While Smartquotes has successfully focused on media training in particular for many years, consulting work and the creation and implementation of communication concepts have gained massively in importance over the last two years. "The name change now also shows to the outside world that we stand for quality in consulting and communications work with our names and our team," say the two owners Daniel Deicher and Simon Kopp.

Deicher Kopp Kommunikation supports well-known clients throughout German-speaking Switzerland in communications issues. Their core areas are:

- Development of strategic and operational communication concepts

- Support of challenging communication cases and implementation of large projects

- Crisis communication

- Media relations / PR

- Media training and training for appearances

- Personnel selection in the communications sector

- Event moderation and management of sensitive events

Behind the agency are the two owners Daniel Deicher and Simon Kopp. Two media professionals who deal with journalists and sensitive communication issues on a daily basis. Both have been working in corporate communications for 14 years, as media trainers, coaches and consultants. They are lecturers at universities as well as colleges and count large companies, foundations, federal agencies, politicians and many more among their clients. Previously, they worked for years as journalists for nationally important media companies. The team also includes the experienced journalist and media trainer Cornelia Burkhard.

Internet use via smartphone is now the dominant form of use and has overtaken use via desktop or laptop. While the smartphone was already very established in 2013, the tablet has now also made a big leap in the same direction in recent months. Within just two years, the number of tablet users in Switzerland has risen from around 1.9 million to 2.6 million. This corresponds to a relative increase of 38 percent. Currently, 40 percent of Swiss people use a tablet to surf the Internet.

Silver surfers record strongest growth in tablet use

From the outset, it was clear that the tablet is experiencing its greatest popularity among the over-30s. However, according to figures from the industry organization Net-Metrix, the so-called Silver Surfers (users over the age of 50) are responsible for the strongest growth in tablet use. Since 2013, the number of Silver Surfers who are enthusiastic about tablets has increased by 57 percent (from 463 thousand to 726 thousand).

Tablet as third or fourth device

Tablets are mainly used by people who already own a larger number of devices: 82 percent of tablet users go online with three or more devices. Since such electronic devices also have their price, it is not surprising that tablet users are mainly at home in households with a high income: In the income bracket of CHF 8,000 and above, 47 percent of households use a tablet. In contrast, only 35 percent of households with incomes of less than 8,000 Swiss francs use a tablet.

Comparison studies 2000 and 2015

Over the past 15 years, the Internet has taken on an increasingly central role in the lives of many Swiss people. On the occasion of the publication of the Net-Metrix-Base 2015-1 study, Net-Metrix looks back and presents in the tables below how the use of the World Wide Web has changed over the past 15 years:

Internet usage in Switzerland

While 3.5 million (=62.3 %) Swiss people were still offline in 2000, today only 800'000 (=12.6 percent) are. The proportion of online users has increased by a factor of 2.7 over the last 15 years.

Internet usage by country

In 2000, only around a quarter or 66'000 of the Italian-speaking Swiss were online - today the figure is almost 81 percent. For some years now, German-speaking Switzerland has had the highest Internet penetration; 15 years ago, Suisse Romande was just in first place in this respect.

Internet usage by gender

The gender gap in Internet use has narrowed considerably: while in 2000 there were 18 percentage points between the sexes, today there are only 7. The proportion of female Internet users has more than tripled, from 800 thousand to the current figure of 2.8 million.

Internet usage by age group

Even 15 years ago, the young age group of 14-29 was clearly overrepresented in the online community: 6 out of 10 surfed the net regularly. Silver surfers have experienced the greatest growth: Today, over six times more from this age group belong to the online community: 300 thousand in 2000 (=15.4 percent), 2 million in 2015 (=72.6 percent).
 

Internet usage by education

Even 15 years ago, the highest Internet penetration was found in the higher education class, with almost 60 percent. Only just a quarter, or 332 thousand people with compulsory education, were active on the web - today the figure is over 70 percent.
 

Frequency of use by online users

Nowadays, the Internet is not only being used by more and more people, but also more regularly. Whereas in 2000 the majority surfed the web once or several times a week, today 85 percent are heavy users who are on the web every day or almost every day.
 

The Zurich-based start-up Wine & Gourmet Digital was founded in 2014 by Sebastian Post, Erik Heinzmann and experienced business angels and specializes in combining content, community and commerce. The contributions of the online magazines Wine.com and Gourmet.com inspire a large number of users in their purchases on the e-commerce platform Wine club.com. Weinclub.com currently offers around 5'000 different wines from all over the world. Furthermore, the platform offers a transparent bonus program, where users collect points for purchases, reviews and social media activities, which they can redeem for their next purchase. Particularly noteworthy is the first online sommelier consultation in Europe with wine experts such as Meike Porz, Ina Finn and Wolfgang Hubert. Together, Wine & Gourmet Digital and the Ringier Group will develop further topics in order to ideally market products in need of explanation in the areas of content and commerce and to provide standardized platforms for this purpose. Wine & Gourmet Digital receives seven-figure financing.

