Under the leadership of their international association IFPI, eleven music production companies have sued the Chinese edition of the internet portal Yahoo.  
They accuse Yahoo China of distributing music without a license. According to SDA, the plaintiffs - including companies such as Warner and Sony BMG - are demanding damages of around CHF 870 million. The portal had enabled users to access unauthorized downloads of 229 Chinese and English-language titles through links. The defendant takes a different view: it is not responsible for the content of third-party providers, a spokesperson for the Chinese Yahoo operator Alibaba is quoted as saying in an SDA report.
 
With this lawsuit, the music industry is continuing its attempts to take legal action against the illegal distribution of its offerings in China. Last November, IFPI filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the internet search engine Baidu.com. Success in court is very important for the music companies: according to industry experts, digital music content accounts for 20 to 30 percent of the annual sales of music giants such as Warner Music and Universal in China. Elsewhere in the world, these products only account for an average of ten percent of sales.

Did you know that printer ink is three times more expensive than high-class champagne? Kodak is rubbing US consumers' noses in this fact these days with its "Think Ink" campaign. This is one of the company's biggest campaigns to enter the highly competitive inkjet printer and printer cartridge market.  
Until now, the formula applied: The device itself is sold at a loss, which is recouped plus a hefty profit through the sale of overpriced cartridges. Kodak now wants to turn this model on its head: While its inkjet printers are in the upper price segment (149 to 299 US dollars), the prices for the cartridges are strikingly lower than those of its competitors (9.99 dollars for black and 14.99 for color cartridges).
 
But turning the market around and convincing consumers of the new product is a Herculean task and the campaign now underway is one of the biggest Kodak has ever undertaken. But size alone is not enough; the strategy must also be multi-faceted and ambitious. The Concept Studio has already launched viral measures with two guys called Nathan and Max: They are at home on Inkisit.com, their clips have been channeled into YouTube and they also already have a presence on MySpace. The more classic "Think" campaign by Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide will be seen on television, in print and online, as can be read on Adage.com.

It has been on the market for just under a year and is already a hit. Publisherconnect is a service and program package from which publishers can benefit in the handling of their advertisements and the coordination between online and print.the pilot project was launched almost a year ago with the St. Galler Tagblatt. Since then, 13 publishing houses have opted for Publiconnect, according to an sda press release from March 7. This year, seven online marketplaces have already been created with the Publisherconnect software. Publiconnect offers publishers a package that includes all existing Publicitas solutions.
Publiconnect offers professional customers and publishers solutions for handling their classified advertisements. On the one hand, solutions are offered for the optimal placement of advertisements. On the other hand, the acquisition and design of advertisements is made easy. With the Publisherconnect package, online marketplaces can be created and online and print can be coordinated thanks to a CMS.

High customer acceptance of the Linux open source operating system is apparently forcing the computer group Hewlett-Packard (HP) to consider supplying notebooks and desktop devices equipped with Linux ex works.  
The industry service Computer Reseller News (CRN) quotes Doug Small, the director responsible for Linux marketing at HP, according to whom there is a rapidly increasing demand for Linux. Apparently, business for several thousand Linux desktops is in the pipeline at HP, as Smalls reveals. However, according to the report, he did not want to give any details. HP, which according to information from Heise.de replaced the previous leader Dell in the statistics for computers sold under license in the previous quarter, had already delivered computers equipped with Linux in the past, but at that time the response was only slight. According to Heise, competitor Dell is also considering Linux forays.

The EU is hoping for the potential opportunities offered by a second life. Adidas, IBM, Greenpeace and, more recently, the PR agency group Trimedia - they are all already making their presence felt in the virtual parallel world of Second Life. With the help of a representation in Second Life, the EU hopes to improve its weak communication work with EU citizens on certain topics. This can be read on pressetext.austria. "With an EU office in Second Life", says Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, spokesperson for the EU Commission, "we want to get closer to EU citizens". However, Dowgielewicz is not yet clear exactly what the EU's Second Life presence should look like. However, he says that the entire presence is more a project of the communications department than of the EU as a whole.
Hopefully the EU will seize the opportunity and establish better contact with its citizens. Second Life offers the unique opportunity to catch up in the next life on what you have missed in this one.

