Mode Publicis gets men in shape for Nifty Oxford The fat days after Christmas are over. Now it's time to keep things in moderation or use the fitness subscription once again. Fortunately, however, there is an alternative for all those who are indisciplined and indulgent. According to the creatives at Publicis, if your waistband is too tight, it's best to go under the knife or, even better, under the scissors of their client Nifty Oxford Couture. Skilled hands will take individual measurements and then tailor the desired item of clothing with surgical precision. Andreas Panzeri

Press Weltwoche is suffering from anorexia. Since the beginning of the year, the paper has slimmed down by up to a quarter. Nothing out of the ordinary, says publisher and editor-in-chief Roger Köppel. Anyone holding the first three January issues in their hands will quickly notice: Weltwoche has become a thin paper. A glance at the last page confirms this impression. Since the beginning of the year, the magazine has always ended on page 66 - an unusually low figure, as a consultation of the last issue shows. In 2006, even in summer weeks with few advertisements and topics, the magazine was eight pages longer. In the past, however, the last sentence closed on page 90 by far the most frequently. You do the math: Weltwoche has lost up to a quarter of its former size.On an austerity courseNothing out of the ordinary, says publisher and editor-in-chief Roger Köppel. "We have always adapted the size of the paper to the size of the advertisements." Which means: very thin paper equals very few advertisements. Köppel therefore sees no cause for concern. The conspicuously small size of the January editions is due to the economic situation. "The first two weeks of January and the summer months are times with few advertisements," says the publisher.
The new owner of the traditional title vehemently denies that the reduction in size could also be an expression of cost-cutting and downsizing measures. On the contrary. Since his return from Berlin, he has increased the number of stories in Weltwoche, not reduced them. In fact, the narrow edition from January 18 contains a lot more text elements than many of the 90-page issues from last year. However, the individual articles are shorter on average. This also makes it clear how the downsizing came about. So there are savings, just in a different way.
In industry circles, there is talk of an annual shortfall of one to two million francs. Köppel does not confirm this figure, but says ambiguously: "The target has not yet been reached. We have to keep at it." However, this cannot be achieved with savings alone. "We also have to increase earnings. We are on track here." Kiosk sales in particular are developing positively.
Creating space for advertisementsIncreasing revenue means, among other things, further increasing the paid circulation. Weltwoche is making good progress in this respect. Compared to the previous year, an additional 2500 copies were sold in 2006, as the Wemf figures show. However, the slight increase in circulation contrasts with the loss of reach. Here Weltwoche is clearly one of the losers with a drop of 21,000 readers in the 2005/06 period. And in terms of advertising, 2005 went down in the company's history as a year of crisis. Whether the situation has improved in the past year cannot yet be conclusively assessed. Köppel's predecessor Jürg Wildberger knew at the end of June that the advertising volume from January to May 2006 was "above the previous year's figures", Köppel now speaks of a good performance last November and December.
If Weltwoche media columnist Kurt W. Zimmermann's rule of thumb were to apply ("It is probably the case that papers with a very sharp profile cannot become major financial successes"), the slump would certainly continue. Zimmermann's client is likely to see things a little differently. After all, Roger Köppel is doomed to success if he doesn't want to make up for the losses out of his own wallet.
The first steps to boost the advertising business are already visible in the paper. Until the end of 2006, the table of contents was still spread over a double page, but now the right-hand side of page 5 is available to advertisers. Köppel would not be Köppel if he did not sell this decision primarily as a journalistic measure. The new table of contents is now stricter and fits the paper better. Only in second place does he give the real reason: "We have also created prominent advertising space."
However, the redesigned introduction to Weltwoche is just one of numerous changes to the paper's architecture that Köppel has made in recent weeks and months. "Weltwoche was fraying after I left. I wanted a clearer focus and a clearer structure in the paper again." Specifically: the weekly news at the front and the classic magazine section in the middle of the magazine.
