In the fall, Tamedia's current head of the magazine reader market, Markus Will, will move to the NZZ. There he will take over the management of the central reader market. In this role, he will be responsible for the reader market activities of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, NZZ am Sonntag and Magazin Z. He succeeds Kurt Blum, who will be entrusted with new tasks within the NZZ.  
Will, 40, has in-depth expertise in the areas of reader marketing, CRM, online and publisher marketing. Prior to his current position at Tamedia, he was Head of the Contact Center at Ringier, Managing Director at Beobachter.ch, Head of Publisher Marketing at Jean Frey and Head of Reader Marketing and Sales at W. Gassmann AG in Biel. He is also President of the Association of Swiss Publishing Professionals, a member of the examination board for the federal final examinations for media managers and a lecturer in customer relationship management.

24 projects were nominated for the International Corporate Design Award 2007 from over 2000 entries from all over the German-speaking world. The shortlist also includes MetaDesign's work for Migros Bank and the Rieter industrial group.  
Migros Bank's image has effectively positioned the brand in the market. The main aim of Rieter's brand identity was to present the brand in a contemporary way wherever it can be experienced. The Corporate Design Award is the leading award for design in corporate and brand communication. The winners of the 2007 award will be announced on May 23 during the "Marketing Services" trade fair in Frankfurt. MetaDesign already picked up three awards last year.

Surprisingly, the SVP is making a name for itself as the most innovative political advertiser instead of the clumsiest. It has to be, because the party wants to win 100,000 new voters in the fall. A big goal that requires a huge advertising effort, 11,000 square meters to be precise. These are the dimensions of a party logo with the slogan "My home - our Switzerland", which has recently been displayed on a wheat field in the approach path to the airport. With the mown field advertisement, the SVP wants to "welcome millions of arriving air passengers" and is already putting the other parties in advertising pressure. Because whether you like the SVP or not, you have to admit: The matter is well thought out. The party will not only use the field as an advertising space, but will also produce croissants from the harvest, which will be distributed at campaign events in the towns. Further such campaigns will follow in Mellingen, Dagmarsellen and Chavornay. There, the logo and lettering are not mown into a wheat field but, and this is really cool now, produced using different grasses. It's not expensive either, if you consider the long-term nature: the advertising remains visible until October. Brunner: "This shows how modern advertising can be combined with the tradition of agriculture. Analyses have shown that a clear political message and sterile advertising brochures are no longer enough to mobilize people. With this campaign, the SVP is certainly not only reaching its core voters, but also grain ring architects and other esoterics. An interview on the subject with an extraterrestrial will follow next week on this channel.

 The British news and information provider Reuters confirmed takeover rumors on Friday. A buyer has announced its interest, but it is not known who this is. The expression of interest does not necessarily have to lead to an offer, Reuters announced in London on Friday, according to SDA. It is also not certain whether an offer would receive the necessary approval in accordance with the articles of association. Reuters shares reacted to the announcement with a price jump of over 21 percent to 594 pence. There had previously been speculation on the markets about a takeover bid of 600 pence from Canadian competitor Thomson or Rupert Murdoch's News Corp group. Murdoch had recently already submitted a takeover bid for Reuters' competitor Dow Jones, but was initially rebuffed.

 Schulthess Druck is entering into a strategic cooperation with Sihldruck as of June 1, 2007. Together, the two partners aim to achieve a high standard of service and quality and thus optimum customer benefit.  
Schulthess Druck, a subsidiary of Schulthess Juristische Medien, hands over responsibility for the printing and finishing of its products to Sihldruck. Schulthess retains the publishing production with pre-press and proofreading and concentrates on the preparation and implementation of the publishing works from the publishing house. Sihldruck takes over Schulthess' processing, printing and finishing. The cooperation will be organized in such a way that the existing customers of both companies will continue to have access to their usual contact persons.

