Tamedia Stellenmarkt has appointed Stavros Takvoryan as its new Key Account Manager. The experienced online salesman's main tasks include customer support and acquisition for the online management platform Alpha.ch.  
Stavros Takvoryan is responsible for supporting and advising Alpha and Alpha.ch customers. Before joining Tamedia Stellenmarkt in December 2006, he worked for six years as Key Account Manager for the Jobs.ch online platform. The appointment of Stavros Takvoryan is part of a general expansion of the online platforms of Tamedia Jobs Market over the next few months. A total of ten new positions will be created in the areas of sales and production. This is due to double-digit growth rates at Jobwinner last year and the successful launch of the online management platform Alpha.ch in June 2006.

The internet communications agency New Impact, based in Bern, has given the Swiss Bankers online portal a comprehensive redesign and is responsible for the entire implementation. The user guidance was optimized, taking into account target group-oriented communication and the service concept. The agency also implemented a comprehensive travel country information database. The newly installed extranet is of great importance for the customer advisors, as the agency reports.  
New Impact offers comprehensive solutions in the areas of interactive portals, usability & accessibility, online sales management and online editing.

Print The new Nordostschweiz association of Thurgauer Zeitung and Landbote is open to the Schaffhauser Nachrichten, but at the same time leaves it on the sidelines.The new Nordostschweiz association of the two newspapers Thurgauer Zeitung (TZ) and Landbote is an interesting construct. Unlike the three Züriland newspapers, the two titles manage without a joint company. The publishers Ziegler Druck und Verlag in Winterthur and Huber & Co in Frauenfeld have shared the joint tasks. The Landbote will take over responsibility for the editorial work, while the joint publishing activities will be handled in Frauenfeld. "The co-determination is regulated in such a way that each partner can exert influence in both areas," says Urs Lüdi, company director of Huber & Co. Nevertheless, the lead lies more with the Tamedia subsidiary Thurgauer Medien, as it will hold all the revenue in its hands in future with subscription management and advertising business. Or to put it another way: Landbote, in which Tamedia holds a 20 percent stake, is becoming heavily dependent on Zurich.
The aim of the new alliance is to "keep the two newspapers fit in the long term", says Lüdi. This is not surprising, as the merger had been on the cards for some time. However, the actual structure of the alliance is so contradictory that it will hardly bring any financial added value, at least in the medium term. The joint presence in the advertising market already existed in the past, simply under the name Kombi 1a. Some synergies and cost savings will now be added - a total of 3.2 jobs will be cut.
At the same time, however, TZ and Landbote are also reducing the combined rate from 8 to 15 percent as of April 1, 2007. This is intended to increase volumes, but will initially only reduce revenues. This is all the more so because both publishers first have to invest in a new advertising department in Frauenfeld. This also costs time and money. Both publishers have hardly any experience or contacts in the national advertising market. The TZ has only been fully under its own management for a few days, and the Landbote will remain under a full P lease for another year, after which it will switch to the full lease of the Tamedia subsidiary Thurgauer Medien, so to speak. The latter will then have to prove its worth.
The lowering of the tried-and-tested combined rate thus shows: Because the two publishers still lack contacts to the national market, they have to draw attention to themselves with a more favorable CPM. Especially as Verbund Nordostschweiz, with a total of 78,000 copies, remains a lightweight from a national perspective.
Keeping the doors openLothar Dostal, Managing Director of Ziegler Druck, and Lüdi are also aware of this, which is why they both emphasize that they are keeping the doors of their association wide open for the Schaffhauser Nachrichten (SN). Because only with the SN would the new association exceed the circulation limit of 100,000 copies. A year ago, the SN was included in the talks about the alliance, but soon pulled out again. "We don't want to produce a newspaper that looks the same as TZ and Landbote," says SN editor-in-chief and publisher Norbert Neininger. In addition, the SN printing plant would be overwhelmed with a 4-bundle newspaper. But precisely because Dostal and Lüdi are aware of Neininger's striving for independence, they deliberately designed the new association in such a way that it does not require a joint subsidiary - as a gesture of goodwill and with a view to the future, so to speak. They are also maintaining Combi 1b, which includes SN.
