The Neue Luzerner Zeitung (NLZ) wanted to participate in the Sunday edition of the Mittelland Zeitung, but was reined in by its majority shareholder, the NZZ. Cash Daily reported this on Thursday. According to the report, Mittelland Zeitung publisher Peter Wanner has already approached partners in Bern, Basel, and Lucerne in his search for partners for the Sunday edition. The publisher, AZ Medien Gruppe, neither confirmed nor denied this to Werbewoche. Eva Keller, Head of Corporate Communications, simply stated: «We do not comment on rumors.» The NLZ had
The Mittelland Zeitung was canceled because the NZZ vetoed it, Cash Daily reports. The Zurich-based publishing house owns 51 percent of the NLZ through Freie Presse Holding. The reason for the NZZ’s refusal is reportedly the planned regionalization of the NZZ am Sonntag, which is to be carried out with the help of the NLZ and the St. Galler Tagblatt. The goal is to gain 30,000 new subscribers.

In recent weeks, *Die Weltwoche* has uncovered a shocking case involving the Zurich Social Services Department that has caused quite a stir: A woman receiving welfare first drove a luxury German SUV worth over 100,000 francs, and later an expensive German sports car.  
According to a press release from Ruf Lanz, reading *Die Weltwoche* inspired Markus Ruf to come up with a spontaneous and pointed response to Hyundai. After all, Hyundai’s model lineup includes both a luxurious off-roader, the Santa Fe, and a sleek sports car. Both are reasonably priced and thus affordable even for people who don’t have their cars paid for by welfare. The ad can be seen in landscape format in the current issue of *Weltwoche*.

AY&R's Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) study on the most important brands in this country has been released. In Switzerland, traditional brands are highly popular, luxury brands are emerging and only four foreign brands are represented in the top 20.According to the AY&R press release, the study by Advico Young & Rubicam shows that the strongest domestic brands are characterized by enjoyment and quality features. Circus Knie and Migros always enjoy great popularity. However, changes in preferences can also be observed, he said: Former cult brands Swatch and Nutella have both been displaced by newcomers M-Budget and Swiss Post.
Cheese is particularly popular in Switzerland, with no less than four cheese brands among the top 20 brands in the country. In addition to Appenzeller cheese, Emmentaler, Gruyère and Tilsiter, other traditional food brands are among the top 20, namely Ovomaltine, Ragusa, Ricola, Rivella, Sugus, Thomy, Toblerone and Zweifel. Only four foreign brands made the ranking: Coca-Cola, Lego, Nivea and Ikea.
According to AY&R, the results point to a return of self-confidence. Consumer sentiment is showing a clear upward trend for the first time since 9/11 and the Swissair grounding, a majority of Swiss believe in a rosy economic future, and luxury brands in the categories of watches, jewelry, cars, fashion and design have gained in importance.
The study is published by the Zurich advertising agency Advico Young & Rubicam. It is published every two years.

Since May 22, a new soccer magazine called *Zwölf* has been gracing newsstand shelves. The magazine is made by fans for fans and focuses on soccer culture and everything that happens off the field, as opposed to just facts and figures.Zwölf is the name of the new soccer fanzine, «because eleven isn’t always enough,» as the press release states. Around 70 journalists, media professionals, and passionate soccer fans from all over Switzerland are contributing to this non-commercial project. Anyone interested only in standings and their idols’ lactate levels is in the wrong place with “Zwölf,” since that kind of information is readily available online. The fanzine is much more about soccer culture, what happens on the sidelines, and the fans themselves.
The financial framework is provided by the «Association for Soccer Culture,» which was founded specifically for this purpose. With an initial print run of 5,000 copies and a bimonthly publication schedule, Zwölf is starting small but has big plans for the future. True to the motto ’Independence instead of a publishing house,« every franc earned is reinvested directly back into the magazine. In anticipation of Euro 2008, Zwölf is in close contact with a European network of independent soccer magazines. Together with its Austrian counterpart, Ballersterer, a special issue on Euro 2008 is in the works.