Sebastian Post, founder of Wine & Gourmet Digital, in a statement: "We are proud to have Ringier Digital Ventures as a partner. With Ringier's digital expertise, we will be able to accelerate the growth of our platforms once again." David Hug, Managing Director Ringier Digital Ventures: "The business approach of Wein & Gourmet Digital and the team around Sebastian Post convinced us. Thanks to Ringier's very broad media performance, we will be able to place the three platforms precisely with the target group." Thomas Kaiser, Chief Executive Officer Ringier Digital, adds: "It is not easy to find a suitable formula for linking content, community and commerce. With the team from Wine & Gourmet Digital, we will gain interesting experience in this exciting growth field as a media company."

The venture capital company Ringier Digital Ventures, founded in January 2015, has an investment volume of CHF 30 million and plans to complete five to eight lead or co-investments per year. To date, Ringier Digital Ventures has invested in the companies Recommerce (Verkaufen.ch), Campanda and Movu.

Sabine Galindo took over the management of the publishing house on a mandate basis in November 2012 and, together with the company management and the Board of Directors, initiated a comprehensive and now successfully completed reorganization and restructuring of Basler Zeitung Medien. In the publishing sector, this included the fundamental reorganization of the advertising and reader market, the launch of new partnerships in the areas of printing, transport, and distribution, the outsourcing of subscription management, the integration of the delivery and distribution company Distriba, and the sale of regional publishing titles. Sabine Galindo will continue to be available to the company as an independent consultant for strategic projects, according to a statement on Tuesday.
 

The 55-year-old Petersen has been working for the Swiss car magazine for around 20 years, with a brief interruption. Together with Michael Lux, who has been an editor at Auto-illustrierte for four years, Petersen forms the core editorial team and reports directly to publishing house owner and author Mathias R. Albert. A large number of freelance journalists and photographers will supplement the editorial team, according to the press release. "I am looking forward to the new challenge and would like to thank my predecessor Andreas Faust for his work," says Petersen. "During his time as editor-in-chief of Auto-Illustrierte, he provided important impetus and put the magazine on a new footing with an appropriate and fresh layout. This must be continued and expanded in the future."

The advertising department will also start under new management on September 1: Patrick Frey will be the new Head of Sales and can look back on more than 20 years of experience. He previously held similar positions at various companies in Switzerland. Born in Switzerland, Frey wants to provide new impetus with cross-media offers and innovative marketing ideas. "The current media data is already being sent out this week," says Frey. "The website Car-illustrated.ch is already online today under the new CI." The next printed edition will be published on 25.09.2015.

"An official determination of the end customer price for the cable connection of UPC Cablecom is therefore not appropriate at this time," writes the price supervisor in a newsletter published on Tuesday. Virtually all Cablecom customers have access to alternative offers from one or more TV providers. Swisscom TV alone is used by over 1.2 million households today. Thanks to the access regulation of the Swisscom network, third-party providers such as Sunrise could also offer fully-fledged TV, Internet and fixed-line telephone services.

Competition for TV customers

The conditions on the TV market have changed significantly in recent years, the price supervisor explained. In particular, the digitization of television has meant that high-quality TV services can be distributed virtually everywhere, including via the telecommunications network. As a result, customers are increasingly demanding all services - TV, Internet and fixed-network telephony - from a single provider. And the expansion of the fiber-optic network will create another alternative to cable networks at the infrastructure level. While Swisscom was able to gain 147'000 new customers within a year and increase the number of TV customers to 1.238 million as of the end of June, the cable network operators lost ground. Overall, cable operators still had 2.579 million TV users at the end of June. That is 3.7 percent less than a year ago. The cable network operators primarily blame Swisscom's better sports offering for the bloodletting. Cablecom still has the most TV customers, with 1.353 million at the end of June. However, 17'300 TV customers jumped ship in the second quarter. The cable network Quickline had 368'000 TV customers. Meanwhile, Sunrise increased its customer base in the TV business by 33'100 year-on-year to a total of 122'300 subscribers. This is 37 percent more than in the previous year.

Next price increase coming

Cablecom has already announced the next price increase, as the previous agreement with the price supervisor expires at the end of 2015. Next year, customers will have to pay CHF 33.95 per month for their cable connection. That is a good 13 percent more for the basic TV, Internet and fixed network telephony service. Cablecom justifies the sharp price increase with investments of around 200 million francs annually in its own cable network and in new products such as higher Internet speeds. The price increase of 4 francs per month as of January 1, 2016, includes 2.15 francs for service and repairs. Cablecom had previously billed these expenses separately, it said. Until now, customers have had to pay 29.95 francs per month. The price supervisor and Cablecom had agreed on this amount in summer 2014.

