Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz has appointed Bernd-Peter Arnold, journalist and partner of the Zollikon-based communications agency Comunet, as an honorary professor. He has taught journalism and communication science at the Institute of Journalism at Mainz University for more than 20 years. Arnold held leading positions at Hessischer Rundfunk for over three decades. Most recently, he was head of the radio station Hr4 as well as the business radio station Hr Skyline, the forerunner of Hr-info. The Comunet agency works for companies in Switzerland and Germany. It advises personalities from all areas of the economy on communication issues.

The auditor of Military Court 6 has brought charges against three employees of SonntagsBlick for violating military secrets. On January 8, 2006, the newspaper published a classified document from the army's command support base. The document concerned alleged secret prisons and interrogation methods of the American foreign intelligence service CIA. The main hearing is expected to take place in St. Gallen in April, as announced by the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS). In the interests of secrecy, the questioning of the accused on the matter, the examination of witnesses and the presentations by the parties will probably take place in camera. The offense could result in a prison sentence of up to five years.

After two years at radio station Toxic.fm, presenter Andreas Rohrer and editorial manager Nicole Besmer are taking a new direction. The 24-year-old Rohrer will leave the station on April 30 to complete his studies at the University of Zurich. The 28-year-old Nicole Besmer will return to her home town of Zurich at the end of May, as announced by Managing Director Ralph Wirt on Tuesday. Toxic.fm regrets the departure of the two heads of department and thanks them for their extremely dedicated work. The station intends to fill the two positions as of April 1, 2007. No successors have yet been appointed.

With Stämpfli Polska, the Stämpfli Group is moving to Poland. The new company will initially focus on media prepress and coordination services as a general contractor. Stämpfli Polska will provide media prepress and coordination services primarily for the Polish market. However, the Bern-based group also hopes to attract Swiss customers who are already producing abroad with the services offered by its Polish subsidiary. In addition to media prepress, other services such as publishing services are to be developed step by step. The publishing systems are to be launched on the Polish market by the beginning of 2008 at the latest. Dr. Rudolf Stämpfli, Chairman of the Board of Directors, describes the move into Poland as a milestone in the company's 200-year history and also sees it as confirmation of the Group's consistent growth strategy. He hopes to be able to grow quickly and independently in Poland.
The Stämpfli Group with its five companies employs over 280 people in Bern, Zurich, Karlsruhe and Warsaw. The family business is managed by Dr. Rudolf Stämpfli and Peter Stämpfli in the 6th generation.

According to a special Wemf study, an average of 211,000 people read the Abendzeitung Heute. The figures for the first half of the year are a success for the newspaper, Ringier reported in a press release. The publisher has thus successfully integrated an evening newspaper into the Swiss newspaper market. Heute is published in the three major cities of Basel, Bern and Zurich. Heute is also distributed together with Blick in the "KombiNation" advertising combination. 53% of readers are between 14 and 34 years old. Furthermore, Heute readers come from households with above-average incomes and are therefore also highly educated.
of the French-speaking Swiss edition of 20 Minuten in the first half of the year. The commuter newspaper had 250,000 readers last fall.

The Neuchâtel regional newspapers L'Express and L'Impartial and the Journal du Jura have been producing national topics together since Tuesday. The collaboration will be known as Arc Presse. The aim is to reduce production costs and halt the erosion of readership figures. The three newspapers will appear with one editorial jacket and a new layout. They will jointly manage the advertising market under the umbrella brand Arc Presse, with the main topics of business, sport, Switzerland, international and culture being produced by an editorial team in Neuchâtel. The newspapers are using the closer cooperation to create new reader offerings in the multimedia sector. The concentration of forces leads to job cuts (see project
Mediagraph, a Lausanne-based graphic design studio specializing in media, gave the three titles a new look. The consulting firm Naef Partners in Zurich was commissioned to oversee and implement the project.

The head of Blick Online, Nicolas Noth, is leaving the Ringier publishing house. It is not yet clear who will replace him. Patrick Vogt, Head of Newspapers at Ringier Switzerland, will take over the management of the Blick Online edition on an interim basis. Noth has already left the online editorial team but is still working for the company - but he will also be leaving the company. Ringier did not provide any information on the reasons for this, as the news agency SDA announced on Tuesday. The departure has nothing to do with the reorientation of Blick or with the departure of Martin Baumgartner, who until recently was responsible as Blick Online Editorial Director.