TV encryption specialist Kudelski and the television broadcaster Premiere have won a lawsuit against a dealer of illegal smart cards. These cards are required to decrypt pay-TV channels. The Brugg AG District Court has fined the seller of six such smart cards 3,000 Swiss francs. The Kudelski Group and Premiere had filed a complaint against the dealer with the Brugg District Court in late 2005. The fine sends a clear message to dealers and potential users «that television piracy is not a trivial offense,» Kudelski stated in a press release. Hackers repeatedly crack the codes for such cards, causing pay-TV providers to lose revenue.
In the canton of Zug, a single judge fined two sellers of illegal smart cards 2,500 francs each in March. They were also required to forfeit the 20,000 francs in illicit profits. Kudelski was among the plaintiffs in that case as well.

 Swissinfo’s new election platform is touted as «multimedia» and «interactive.» The website’s content is enhanced with election specials and an election blog, the «Smartvote» voting guide, and the SRG election forum, and is primarily intended to encourage Swiss citizens living abroad to participate in the political life of the Swiss Confederation.  
Swissinfo’s mission is to provide Swiss citizens living abroad with information about political developments in their home country; for this reason, its election coverage differs significantly from that of other Swiss media outlets. In an SDA report, Swissinfo Director Beat Witschi explains that most Swiss citizens living abroad hold dual citizenship and have a completely different perspective. There is a significant gap in understanding, which Swissinfo now aims to bridge not only through journalistic content but also through election barometers, graphics, and animations. Reference information was previously available on the separate website Swisspolitics.org. It can now be found on Swissinfo’s main page in the national languages as well as in English under the «Politics» section. With its election blog, Swissinfo invites Swiss citizens living abroad to actively debate issues, election topics, and candidates, according to the SDA. The discussions are based on theses provided by the editorial team on various topics such as integration or crime. Starting in early September at the latest, live chats with selected candidates will be added to give Swiss citizens living abroad the opportunity to communicate directly with their future representatives.

The Zurich-based agency Assai is developing an online campaign for Flims to complement the traditional campaign. The existing concept was created by Fisch.Meier (see ). The campaign centers on a pair of magical pants whose legs get shorter and shorter the deeper a vacationer ventures into the Flims vacation region. The goal of the online efforts is also to humorously highlight the diversity of the Flims summer vacation region. The campaign appeals to families, hikers, cyclists, and culture enthusiasts alike, introducing them to the package deals available in Flims. It utilizes display advertising on high-reach Swiss platforms, an international search engine campaign, and email marketing. According to a press release from Assai, tracking mechanisms allow the campaign’s effectiveness to be measured in real time. Among other things, this also enables the analysis of online sales.

Migros Fashion (SFLB) is having tourists model its clothing. For once, the current Migros models aren’t Swiss—they’re tourists who visited Switzerland this year. For the photo shoot, Zurich-based photographer Maurice Haas traveled to well-known Swiss tourist destinations and asked tourists if they would model for Migros. Virtually all of them agreed on the spot. Many of them were even familiar with Migros. Now, thanks to the new fashion brochure, the tourists have received a very unusual souvenir. The campaign features a software engineer from India, a pilot from Argentina, a couple of service industry workers from Thailand, an exporter from Peru, a business administrator from Hungary, a homemaker with children from Spain, and a media consultant and a seamstress from France. The models were photographed in Zermatt, Lucerne, at the Rhine Falls, at Chillon Castle, and in Zurich. Andreas Panzeri

Discount retailer Vizner Borel highlights Denner’s dense network of stores. Unlike some competitors, where customers have to travel far to save money on bulk purchases, Denner offers the best quality and the best prices throughout Switzerland, right in customers« neighborhoods. With over 450 stores and more than 280 satellite locations, the discount retailer boasts a very dense network of retail outlets. The stores are so close, »you don’t even have to take your car,« says Vizner Borel. The agency illustrates this in the new commercial with shopping carts that serve as »replacement cars” for customers. Whether in the city or in the countryside: with your shopping cart, you can get to Denner instantly, no matter where you are. For practical reasons, the commercial was filmed on Labor Day: with more than 200 extras, over 100 crew members, and 200 shopping carts—all shot simultaneously at various locations. Andreas Panzeri

