Basler Zeitung Medien is founding an independent telemarketing subsidiary called BC Best Connect AG. The publishing house intends to strengthen its range of services in the reader and customer market. Momo Toukabri has been managing director of the company since January 1, 2007. He was previously head of sales in the reader marketing division of the Basler Zeitung publishing house. As a contact point for external calls, BC Best Connect's areas of activity include advice and complaint management, the provision, processing and management of standardized information as well as booking services and the sale of products and services. Customer and campaign management through active contact includes the areas of sales, market research and customer care. The service is also offered to external customers.

Due to a new law, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung has to come up with an alternative system for the publication of price listings in order to prevent revenue losses in the millions. This is reported by the Sonntagszeitung. According to the law that came into force on January 1, investment funds are no longer obliged to publish their information in a print medium. Internet platforms can now also be used as a publication medium. However, these must be recognized by the Swiss Federal Banking Commission. There is currently no such platform, but Swiss Fund Data, which was founded in December 2006, is pressing ahead with plans to operate an information system. Among other things, it is designed to publish data and information on collective investment schemes. The Swiss Stock Exchange SWX and the Swiss Funds Association, the association of investment funds, are involved in Swiss Fund Data.
The effects of such an internet platform would be felt by financial publications. The NZZ, which like the Tages-Anzeiger is published by Tamedia, would be particularly affected, writes the Sonntagszeitung. This is because financial market advertisements would be a mainstay of the NZZ's advertising business. However, the newspapers Cash, Le Temps and Finanz und Wirtschaft would also have to reckon with a loss of revenue.
The NZZ has already reacted to the new law. "We are working on an Internet solution," says Walter Vontobel, Head of NZZ Media, to the Sonntagszeitung. Investment fund advertisements fill up to four full pages a day in the NZZ and, according to Vontobel, generate annual gross revenues in the low double-digit million range. However, despite the new law, he does not expect any major losses in 2007.
Considerations are also underway at Finanz und Wirtschaft. However, according to publishing director Martin Coninx, the economic success of the paper does not only depend on the price listings, as they clearly generate less turnover than the NZZ.

Geneva's local television station Léman Bleu and the private radio station One FM want to move closer together. The collaboration extends to the editorial level and advertising. As reported by SDA on Friday, according to information from Léman Bleu, the mutual rapprochement will have no consequences for employees. 15 journalists from One FM and Léman Bleu will now jointly report on politics, culture and sport in the canton of Geneva and the Vaud region of La Côte. One FM will broadcast short news items during the day, while Léman Bleu will concentrate its information programs on the evenings. The merger should enable the two stations to improve coverage of the Nyon area.

Telekurs Multipay has commissioned the Zurich advertising agency BMB Baertschi, Meroni & Bolleter to launch the Mobile Voucher service.  
Mobile Voucher is offered exclusively by Telekurs and simplifies the loading of credit onto the cell phones of prepaid users. Instead of the previous scratch card, the cell phone owner receives a personal voucher against payment. The new credit can be activated immediately by entering the secret code on the voucher into the cell phone. The vouchers have been available at all Migros checkouts since the beginning of the year and will soon also be available in clothes stores, petrol stations, hairdressers and restaurants. The campaign for the mobile voucher includes the development of a new communication presence and numerous advertising measures.

The Internet music platform Napster will become AOL's exclusive subscriber music service in the future. The competitor to Apple's iTunes will thus replace AOL's Music Now service and take over its 350,000 paying members.  
The customer transfer is expected to be completed within the next 60 days, as reported by SDA on Friday. Napster investors reacted enthusiastically: the shares shot up 14 percent before the stock market launch. AOL is the Internet division of media conglomerate Time Warner. The formerly well-known music exchange Napster was closed in 2001 after a series of court cases. Then Napster was taken over by software company Roxio, which relaunched Napster as a legal website in 2003. Roxio eventually also took over the Napster name and went public in 2005. However, Apple dominates 80 percent of online music sales with iTunes.

Three countries, one concern: high-quality journalism. The three initiatives for quality in journalism from Germany, Austria and Switzerland met for the first time on January 11 to exchange experiences. In Zurich, country representatives discussed the promotion of quality in journalism and came to the conclusion that their goals are basically the same. The exchange of experiences provided mutual inspiration, according to a press release from the president of the Swiss association, Philipp Cueni. Specifically, an agenda of possible joint activities was drawn up. The focus is on topics such as training and further education, media ethical responsibility and dealing with economic or political pressure on editorial offices. Professional profile, resources and infrastructure were also named as quality factors. In future, the meeting is to be held annually.
A total of 15 renowned media professionals from the three countries took part in the discussion, including MAZ Director Sylvia Egli von Matt, Deputy Federal Chairman of the German Journalists' Association Volker Hummel and media scientist Prof. Hannes Haas from the University of Vienna.