Guest commentary Security is a bad advisor, especially in times of upheaval, says Kaspar Loeb. At the agency, I always answer the virile morning greeting "so, you've got it under control" with a polite "no", which the person greeting me hardly ever takes note of. It is routinely taken for granted that "having everything under control" is the core competence of a "manager". However, "to manage" means nothing more than "to lead, guide, accomplish" and says nothing about whether we are always sure that we are doing the right thing.certainty is a bad advisor, especially in times of upheaval, and at best a sign of overconfidence. And no one with responsibility in this industry disputes the fact that advertising in particular is confronted with new challenges whose long-term effects are difficult to assess.
The problem is not that we are not aware of the progressively accelerating changes, the problem is how we react to them. Depending on the interests involved, the demise of print media, the collapse of free TV, the end of billboard advertising and the death of advertising agencies are all being invoked. The virtual world is on everyone's lips as an alternative to traditional media and, with all its communication channels, exerts a fascination that is only surpassed by the confusion it triggers in most of us, customers and advertisers. Those who nevertheless claim to have everything under control have my astonished admiration.
As a consolation for the others: it's no big deal and no one in charge will be offended if they admit to having lost track and not always knowing exactly which communication strategy is really the best and most efficient. On the contrary. Only by questioning our conventional way of thinking, the same old mix of often similar concepts, will we learn step by step to master the complexity of a communicative, creative work of art.
"Trial and error is a successful model of evolution. We are at the beginning of a significant evolutionary step on the way to a differentiated and individualized information society. The keywords are well known and much discussed: The emergence of virtual parallel worlds, the amateurization of communicative services (consumer-generated content) that were previously provided exclusively by agencies. The individualization of society and the associated great need to present oneself in public, even if only in a virtual world, and the trend for information to be made available free of charge at all times.
At the end of the day, a look at the already visible and certainly increasing diversity of all these phenomena suggests one conclusion. In future, the recipe for success could be NOT to have everything under control.
Kaspar Loeb is CEO of the advertising agency Publicis.

Digital printing Xerox invited customers and the trade press to the "eternal city" of Rome to present new products and business models, and more than 1200 customers responded to Xerox's call to find out about new products and business models. The Premier Partner Congress, the iGen3 User Group Meeting and the Digital Print User Forum, the largest event of its kind organized by Xerox in Europe, focused on a combination of product presentations and lectures. The respective national representatives invited existing and potential customers to convince them of the benefits that Xerox has to offer. The focus was on networking and exchanging experiences. Numerous customers from Switzerland were also able to find out about web-to-print solutions and successful concepts, such as how new business areas can be opened up in the key disciplines of digital printing, i.e. transaction printing, digital book printing or the production of direct mailings. In addition to theoretical approaches designed to lead premium partners and customers to successful business, Xerox also presented new products. On show for the first time in Europe and available at the same time as the customer event in Rome are the DocuColor 242 and 252 multifunction color printing systems (40 and 50 ppm respectively; successor models to the 240 and 250) and, as one of the highlights, the new 60 ppm DocuColor 260. The three models can now be equipped with a "Light Production Finisher" to complement the existing finishing solutions. In this way, prints can be stacked inline and thus in a single pass, punched two or four times, now also folded (including zigzag and two-break folding), contents merged and processed into a brochure using wire stitching.
As far as upstream data processing is concerned, Xerox offers four controllers depending on the requirements. The new "Print Workflow Solution" Splash RPX-ii, developed exclusively for Xerox by Efi, stood out in Rome. This solution, which works together with the DocuColor controller, is characterized by integrated colour management. As a further feature, Splash RPX-ii allows the processing or printing of documents transferred via USB stick without having to open them with the corresponding software.
Nuvera 288 as the fastest black and white printing system Xerox presented the most innovations in the black and white printing segment. A total of ten new products were presented here. One of the highlights was the "Xerox Nuvera 288 Digital Perfecting System". This is currently the fastest black and white digital printing system in the world for single-sheet printing and is capable of producing 288 prints (impressions) per minute. Xerox defines this as 144 A4 pages printed on the front and back. If only one side is to be printed, then the system "only" manages 144 pages. The fast front/rear printing is made possible by combining two printing units. The Nuvera 288 system has been developed for maximum availability so that the second module can remain in operation even if one printing unit fails. As with the Nuvera 100, 120 and 144 models, the EA toner developed by Xerox is being offered for the first time as a special feature in the black and white range. This chemically produced toner combines the advantages of sharper image reproduction and reduced toner consumption and is said to be more environmentally friendly to produce overall. As if that wasn't enough, the printed products also have a reduced gloss, which is otherwise considered annoying, at least according to our European tastes.
However, Xerox's claim of achieving offset quality was not quite achieved in the example shown, despite a resolution of 4800 ¥ 1200 dpi. Gradients were less harmonious, almost streaky, under very critical assessment. Nevertheless, the overall print result can be described as exceptionally good.
Black plus chromatic colorXerox will apparently be focusing more on chromatic colors in the future. In addition to black, the DocuTech 61xx printing systems can now also be expanded to include an additional toner printing unit for printing red, blue, green, cyan, magenta or yellow. Special colors can now be ordered from Xerox based on specific color definitions. This means that customers' corporate identity specifications can be supported in highlight color technology (HLC). With up to 10600 pages/hour in HLC technology, the top model in this series is the world's fastest cut sheet printer.
If the customers and partners present combine the technical innovations with the approaches presented under the umbrella term "Building your Business", then nothing should stand in the way of a successful introduction of the machines and solutions presented in Rome.   
Jürgen Franck

