Hansjörg Ryser is stepping down from his position as Editor-in-Chief of the investor magazine Stocks on Saturday. The 42-year-old took over the position a year ago from Reto Lipp, who moved to a major bank. "Hansjörg Ryser and I had different ideas about how we could develop the title further," Ralph Büchi, CEO of the Handelszeitung and Jean Frey publishing groups, told Werbewoche. Although Stocks was very successful, Büchi as publisher had other ideas on how to take the magazine forward. Ryser apparently did not share these. The resignation from the Stocks management was the "joint wish" of the publisher and editor-in-chief, as Büchi explained.
"There is no conflict between us," emphasized the Handelszeitung CEO. This is evident from the fact that Ryser will be taking on new tasks at the magazine Bilanz. Like Stocks, Bilanz is one of Axel Springer's Swiss publications. Ryser will work there as a journalist in the finance department after consultation with the editor-in-chief.
The two deputy editors-in-chief, Urs Aeberli and Hans Peter Arnold, are taking over the editorial management of Stocks on an interim basis. They will be supported by 65-year-old Peter Balsiger - as "primus inter pares", according to Büchi. Balsiger has been working for several years as an editorial coach and consultant for the Handelszeitung publishing group and other international Axel Springer publications.
What is the time horizon for the definitive appointment of a new editor-in-chief? "Of course I would like to fill this position as quickly as possible," says Büchi. However, it will not be easy to find a suitable person for the position. He therefore wants to take his time to appoint a new boss for his paper.

May was a good month for the advertising industry. Print advertising expenditure rose significantly, the cumulative increase since the beginning of the year is 8.6% and political campaigns in the current election year increased by over 70%.In the May Trend Report, Media Focus notes an increase in print advertising expenditure of 5.9% compared to the same period last year, which corresponds to print advertising expenditure of CHF 382.8 million. The cumulative increase since the beginning of the year also rose by 8.6% to CHF 1.61 billion.
Political campaigns continue to show conspicuous growth in the current election year. In May, they increased by 70.5% to CHF 1.7 million, to which the vote on the IV revision contributed significantly. Over 70% of the growth of CHF 12.3 million in the food sector is attributable to the increase in advertising pressure from the chocolate/confectionery sub-market and product range advertising. The cosmetics/personal care, energy and clothing/leisure/sport advertising markets also recorded significant year-on-year growth in May, with increases of 34%, 27% and 33.1% respectively.
By contrast, the key market of beverages declined by around CHF 2.3 million. According to Media Focus, this was due to more cautious mineral water producers. The large decline in advertising pressure for non-alcoholic and domestic beers could not be offset by the growth in foreign beers, with the entire product group declining by CHF 1.6 million.

Keystone is bringing the world's best pictures to Zurich. From September 14 to October 7, 2007, the award-winning works can be admired in the Papiersaal in Sihlcity. Every year, the World Press Photo competition, which was founded in 1955, awards prizes for pictures from all areas such as politics, sport, people and art. In a traveling exhibition through 40 countries, these pictures attract countless visitors. This year, Keystone is bringing the World Press Photo exhibition to Zurich. According to the press release, the award-winning images will be on display to the public at Sihlcity from September 14 to October 7.
According to Keystone, World Press Photo is the start of a series of events centered around the theme of images. A selection of the winning images from 2006 can be downloaded free of charge from the Photopress website.