Köppel wants to bring "more surprise and flexibility" to the culture and review section in the last third of the paper. To this end, he wants to break up the "rigid structures". For example, he has abolished the weekly pop music page. The departure of the "Me about me" section with its idiosyncratic "vegetable portraits" on the last page is also striking. Since the beginning of the year, the paper has closed with a (royalty-free) text from the Weltwoche archive. Köppel does not want this to be seen as a cost-cutting measure, but as a "tribute to a great tradition and important authors".
Nick Lüthi

Beer Saatchi & Saatchi Simko was allowed to tap an international campaign for Carlsberg from Switzerland, but it has not yet been decided whether the Swiss will be allowed to see the hot striptease on television. There are no erotic concerns here. The strip for Carlsberg is taboo on TV because of its alcohol content. What is certain, however, is that the Swiss TV commercial for the beer from Denmark will be used in 19 other countries. Account Director Jan De Schepper also sees no concerns for cinemas in Switzerland. However: "Each regional Carlsberg representative determines their own media plans, and the decision for Switzerland is still pending." The material is ready, however, as Carlsberg Copenhagen has entrusted the Swiss agency Saatchi & Saatchi Simko in Geneva with the creation of the global launch campaign for the new "Profile" bottle. Under the slogan "The new Carlsberg bottle takes off its clothes and shows its best side", the Geneva agency led by CD Olivier Girard produced a TV and viral spot as well as several print subjects and internet banners.
The lead for Carlsberg's advertising was previously with an agency in London. However, Saatchi & Saatchi Simko has already done good regional detail work twice for this beer, so that the development of a big idea has now also been moved from London to Geneva. "Saatchi & Saatchi Simko proves that it is also possible to develop creative work on a global level from Switzerland. The decisive factor for the agency decision was the convincing creative concept as well as the greater flexibility and customer orientation compared to agencies from London," explains Massimo Di Dia, International Brand Manager Carlsberg.
Andreas Panzeri

Regional press The Tages-Anzeiger's regional offensive is less than three months old. Since November 6, Tamedia has been present with regional editions on Lake Zurich, in the Zurich Oberland and Unterland as well as in the Limmat city itself. The offensive caused great unrest among the regional papers directly attacked by Tamedia. After almost three months of local journalism from Tamedia, the dust has settled somewhat. The regional titles, which have merged to form the joint Zürcher Landzeitung in response to the Tamedia offensive, are breathing a sigh of relief. Although the threat situation is permanent and the pressure on the advertising business will increase once again with the large Tagi edition announced for the spring, it is business as usual for the time being. At least that's what a small survey of those responsible shows. No euphoria far and wide "Disillusionment is making itself felt," says Christine Fivian, editor-in-chief of the Zürcher Unterländer, after the obviously big promises made by Tamedia strategists in the Zurich Unterland. Although the Tagi regional edition is well presented, it cannot outstrip the Unterländer in terms of journalism. Christian Müller, deputy editor-in-chief at Zürcher Oberländer, finds the Tagi regional edition similarly unspectacular. "We don't feel any concrete effects." The Oberländer is concentrating on having as many current topics as possible in the paper in order to get ahead of the competition. However, this is no great feat. After all, the closing times of the Tagi regional editorial offices at 8 p.m. do not allow media professionals to keep up with the traditional newspapers.
This is one of the reasons why Benjamin Geiger, editor-in-chief of the Zürichsee Zeitung in Stäfa, hardly bothers to take the Tagi-Split out of his letterbox every day. Geiger has noticed the same difficulties for the Tages-Anzeiger on the right bank of the lake in terms of primeurs, range of topics and topicality that the first Tagi regional editorial office on the left bank of the lake has been struggling with since its launch in March 2005. The competition is therefore focusing its topics more on people and portraits, says Geiger. The closing time handicap also means that the Tagi split tries to anticipate events with previews. "For many organizers, however, a preview alone is not enough"; they also want journalists to be present, says Christine Fivian.
The authorities show little euphoria about the presence of the Tages-Anzeiger in the regions. Hardly any municipalities make use of the offer to print official notices free of charge. "I have the impression that the Tagi has abandoned this idea," says Geiger.