 Since Tuesday, users have been able to surf the net for free in large parts of the city of Lucerne. Anyone with a notebook with a wireless connection can log into the wireless network (WLAN).   
Following the successful test operation by Lucerne's energy and water supplier EWL, the city of Lucerne is opening up access to the wireless network. Thanks to a sponsor, Lucerne residents can initially access the WLAN called Omnisurf Luzern free of charge at 65 hotspots. According to Iris Isenschmid, media spokesperson for EWL, Lucerne is playing a pioneering role in Switzerland with its extensive WLAN offering. In Zurich, a pilot project is currently being prepared on Limmatquai, which is to be implemented this year, as Peter Bär, Deputy Director of the Environmental and Health Protection Department, confirmed at the request of Pressetext.ch. 
 
In Lucerne, surfing time is limited to 90 minutes, after which a new login is required. This measure is intended to limit illegal downloads. EWL plans to work with other sponsors to provide free access for longer periods. Expansion of the network depends on demand and profitability. The Goldbach Media subsidiary Activemobile has been awarded the contract for marketing, promising "completely new possibilities for the exclusive marketing of Omnisurf Lucerne". On the so-called landing, over and start page, the sponsoring partners are given exclusive space for their logo, their claim and the opportunity to present short, non-clickable video sequences of a maximum length of 15 seconds.

 Swiss television is working on a new satire format with Viktor Giacobbo and Mike Müller. From January 2008, the two will comment on the events of the past week in a satirical review on Sunday evenings.  
Late-night program for the second time: Five years after the end of "Viktors Spätprogramm", Giacobbo and Müller are returning to the screens with their own program featuring a tried-and-tested mix of interviews with guests, film clips, parodies and appearances by comedians. Like its predecessor, the half-hour program will be broadcast from an as yet unknown Zurich venue with a live audience. SF in a statement on Thursday. 30 programs are planned for SF 1 in 2008. This means the end for the satire magazine "Punkt CH". It no longer has a place alongside the new format. Genial daneben" will also come to an end in 2007. On the other hand, the "Arosa Humorfestival" and "Edelmais & Co." will remain in the comedy program, as reported by SDA.

 Christoph Neidhart, Mathias Plüss, Helen Stehli Pfister and the BAZ business editorial team are the winners of the Alstom Journalism Awards 2007, which were presented for the sixth time to media contributions on the topics of energy and transportation. 
This year, Christoph Neidhart was honored in equal parts for his article "Den Flüssen den Weg weisen", published in the NZZ, Mathias Plüss from Weltwoche for his article "Wir Geistesblitzableiter" and Helen Stehli Pfister for the documentary film "Tschernobyl und die Schweiz - Eine Katastrophe und ihre Folgen", broadcast on Swiss television, as well as the team from the business desk of the Basler Zeitung for a twelve-part series of articles on the subject of energy.
 