Interview: The business magazine *Cash* is shutting down. Thomas Trüb, Head of Business Media at Ringier, explains to Markus Knöpfli why he believes the Cash Media Group can do without *Cash Weekly*. WW: With the discontinuation of Cash, this is the first time a paid newspaper has been sacrificed in favor of a free newspaper. Why do you have more faith in Cash Daily than in Cash? Thomas Trüb: I believe this isn’t about the contrast between paid and free newspapers, but rather between daily and weekly publications. I’m convinced that, especially in the business sector, real-time information via digital channels (Internet, mobile) is in greater demand than weekly updates. Since people who consume business news already use multiple channels, it’s time for media companies to meet these demands as well.WW: Cash-TV, Cash-Talk, Cash Daily, Cash Mobile—these products were supposed to strengthen the core, the weekly Cash. Now, of all things, that core is being taken away. The Cash brand is now lacking its backbone. Thomas Trüb: I don’t share that opinion at all. Because the Cash brand is a strong brand. It will remain intact, but it’s being reoriented. WW: Really? You’re still looking for an investor for Cash. That shows you don’t really believe in the brand anymore. Thomas Trüb: We’re not waiting for an investor, and we’ve never looked for one. However, we’re required by law to give the personnel committee one week to submit alternative proposals regarding the discontinuation. I don’t want to preempt that deadline. But Cash is, of course, not for sale. WW: Rumor has it that the editorial team developed a concept involving a shared newsroom for the Daily, the website, and the Weekly, but wasn’t allowed to present it to corporate management. Why? Thomas Trüb: We’ve examined all possible options, including the one you described. However, we’ve concluded that a comprehensive realignment is the right approach. WW: Among business publications, Cash has the most readers and the highest market share. You’re giving that up. The alternative is to start from scratch again. Thomas Trüb: Not at all—we’re building on Cash Daily and our strong online platform. Cash.ch is Switzerland’s largest independent business platform, and we’re continuing to develop it. Our second pillar is Cash Daily—with a print circulation of around 100,000 copies and 27,000 registered Livepaper users. Cash-TV also has just under 200,000 viewers per week. So we’re only giving up our weekly print reach. While those are very good figures, they couldn’t be converted into revenue in the advertising market. WW: I’ll accept the 200,000 measured viewers for Cash-TV. But everything else is just speculation.Thomas Trüb: Hold on—for Cash.ch, WEMF reports 14 million page impressions per month, a doubling within 18 months. These are hard numbers. Certified reach figures for Cash Daily will be available next year, but we’re already seeing positive growth in distribution. WW: Circulation figures for Cash Daily won’t be available until fall 2008; reach figures will be available next spring at the earliest; and there’s still no way to measure usage of the e-paper or mobile platforms. In short: Without the hard data from Cash Weekly, Ringier is investing blindly. Thomas Trüb: I’m not too concerned about the Livepaper and Mobile segment, because I see it as a testing ground. It’s certainly frustrating that we can’t report the figures, but WEMF will surely come up with a measurement solution within a reasonable timeframe. It’s also normal that we have to play by the usual rules when it comes to print reach. For us, it’s important to see a trend. Cash Daily has already earned a good level of acceptance for its content—the steadily rising circulation figures underscore this. WW: So far, though, advertisers haven’t believed it: Cash Daily is just treading water, and revenue is slow to materialize.Thomas Trüb: Cash Daily has gained very strong acceptance in the financial industry in a very short time and is receiving advertising accordingly. In the consumer goods sector, however, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. We actually had to learn that the advertising industry is a bit more conservative than it sees itself as being. It doesn’t jump at new projects with open arms; instead, it wants hard facts first. We have to accept that. It was the same with 20 Minuten, and it’s the same with Heute. WW: But Ringier has been covering Cash’s deficit for five years now—how much more are they willing to invest in this brand?Thomas Trüb: You have to make a distinction here: Cash Daily, as a multimedia platform, is a new project that’s only eight months old. We’ll certainly show a little more patience there. WW: Cash Daily is said to have already racked up 4.5 million francs in costs and to be running three times over budget. Do you confirm these figures? Thomas Trüb: We don’t publish internal figures. But it’s surely clear that launching a new daily newspaper in Switzerland doesn’t come for free. Rumor has it that a new project is set to launch in Switzerland this fall, with talk of an investment of 50 million Swiss francs or more… 
