The news magazine Facts will be discontinued at the end of June. This was decided by Tamedia's Board of Directors and Management Board after intensive discussions about the economic situation and prospects of the weekly magazine, as reported by the Zurich-based media company Tamedia. The decision is subject to the participation rights of the affected employees. The last issue of Facts, which was launched in 1995, is expected to appear on Thursday, June 28, 2007.  
In the twelve years of its existence, Facts only made no losses in one year. Even several redesigns of the news magazine did not bring the hoped-for economic success. In recent months, Tamedia's Board of Directors and Management Board have also examined various options for the future of Facts and conducted negotiations with potential partners. Unfortunately, none of the options examined proved to be economically viable. The Board of Directors and Management Board of Tamedia therefore see no prospects for the news magazine in the diverse and highly competitive weekly market.
 
As a result of the discontinuation of Facts, a total of 53 jobs will be cut in the editorial department and in Tamedia's joint magazine publishing house. For the 64 employees affected, other jobs will be sought within the existing media and Tamedia's planned projects. In the event of redundancies, Tamedia will provide the affected employees with additional benefits. For example, in the case of an ordinary notice period of three months, these provide for an extension of the notice period by a maximum of three months in the event of unemployment or the compensation of any difference in salary for a maximum of eight months until the end of May 2008.
 
Tamedia's magazine publishing house will be reorganized in autumn 2007. The previous centralized publishing structure for all magazines will be replaced by a publishing manager model for the titles Annabelle and Schweizer Familie. Tamedia is offering subscribers to Facts the conversion of their current subscriptions into subscriptions to the other Tamedia titles. For titles with a lower subscription price compared to Facts, the subscription period will be extended accordingly. All subscribers will be informed in writing within the next few days.
 
The advertising customers of Facts will be offered the opportunity to publish already booked advertisements at attractive conditions in other Tamedia titles. All decisions concerning the discontinuation of Facts are subject to the results of the employee consultation.
 
In recent weeks, there have been repeated rumors that Facts is to be discontinued or sold to Der Spiegel. Der Spiegel will be published with a Swiss supplement for the first time on Monday, June 25.

Lion Hunt II Stephan Küng from Initiative kept a diary of his jury job. Thursday, 1st day of judgingOur jury president, David Verklin, has chosen "Inspiration" as the motto for this year's media judging. In addition to consumer insight, strategy, innovation and impact, the main aim is to recognize work that has an inspiring effect - inspiring for the media industry, for clients and explicitly also for young talent.
There are over 200 submissions to contend with today. From the categories "Ambient media" (incredible what you can stick on a poster), "Travel, entertainment and leisure" (anything but entertainment, I would have expected a lot more from film distributors or airlines at least) and "Cars and automotive services" (a shame, this category is not exactly in the fast lane either).
Friday, 2nd day of judgingWith around 100 cases from the "Fast moving consumer goods" category, it was almost relaxing compared to the previous day's workload (plus lots of good and sometimes great work).
Saturday, 3rd day of judgingHalf-day job. Just 50 works from the categories "Best use of cinema" (cinema is definitely not dead) and "Financial products and services" (the Swiss banking and financial world is completely missing. I'll take that to heart).
Sunday, shortlistThe shortlist has been drawn up with around 190 entries that can hope to win a prize. We need eleven hours to evaluate all the works again. (The Japanese Hitachi washing machine, which becomes a movie star as a time machine, is turning into a running gag ... and will win gold).
Monday, award ceremonyThe big day of the Media Lions awards. Up until now, it has mainly been back-breaking work (handing out scores by handheld almost every minute), but now the award contenders are being discussed intensively. It's really inspiring for me to look at the works from all over the world and discuss them. At nine in the evening, the 50 Lions winners and the Grand Prix are announced, including gold and silver for Switzerland with Amnesty International by Walker.
 
Japan is setting the standard in terms of mobile and technology, and user-generated content is definitely the trend (the production of the Doritos commercial for the Superbowl, for example, cost less than a beer at the Carlton).
Tuesday, press conferenceJapan dominates again (there must be tons of specialist publications), the UK is frustrated (barely won a Lion), Romania and Lithuania are moved to tears (the first Lions in their history). Only Switzerland is conspicuous by its absence (never mind, that's what the USA is here for today). Tonight we are looking forward to the award ceremony and the opening gala. I'm sure the Swiss media won't miss it either.
Stephan Küng is CEO/Managing Director of Initiative in Wallisellen and a member of the media jury in Cannes

Distribution "For the distribution of a new newspaper in Basel, Bern and Zurich, we are looking for ..." This is how the Direct Mail Company (DMC) went about looking for distributors for Sacha Wigdorovits' new free newspaper in the June issue of Zeitlupe, the magazine for senior citizens. It is now clear that DMC must also distribute the paper early in Lucerne and St. Gallen. But DMC has only recently realized this. "The order to include Lucerne and St. Gallen in phase one became binding around ten days ago," says DMC Director Markus F. Hof. But he is "rock solid" in his conviction that the additional "challenge" can be overcome. How? Hof now admits that he has sounded out other early and daily delivery companies, such as Zuvo (Tamedia and NZZ), AWZ in Berne and also Distriba and Prevag in Basel. However, he had no concrete commitments. Hof also denied distributing the paper for 7.2 centimes per copy. The price is higher, but lower than the approximately 35 centimes that Swiss Post charges for addressed newspaper delivery.