The Public Council is positive about the redesign of SF Meteo. The program is convincing both in terms of content and appearance. The changes to the DRS regional journals have also been well received. As reported by SDA on Friday, the public council was extremely satisfied with the revised weather program. The basic needs of viewers have been better covered since the relaunch, and the individual programs were described as appropriate for the time of day. Only individual graphics are too small and only partially legible according to the audience council. The redesign of the broadcasting space on the roof of the television studio was rated as particularly successful.
The SRG Audience Council also praised the conceptual changes to the regional journals of Radio DRS. The shortening of the lunchtime programs with the accompanying expansion of the evening editions was particularly well received. On the other hand, the Audience Council generally criticized the evening specials as tending to be too long. However, there was no consensus on how the evening program could be restructured.
The Audience Council is an advisory, program-accompanying body that ensures close contact between the program managers and the audience.

Zurich-based new media company Mitlinks has revamped the beautiful actress's website and the design sums up the essence of the 27-year-old: self-confident, headstrong and modern. The creative minds at Mitlinks have succeeded in transferring these attributes to Melanie Winiger's online presence. The style is best described as "street style". It is wild, urban and has a rebellious aesthetic. Mitlinks is the Ticino native's web partner and, in collaboration with "Web-o-mat", a Hostpoint product, has created an unusual celebrity website that makes use of new graphic forms of web design.

The aid organization Doctors Without Borders sees a need to catch up in terms of media coverage. The consequences of crises and disasters often receive too little attention. Many humanitarian issues, such as the shocking conditions in Central Africa, Sri Lanka or Colombia, were barely covered by the media in 2006. To illustrate this, the organization has published a list of ten crises that were insufficiently covered last year. Although the list specifically reflects the situation in the US media landscape, it is comparable to that in this country, Herbert Ofner, Press Officer at Doctors Without Borders, told Pressetext.com. Of over 14,500 minutes of news coverage by the three major US news channels last year, only a meagre seven were devoted to the crises listed. The Austrian press, for example, is also very Europe-centered. Southeast Asia and Africa are hardly mentioned, says Ofner. However, it is important to raise awareness and call politicians into action, says Nicolas de Torrente, Managing Director of Doctors Without Borders in the USA. For example, the violent conditions in Haiti's capital Port au Prince were only covered for 30 seconds in the US media in 2006, even though the country is only 50 miles from the United States. In order to draw attention to these and other forgotten crises, the organization regularly sends out information and hopes that the issues in question will be addressed more frequently.

Lokalinfo is the publisher of the Zurich neighborhood and local newspapers Züriberg, Zürich West, Zürich 2, Zürich Nord and Küsnachter. For the first time, the company has now had the circulation of its media certified by Wemf: 121,200 copies are distributed free of charge by the post office or sent to subscribers in the city of Zurich and the Gold Coast every week.  
Lokalinfo recently joined Wemf AG für Werbemittelforschung and now the circulation of the Zurich regional publisher has been certified for the first time, as the company announced on Friday. This means that the distribution of Lokalinfo media has now been officially approved and circulation information is available to advertising customers with a guarantee.

In December, the Tages-Anzeiger invited readers to enrich their region with new municipalities and corresponding coats of arms in the regional section. They were looking for witty, imaginative or cheeky municipality names and a matching municipal coat of arms. The results are now on display.  
The competition was met with great interest: the people of Zurich took up their pens and took an artistic look at their canton and region. Well over 100 entries were received. The best 18 creations (with municipalities such as Weedcity, Föntal, Süd-Schneisingen and Kitschlikon) are now featured on a double-page spread in the Tages-Anzeiger, as well as 30 more on the website below. The Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett agency was involved in this campaign as a partner of the Tages-Anzeiger.

For exactly 20 years, she has complemented Sunday brunch and livened up rainy weekends, regularly generating discussion and headlines with her tenacious research: Now the Sonntagszeitung can celebrate.  
On January 11, 1987, the first edition of the Sonntagszeitung (SZ) was published with an initial circulation of 86,000 copies and a scope of four volumes (news, report, scene and sport). The first cover story read: "Heidi Abel bequeaths her fortune to environmental protection". This people news story following the death of the popular TV personality was a typical primeur for the first issue. Many more followed.
 
Over the past 20 years, SZ has shaped the media landscape and continued to develop. Now the publishers and editors are looking back on the lively history of the SZ with a 4-bundle anniversary newspaper. According to the newspaper, the 64 anniversary pages tell you what milestones the SZ has set, who produced and shapes the SZ then and now, what Martina Hingis, Doris Leuthard and Jakob Kuhn think of their Sunday reading, and what it's like when the UN Special Envoy for Sport, Adolf Ogi, interviews Editor-in-Chief Andreas Durisch.
 
All subscribers and newsstand purchasers will receive the anniversary newspaper next Sunday, January 14, 2007 as a gift with the normal issue. The anniversary will be accompanied by an advertising campaign in January and February in various daily and weekly titles as well as in the trade press.