A journalist in Moscow has been sacked after reporting on the brutality of special forces during an anti-Kremlin demonstration. Five months after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, journalists are increasingly fearing for their (press) freedom: Irina Vorobeva was banned from reporting on the riots at the anti-Kremlin demonstration by the state radio station where she worked. So she gave an interview on the independent radio station Echo Moskvy. Her statements resulted in her immediate dismissal. But it is not only the state that is throwing a spanner in the works of journalists: just a few days ago, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, an Italian-Swiss correspondent for the newspaper La Repubblica, was kidnapped by Taliban fighters.
Journalists are often accused of hunting down innocent victims and politicians in order to get the juiciest story and then spice it up with their own tabloid sauce. But last year alone, according to Reporters Without Borders, 81 journalists were killed, at least 871 arrested and 56 kidnapped. Threats are counted in four-digit figures, dismissals are not recorded. We haven't had figures this bad since 1994.
As long as state and military-like institutions are able to exercise censorship and violence, there will be journalists who stand up and fight for freedom of the press. Not because they want to be the first to publish the most sensational news, but because too many people have to suffer from silence.

The new President of the Press Council from January 1, 2008 is Dominique von Burg. He takes over from Peter Studer, who is stepping down at the end of the year after more than six years in office.  
As the Swiss Press Council Foundation announced on Thursday, Dominique von Burg has been a member of the committee since 2000. The 61-year-old journalist was editor-in-chief of the Tribune de Genève until the fall of 2006, where he still works as local editor. His journalistic career began after a Phil. I. degree in history and French, he began his journalistic career in 1969 with a stint at the Tribune de Genève. He then worked for French-speaking Swiss television from 1980 to 2000, for example as a reporter for "Temps Présent", editor-in-chief of "Teléjournal" and producer of "Droit de cité", before switching back to the print media as editor-in-chief of the "Tribune de Genève".
 
Founded in 1972, the Press Council monitors compliance with media ethics principles and, according to the SDA, examines over a hundred complaints every year. Most of the complaints concern breaches of the required respect for privacy, such as the naming of individuals in criminal investigations. The Press Council was initiated by the Swiss Association of Journalists (SVJ). At the end of 1999, a new body was founded which, in addition to the SVJ, also includes the media trade union Comedia, the Syndicate of Swiss Media Professionals (SSM) and the Conference of Editors-in-Chief.

91 percent of women over 50 think it's time to change the prevailing views on "women and aging." This was the finding of a global survey of women in the 50+ generation commissioned by the Dove brand (Unilever). Today, probably not coincidentally, on International Women's Day, the results were published.The survey was part of the Dove Pro Age study "Beauty - not a question of age". It was conducted as part of the launch of the new Pro Age skincare range. Some interesting results came to light: 86 percent of the women surveyed are even proud of their age. The majority describe themselves as young (59 percent), and only 16 percent as old. The quintessence of the survey: women over 50 today feel too young to be old.
93 percent of respondents also believe that society has misconceptions about women over 50. Among other things, unproductivity for society and disinterest in sex were mentioned.
In previous years, Dove has already advertised with women who do not conform to the ideal image of media society. With Pro Age, Dove wants to help older women in particular feel beautiful, but also promote a more positive attitude toward aging.

Discount policy Because more and more publishers and even Publicitas are offering media agencies forms of remuneration or fees, the Swiss Advertising Association (SWA) is concerned about the independence of media planners. "The SWA is sticking to its stance that the clients pay the media agencies - and no one else," says SWA Director Jürg Siegrist after an SWA board meeting. The consequence from the SWA's point of view: direct booking or handling fees are merely further discounts and must be passed on to the clients. Siegrist therefore demands full transparency on the part of publishers and agencies, but the SWA does not stop at appeals. It decided to take a close look at the entire discount and rebate system in the industry and to rethink the system from the ground up. Whether annual sales premium, consultant commission, volume discounts, handling and direct booking compensation - everything is up for discussion.

Baloise Fund Invest BFI now provides information on market developments in capital funds in a semi-annual newsletter. The newsletter was conceived and designed by the Basel West agency. The Fund News provides customers and selected recipients of Baloise Insurance and Baloise Bank Soba with tips on promising investments and secure pension provision. This also includes a capital protection fund designed for the long term, which is hedged downwards and guarantees a minimum return. The main topic of the first issue is the investor psyche, the irrational behavioral patterns that can be observed in both private and professional investors. The newsletter is published in German, French and Italian.