Nevertheless, they are also behaving contradictorily towards SN. For example, the tariff reduction at Nordostschweiz (Kombi 1a) was not agreed with Neininger, although Kombi 1b, to which SN also belongs, is based on it. It is now unclear whether Kombi 1b will retain its tariff or whether it will be reduced in line with Kombi 1a. Either way, SN must expect a loss of revenue. Although surprised by the step taken by the north-eastern Swiss, Neininger remains calm and is counting on talks. He seems to believe in a faux pas rather than an attempt by TZ and Landbote to further isolate SN. He wants to negotiate anyway. "In the commercial sector, we'll do anything that makes sense," he says with regard to the real estate and job supplements planned by Verbund. It is at least not out of the question that he will join on April 1, says Neininger.   
The association at a glanceThe two titles
Thurgauer Zeitung (TZ) and Landbote will be subtitled "Die Nordostschweiz" from April 2, 2007. The new association provides for a joint editorial office in Winterthur and the bundling of the joint publishing business in Frauenfeld. A total of 3.2 jobs will be cut. Colette Gradwohl, Editor-in-Chief of the Landbote, will become Editor-in-Chief of the joint mantle. A successor to TZ editor-in-chief Andreas Netzle, who is moving into politics in the middle of the year, will be appointed in the first quarter. The visual appearance of the TZ will match the layout of the Landbote from April 2, and the TZ will also be published as a 4-bundle newspaper like the Landbote, while Felix Walder will continue to manage the Landbote publishing house, but Urs Bucher, publishing director of the TZ, will take over the management of the joint publishing operations (subscription management, supplement editing, marketing, pre-press, sales). He will also be responsible for the entire advertising business of the two titles. TZ, which had previously entrusted its national business to Publicitas, has been standing on its own two feet since the beginning of 2007. The Landbote, which was still on a full P lease until the end of 2007, will have its marketing handled by Thurgauer Medien from 2008. The latter is setting up a new sales team for the local marketing of the Landbote in Winterthur.
From April, the two titles will also be launching a new jobs supplement and a new real estate market for north-eastern Switzerland.
No surprise, but a bit of troubleWeder beim St. Galler Tagblatt
Neither the NZZ Group nor the Züriland newspapers were surprised by the new association. However, Erland Herkenrath, Managing Director of Zürcher Unterländer (ZU) and ZürichseeZeitung (ZSZ), is somewhat annoyed by the name "Nordostschweiz". Two years ago, there was still an advertising combination under this title that combined six titles, the three Züriland newspapers (Zürcher Oberländer, ZU and ZSZ), the Landbote, the Thurgauer Zeitung and the Schaffhauser Nachrichten. It had 400,000 readers. The new association, on the other hand, only has 150,000 readers. "But we knew that a geographical name cannot be protected," says Herkenrath. Markus Knöpfli

The Geneva-based advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi Simko was awarded the film prize in the "Health" category for its "Angurten" campaign at the 16th edition of the AD Spot Awards in Florence, the international festival for non-profit and low-budget communication.  
However, the multimedia seatbelt campaign is not only successful at advertising festivals, but also in practice, the agency reports. According to Saatchi & Saatchi Simko, the proportion of seatbelt wearers in the rear seats has risen by 15 percent within a year. All of the campaign's communication materials are available on the website
, section Communication & Media. The seat belt campaign is run jointly by the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu), the TCS and the Road Safety Council and is financed by the Road Safety Fund.  
The Geneva-based agency also won the race for the SEAT brand mandate. Saatchi & Saatchi Simko prevailed against three renowned Swiss-German advertising agencies. SEAT is distributed and marketed in Switzerland by AMAG Automobil- und Motoren AG. This is the first time that AMAG has commissioned an agency based in French-speaking Switzerland to communicate a car brand.

