The Neue Zürcher Zeitung has rejected an advertisement from the Bruno Manser Fund. This should have appeared in Friday's edition. The fund accuses Credit Suisse of organizing the IPO of a Malaysian timber company.  
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Bruno Manser Fund describes the commitment of CS as ecologically and socially extremely problematic. The Malaysian company Samling is largely responsible for the destruction of the Penan people's habitat, for which the missing Bruno Manser had campaigned.
 
A spokeswoman for NZZ confirmed the rejection of the ad upon request. CS was associated with the destruction of the rainforest, she said. Without appropriate proof, such an advertisement would not be printed.

The Zollikon-based consultancy for PR, communication and marketing, Richterich & Partner, is expanding its financial communication and investor relations expertise. Markus Baumgartner joins the team as Senior Consultant. He has over 25 years of experience in the financial sector and business communications and is an investor relations specialist. Baumgartner previously worked for various PR agencies, banks, asset managers and financial newspapers. After training as a banker, he started out as a foreign exchange trader at Credit Suisse. He then gained experience in journalism and wrote for several years for Tagi and Cash Invest, where he was head of department. He built up the investment section at the Tages-Anzeiger and published various financial books. For the last six years, he has been a partner and senior consultant at various communications agencies.

The free newspapers Aargauer Woche and LiZ Limmat Zeitung will become AZ Woche Plus and LiZ Woche Plus as of March 1, 2007. AZ Wochenzeitungen AG and Limmattaler Tagblatt AG - both companies of the AZ Medien Group - intend to publish the new Woche Plus with a circulation of 150,000 copies. This will be distributed free to households every Thursday with three regional split editions: AZ Woche Plus in the Baden, Wettingen, Brugg region with 52,873 copies, in the Aarau, Zofingen region with 64,542 copies and LiZ Woche Plus in the Zurich Limmattal region with 32,992 copies.  
The new look of Woche Plus aims to differentiate itself even more clearly from the subscription daily newspapers Aargauer Zeitung and Limmattaler Tagblatt, as detailed in a press release. The focus will be on service character for the readership and attractive insertion conditions for advertisements. The editorial team will focus on entertainment, people, events and lifestyle.
 
Christina Sedens is the editorial director of Woche Plus. She was previously Editorial Director of the LiZ Limmat Zeitung. Oscar Meier is responsible for the management.

From Saturday, Beat Schlatter will present the evening program on 3+. Swiss celebrities will take over the role of TV announcer on a weekly basis. In addition to Schlatter, Renzo Blumenthal, Jennifer Ann Gerber and Jacqueline Schneider have already worked as announcers. Beat Schlatter has free choice and can say what he wants, says 3+ managing director Dominik Kaiser. He is looking forward to the comedian's engagement. He was very pleased with Schlatter's presentation. The feedback on the TV announcers has been very good so far. Schlatter will present the evening on 3+ for one week from this Saturday. He will introduce the evening program at around 8 p.m. and present series, documentaries and feature films of the evening.

Sandra Perez will be the new Head of Communications at Swiss Tennis from June 1. She takes over from Daniel Monnin. Perez is a proven PR and communications expert, as can be seen from the press release. She is a marketing planner and, from November 2007, a federally certified communications manager. She previously worked at Radio International as Public Relations Manager. 

Noise won a competitive presentation for the smallest major city in Zurich and is therefore responsible for Sihlcity's overall communication. The task was to present Sihlcity after the launch campaign. The Zurich agency came out on top because its concept was so obvious. However, they do not want to reveal any more about this yet, according to the press release from Noise. Sihlcity opens its doors on March 22. With around 80 stores, 13 restaurants, 9 cinemas, a disco, cultural center, hotel, fitness and wellness oasis, apartments, offices, crèche, library, medical center and a church, the center in the middle of Zurich is almost like a small town

Following its record profit, Germany's largest TV group ProSiebenSat1 intends to continue growing in the new year. Pre-tax earnings grew by ten percent to EUR 387 million in the 2006 financial year. Revenues increased by just under six percent to 2.1 billion. The aim is to grow faster than the market in 2007, according to an SDA report. In order to become less dependent on the TV advertising market, the Group intends to further expand its peripheral activities. For this reason, the company has just purchased the second largest German Internet price search engine, Billiger.de. However, the purchase price remains unknown. In terms of audience figures, however, the Group's channels lost ground last year and only achieved 29.4 percent in the 14-49 target group (previous year: 30.3 percent). The flagship channel Prosieben suffered the biggest decline. The station's revenues fell by two percent to EUR 737 million.