The Swiss satirical magazine Nebelspalter now has a new online presence. The design and information structure as well as the range of offers have been revised and optimized. A daily updated news ticker complements the print edition with current satirical articles and offers exclusive articles and previews from the printed magazine, as detailed in a press release. Every Nebelspalter is now also available as an e-paper in PDF format. Subscribers can download current and back issues in the password-protected archive area. Further services are planned and will follow in the coming months.
The new website is part of the ongoing gentle repositioning of the Nebelspalter brand. Previously, in May 2005, the print edition underwent a comprehensive facelift in terms of both appearance and content.
The satirical magazine is now in its 133rd year and is published by Engeli & Partner Verlag in Horn, Thurgau. The oldest satirical and humorous magazine reaches 276,000 readers (MACH) and is published ten times a year.

Branko Russo, Mathias Koch and Daniel Tschudi joined Web2com's Sales, Consulting and Media Services division in January. Russo previously worked at Radiotele as Account Manager Online. Mathias Koch has many years of sales experience and supports the Web2com team as a media planner. As Project Manager Media & Services, Tschudi supports Product Development. He previously worked in marketing and media support at a large publishing house. With this personnel expansion, Web2com aims to intensify its market presence and expand its customer support, as detailed in a company press release.

The new Coca-Cola Zero is now also available in Switzerland - with real taste and without sugar. Men in particular have been waiting for this; at least that's what the beverage multinational claims. But is that really the case, dear men? Have you spent the past few weeks - out of sheer anticipation - tossing and turning and secretly sipping your girlfriend's Diet Coke? In order to make the drink really tasty, Coca-Cola will be beating the advertising drum really hard around your ears in the near future. From TV commercials to billboards, Coca-Cola is sparing no effort to promote its new sugar-free product. The biggest advertising effort in 23 years is planned for the launch. But that's not all: to really spoil the men, Coca Cola has come up with something very special and invented Zero Day. On this day - analogous to Valentine's Day, on which, according to Coca Cola, the focus is on the woman - the man is to be presented with a gift: With a Coca-Cola Zero, of course.

After numerous awards such as Newcomer Agencies of the Year and umpteen ADC cubes, a new title hails for the Zurich advertising agency Walker. The newly founded Paul Reinzeichner Academy has examined the websites of the most creative agencies in 2006. The ranking is as follows: 1st Walker Advertising Agency
2. call Lanz
3. euro RSCG
4. JWT+H+F
5. spillmann Felser
6. advico
7. wirz advertising
8. lowe
9. young from matt
10. publicis
The following criteria played a role in the evaluation: creativity, information content, navigation as well as contact. Walker convinced the jury with a small, modest site in three languages. Once you enter, you will find a large amount of information and a beautiful screen design down to the last detail. The unconventional navigation works surprisingly well.
Paul Reinzeichner's blog is dedicated exclusively to Swiss advertising. The Academy of the same name was founded only on Monday. As an institution, it will continue to deal with developments in marketing communication at irregular intervals in a pop-scientific manner. It plans to produce ratings independently, but not without subjective influences.

Search engine marketing is the fastest growing area of the online advertising market. This is the conclusion reached by DoubleClick in the study "The European Search Engine Marketing Landscape 2006" published on Tuesday. The provider of marketing solutions for media agencies surveyed experts from the European advertising industry for the study, including publishers, creative agencies and the Interactive Advertising Bureau. According to the study, more money is invested in search engine marketing than in conventional online ads. The UK dominates the market with 44 percent. France is the fastest growing market and there is still a lot of untapped potential in Germany. According to the study, techniques to achieve the best possible positioning in search engines are still not very widespread in Europe. Agencies and clients do not yet fully understand the technology, although it is just as important as search engine marketing itself. Experts see enormous potential in this, which has not yet been exhausted. In the longer term, however, the European market will adapt to the American market. European marketers need to pursue a long-term strategy that takes into account both paid and natural search.