WW: What does the business plan look like without Cash Weekly? Thomas Trüb: I expect us to turn a profit in three to four years. WW: And that’s primarily based on print ads and some online advertising? Thomas Trüb: We anticipate very strong advertising growth across the entire digital sector. Although it’s still at a low level in Switzerland, the market is nevertheless growing by 30 to 35 percent annually. We also expect that, thanks to our multimedia strategy, we’ll not only attract advertising clients but also partners for longer-term projects.WW: What still surprises me, though: When you launched Cash Daily, you knew that this would initially only result in high additional costs. Nevertheless, after just eight months, you called off the Cash Weekly/Cash Daily dual experiment. Pretty discouraging, isn’t it?Thomas Trüb: Hold on. We’re not scrapping the new project—we’re expanding it. With Cash Weekly, however, which would have remained unprofitable in the long term, we were faced with the question of whether we could still afford to run it alongside Cash Daily. We decided to take a decisive step and are now investing our resources where we see future potential: in a multimedia network, similar to that of Betty Bossi and Gesundheit Sprechstunde. These networks are a top priority at Ringier. Incidentally, it’s not just us facing such decisions, but all weekly newspapers, because it has long been clear that most weekly titles have passed their peak. WW: So you assume that other Swiss weekly titles will face a similar fate? Thomas Trüb: I don’t want to comment on that. But the media landscape is in flux, and there’s a simple consequence: The internet is taking over more and more of the functions of daily newspapers, which must therefore assume more of the functions of a weekly publication by providing more background and analysis. And that poses a problem for weekly newspapers. Added to this, at the very latest, is the battle for consumers’ time, as they can choose from an ever-expanding array of options. This trend is widespread, and only a very few weekly publications will be able to escape it. WW: Two years ago, the business magazine *Bilanz* chose exactly the opposite path: It strengthened the main issue and discontinued many special editions and other supplementary content. It was a success. Wouldn’t this have been a solution for Cash? Thomas Trüb: I don’t think we had weakened the main issue; it was strong and had a sufficient budget to produce quality journalism. But the big problem is the advertising market, where we don’t stand a chance against the major high-reach publications. *Bilanz* is in a slightly different position because it’s in the magazine sector and has a virtual monopoly in Switzerland.WW: Cash revolutionized business reporting back in the day, but now it has run its course. What do you say to that argument? Thomas Trüb: Cash was clearly a pioneer and did indeed completely reinterpret business reporting, presenting it in a way that made it an exciting topic. Of course, successful concepts get copied. That’s why the Sunday newspapers and the news magazine Facts are now major competitors in the business sector. But with our multimedia concept for Cash Daily, we’ve once again taken on a pioneering role. WW: Will Cash’s sister publications in Eastern Europe and Asia face a similar fate to the Swiss edition? Thomas Trüb: The risk exists everywhere, even if none of these publications is currently facing a similar problem. All of Cash’s sister publications are in the black. But the fact is: the life cycles of newspapers and magazines are getting shorter, not longer. WW: Cash has lost advertising revenue year after year since 2001. With the launch of Cash Daily, the erosion of advertising volume in the parent publication has actually accelerated. A similar trend can be observed with Blick and Heute: high additional costs due to the free paper, but no increase in volume. So the math doesn’t add up there either. Thomas Trüb: That’s a very unconventional interpretation. Blick has a largely rural and established readership. Ringier therefore considered how to reach the very young generation and whether this was possible only with existing brands. Our answer: No, we must create new brands. That’s why we launched Heute as an evening newspaper for the young, urban population. Heute currently has the youngest readership of any newspaper, significantly younger even than 20 Minuten. So it has hit the mark precisely. Now Heute must first deliver solid numbers; after that, the advertising market will also develop. Unfortunately, this is taking longer than we had hoped. But I’m certain it will succeed because we’re reaching a unique target audience—and at a time when no one else is doing so. In addition, we want to create a media network here as well, encompassing print, online, mobile, and—thanks to the acquisition of Radio Energy—music too. Blick, on the other hand, has a history spanning nearly fifty years and has grown into an exceptionally strong brand during that time. Now it’s undergoing a complete overhaul, and you can look forward to seeing what the new Blick has in store for us in the future. WW: Over the past five months, you’ve been involved in major decisions in Switzerland: the acquisition of Energy and now Cash as well. Ringier itself has a new head of its Swiss operations in the person of Thomas Landolt. Is it sustainable in the long run for you to have such a strong say in Swiss operations? Thomas Trüb: I’m officially responsible for business media within the Switzerland division. So I’m not operating outside the organization. Furthermore, all decisions were made in consultation with Mr. Landolt. WW: What will happen to Dirk Schütz, the editor-in-chief of Cash? Thomas Trüb: He’ll remain on board to see the process through professionally until the end of June. After that, we’ll discuss whether he’ll continue in a role at Ringier or whether he’d like to take on a new challenge.WW: Cash currently has around 45,000 paying subscribers. This means you’re now strengthening Axel Springer. When will Ringier also sell its TV magazines to Springer? Thomas Trüb: No idea. I’m completely out of my depth there (laughs). 