Different reactions

Naturally, Cablecom was pleased with the fact that the price supervisor is giving up monitoring the basic rates for the cable connection. "We take note of this with goodwill," Cablecom spokesman Bernard Strapp said when asked. The competition in the TV market is strong, which confirms the analysis of the price supervisor. Competitor Swisscom also understands the withdrawal of the price supervisor: "We see that the market is in full play. Competition in the television market is very high. We can understand the price supervisor's decision.
understand," said spokesman Olaf Schulze. Sunrise also sees that competition is at play. "However, we insist on transparency in end-customer prices, which are often hidden in Cablecom's rentals and are also only mentioned in small print in advertising," said Sunrise spokesman Roger Schaller. Therefore, Sunrise had requested a warning from Cablecom at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco). Seco had pointed out that the Zurich cantonal police was responsible for this. The procedure is still ongoing, Schaller said.

More power demanded for Comcom

The Stiftung für Konsumentenschutz (SKS) is less pleased: The decision of the price supervisor is understandable, because the market situation today is different than it was five years ago, said SKS managing director Sara Stalder. But there would then no longer be a regulatory authority that could intervene in the market. Today, there is an oligopoly: TV providers can watch each other and align their prices. The Federal Communications Commission (Comcom) could only intervene if a competitor was not satisfied with the situation and filed a complaint. Stalder fears rising prices: "There is a movement toward the top, disguised by bundled offers." The SKS is therefore calling for an expansion of Comcom's powers, he said. The telecom regulator must be able to look at prices in advance, he said. (SDA)

The most striking new feature is the division of the application into the four different views Classic View, Social View, Personal View and Play View, all of which can be easily accessed with a horizontal swipe.

The Classic View is the classically curated view of the app that users have come to know and appreciate. The Classic View will be expanded to include a number of interactive features, the use of which will have a direct impact on the other views.

The Social View is the view of the app curated by the community. Here, the collective of users determines what is relevant and what is not. In addition, the SocialView makes almost all user-generated content from 20 Minuten visible. The SocialView shows in an impressive way that 20 Minuten can count on a broad and active community and thus stands out from other news media.

The Personal View allows the app to be fully personalized. Here, individual users can put together their own news offering. They can also compete with other users using the integrated gamification application and are informed about everything relating to their profile via the news center.

The Play View invites users to linger and engage further. New community features and mobile games are integrated into this view. The PlayView is rounded off by a free live TV section and a video-on-demand offering with over 30,000 films and series.

According to the press release, the new mobile app should set new standards in both the user and advertising markets and cement and expand 20 Minuten's number 1 position in the relevant markets. The new app was developed by Peter Wälty, Head of Digital Development at 20 Minuten, and Mike Herter, Project Manager, together with the 20 Minuten project team. The project was supported by Tamedia's innovation fund, which the media group uses to promote outstanding projects from its various divisions.
 

As part of the "Audi Test Drive" series, two new Audi models - a spacious Audi Q7 or a sporty Audi TT Roadster - can be test-driven at the Hotel Intercontinental Davos and the W Hotel Verbier to see if they are suitable for the mountains. Together with Audi, Y&R Group Switzerland created all the advertising materials to draw hotel guests' attention to the test drive days: In addition to information flyers, a contest, rollups and the branded Test Drive Desk, a new ride for the 3D technology Oculus Rift was also designed for the test drives. This time, the waiting time until the actual test drive is appropriately shortened with a breathtaking ride on a narrow pass road in spectacular Alpine scenery. The two Audi models and the virtual ride can be experienced live at the W Hotel Verbier until September 13, 2015.

Responsible at Amag Automobil- und Motoren AG: Donato Bochicchio (Head of Brand Audi), Christian Frey (Head of Marketing Audi), Stefanie Koch (Head of Marketing Communication Audi), Svenja Lyhs (Head of Sponsoring Audi), Lorenz Luginbühl (Project Manager Land of quattro). Responsible at Y&R Group Switzerland: Markus Gut (CCO), Andrei Vid (AD), Stefan Cramer (text), Susan Baumgartner, Lukas von Wartburg, (consulting), Catherine Pearson (DTP) Elias Zurbuchen, An Le (3D), promotion by Allaccess.