The Zurich-based advertising agency BMB Baertschi, Meroni & Bolleter has been commissioned by Telekurs Multipay to launch the Mobile Voucher service. The mandate includes the development of a new communication presence and numerous advertising measures.  
Mobile Voucher is offered exclusively by Telekurs and is intended to make it even easier for owners of prepaid cell phones to load credit onto their cell phones. Instead of the previous scratch card, the cell phone owner receives a personal voucher against payment. The secret code printed on the voucher activates the new credit immediately when entered in the cell phone. Mobile Voucher has been available at all Migros checkouts since the beginning of January 2007. Mobile Vouchers will soon also be available at clothing stores, petrol stations, hairdressers and restaurants.

Competitions The Zurich-based production company Snap Film and Demeulemeester Publicité organized a Snap Film Viral Spot Contest last year with the support of Werbewoche. The winner was Maren Beck's idea "Stamp". On the subject of deodorant, she has a stamp moistened under a sweaty armpit. The commercial is now finished and can be viewed at www.snapfilm.ch. The work was also produced with sponsoring help from producer Michael Kindermann, director Luzius Rüedi, actor Krischan Krone, cameraman Marco Barberi as well as Hastings Tonstudio, Megarent and Swisstudio.

Roland Schlumpf, deputy editor-in-chief of the Tages-Anzeiger, will take over as editor-in-chief of the Zurich daily's five-member Bundeshaus editorial team in the spring, according to Persoenlich.com. Schlumpf succeeds Bruno Vanoni, who is leaving the Tages-Anzeiger after more than eleven years. Vanoni received the Zurich Journalism Prize in 2004 for his reports on a secret service intrigue in the Federal Council. He is leaving the media world and will work as a public relations officer for the Landscape Switzerland Fund. Roland Schlumpf's successor has not yet been determined.

Column In competition with individualized web communication, traditional mass media also offer surprising journeys into exotic realms.media convey knowledge and experiences to which we would otherwise have no or very difficult access. We look at newspapers, magazines, books and websites and listen to radio programs and podcasts. They guarantee that we are one experience richer after enjoying the content. These media provide us with unforeseen encounters, new insights and surprising perspectives. We often find something we weren't even looking for, and the strength of the media is serendipity. This term is used in the sociology of science to describe chance observations that lead to surprising discoveries. Serendip was the Persian name for what is now Sri Lanka. Legend has it that three princes discovered the island by chance. Like the princes, media users also embark on a journey in which they occasionally lose sight of their destination and instead venture into exotic landscapes.
In contrast, the individualized communication offerings resemble real allotment gardens: only fruits that you have planted yourself grow there. Wild growth is neatly weeded out and excluded. However, what makes sense for cabbage and potatoes also makes sense when searching for simple information, such as addresses and telephone numbers on the Internet. In this form of information dissemination, the focus is on efficiency; creativity would be a waste of time and energy. Web communities bring together people with the same interests, ideas and goals. Thanks to the WWW, they can exchange information and support each other globally. Instead of geographical confinement, there is ideal confinement.
If you don't want to lose sight of the rest of the world, take a look at the general interest media: daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, full programs from radio and television stations and corresponding websites. These media confront us with information and thoughts that we have searched for or found by chance. Our loyalty to these media is also a consequence of our trust in their services: Der Spiegel, which celebrates its sixtieth birthday this week, is a seduction specialist for long reading trips. After trying to follow journalistic fashions for a while, it has returned to its tradition of storytelling. Readers get involved with topics that do not affect them personally in a virulent way. But they know that reading them always holds a surprise or two.
Serendipity defines the possibilities and limits of editorial marketing. Knowing what the audience wants is all well and good. Ideally, this can be used to analyze the past and map the present. However, those who allow market research to dictate the future will miss out on every trend. Media thrive on creativity, which always involves a step into the unknown. Without the courage to take risks, media products remain a copy of everyday life. Because we know something: There is an audience that wants to be surprised.
However, editorial offices are often allotments themselves and often function according to the principle of "birds of a feather flock together". Openness to the unfamiliar or strange is not without its limits, even among journalists. Curiosity can also be more or less general. For editorial offices, this is only productive to a limited extent if it is restricted to new episodes of the same old soap opera.
Editorial teams must therefore be willing to embrace new ideas. Thanks to an editorial culture that promotes and cultivates diversity, openness and respect for the unfamiliar, surprising perspectives can open up. For media that do not operate in niche markets, but are aimed at the mixed user base of a region, diversity is a must. Exotic plants therefore belong in the gardens, and the gardeners have to take a trip here and there.
Josefa Haas is Head of the Media Institute