Status quo for advertisementsThere hardly seems to be any shift in the advertising business either, neither for the Unterländer nor the Oberländer. On the left bank of the lake, Publicitas branch manager Peter Curiger regularly counts the advertisements in the Tagi-Split. On average, two and a half to three out of eight pages are occupied by so-called filler advertisements. Jost Kessler, head of the Publicitas department in Stäfa, also counts a maximum of one page of advertisements per split edition. "Paid advertising is lean," says Kessler. Both Curiger and Kessler note that local businesses do not want to advertise with the competition. Elections are an exception, for example when the FDP uses the traditional paper for its election advertising in the same way as the Tages-Anzeiger split.
However, the impact of the announced large circulation of the Tages-Anzeiger cannot yet be estimated. "This will be the final blow to take away major advertisers," estimates Christine Fivian. The large print run is expected to be launched at the end of February, but Rolf Bollmann, responsible for the Tagi regionalization strategy and member of the management board at Tamedia, does not yet want to announce the date. It is also too early to talk about the first successful results of regionalization. "There are hardly any big leaps to be made in the reader market," says Bollmann, contrasting with Tagi Editor-in-Chief Peter Hartmeier's assertions about the journalistic efficiency of the strategy. Hartmeier recently said in an interview with the Schaffhauser AZ: "The added value offered is highly valued by the readership. The people in Uster and Bülach are happy to have a large newspaper that reaches deep into their regions." Bollmann is therefore betting his cards on the large circulation and hopes to attract as many large advertisers as possible away from the rural newspapers to his side.
No regional split in SchaffhausenObviously, the Schaffhausen cantonal council
On the occasion of a visit by Tamedia Chairman of the Board Hans Heinrich Coninx, CEO Martin Kall and a delegation from Tele Züri, he expressed slight disappointment that Tamedia does not also want to launch a regional edition in Schaffhausen. The cantonal government is probably not always comfortable with the multimedia monopoly position of the media from Meier. In an interview with the Schaffhauser AZ, Tagi editor-in-chief Peter Hartmeier denies such plans. "We are limiting ourselves to the canton of Zurich." Tamedia, on the other hand, intends to expand to Schaffhausen with a broadcasting window on TeleZüri. René Worni

On the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on Wednesday, the Berne Declaration and Pro Natura selected the most irresponsible corporations for the third time as part of the Public Eye Awards. In cooperation with Agent-provocatuer.ch, a Public Eye Film Award worth CHF 3000 was also presented for the first time for the best video clip on the topic of "Globalization and/or Justice". The winning spot by Sarah Kreuter and Urs Lehmann is called "Dispersion". This year, the Japanese tire multinational Bridgestone and the Basel-based pharmaceutical giant Novartis have been branded with the "Schmähpreis" for particularly bad corporate behavior. Swiss retailer Coop, meanwhile, has won the Public Eye Positive Award, which was presented to a company for the first time.
With the Public Eye, the Berne Declaration and Pro Natura want to create a local counter-public to the WEF. The two organizations are convinced that direct pressure is needed to persuade corporations to treat people and nature with respect. Specifically, they are calling for legally binding international rules on corporate responsibility.

Retailer Krieg, Schlupp, Bürge/Springer & Jacoby communicates that Coop is not expensive. Migros counters with a counter-campaign: "For one less prejudice" is the slogan of KSB/SJ's widespread campaign for its client Coop. The communication is effective. In a first in the history of advertising, Migros countered with a full-page advertisement in the Sunday press. In bold typography, the competitor announced: "Prejudice confirmed: According to K-Tipp, Migros is cheaper." And the small print read: "Contrary to the current Coop advertising campaign, which aims to dispel the prejudice that Coop is more expensive, the latest price comparison by K-Tipp clearly shows that Migros is cheaper after all. And around 10 percent ...." "Our sales growth and the sharp increase in customer footfall in our stores speak for themselves. In addition to achieving price parity with the competition, we are steadily increasing the difference in performance," explained Jürg Peritz to Werbewoche on behalf of Coop. The Head of Marketing also expressed this view on the TV program "Kassensturz". For neutral observers, it should ultimately come down to a neck-and-neck race between Migros and Coop, in which both can play their own trump cards with various products.