Being at home on an idyllic plateau, on a mountain shoulder above the Wehrenbach with a view of the city. Uniquely well taken care of in one of eight spacious and magnificent condominiums at Drusbergstrasse 62. For this purpose, Felix Partner, in close interdisciplinary collaboration with Felix Partner Architektur, developed the naming "Grandeur Zurich", the claim "At home in all dimensions", the visual implementation of the corporate design as well as all communicative measures: Brochure and sales documents, the Website with the basic theme of generosity in grandeur style with a lot of (white) space, various image-building advertisements as well as small ads to actively support the sale by Swiss Life Immopulse.

Responsible at Swiss Life: Rolf Belser. Responsible at Felix Partner Design, Zurich: Rahel M. Felix (CD); Alischer Makarow (AD); Alischer Makarow (graphics); Ralph von Fellenberg (text/concept); Veruschka Müller Suter (consulting).
 

Kathrin Lehmann is the new radio expert and co-commentator for Radio SRF. She replaces Mauro Lustrinelli, who covered the last European Championship qualifiers for sportradio. He is the new assistant coach of the Swiss U21 national team and can no longer continue his job as a pundit due to scheduling conflicts. This means that Kathrin Lehmann will take over the microphone on Radio SRF for the remaining four European Championship qualifiers and any barrage matches.

The 35-year-old from Zurich was a co-commentator for SRF this summer during the FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015. Kathrin Lehmann played as a goalkeeper in the German Bundesliga (Bayern Munich, TuS Niederkirchen, Turbine Potsdam) and in the top Swedish women's league (Hammarby IF). Lehmann on her upcoming new role: "I'm delighted to have been offered the opportunity to cover the exciting qualification phase for the men's team as an expert following my involvement in the Women's World Cup - and on the radio too, which for me is still one of the best and most emotional football media."

Christoph Sterchi, Head of Sports Radio at SRF, on the new appointment: "After Mauro Lustrinelli's southern flair, we are relying on female power for the remaining qualifying matches. During the Women's World Cup, Kathrin Lehmann assessed the performances of the Swiss women on television very competently. These unvarnished, straightforward analyses fit in perfectly with the reporting of Radio SRF. I am delighted that she will now be analyzing the performances of the men's national team on the radio in the same way."

Kathrin Lehmann can be heard for the first time on Saturday, September 5, during the qualifying match between Switzerland and Slovenia, live on Radio SRF 3 from 8:45 pm.
 

Since this month, Goldbach Group AG is pleased to have a new head of the event department. Nicole Seibel has already been working for the company as Event Manager since November last year and will be the contact person for all of the Group's events in the future.

The 37-year-old knows her way around the industry and has gained a lot of experience in the past. From 2004 to 2009, she was in charge of events at a German five-star hotel, where she was responsible for weddings, birthdays and various customer and company parties. Subsequently, she organized and maintained the events of Group M for six years. For the past ten months, she has now been in charge of the realization and implementation of Goldbach Group events.

Nicole Seibel is delighted about the new task: "The event sector is a very exciting and varied field of work. At the Goldbach Group, I have the opportunity to contribute my knowledge and take on new responsibilities. I am looking forward to the challenges in a positive way".
 

However, the slight year-on-year increase of 0.6 percent confirms the e-commerce trend. The increase in the share of the overall advertising market (+13.8 percent) shows that the summer slump in the e-commerce advertising market is less deep compared with the rest of the advertising market. This is shown by the "E-Commerce Trend Report 2015/07" from Media Focus.

Development of e-commerce advertising print as of July 2015

Categories with summer high instead of summer low

The top 3 categories remain stable in July. Search & Find even increased in July compared to the previous month, with the highest gross advertising pressure of CHF 7.7 million. In addition, it is the only category in the Top 10 to show a new top brand, search.ch, compared to the previous month. The dating category is also in contrast to the overall e-commerce advertising market. With the top brand Parship, this category has moved into the top 5 for the first time. Its advertising print increased by almost 20 percent compared to the previous month.

Clear trend in the overall media mix

The overall media mix remains stable in July. The Search media group continues to account for the largest share, at 53 percent. Compared to the previous month, the print (18 percent) and TV (19 percent) media groups are down slightly. The top 5 categories have a very different media mix. While print accounts for more than a third of Search & Find, the Finance and Dating categories do almost entirely without print and rely heavily on TV instead. In the Dating category, TV accounts for as much as two-thirds of the media mix. The Travel category also has a high TV share of over 30 percent.

Long-tail and persistent niche brands

For the first time, the top 5 brands in all top 10 categories account for at least 40 percent of the total gross power print. Although the categories are clearly dominated by the top brands, they remain highly fragmented in some cases and the number of small niche brands is steadily increasing. Highly fragmented categories are Travel and Clothing & Accessories with 419 and 463 active brands respectively and a share of the remaining brands outside the Top 100 of 5.2 and 7.8 percent.