Publishers Rüdiger Hahn's private debt restructuring moratorium is to be extended by six months. This was requested by his administrator Armin Budliger at the Lucerne District Court. Hahn, who founded the publishing house Printmedien Schweiz AG in Zug in the autumn and launched the TV program magazine Schweizer Fernsehwoche, applied for a private debt restructuring moratorium in February. This expired on June 14. "According to K-Tipp, Schweizer Fernsehwoche was discontinued in mid-April and 4,500 subscription addresses went to Springer's TVStar. The company is orphaned, there are no longer any board members, Hahn had already resigned in February. The future of Hahn's Vierwaldstätter Verlags GmbH (ex-publisher of the TV program TVvier) and RH Media (sponsorship of FC Luzern) is also open. Budliger classified Hahn's shares as "worthless".

 Vanksen, the international agency for buzz and viral marketing based in Geneva, has launched a buzz marketing campaign for the two French-speaking Swiss daily newspapers La Tribune de Genève and 24h. Since June 5, numerous Swiss people who were previously unknown to the public have made the headlines, as reported by SDA.  
The aim of the campaign was to promote the new website (see
With Edi it becomes internett
) of the two newspapers of the Edipresse publishing group to the public. Vanksen has come up with a personalized scenario that tricks users. In the version created for La Tribune de Genève, for example, a stranger is in the middle of the headlines. He learns that he has been elected as the new representative of the people in the Conseil d'Etat of the canton of Geneva. On 24h, people who have read the headlines learn that they have inherited the entire fortune of an Indian billionaire who wants to bequeath it to a person chosen at random, reports SDA.  
To this end, articles have been modified and a personal video provided that can be viewed, downloaded or blogged. By publishing the video on a blog, the buzz can be spread even further. Once the campaign has started, all you need to do is write an email to spread the word to all your subscribers and let the word of mouth work for you. You can then choose the person you want to trick. In this way, the person caught in the trap becomes the trapper. According to the SDA, the message has spread to all age groups. Within two weeks, it is said to have already reached over 15 percent of French-speaking Internet users.

 The Ringier magazine Edelweiss launched a new magazine in French-speaking Switzerland on Wednesday, Edelgirl, which is aimed at 14 to 18-year-old female teenagers. Edelgirl is published twice a year with a circulation of 40,000 copies. It is sold at newsstands and sent to Edelweiss subscribers as a supplement. According to the publishers, Edelgirl is the first magazine of its kind in French-speaking Switzerland. Edelweiss currently has 93,000 subscribers.

Free newspaper The new free newspaper .ch, which communications entrepreneur Sacha Wigdorovits wants to launch with the kind support of several investors, is already giving people something to talk and write about. In an interview with Werbewoche, Sacha Wigdorovits sees a rosy future for his latest project and raves about how advertisers and journalists willing to work are queuing up at his door. The .ch initiator is not afraid that the competition might steal his concept of home delivery. The other publishers simply lack the precise data on potential customers. The new paper is aimed primarily at people between the ages of 19 and 59, especially women.
In terms of content, the aim is to position itself above the tabloid competition from Blick and 20 Minuten - primarily through a "calm layout with a clear emphasis on reader guidance" and with "relevant content".

Cannes Every Cannes pilgrim was bound to notice: The Zurich-based advertising film production company Snapfilm had several illuminated posters put up directly in the departure halls of Zurich Airport. In these posters, creatives taking off for Cannes are promised a happy ending with Snapfilm for their next production. The motif was designed by the Geneva agency Saatchi & Saatchi Simko. A great example that shows that with the right idea in the right place and at the right time, a lot can be achieved even with a small budget.

European Championship football time is also Wernli time. The biscuit brand is launching the "Wernli GOAL" game just in time for Euro08. The online game aims to transform households into virtual football arenas and bring the gaming community together to form football teams. The fun of the game is combined with competitions. The players on the virtual pitch are the Wernli biscuits.

 The General Meetings of the investment company Camares and the packaging company Model Holding in Weinfelden have approved the merger of the two companies. Camares, which was renamed Model Holding at the same time, is thus taking over all the assets and liabilities of Model Holding. This merger was preceded by a public tender offer by the parent company Camares, which led to the purchase of 125 bearer shares in Model Holding.  
Calvin Grieder, CEO of the Bühler Group in Uzwil, has been elected to the Board of Directors of Model Holding as Martin Model's successor. The Group Executive Board is now made up of: Daniel Model, Delegate of the Board of Directors, Walo Hinterberger, CEO Central & South East Regions, Elisabeth Model, CEO West Region, and Georg Wechsler, CFO.
 
The Model Group supplies packaging solutions made of solid and corrugated cardboard. The group consists of 20 subsidiaries in seven countries. The main markets include Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Croatia. The company headquarters are located in Weinfelden/TG.

 Geberit, the international sanitary technology company based in Rapperswil-Jona, is publishing a sustainability report entitled "Creating a sustainable quality of life". In the conception of the report, Geberit was supported by the management consulting firm Sustainserv, which developed the content together with Geberit experts, and by the Wirz subsidiary Wirz Corporate, which is responsible for the creative concept of the report. Geberit's Sustainability Report 2007 was prepared in accordance with the internationally recognized Sustainability Reporting Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and received the highest possible rating of A-Level.

Food The French retailer Aligro has decided to play with the world of cinema in a funny and surprising way. The famous movie posters are parodied in a wide variety of genres: Chicken Run, Le Grand Bleu, Le Bonheur est dans le pré, etc. A new poster is released for each promotional period and is designed to stick in people's minds. The main products of the promotion are staged as the star, while other promotional items take on the role of supporting characters. The concept is applied to a wide variety of products. The advertisements appear in French-speaking Switzerland and were designed by the numéro 10 agency.