The corporate identity of the BiZE education center for adults won a "Merit" at the first European Design Award. The Zurich-based corporate identity specialists Musqueteers were responsible for BiZE's corporate identity.  
The first European Design Awards ceremony took place in Athens on May 11, 2007. The ED Award is presented as part of the ED Conference by an association of the 12 most prestigious design magazines in Europe. It honors the best European works in the fields of graphic design, illustration and multimedia design. BiZE Design was honored in the category Market Presence (Company Implementation).

 Samuel Hügli will be the new Head of Ringier Group Finance from July. He will take over from Ulrich Flörchinger, who will leave the Ringier Group Executive Board on July 1. Flörchinger will continue to work for Ringier, as the media group has announced. The 36-year-old Hügli is a trained typesetter and previously worked as an IT project manager at Ringier. Among other things, he built up the SMI School for Media Integration and holds a degree in Corporate Finance from the London Business School. Hügli has been Head of Technology and IT at Ringier since January 2002. As a new member of the Ringier Group Executive Board, Hügli will retain responsibility for IT and merge the two departments to form the new Finance and IT division.
The 54-year-old Flörchinger has been in charge of Ringier Group finances since June 2003. In future, he will take over responsibility for finances in Asia, work on the Finance Committee and hold various board of trustee mandates for the Ringier Group.

"Climate neutral" has been Heads' new label since mid-May. This was awarded to the agency in mid-May by the German company Climate Partner. Climate Partner, headquartered in Munich and with subsidiaries in Austria and Switzerland, offers consumers and companies the opportunity to actively act in a climate-conscious manner with the "climate neutral" label. The vision behind this is that voluntary, responsible action by consumers and companies is the economically superior option in the long term.
According to the press release, Heads has also internalized this attitude. The agency not only offsets the CO2 emissions caused by heating, electricity, paper consumption and business travel within the company, but also includes employees' commutes in the CO2 emissions balance. In addition, customers can now work with Heads to produce completely climate-neutral printed matter, from creation to printing, because the climate-damaging carbon dioxide released by the agency and the print shop is offset by emission reduction certificates. Heads purchases these from a hydroelectric power plant in Guatemala, which supplies the country with clean, reliable and renewable energy. The project reduces CO2 emissions by displacing demand for fossil fuel electricity from the national grid, which is heavily dependent on heavy fuel oil, coal and diesel.

 There is no Advertising Week this week. The next issue will be published as a double issue on June 1. We thank you for your understanding and wish you a happy Whitsun. Editors and publishers Werbewoche

 For the fourth time, the Austria Press Agency (APA), in cooperation with Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA), is awarding the "Writing for CEE" journalism prize. Eastern European journalists are invited to apply for the prize, which is endowed with 5,000 euros.  
The aim of the prize is the journalistic examination of issues relating to European integration, as Pressetext.at writes in a press release. The focus is entirely on the countries of Central Eastern Europe and South Eastern Europe. Writers from the Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova have also been invited to submit their work to a renowned jury, including former Czech president and internationally acclaimed writer Vaclav Havel. Submissions published between August 1, 2006 and July 31, 2007 are eligible. Transcripts of radio, TV and online contributions are also welcome. The closing date for entries is July 31, 2007, and the award ceremony will take place in Vienna in November 2007.

 Axel Springer and PubliGroupe are jointly acquiring the online marketing company Zanox.de for EUR 214.9 million plus a performance-related payment. Axel Springer will bear 60 percent of the purchase price and PubliGroupe 40 percent. This was announced by the two companies on Tuesday evening. According to the press release, Axel Springer and PubliGroupe have decided to jointly acquire Zanox.de because both companies are pursuing comparable goals in their digital business areas with different geographical focuses. The acquisition will take place with retroactive effect from January 1, 2007 and is subject to approval by the antitrust authorities in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It has been agreed that, in a further step, the markets will be operated worldwide under the Zanox brand by two companies. These will be majority-owned by Axel Springer and PubliGroupe respectively.
Zanox.de offers advertisers, e-commerce providers and online store operators an internet-based platform for the effective sale of products and services via various channels. The core of the service offering is a network of more than 1 million sales partners in over 180 countries, which companies can use for marketing and sales. Zanox provides a high-performance infrastructure and comprehensive services in over 30 countries for the targeted selection and approach of suitable sales partners. The company participates in every successful transaction generated via its platform through commissions. In addition to affiliate marketing and search engine management, the online marketing services also include e-mail marketing, online shopping and customer loyalty programs.