The advertising agency KSB/SJ started from the premise: "If you ask people about Coop, there is unanimity. Coop has an extremely varied range, lots of fresh products and people are very satisfied with Coop. However, one prejudice persists: that Coop is expensive." The advertising counters this with the fact that Coop has over 5,000 everyday products that prove the exact opposite. And because these products are not only extremely inexpensive, but also of high quality, everyone should get to know them. The best way to do this is with the help of a large and spectacular campaign in which Coop definitively dispels this prejudice. That's why it ties in with the claim: "For everyone who thinks Coop is expensive. Coop Qualité & Prix. For 5000 times cheap & good."
Around 20 advertisements and poster motifs can now be seen throughout Switzerland. Of course, the topic is also featured in a variety of ways in every Coop. Coop also dispels two completely different prejudices in two really funny TV commercials. Namely, that women can't park. And that men don't talk about their feelings.
Andreas Panzeri

Finance With the help of Contexta and Ideenhaus, Credit Suisse is launching a new consumer finance bank.Credit Suisse, one of the world's leading financial services providers, has launched a new consumer finance bank.
The company has launched a new bank and opened 21 branches. Bank-now, the independent subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group, has been responsible for the consumer finance business since January 2007. The new bank is the point of contact for private clients in the credit (Credit-now) and leasing (Lease-now) business areas.
Not only the name Bank-now, but the entire brand design comes from the Ideenhaus agency in Munich. The task for Ideenhaus was "to find a family of names for the corporate brand and the product brands in the areas of credit and leasing and to convey the brand values visually in an unmistakable and recognizable way," as Managing Director Marion Endres explains. International comprehensibility due to multinational target groups and maximum differentiation from the competition were two of the client's key requirements.
This design has now been implemented in a campaign to launch the bank by the Contexta agency in Bern. The agency is working with a two-stage launch campaign. The campaign kicked off with an original teaser campaign under the motto "Switzerland dreams".
In the final weeks of last year, anyone who wanted to could publish their biggest wish at www.dream-now.ch. Every week, the community voted to decide which dream would be supported with 10,000 francs. For example, a group of young people from Bern dreamed of traveling to the Mediterranean in a combine harvester and were able to win over 1,200 votes with this idea. In total, dream-now.ch had over 14,000 registered users. In this first phase of the brand launch, the community was introduced to the topic of "dream" and familiarized with the branding at the same time. It is only in a second phase that Credit Suisse is now coming out as the originator of the campaign.
In the actual launch campaign, the new bank is now being positioned with advertisements, posters, TV commercials and web banners. These get to the heart of the brand: with Credit-now and Lease-now, wishes come true very quickly. Contexta visualizes this with dream objects that have been transported directly from the car or fashion magazine to your own garage or shoe rack at home.
This mechanism is also used in the TV commercials: The objects of desire are seductively staged with elegant images. The surprise is all the greater when the furniture, cars, jewelry or plasma televisions are then unexpectedly torn out of the picture. The campaign thus stringently demonstrates how quickly and easily wishes can come true with Credit-now and Lease-now.
Sonar.brandandmusic was commissioned to develop the appropriate sound logo for the new brand. The aim of the sound branding element is to give the core elements of the new Bank-now brand an identity-forming role in the acoustic dimension. The result is a sound logo with a catchy tune character that musically conveys the claim "Live your dreams now" based on a melody, explains Andreas Graf, Managing Director Consulting at Sonar.
Andreas Panzeri

Newspaper printing From 2008, Coop will redistribute the largest printing contract in Switzerland. The companies Basler Zeitung Medien (previously), CIE Centre d'impression Edipresse SA (previously), Ringier Print (previously), St. Galler Tagblatt AG (previously) and Espace Media Groupe, Bern (newly), will then be responsible for printing the customer newspapers Coopzeitung, Coopération and Cooperazione. The printing contracts have been concluded for a period of three years. By outsourcing part of the print run to Berne, production will be even more regional in future, the company announced. Transport and environmental considerations were also decisive factors. The Coop Presse titles have a circulation of almost 2.5 million copies and are regularly read by around 3.3 million people. According to the press release, this makes Coop Presse the largest weekly newspaper in Switzerland. 