Euro RSCG Zurich has won the competitive presentation for the SonntagsBlick budget. "The clear brand positioning, the cross-media strategy and the consistent yet diverse, innovative creative ideas of Euro RSCG Zurich convinced us," says Dietrich Berg, Publishing Director Blick/SonntagsBlick, explaining his decision. Frank Bodin, CEO Euro RSCG Group Switzerland, is delighted with the win and comments: "We are also happy to work on Sundays for such a strong brand.  
In addition, Euro RSCG Worldwide was named 2006 Global Agency of the Year, Advertising Age reported this week. The agency was selected based on a number of criteria, including business growth internationally, superior leadership and innovation from agency management, and creative and impactful marketing campaigns for clients. Last month, Campaign Euro named RSCG Worldwide "Advertising Network of the Year" and also highlighted the strong leadership performance of the agency's executive team and its impressive string of global wins.

Press At the Epiphany Conference, Res Strehle, Editor-in-Chief of the magazine and President of the Editors-in-Chief Conference, presented the fruits of persistent efforts to establish a code of honor between advertisers and publishers. The reason for this code is the increasing pressure from advertising and public relations on editorial space. The increasing crumbling of the so-called Chinese Wall was already a public topic at the Publishers' Congress in Interlaken in September 2005. Since then, the Swiss editors-in-chief have drawn up recommendations that have been signed by the Swiss Press Association and the advertising organizations (BSW, SWA, ASW).
In principle, the undersigned wish to adhere unreservedly to the principle of full transparency towards the public so that they can distinguish between content that is editorially responsible and content that is commercially influenced. Furthermore, the design of advertisements must not give the impression that they are an editorial component of the medium. Any form of sponsorship must also be declared.
René Worni

Marketing The Solothurner Tagblatt continues to rely on free obituaries to attract readers.The Solothurner Tagblatt (ST), a split of the Berner Zeitung, is again publishing local obituaries free of charge in 2007. The background: The number of local obituaries in a title is considered a yardstick for the anchoring of a title. The ST, which has been trying to gain a foothold against the Solothurner Zeitung since October 2001 and expanded its distribution area last summer, is interested in a rapid anchoring.The ST is currently probably the only Swiss newspaper with such an offer, not even the new Tagi splits in the Zurich area are resorting to this means of struggle. Of course, they would torpedo their main paper. But by all accounts, the number of obituaries in Tagi splits is still extremely meager.
Until the end of 2006, the Tagblatt für den Kanton Thurgau, a split of the St. Galler Tagblatt, also offered free obituaries - but only in the Weinfelden and Kreuzlingen districts, where the Thurgauer Zeitung (TZ) was to be attacked. "The offer was an element to promote reader loyalty," says publishing director Daniel Ehrat. With little success. "We made little impact with it. There were hardly any obituaries from these districts," he says. With the new cooperation between Tagblatt and TZ, the free offer has now been discontinued.

Markus Knöpfli

Daniela Bassi Schmid (37) is the new Head of the Customers and Partners department at the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund Suva. The business economist most recently worked as Head of Marketing and Communication at TV Productioncenter Zürich AG Tpc. In spring 2007, she will succeed Pius Wedekind at Suva. He is retiring after 33 years with Suva, as the company announced on Wednesday.