The New York Times is not allowed to protect its whistleblowers. As the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, the daily newspaper must disclose the telephone conversations of two editors to the US government. Judith Miller and Philip Shenon had revealed confidential government plans in 2001. These planned to freeze the assets of two Islamic charities in the fight against terrorism. Since then, public prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been trying to freeze the source of the confidential information. The Supreme Court's decision means that Fitzgerald can now listen to the telephone conversations in the hope of uncovering the information leak.
The case is the second defeat for the New York Times before the Supreme Court. In the fall of 2005, reporter Miller had already been forced to disclose informants in an article about the CIA until she finally agreed to testify. Fitzgerald was also the lead prosecutor at the time.
Lucy Dalglish from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press expressed her disappointment at the decision, as the online newspaper writes. The Supreme Court is no help when it comes to protecting confidential sources. Now Congress must provide the necessary laws to protect confidential telephone conversations, demanded Dalglish.

Commentary by René Worni on print media at a bargain price: The former editor-in-chief of the Springer newspaper Welt, Roger Köppel, who has been back in the country for almost two months now and is back in office as editor-in-chief of Weltwoche, where he also has an entrepreneurial stake of 60 percent, has, as we read in the WOZ, received his majority stake in the newly founded Weltwoche-Verlags AG for the ridiculous price of a measly 1.2 million francs. Jean Frey AG, for its part, is contributing its flagship to the new AG for 2 million francs and will retain a 40 percent stake in it for 800,000 francs. So Köppel, the majority owner of editor-in-chief, has come to Weltwoche on impressively favorable terms or on "very favorable terms" (Leutenegger). Köppel is a real lucky man - or is he? He is also continuing the tradition of a dying breed of publishing personalities who are both journalists and entrepreneurs.
How is that possible? Köppel is often portrayed as the foster son of Jean Frey's one-third owner Tito Tettamanti. It would be naïve to assume that he gave the newly minted young publisher a gift and thus helped him to acquire a majority stake in Weltwoche-Verlags AG. A simple fact helped. The publishing rights to the Weltwoche title, worth up to 10 million francs according to WOZ, do not appear in the shareholders' agreements. They are detached from the rest as an intangible asset and - it can be assumed - remain with Jean Frey. 
With these conditions, the deal could go through at a low level, and everyone is served: the neo-conservative circles, who wanted Köppel to be the only conceivable figure in the head chair of Weltwoche, and also the Jean Frey publishing house, whose company results were dragging down the ever-slumping Weltwoche. So even if he wanted to, Köppel would not be able to sell Weltwoche on his own. However, should Axel Springer Verlag actually be interested in Weltwoche, Springer CEO Matthias Döpfner at least has a well-established guarantor through his former subordinate in Zurich.
René Worni, Editor

The three radio stations Basilisk and Basel 1 as well as the southwest German station Radio Regenbogen are joining forces and founding a joint sales company. The new company, named Radio Vision, will take over sales for all three stations from January 1, 2007. The aim of the merger is to strengthen radio as a medium in the competition between the various media in the Basel market, the three stations announced on Wednesday. In future, advertising customers will be able to reach up to 200,000 listeners in the Basel area via one contact partner. However, the cooperation between the three stations will be limited to sales, and journalistic competition and program diversity in the Basel radio market will be maintained.
RPB Radio Pool Basel, the former sales organization of Radio Basel 1 and Radio Regenbogen, will be renamed Radio Vision. Tamedia holds 50 percent of the new company, National-Zeitung and Basler Nachrichten 33 percent and Radio Regenbogen Hörfunk 17 percent. Silvana Imperiali, previously CEO of Radio Basel 1 Werbe AG and RPB Radio Pool Basel, will become Managing Director of the company.
As part of the merger of the sales organizations, around three jobs will be cut at Medag and Radio Basel 1 Werbe AG. Other jobs within National-Zeitung and Basler Nachrichten AG will be sought for the employees affected. The agreed cooperation must be approved by the Competition Commission.

The timing of Google's launch in radio advertising is currently being hotly debated in industry blogs. It is said that the beta version of Google's Radio Ads is about to be launched and will start in the USA this year. This is not surprising, as a year has already passed since the acquisition of the radio advertising company dMarc Broadcasting (see ). It has been announced that over 500 radio stations are already connected to the Google platform, and 4,200 have already been targeted. Ultimately, however, the aim is to reach over 5,000 stations. Google is currently in the process of presenting its solution to advertisers in the USA. The advantage of the solution via Google is the complete automation.