Tiziano Obrecht wants to establish the specialized service for digital media in Switzerland at Mediaedge:cia with MEC Interaction Switzerland. "My 18-month-old son has swallowed something. We have to go to the children's hospital immediately," Tiziano Obrecht calls us. His young family is moving house. There are things everywhere that a little boy has never seen or touched in his life. Fortunately, everything went well. But the topic of "curiosity" has us in its grip. A curious person is always attracted to new things. As a small child, you put them in your mouth - later it happens through your mind.For the newly appointed Head of Interaction at Mediaedge:cia, a career in banking was actually the obvious choice. His father and brother are successful financiers. But after a few months at the bank, apprentice Tiziano had had enough of bare figures. An apprenticeship at Shell seemed more exotic to him. His curiosity paid off. Tiziano Obrecht stayed with the oil multinational for another two years after completing his commercial apprenticeship. Doing business with the wide world awakened his desire for more. He flew to America on a student visa, where he stayed for over a year with a few entries and exits. He also spent two years as a flight attendant with Swissair.
But because he suspected even more exciting things, he was fascinated by the job advertisement for the company "Suchtreffer" back in 1999. Obrecht let himself be "thrown in at the deep end" and was already working in the pioneering phase of online marketing in the business that is his passion today. Back then, however, it was still too early. The hype is known to have collapsed.
Obrecht found a new challenge at a language school. There he was in charge of corporate business. He put together intensive courses for executives and also learned how to present and sell these packages to companies. Already in the States for a second time, he also supervised such courses in the USA.
Then he felt ready for a definitive entry into the online business. He joined Real Media. Today, this start-up has been converted into PubliGroupe's Web2Com company. Obrecht worked on the sales front at PubliGroupe for a total of five years, after which he wanted to switch internally. But not in the print sector. And because all the paths to the top were already taken in online media, he finally accepted an offer from AdLink.
"At the beginning, it was difficult for me to suddenly start working for a company that had been my fiercest competitor for five years," reflects Obrecht. At AdLink, he was responsible for PlanAd. He looked after customers in sales and had to convince them to advertise in the still young and unknown medium of "online". "That still took a lot of persuasion back then. Both agencies and customers were reluctant to make use of the new opportunities."
Obrecht tried to show them new forms of advertising and build partnerships. "We had to demonstrate the versatility. But the problem was that every platform knew different forms of advertising and everyone named them differently." Customers willing to advertise often had to have 13 different forms of advertising designed, which naturally put many off. "What's more, most of them didn't yet understand these American terms," says Obrecht, describing the state of affairs at the time.
In this initial phase of online marketing, it was also the case that at most a residual budget was spent on digital advertising. Today, in addition to the USA, it is already ten percent in the leading European countries - England, France and Germany. In Switzerland, Obrecht believes that at least the three percent mark will soon be reached.
One reason for the initial reticence in Switzerland is that reliable figures on the impact of online marketing are only now slowly becoming available. In the past, customers were only able to rave about "fantastically designed portals" and great interest among users. "But we couldn't prove anything concrete."
The new Head of Interaction at Mediaedge:cia now wants to change that. He moved to this "first global communications agency" three months ago. As an online specialist, he wants to convince agency clients to "do more and a bit more creative things" in the online sector. Many agencies realize that they lack this specialist know-how internally, "which is why Mediaedge:cia is now investing in the area of interaction".
As Head of Interaction, Tiziano Obrecht, who has always "loved development work", is to "do some convincing" on various fronts. First, he wants to familiarize in-house account management even better with the new possibilities. Then, in a second phase, he will present advertising in games, viral marketing, affiliate advertising, mobile marketing and search engine marketing to potential customers as an important form of the future and "show what makes sense and how it can be implemented".  
