent, while the NZZ Group will retain a majority stake of 74.9 percent in FPH. With their cooperation in FPH, the two groups want to "make a significant contribution to maintaining a strong regional media landscape in German-speaking Switzerland and to promoting journalistic diversity", as the communiqué continues.

 The outdoor advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor will exclusively market the advertising space at Migrol petrol stations from January 2008. It secured this contract as part of an evaluation, as detailed in a press release. The Migrol network comprises around 320 petrol stations throughout Switzerland, around 130 of which have a convenience store with long opening hours. This makes the petrol stations meeting points for young, mobile target groups, says Beat Sulzer, Managing Director of the Clear Channel company Plakanda. Petrol station advertising space is therefore particularly attractive for advertisers.
In addition to Migrol, Clear Channel Outdoor already markets the billboards at Shell, Coop Mineralöl and Tamoil. In total, the outdoor advertiser now manages 1,300 petrol stations throughout Switzerland.

 The Eastern Swiss communications agency Freicom is opening a branch in Chur on2. August 2007 in Chur, according to a press release. It currently has offices in Zurich, St. Gallen and Balgach. Freicom also intends to offer all services at the new location, including marketing and advertising, PR, event management and project management. So far, it has only been active in Graubünden for strategic consulting for the Gehla Autumn Fair in Bünder and the Wirtschaftsforum Südostschweiz.
The new branch will be managed by Reto Küng and Sonja Kressibucher. Küng was managing partner of Dettofatto Media for seven years and previously director of Chur Tourism. He is also a member of the management of Freicom. Kressibucher was project manager at Dettofatto Media.
Freicom works strongly in the SME segment. It has around 40 employees and is the fifth-largest communications agency in Switzerland according to the BPRA ranking.

 For publisher Michael Ringier, a takeover of his publishing house by the German publishing giant Axel Springer is out of the question. As long as independence is an advantage, he wants to keep it, Ringier said in an interview with the German news magazine Spiegel. Although Springer has been a "friendly house" for years, the German publisher is far too big for a partnership with Ringier. "I understand that they would like to take us over," Ringier said about Springer. However, this is not an option for his publishing house. The discontinuation of the business newspaper Cash and the sale of the Swiss Ringier TV magazines to Springer are of no significance in this respect.
Talks about a merger between Ringier and Axel Springer were held as early as 2002, but were broken off by Michael Ringier without result. The decisive factor was his wish to remain independent.
Publisher Association President Hanspeter Lebrument wonders, however, whether these talks will be repeated. Ringier must settle the future of its publishing house, he said in an interview with Migros Magazin published on Monday.

 The management of Exxtra Kommunikation in Zurich will once again consist of three members from August 2, 2007: In addition to Stefan Erhart, Managing Partner, and Dieter Hofmann, Creative Director, Philippe Meyer, also Managing Partner, will now head the agency. According to Edgar C. Britschgi, board member and CEO of Young & Rubicam Switzerland, he ideally complements the skills and experience of his two management colleagues. Exxtra Kommunikation is part of the international Young & Rubicam network and Philippe Meyer was previously Managing Partner of McCann Erickson in Geneva and head of a consulting unit at the advertising agency Publicis. He has around 17 years of practical experience and can draw on experience on both the client and agency side, according to the Exxtra media release. Meyer is French and bilingual and completed his communications and marketing training at SAWI in Biel, strategy seminars at BSW in Zurich and marketing training at GfM-IMB in Bern.