Metadesign has come out on top in an international competition held by tire manufacturer Continental. The branding specialists developed a creative central idea that they will now implement in the design of all Continental brochures. They have also developed a new, more emotional visual language, which will be followed by photo shoots in Sao Paulo, Spain and Shangai, according to the press release. Continental will launch its global advertising campaign in the course of the year. The Zurich-based agency, which specializes in branding and design, is the lead agency for Continental Commercial Vehicles Tires.

Radio 24 will continue to advertise on the streetcars and buses of Zurich's public transportation system. Zurich's largest private radio station has commissioned Cavegn Werbung to transport the current advertising and poster campaigns to the VBZ. While the familiar campaign visuals appear on the rear windows of the buses, the streetcar panels are intended to draw attention to the wide range of Radio 24 products, as detailed in a press release. Ambiguous terms are used to dramatize the variety of programmes in a humorous way.  

The exclusive Swiss partner for the Kickboxing World Series is U1 TV. The first tournament will be broadcast from the Kulturhalle Zenith in Munich on March 10, 2007. The twenty best fighters in the Super League have qualified for the eight events and will now compete against each other. Two semi-final fights, the final fight and the fight for third place will take place in each tournament. The World Series fights are followed by the World Championships and European Championships.

Assai has taken over the entire online marketing for the Flims Laax Falera winter resort for the 2006/2007 winter season. The campaign for the vacation region is based on three measures: an online game with a recommendation mechanism, search engine marketing and a banner campaign.  
An online game designed by Assai was launched at the start of the season. This accompanied the offline communication measures and increased catalog orders, as detailed in a press release.
 
In a further step, an international search engine marketing campaign was launched, which focused on performance-oriented marketing.
 
Finally, Swiss portals and websites with a high affinity to the topic of travel were considered for banner advertising.
 
Assai works for national and international clients. As a Wirz Group company, Assai stands for digital and dialog-oriented communication.

René Worni on a cross-border innovation boostThe national border is an almost insurmountable obstacle for print media. Examples: Until 2001, the Basler Zeitung tried for ten years to establish cross-border identities in the border region on the bend of the Rhine with the culture and nightlife magazine 3Land. Without success. A joint business page funded by BaZ and Badischer Zeitung also disappeared again after a short time. Obviously, the public's interest in events beyond the border was too limited. But the Regio Basiliensis is moving closer and closer together. Now would be another opportunity to examine cross-border options for print media on the Rhine bend. This is because BaZ publisher Matthias Hagemann may already have a problem there in the fall: his Basel newspaper is facing competition on Sunday. Mathis Lüdin and his Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, which is part of the Mittelland newspaper association, will penetrate the city's agglomeration communities with a Sunday edition and siphon off advertising revenue. BaZ cannot simply let this slip through its fingers, not to mention the loss of reputation.
Not long ago, BaZ also invested massively in the regional editorial office and thus took a stand against Lüdin in the country. The options are being examined, says the publisher, who expects losses for a Sunday BaZ, but is prepared to bear them. Otherwise, Hagemann is keeping his head down and keeping his concept in the drawer for the time being. However, the situation offers the opportunity to do more than just launch a seventh BaZ: It's not just a matter of holding your own against Lüdin's Sonntagsblatt. With a Sunday BaZ, we are also taking on the national Sunday titles. Courage for journalistic innovation would mean asking the question of which topics a Sunday reading paper generates in the region. Such a cross-border Sunday product would bring exclusivity in terms of content and a clear distinction from the style of the usual Sunday press. The Badische Zeitung already spills over the border here and there with its weekend magazine. Why not the other way around?
René Worni, Editor