The prize is aimed at Swiss media professionals and the prize money amounts to 25,000 Swiss francs. The Alstom Journalism Prize is awarded by the foundation of the same name, according to Pressetext.ch. The foundation promotes an understanding of the interrelationships between energy and transportation and aims to contribute to an in-depth debate. The winners are selected by an independent jury, this year's members included: Filippo Lobardi, Member of the Council of States, Thomas Daum, Director of the Employers' Association, freelance journalist Thomas Müller and Tages-Anzeiger knowledge editor Barbara Vonarburg.

PR As part of an exploratory study by the University of Fribourg, German-speaking Federal Parliament correspondents from national media outlets are being surveyed about their attitudes and behavior in connection with political scandals. Trends are already emerging after just the first six interviews. On one point, Federal Parliament correspondents and researchers agree: The number of scandals covered in the media has increased in recent years. The reasons for this are varied: «fierce competition among media outlets» is cited as one factor. Another Federal Parliament correspondent confirms this, noting, «because it simply attracts attention,» and in this case, attention boosts circulation figures or viewership ratings. At the same time, however, he qualifies this by noting that it also stems from a more detached professional ethos, «one that sees itself less as part of the »perfect system« and more as a fourth branch of government in its own right.» The correspondents interviewed deny that there has been an increase in violations of standards by politicians: «But there has been a greater, targeted search for such violations.» Another adds: “There are also instances of sensationalizing scandals that aren’t factually grounded and are solely intended to attract attention.”
In any case, everyone agrees that the tide has turned and that trends long familiar from tabloid journalism are spilling over into political journalism. This is due in no small part to increasing competitive and time pressures, which have been steadily mounting since the dualization of the media. Accordingly, the three words «battle for attention» run like a common thread through all the interviews. And the Federal Parliament correspondents have their own methods for waging this battle: «You have to pick out certain elements and then dramatize them a little to even draw people’s attention to certain developments.»  
One interviewee brings up another trend: «We personalize—that gives the whole thing a lot more punch, and we get more attention when we personalize. It’s a trend that everyone is following.»
And although the majority of those surveyed admit to regularly sensationalizing—that is, exaggerating events (whether justified or not) to attract attention—they blame other media outlets for this trend: «The Sunday press certainly led the way in this trend toward sensationalism and scandal-mongering.» Two other names mentioned in this context were the *Tages-Anzeiger* and the *Weltwoche*, which, in the view of the majority of respondents so far, have apparently undergone a shift in the recent past toward greater sensationalism and personalization.
Another aspect that respondents mention in connection with political scandals is the deliberate manipulation of the media by politicians and government agencies. After all, even a Federal Parliament correspondent doesn’t receive exclusive information out of pure altruism so that he can land a scoop: «In very few cases is this the result of the journalists» own efforts. There are always interests behind leaks. And whoever has an interest in bringing something to light considers how to achieve the widest possible reach. Ever since the Sunday press has existed, people have turned to the Sunday press.”
Compared to the past, political journalism today is no longer a walk in the park, as one journalist from the daily press describes: «Here at the Federal Parliament, we write 200 articles a year. That’s almost one every day. And it wasn’t like that in the past. Of course, that increases the risk of mistakes.» A packed schedule, far more competition than there was ten or twenty years ago, coupled with a simultaneous reduction in the capacity of individual media outlets, takes its toll even on the most professional journalists.
Johanna Rese is studying media and communication studies at the University of Fribourg. She is currently writing her licentiate thesis on the role of Federal Parliament coverage in the context of political scandals. The findings of her research will be published in the book *Gegen Krisen gefeit* (edited by Othmar Baeriswyl), which will soon be released by Mediata SA.
Building Bridges: The 2nd Swiss Public Affairs and Lobbying Conference is titled «Successfully Building Bridges Between Business and Politics.».
The relationship between business and politics is viewed as more sensitive today than in the past. Public affairs and lobbying are therefore sensitive topics that people are reluctant to discuss. This makes it all the more important to critically reflect on the processes and practices of professional advocacy. Renowned speakers from the business world, politics, associations, government, and NGOs—including Edgar Oehler, Thomas Borer, Adalbert Durrer, Claude Longchamp, and 20 other top speakers—will address this topic.
Date: June 25–26. Location: Courtyard Marriott Zurich-Oerlikon. To register, visit: www.zfu.ch