 The Swiss Spiegel supplement - the only one of its kind for the time being - was published on Monday. The 52-page supplement is stitched into the middle of the magazine. Seven of these pages are advertisements, from Swiss companies such as Mobiliar and Coop, but also from multinational companies such as Ernst & Young and Orange. NZZ, a media company, is also courting the readers' favor. Finally, Spiegel's own advertisement makes a trial subscription especially for Swiss readers attractive. In terms of content, the magazine deals with topics such as banking secrecy, Federal Councillor Blocher, the Swiss national football team, Nestlé boss Peter Brabeck and the Swiss Guard. From the Spiegel headquarters in Hamburg, Switzerland appears to be a "beautiful, rich, but also a complicated and little-known country", according to the editorial. The supplement approaches this terra incognita with a cover story on

the Swiss model of success. The article looks at how the political dwarf Switzerland became an economic giant. The four Swiss members of the Spiegel editorial team played a key role in the editorial section: the two business journalists Beat Balzli and Sebastian Ramspeck, foreign editor Mathieu von Rohr and Samiha Shafy from the science department.
It remains to be seen whether the special edition will be continued on a regular basis. Spiegel will carefully evaluate the results, said a spokeswoman for the publishing house when asked by SDA. There are currently no further plans. Tamedia's decision to discontinue the Facts magazine at the end of June does not change the situation.

 The total volume of advertising sold in the daily and regional weekly press fell by 5.2% percent in May compared to the same month last year. This is according to the latest advertising statistics from Wemf. Commercial advertisements recorded a drop of 9.6 percent. Income from job advertisements, on the other hand, increased by 17.9 percent. The Sunday press recorded an overall increase of 4.4 percent. The volume of the financial and business press rose by 3.8 percent compared to May 2006. The general press gained 4.5 percent in franc terms compared to the previous year. The figures for the specialty and trade press refer to page volumes. The specialty press lost 11.6 percent in terms of page volume in May, while the advertising volume of the trade press fell by 3.4 percent.

 The Walker agency, which entered the race with seven shortlist places for the "Film" category and a nomination for "Titanium and Intergrated Lions", was unlucky at the award ceremony on Saturday evening. This means that no Lion in these categories went to Switzerland. In the film category, the "Evolution" commercial by Ogilvy & Mather Toronto for Unilever won the Grand Prix. The "Titanium" Grand Prix went to Crispin Porter + Bogusky from Miami for Burger King. The highest honor for "Integrated" went to Vegaolmosponce from Buenos Aires for Axe.

 Tamedia boss Martin Kall wants to launch a new newspaper "before the end of the year". He told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper. Kall left open the question of whether it will be a free or a paid-for newspaper. It is still too early to say. The Sonntagszeitung, on the other hand, reports that Tamedia is working on a new free commuter newspaper. Group spokesman Christoph Zimmermann told the Sonntagsblatt that the project is independent of the planned .ch newspaper. According to Zimmer, there is still potential for another title. "We also believe in the future of the paid daily newspaper," the media spokesperson continued. The NZZ am Sonntag assumes that the new newspaper project is very much there to stand up to Sacha Wigdorovits' free newspaper .ch.
Kall also spoke to the NZZ am Sonntag about possible cooperation with the Berner Zeitung. Following the merger of Tamedia and the Bern-based Espace Media Groupe, he wants the Tages-Anzeiger to work more closely with the Berner Zeitung. When asked whether a joint jacket section for the two papers was a possibility, Kall did not provide any clear information. However, he emphasized that the BZ must retain its local roots. Ultimately, the only decisive question is whether the newspaper will become better or worse.
The Tamedia boss also denied that he now had his eye on the Basler Zeitung. The Basler Mediengruppe is well managed and he is convinced that it will remain an independent voice in north-western Switzerland for a long time to come.
Kall wants to make savings at the in-house Tages-Anzeiger. The planned job reduction in the main editorial office with the introduction of regional splits has not yet been fully implemented. Kall is convinced that this goal can be achieved through normal staff turnover without redundancies.

 According to the Goldbach Electronic Media Index (GEMI), television saw the strongest growth in advertising pressure last month: the TV value jumped by eight index points to a total of 383. This growth had a significant impact on both the electronic media as a whole and the total for all media, Goldbach commented in a press release. The electronic media thus recorded an increase in advertising pressure of six index points to 375, not least thanks to the television figures. Advertising pressure in all media, on the other hand, rose by just one index point. As in the previous month, radio decreased slightly by one point to 260, while teletext also fell by one point to 139. As in March and April, Internet cannot be shown in May due to a lack of data.