Tiziano Obrecht also passes on his knowledge at Sawi. He is delighted to see "how open young people are to digital media". This year, the lecturer also wants to further his own education with an Executive MBA specializing in International Management at the University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen, having previously completed a degree in Marketing Business Administration at the Business School in Zurich. Genuine curiosity never ends.
Andreas Panzeri

Video Not only, but also with the launch of the Adobe Production Suite, Adobe is massively expanding its video division. 2007 will be an important year for Adobe. On the one hand, the Californian software company can be expected to launch CreativeSuite 3, and on the other, the company is restructuring - and expanding - its video software collection. The updated software collection for comprehensive video production is due to be released in summer 2007.Comprehensive post-production toolThe Adobe Production Studio program collection is a comprehensive post-production workflow. The package includes After Effects for the animation of graphics and the creation of graphic effects, Adobe Premiere Pro for real-time video editing, Adobe Encore DVD for DVD authoring (production of the DVD prototype before duplication), the classic DTP applications Photoshop and Illustrator as well as Adobe Dynamic Link.
Thanks to Adobe Dynamic Link as an important component of Production Studio, there is no need for re-rendering when transferring compositions from After Effects to the HD, SD and DV editing environments of Premiere Pro and Encore DVD. Furthermore, DVD menus can be transferred directly to After Effects to be animated there and compiled into a movie file in Encore DVD. Thanks to this simplification, previous bottlenecks disappear.
However, in addition to the expansion, a reorganization is also planned in the video area. The Adobe Audition software is to be renamed Adobe Soundbooth. Michael Mörtl, Business Development Manager Video and Web Products at Adobe Systems, explains: "Adobe Audition will continue to support audio editing at a very high level and, as before, will primarily appeal to audio professionals in addition to video professionals. We will also develop new versions of Audition with features specifically for this sector." Since video professionals in particular do not have access to the full range of specialized audio features in Audition, Adobe has Soundbooth, a professional audio software in its portfolio that is specifically designed for the needs of video professionals.
As a further, even bigger innovation, the next version of the Adobe Production Studio software suite will also be available in a version for the Macintosh operating system Mac OS X. Specifically, the programs Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Encore DVD and Adobe Soundbooth will be ported to the Apple platform. Apple itself is thus facing competition on its own playing field, as the Final Cut Studio software suite is the undisputed leader in the field of audio and real-time video production.
Video - an increasingly important area for AdobeAdobe is underlining its strong position in the area of moving image production with the upcoming relaunch of the Production Suite. In addition to the Adobe Production Studio suite, Flash video technology for playing videos over the Internet also plays a major role here - as does the Flash Media Server, which can be used to provide interactive media applications.    
Jürgen Franck

Column E-papers eke out a dreary existence. Why do publishers still refrain from aggressively promoting it? It's been drilled into our heads ad nauseam: The Internet is the great challenge for printed newspapers. Almost two-thirds of Swiss households are now networked. So there should - one imagines - be a rapidly growing demand for the electronic versions of daily newspapers. Most of the larger papers now actually hold e-paper subscriptions that go far beyond simple PDF editions of the printed newspaper. The industry standard is the complete online edition of the printed newspaper in the familiar newspaper structure and layout. It is possible to browse through the e-paper on the screen, enlarge the desired articles, print them out, and select, file and download individual pages.
By marking an article or a picture, it is possible to enlarge and print any section of any page. The usage process takes some getting used to, but the prices are attractive. The Basler Zeitung, for example, offers the electronic subscription for 30 francs per month or 260 francs per year. Those who subscribe to the print version get the password for free. The Tages-Anzeiger even costs only Fr. 176 per year electronically (the print annual subscription Fr. 320); this price, by the way, has remained unchanged since summer 2004. The echo remained weak.
According to a statement from the BaZ publishing house, only 214 customers held e-paper subscriptions in November 2006. The response among subscribers to the regular paper edition was strikingly stronger. No fewer than 31,000 - just under a third - took advantage of the free password offer. On average, 12,000 readers per day make use of the option to download the newspaper to their computer.