Thomas Trüb Date of Birth: August 27, 1952
Marital status: married, one son (20)
Place of residence: Lucerne
Career: Thomas Trüb graduated from the Ringier School of Journalism, worked at *Blick* until 1977, then moved to *Bilanz*, and became deputy editor-in-chief of the *Luzerner Neusten Nachrichten* in 1980. In 1984, he joined Denner, where he helped develop the concept for a (never-published) Sunday newspaper. He then went into business for himself and devised the concept for Politik & Wirtschaft, and later also for the SonntagsBlatt. He then spent a year and a half traveling privately through Asia and America. In 1988, Trüb returned to Ringier and began developing Cash, which launched in 1989. Later, he expanded Ringier’s publishing operations in Eastern Europe and Asia. Today, Trüb is a member of the Group Executive Board, responsible for Ringier Pacific, new media, and, in Switzerland, the business media division.
Thomas Trüb on keywords:
L’Hebdo
An exceptionally well-produced news magazine.
Markus Gisler
He did a great job as editor-in-chief of *Cash*.
Free Newspaper Projects by Sacha Wigdorovits and Tamedia
The World Poker Championship kicked off in Las Vegas last weekend. The stakes are high—and only one person can win.

Gastronomy McCann Erickson has created a mysteriously exotic advertisement for the Arabesque restaurant in Zurich. The restaurant treats its guests to specialties from Lebanese cuisine as well as performances by belly dancers. The eye-catcher in the advertisement is a plate that has mutated into an Arabian crescent.

Lindt & Sprüngli receives trademark protection for a chocolate reindeer wrapped in gold foil. The company had registered the chocolate animal as a three-dimensional trademark in 2004. However, the Institute for Intellectual Property considered the shape not to be protectable as it was not distinctive enough. Lindt & Sprüngli then added the word "Lindt" to its product. The application for trademark registration was nevertheless rejected. The chocolate manufacturer then appealed to the Federal Administrative Court. It has now ruled in favor of Lindt & Sprüngli: The reindeer's special head shape, the antler painting, the deliberate choice of color and style and the "Lindt" lettering make it distinctive overall.
Other manufacturers could not be prevented by the trademark protection from also selling golden chocolate reindeer. However, if the color combination, the design and the lettering are also imitated, Lindt & Sprüngli should be able to defend itself against this.
What the reindeer has now been granted was denied to his lord and master. In March, the Federal Administrative Court ruled that Lindt & Sprüngli's golden chocolate Santa Claus was rightly denied registration as a shape mark.