Sunday press The AZ Media Group plans to launch the seventh edition of the Mittelland Zeitung in September.One may wonder why the decision was not made earlier. It is well known that the management of the Sunday time slot is one of the most successful models in recent newspaper history and that the Sunday papers have been able to position themselves successfully in both the readership and advertising markets. But now it is certain: Publisher Peter Wanner (Aargauer Zeitung and Limmattaler Tagblatt) and his allies cooperating in the Mittelland Zeitung (Solothurner Zeitung, Zofinger Tagblatt and Basellandschaftliche Zeitung) want to launch a seventh edition of the MZ next fall. Dietschi AG, which publishes the Oltener Tagblatt, has not yet given its approval. Detailed clarifications are currently underway there, but the agreement is considered to be largely certain. The first edition of the Mittelland Zeitung am Sonntag is scheduled to appear on September 16 with a circulation of 200,000 copies.
In the debate about the most suitable variant for capturing the Aargau, Solothurn and Basellandschaft reading Sunday, those involved rejected a stand-alone title and also spoke out against the variant of a free Sunday paper. "In both the readership and advertising markets, a seventh edition is the most sensible solution from a business point of view," says Ueli Eckstein, COO and head of print media at the AZ Media Group. Eckstein argues that with a seventh MZ, it would be possible to build on the existing customer base and thus offer subscribers real added value. The national Sunday papers would not have this advantage, although Ueli Eckstein could certainly imagine SonntagsBlick or NZZ am Sonntag as a seventh edition of the respective parent paper.
Production as during the weekWith their decision, the parties involved give the green light for the project work. The rough concept envisages that the Aargauer Zeitung will produce the cover section with news from home, abroad, business, sports and lifestyle and the partner publishers will cantonalize and regionalize their papers in the tried and tested manner of the Mittelland Zeitung association. The content of the front page also falls under their journalistic sovereignty. The Sunday edition is to be clearly distinguished from the weekday editions in terms of design and content. According to the AZ Media Group, the Sunday edition will be integrated into the daily newspaper subscription of all partner publishers. The expected surcharge per issue is 50 to 90 centimes. Subscribers will receive their paper in their mailboxes with early Sunday delivery by 8:30 a.m.
The paper will also be available at newsstands throughout Switzerland. The placement of national and regional advertisements will logically result from the national and regional sections of the paper. The job market will be moved from Saturday to Sunday. Whether Publicitas, which already handles the advertising business for the weekly editions, will take over the marketing of the Sunday paper is currently the subject of negotiations.    
Increasing competition in BasellandWhether and how the seventh edition of the Mitelland Zeitung will affect the Sunday market
remains to be seen. Südostschweiz am Sonntag, with which publisher Hanspeter Lebrument presented his interpretation of a reading Sunday to the Grisons reading public in May 2006, probably favored the decision-making process in Aargau. Südostschweiz am Sonntag has not yet had the desired success. "The paper could do with more advertisements," says Lebrument soberly. Meanwhile, the competitive situation between Basler Zeitung and Basellandschaftliche Zeitung is intensifying. After failed cooperation negotiations between publishers Matthias Hagemann and Mathis Lüdin, Lüdin's Basellandschaftliche Zeitung became the new partner paper in the Mittelland Zeitung group last September. Starting in the fall, the MZ will now extend its Sunday coverage into Basel's agglomeration communities. After Lüdin's cooperation, the Basler Zeitung had massively increased its regional coverage and is now examining whether it would make economic sense to enter the Sunday market.
BaZ publisher Matthias Hagemann resolutely denies any causal links between his deliberations and the activities of the competition. "The Mittelland Zeitung is in no way putting us in a predicament." Corresponding offers of talks that BaZ could cooperate with MZ am Sonntag have reportedly gone unheeded at the Rhine bend. Publisher Hagemann has grave doubts about the profitability of the regional Sunday business. "We see that in Graubünden, that it is not running." There, he says, there is merely a shift of advertisements to Sunday. If national advertisers do not warm to a Sunday title of any kind from Basler Zeitung, "we won't do it," says the publisher.
25 new editorial positionsPatrick Müller (32),
who has been a page-maker and head of news at SonntagsBlick for three years, becomes editor-in-chief of the MZ Sunday edition, with AZ editor-in-chief Peter Buri bearing overall journalistic responsibility for Aargauer Zeitung and MZ. For the Sunday edition, 25 new positions are to be created in the editorial offices. Twelve jobs will be needed for the new main editorial office alone, while another ten to fifteen jobs will be distributed among the regional departments of the partner titles. There will also be additional jobs for printing and, above all, for delivery. It is expected that 500 new employees will be hired, most of whom will work part-time.  
René Worni

On May 1, 2007, René Loner will join Wirz Corporate, the Wirz Group subsidiary specializing in corporate branding and public relations, as Head of Public Relations. In this function, he also joins the Executive Board of Wirz Corporate under the chairmanship of Urs Binggeli. Over the past five years, Loner has worked as an independent consultant for companies and organizations, the majority of whose communications mandates he is bringing into the new constellation. He previously worked in various agencies, including building up the PR unit of the advertising agency Jung von Matt/Limmat and as a consultant for financial market communications at Wirz Investor Relations.