Similar figures are obtained from the other houses. According to Wemf's circulation bulletin, the Tages-Anzeiger has 80 subscriptions, Blick 193, the NZZ 449 and the record holder Südostschweiz 1325 eligible e-paper subscriptions. Most of the customers who use the offer live abroad, where obtaining the printed edition is too expensive and too slow for them, or they save themselves the cumbersome procedure with the vacation detour.
There must be deep-rooted reasons for this surprising reluctance to take advantage of an offer that is attractive and convenient in itself. Is it unreasonable to attribute it to a cultural inhibition to screen reading that is peculiar at least to today's adult generation, which is still literate with paper media? Again, a "soft factor" that makes the margin between technical feasibility and economically viable user volume incalculable. If people don't even want such a convenience item as a gift, surely there must be some underlying cultural resistance to "paperless reading."
What is also surprising is how discreetly most of the leading newspaper publishers are promoting this attractive form of offering. Resignation reigns at the publishing houses, as one manager put it: "The e-papers are actually eking out a dreary existence because they are little used. Displaying a print edition on the screen is not very user-friendly. So it's mainly the Swiss abroad/home who use the e-papers."
A brave new media world in everyday practice: In some places, you have an attractive form of offering, and you have even invested quite a bit in technical provision - and yet you fail to take offensive advertising measures, and you don't even provide interested customers with low-threshold access to existing offerings on your own website.
Does this reflect the old inertia of newspaper publishers who are used to success, or a certain lack of seriousness in their competitive behavior? We haven't even mentioned the potential savings from the possible elimination of unprofitable forwarding orders for vacation or military service redirections. One could get the idea that in the newspaper business, people often and gladly talk about
Internet applications and all sorts of progressive new uses debated, but in practice very conservative marketing.
Karl Lüönd is a publicist, book author, supervises mandates in corporate publishing and lectures at the HWZ Zurich and at the MAZ ("Verleger sein - Öffentliches Nachdenken über Menschen und Märkte" will be published by Huber in spring 2007).

Distribution Three or even more early delivery companies are planning a daily delivery service - possibly even with the post office Because the early delivery organization of Schaffhauser Nachrichten (SN) has had to live with competition from Zuvo, the delivery company of Tamedia and NZZ, in economic area 42 since the beginning of the year, SN publisher Norbert Neininger is now stepping on the gas. In December, he turned the SN department into an independent company and called it Schazo. "Our sales department is just as much a part of our multimedia concept as the newspaper, radio, TV and online portal," says Neininger. He continues: "We want to become the logistics partner for the region, for example in the area of direct advertising, the distribution of product samples or articles ordered via the Internet. "However, the SN publisher is also aware that this could go beyond the possibilities of early delivery, which is why he is thinking aloud about daytime delivery as a second mainstay. To this end, he is opening up Schazo to partners. He is holding concrete talks with APZ, the delivery organization of the free weekly newspaper Schaffhauser Bock - and with Swiss Post, of all companies, which he is likely to compete with one day.
However, Neininger is not the only one planning a daily delivery service. Zuvo is also considering one (see p. 18). However, Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM) is the furthest along, as it already has a corresponding organization in Distriba, the delivery company for the BZM free paper Baslerstab, which is even on the road five times a week. "We are also thinking about expanding our range of services," says BZM CEO Beat Meyer.
But how is Swiss Post facing up to the coming competition? "In view of the opening markets, Swiss Post is examining a wide range of options," says Swiss Post spokesman Laurent Widmer, who then confirms talks "with various publishers". He won't say any more. However, two years ago Swiss Post was already offering publishers certain tasks such as emptying letterboxes or the mutual exchange of staff in the event of bottlenecks (body leasing). Does this still apply? "We are open to various forms of cooperation, including participations," says Widmer simply.
Swiss Post shareholdings in delivery companies are nothing new. Swiss Post owns 50 percent of the early distribution organization Bevo in Berne, while Tamedia and Espace Media each hold 25 percent. At Epsilon in French-speaking Switzerland, Swiss Post owns as much as 66 percent, while Edipresse holds 34 percent. Swiss Post also holds a 50 percent stake in Direct Mail Company, the largest existing daily delivery company.
Markus Knöpfli