 The new free newspaper .ch has a problem with the planned distribution, Sonntagsblick reported at the weekend: The concept of placing the newspaper on stands in front of apartment buildings has met with disapproval from some property owners. For example, the real estate manager Livit does not allow the publishers of the free newspaper to place the stands in front of their properties. "But we haven't had any contact with Livit yet," Sacha Wigdorovits, the initiator of .ch, told Werbewoche. The plan for the individual properties to which the new newspaper will be distributed will not be finalized until the end of this week. "That's why we can only start contacting the property management companies next week." The selected homeowners and property managers in the distribution regions of Zurich, Winterthur, Bern, Basel, St. Gallen and Lucerne will be contacted to explain how the distribution is planned. Anyone who does not want to have a stand in front of their house can get in touch. In these residential buildings, the newspaper will be deposited on the stairs or in the entrance.
Wigdorovits' newspaper .ch will be launched in mid-September. Nevertheless, he does not consider the timetable for negotiating with the property managers to be too tight: "We don't have to talk to all the property managers. We will send out the letters and let them know that they should come to us if they don't agree." In this way, clarifications should be possible by September. No rent will be paid for the stands: "If you don't agree, we won't put one up". The stands are primarily a service for the homeowners so that the newspapers can be distributed properly and not left lying around.
Wigdorovits is confident that the administrations will agree, even if the press has frequently reported in recent days that the concept does not work: "This is a defamation campaign by Tamedia, Espace Media and Ringier against our newspaper to unsettle the advertising market," said Wigdorovits. After all, .ch is very well received by advertising customers.
In Wigdorovits' eyes, uncertainty has also arisen around the boxes and stands. A stand like the one in front of the apartment buildings will hold around 15 newspapers. This makes it much smaller than the boxes of competitor free newspapers that are on public transport. In addition, the Swiss Post subsidiary DMC, which is responsible for distribution, will not initially use the full capacity of the stands. They first want to check the response: "For a property with five apartments, we will initially only deposit three newspapers. If they are well received, we will add more copies, otherwise we will add fewer". In this way, the aim is to increase circulation, which starts at 430,000 copies, to over 500,000 copies within the first six to nine months.
.ch will also be present in public transport, with around 30 percent of the circulation. According to Wigdorovits, contact has already been made with the relevant authorities and SBB.

Oliver Kuhn will take over as editorial director of the RingierTV program «KonsumTV» on SF 2, effective August 1, 2007. Kuhn most recently served as program director and editor-in-chief at Radio Sunshine. He has been working as a journalist since 1990, spending the last twelve years primarily in electronic media, according to a statement from Ringier. He gained experience at both private television and radio stations—including Radio Sunshine, Tele 24, and Radio 24—as well as at Swiss Television (SSTV). There, his professional highlights included programs such as «MittagsMagazin» and «Netz Natur.».

 Zurich has one more event agency: long-time Diego Bally project manager Christoph Fuchs has opened Eventio, an agency that organizes serious, stylish events in the business sector, in private settings or for the public. The focus is on the client's wishes and marketing objectives. In a press release, Christoph Fuchs describes his company as follows: "Eventio is not a fun 'we do everything' agency, but focuses on seriousness, sophistication and style". The new agency's core competencies lie in the creation of atmospheric settings and carefully selected highlights, not in cheap showmanship. Customers of the still young company are assured of the advantages of personal support, decades of experience and a wide network of contacts. The newly minted entrepreneur Fuchs will continue to hold a partial mandate at Diego Bally and will remain managing director of the Swiss copywriters' association Script.

 To ensure that the economic efficiency, quality, safety and patient proximity demanded by society and politics alike do not remain empty words, eight institutions are launching the "Health Network Aargau East". The Baden-based advertising agency S&W has given the new cooperation label a face. This enables joint communication between the eight supra-regional healthcare service providers. The cooperation label is to be publicized with a current broad-based poster campaign and a further communication campaign in the autumn. The institutions united under this umbrella include the doctors in the district of Baden, the cooperative of emergency pharmacists in the Baden region, Baden Cantonal Hospital, the district hospital for Freiamt Muri, Brugg Medical Center, Baden Regional Care Center, the rehabilitation clinics in Zurzach, Baden and Bellikon and Reusspark Niederwil.

 Südostscheiz Mediengruppe acquires the majority of the share capital of Buchdruckerei Davos (BUDAG). The 44 employees will continue to be employed. BUDAG publishes the Davoser Zeitung and Klosterser Zeitung newspapers and operates a commercial printing plant. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price, according to an SDA press release. According to Südostschweiz publisher Hanspeter Lebrument, the Südostschweiz Media Group will continue to operate the two local newspapers and the printing plant at their current location in Davos. The current Delegate of the Board of Directors and Managing Director Peter Stiffler will continue to manage the company in the future. All other members of the Board of Directors have resigned, and Hanspeter Lebrument is being discussed as the new Chairman of the Board.

The St. Gallen communications agency Complecta is examining the virtual platform Second Life for its marketing and communications potential for companies. The first findings are now available. The two avatars created for this purpose, Sissi Carlberg and Goleo Morigi, have been out and about in the virtual world for weeks, conducting interviews with pioneers, taking a closer look at SL appearances and checking the service readiness of staff. As Stefan Grob, Managing Director of Complecta, explains, the agency is concentrating on the Swiss market, i.e. on the question of how local SMEs and larger companies present themselves in the virtual world. Among others, Publicitas, OMD and Cristalp Fontaine have been examined so far. According to Complecta's press release, it is noticeable that most of the Swiss companies' websites are still in a test phase. To find out more, Complecta is staying on the ball with its reporters and a blog.