 The Sunday edition of the Mittelland Zeitung will probably be called Sonntag. Eva Keller, media spokesperson for the AZ Medien Group, confirmed to Werbewoche that "Sonntag" is a favored working title. "However, it has not yet been decided," said Keller. The publisher wants to pursue a double-branding strategy. This means that a national brand is to be developed with the regional sub-brands of the various Mittelland Zeitung titles.
The advantage of a national brand is that it could also be used by any national cooperation partners. A few weeks ago, there were rumors that AZ Medien had asked the Neue Luzerner Zeitung (NLZ) whether it wanted to participate in the Sunday project, but the latter declined. Eva Keller simply told Werbewoche that they were "always open to cooperation".
Work is currently in full swing for the Sunday edition, which will be published for the first time on September 16. The editorial team is largely staffed and the advertising rates were announced this week. According to the communiqué, they are in line with the competition on Sundays. 1/1 page 4c costs CHF 22,175, 1/1 page 2c costs CHF 18,700 and 1/1 page b/w costs CHF 16,368. There are introductory discounts for the first two months. The circulation is 210,000 copies. The Sunday edition will be presented to advertising customers and agencies in a road show. According to Keller, the initial response has been good. "However, we are bracing ourselves for tough competition from the existing Sunday newspapers," the media spokeswoman continued. The publisher is positioning its seventh edition as a Sunday paper with regional information.
The 197,000 subscribers to the Mittelland Zeitung will receive the Sunday edition free of charge until the end of the year. From 2008, the "integrated subscription" will cost just under 30 francs more than before, as Ueli Eckstein from the AZ-Medien Group told the Sonntagszeitung. This is a compulsory subscription for Sunday reading, because without the seventh issue, the newspapers of the Mittelland association will no longer flutter into the letterbox. In terms of advertising revenue, Eckstein anticipates a "certain cannibalization" of the existing editions by the Sonntagsblatt.
Sales in the AZ home region will be handled by the company's own AZ Vertrieb. Prevag will be active in Basselland, while talks are underway with Zuvo for the Limmat Valley.

 As of November 1, Pamela Pozzi will take over responsibility for market and media research at the Zurich media company from Erich Häuselmann, who is retiring at the end of the year after 21 years at NZZ. In recent years, the 34-year-old has worked as a project manager at Wemf, where she was responsible for MACH Basic, MA Net and MA Strategy. The graduate in journalism studies will remain at Wemf until the end of August and is preparing the publication of the MACH Basic study. At NZZ, the five-language native of Ticino will be directly affiliated to Markus Ehrle, who has overall responsibility for the advertising market, and will support and implement media and market research projects for both the publishing house and the journalism department.

 The Laureus Foundation, which presents the annual World Sports Award, has established the Laureus Foundation Switzerland and commissioned the PR unit of the Zurich agency Jung von Matt/Limmat (JvM) to act as its press office. Last Friday's founding event and media conference was attended by a host of world-class athletes, including Boris Becker, Edwin Moses, Ilie Nastase, Marc Rosset and Bertrand Piccard. IWC Schaffhausen and Mercedes Bernz initiated the creation of a separate Swiss foundation. According to JvM's press release, with the help of other sponsors, it is set to become one of the most important sports-related foundations in Switzerland.

 The US secret service is making a total of 11,000 pages of collected documents from the period between 1953 and 1973 available to the general public on the Internet next week. As reported by the SDA on Friday, the CIA's so-called "family jewels" include the contents of private letters addressed to addresses in the former Soviet Union and China and opened by agents. Some of them also dealt with kidnappings, assassination attempts, attack plans abroad, burglaries and thefts. From next week, some of these documents and the CIA's meticulous espionage records will be published on the Internet.