On June 1, Nicolas Noth will take over the management of the Corporate Film & Media department and become a member of the Condor Films Executive Board. He replaces Felix Courvoisier, who is leaving the company at his own request, according to Condor Films. Noth studied economics and political science at the University of Bern and holds a degree in business informatics and media management. Since 1994, he has held various management positions in the areas of marketing, consulting and media. In 2004, he became Head of Blick Online and a member of the Executive Board of the Ringier newspaper group, where he was responsible for the economic and strategic development of the digital division as well as the creative development of new products and ideas.

 The first chapters of the new novel by Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek are online. Readers can now comment on the new work entitled "Envy" in writing.  
Jelinek published "Neid" exclusively on her homepage. Two chapters have been published, with three more to follow, according to the SDA. The Internet platform JeliNetz of the Jelinek Research Center has also recently gone online. Readers are now invited to write comments on the book, discuss it and exchange knowledge. There are already more than 30 contributions on JeliNetz. International Jelinek researchers, translators and specialists as well as Jelinek's long-time theater publisher have been invited to contribute. The contributions deal with Jelinek's chosen form of publication on the Internet, the historical and current contexts of the novel, its themes, its narrative form and its reception in the media.

 As the furniture store announced on Wednesday, Manuela Raue has been its new advertising manager since mid-May of this year. She replaces Beat Fingerhut, who moved to Ikea Poland as Head of Marketing. Before taking up her position as the new advertising manager at Ikea, Manuela Raue worked for five years as an advertising consultant at Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett.

 Microsoft is going on the offensive with its world map software Virtual Earth. As early as the end of June 2007, 100 major cities will be available to marvel at in a photorealistic 3D mode. The company is relying on a digital 216-megapixel aerial camera.  
According to Pressetext.at, this marvel of technology was developed by the Austrian technology company Vexcel. The company, which was acquired by Microsoft, is also responsible for the 3D algorithms that enable the cost-effective 3D realization of entire cities. As Virtual Earth told Pressetext, this is a quantum leap in computer applications. Users had first searched for information via portals such as Yahoo and then via text-based search engines, but now the multimedia networking opens up completely new possibilities.
 
Like Google, Microsoft also has a virtual world city map in mind, which will include information on public buildings, shopping facilities, restaurants, cinemas and other data. Real-time information such as weather and traffic conditions will also be available in the virtual world. Microsoft plans to integrate around 3,000 high-resolution 3D cities into the Virtual Earth map material over the next five years. In addition to the project's place of origin, Graz in Austria, the first cities to be included will mostly be US cities. However, a number of European cities are to follow as early as 2008.

 "Before it's Fashion it's in Vogue", as the old fashion saying goes. On over 400 pages, a new, opulent volume of the same name celebrates the success story of the mother of all fashion magazines.  
Vogue has been setting the tone in style since 1892. Even fashionistas are familiar with the name. Vogue is all about the most beautiful women, spectacularly and stylishly staged. Anyone who has graced the cover of Vogue has made it. Fashion editors turn to the glossy pages to pick out the next trends, while many an art director looks to them for inspiration for their next design. A quick name-dropping shows that Vogue has maintained its image as an avant-garde publication for twelve decades: Picasso and Dalí painted for it, Helmut Newton and Annie Leibovitz took photographs, Truman Capote and Susan Sontag wrote articles.
 
Norberto Angeletti and Alberto Oliva have now compiled the history of the changing reign of the Vogue philosophy in minute detail. Those familiar with the scene will appreciate it with curiosity, while those unfamiliar with the industry will be left scratching their heads. It goes without saying that the current boss Anne Wintour, known as "the unofficial mayoress of New York", also has her say and gives an insight into everyday editorial life. She promises the recipe for success, delivering flawless PR. However, a look at the fabulous photographs and illustrations is conciliatory and impressively demonstrates why Vogue is the grande dame of high gloss.
"Vogue", published this week by Collection Rolf Heyne, 155 francs.

 The Basel government wants to ban sexist advertising from public spaces. The aim is to prevent sexist advertising by optimizing the approval process. This would mean that advertisers would have to submit sensitive cases to the authorities. It is therefore asking the Grand Council to write off a motion submitted on this topic as closed. In future, the Allmendverwaltung of the Building Department should only be responsible for permits. Up to now, the Permit Office of the Security Department was also involved in the procedure. According to the government's ideas, an appropriately trained person at the poster advertising company should also assess the posters, wrote the news agency SDA in a report. Sensitive posters should be submitted to the licensing authority. The latter should then in turn consult with the Equal Opportunities Office.