Media agencies The new strategy presented by PubliGroupe on March 28 contains explosive material for media agencies. However, only a small proportion of them have understood this. Although the marketing business in the media sector remains the foundation of PubliGroupe, it will be "successively supplemented by a profitable consulting and service business". This was stated by PubliGroupe CEO Hanspeter Rohner at his annual press conference at the end of March. He added: "In future, consulting for advertising clients will become an even more important discipline", which PubliGroupe also intends to bundle in the new "Marketing & Digital Services" division (see WW 14/07). According to the latest PubliGroupe letter to shareholders, this division "comprises a portfolio of consulting and services for advertising clients and agencies for the implementation of communication and media strategies" and will "grow faster than the other segments". It can be assumed that PubliGroupe will enter into direct competition with media agencies with its activities and tools, something that many media agencies have not yet realized. When asked about this by Werbewoche, several are clueless. "Do I have to deal with this?" asks OMD CEO Christof Kaufmann. "Of course it's an issue, a big issue in fact," says Walter Merz, Managing Director of BSW Swiss Leading Agencies. The BSW will therefore be discussing it soon. "An explosive topic", also acknowledges Stephan Küng, CEO of Initiative Media Western. However, he still lacks enough information to really form an opinion.
Others are feeling the same way, such as Urs Rueb, co-owner of MediaPlus. "We'll have to wait and see what PubliGroupe decides to do," he says. If it stays in the area of liquidation, that would be okay with him. "But if it wants to offer planning for all types of media, that would be wrong. Because that is ultimately the job of the media agencies." He also sees a conflict of interest here between PubliGroupe and its core business, newspaper leases.
Urs Schneider, owner of the Mediaschneider agency, is less reserved. "There'll be a war," he exclaims. Because it is clear to him: "The P is planning an all-media consultancy with a cross-media slant. It's taking the advertising and media agencies head on." In addition, it is building up the new consulting business with the support of publishers - after all, P's main income comes from Swiss print advertising.
Schneider is not surprised by the "attack by the P", he sees it as a tit-for-tat response, for example because most agencies had agreed to the "direct booking compensation" from Tamedia, Ringier & Co. But Schneider is surprised that the P is offending "its best clients" in this way. "It comes out wrong," he comments - and refers to the international networks. "It's a problematic strategy that lacks credibility."
No war, but at least a "huge chaos" according to Riccarda Mecklenburg, CEO of m&m Media Holding, "in the event that PubliGroupe should offer its future consulting services in the same way as Publimedia does today - namely free of charge". Because then it would be tight for the agencies in Switzerland. "The national agencies will be blown away. And the international networks, which will inevitably remain here, will have to subsidize their Swiss business through their foreign business." However, Mecklenburg is not worried about his own media agency group. "We are very well positioned thanks to our foreign strategy."
"Limits of professionalism "Yvonne Boller, Managing Director of Universal McCann Switzerland, does not see the future as all doom and gloom. Thanks to its dominant market position, PubliGroupe is in a position to push the price for consulting and planning below the cost recovery level and to lure advertising clients with superficially good conditions. "But by mixing its roles, PubliGroupe is now definitely reaching the limits of its professionalism, because it wants to be a marketer, agent, consultant and media owner at the same time."
According to Boller, this "role puff" is also an opportunity for media agencies: "Because we can make our advice more neutral, more needs-oriented and therefore more professional." Ultimately, it is the customer who decides what price is worth what quality.
At the Swiss Advertising Association (SWA), Director Jürg Siegrist has certainly noticed the new wind from Lausanne, but the matter is still a little too nebulous for him. "Where is PubliGroupe getting the know-how from? Does it want to take over a media agency? If so, is it aware that it is turning the agencies against itself?" he asks, adding: "I don't have enough facts at the moment; the picture still needs to become clearer."
Markus Knöpfli