Airport advertising The Airport Media Initiative (IAM) was founded in Munich. Unique in Zurich-Kloten is also involved. A print product, website and an airport award are already planned. As already reported in WW 38 on October 26, the aim of the new grouping is to reposition the generic marketing of airport advertising. A total of thirteen airports in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have joined forces in the new IAM. "Airport advertising is a highly attractive and contemporary medium," explains Jens Hassler, designated IAM spokesperson and Head of Marketing at Munich Airport. It enables optimal target group selection, which means that the airport can differentiate precisely between package tourists and private and business travelers. The thirteen IAM airports record almost 200 million passengers per year.
The Airport Media initiative aims to draw attention to this sought-after target group through joint marketing activities. Hassler: "Our aim is to achieve a better positioning compared to other media types." The IAM's first joint campaign is a print product that will be produced in spring. In the fall, the initiative will present a joint Airport Award for the best advertising for the first time. An internal working group is already dealing with the topics of data networks and cooperation with trade associations. Preparations for a website are also in full swing.
Standardized formatsIn its founding declaration, the IAM emphasizes that each airport will remain independent in its marketing for the time being. However, it can be assumed that relevant internal areas at the individual airports will be jointly marketed in the medium term.
At the heart of this are the backlit CLP showcases in the standard European 4/1 format of 1.75 x 3.6 meters. This format standardization will provide a lucrative and international display area for brand campaigns. The target group of business travelers is coveted by every brand in the high-price segment, as it has high and exclusive purchasing power.
Peter Ehm

Cured meats Fresh from the slicing table: the new film for Citterio from AY&R. Fans of Citterio's Italian specialties know the problem: carving salame and prosciutti into perfectly thin slices is impossible without professional equipment. But the solution to the problem is already waiting in the fridge: Wafer-thin pre-sliced Citterio delicacies such as Salame di Milano, Prosciutto di Parma or Prosciutto Gran Cotto di Vignola. Advico Young & Rubicam has created a new commercial for Citterio to increase awareness of the practical fresh packs. It tells the tragic love triangle between a young man, his dog and a plate of the finest, wafer-thin slices of salame and prosciutto. The slices lure the dog to the table. But before he can grab it, the morsels are already blown away with the window open. Double bad luck for the dog, who was flown in from Greece and is already everyone's favorite there as an advertising star. It should be no different in Switzerland.
The commercial will be shown on Swiss television from the beginning of December, just in time for the Christmas gourmet season. Buon appetito!
Andreas Panzeri

The Jobpilot Index for the Swiss Internet job market set another record in October. The index rose to 130 points, surpassing the previous record set in July 2006 by 4 points (see ). The pleasing increase affected both job offers on job exchanges and on company websites. This peak even clearly surpasses the boom phase of 2001. Job advertisements on Internet job exchanges increased by 4 points to 113 points, while job advertisements on company websites rose by 3 points to 164 points. Online and print increase The print index, calculated by the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and comparable with the Jobpilot index, also recorded an increase in October. By 5 points to 43 points. This means that the print index actually rose slightly more than the online index, after falling slightly in the summer quarter.

Source: Jobpilot.ch

The creatives at Advico Young & Rubicam are supporting the International Labor Organization (ILO) in the fight against child labour. The Zurich-based agency has developed posters and advertisements on behalf of the Geneva-based UN organization. The advertising material dramatizes the ILO's goal: to eliminate the worst forms of child labour worldwide over the next ten years. The campaign will be launched at the end of November with posters in the Paris metro and advertisements in French daily newspapers. Right in the middle of the pre-Christmas period, when numerous aid organizations are already trying to appeal to people with stereotypical images of children in need. "That's why our campaign is different," says Urs Schrepfer, Creative Director of Advico Young & Rubicam. The campaign aims to make as many people as possible aware of the ILO's projects so that in ten years' time at least the worst forms of child labor will be a thing of the past.

Software technology Adobe Systems is making the source code of the ActionScript Virtual Machine, the standards-based scripting language of the Flash Player, available to the non-profit Mozilla Foundation. As part of the new Tamarin open source project, Mozilla will accelerate the development of this technology to create rich and engaging web applications. The Tamarin project will implement the final version of the ECMA Script Edition 4 standard language. This will be used by Mozilla in the next generation of SpiderMonkey. SpiderMonkey is the core of the JavaScript engine embedded in the free Firefox web browser.

Cable specialist Huber+Suhner has appointed Fabio Mercandetti as Head of Business Development and Communications as of the beginning of January 2007. He will also take a seat on the Executive Board. With Mercandetti's appointment, the company is simplifying its management structure, the SDA news agency reported on Wednesday. The former Information and Process Management and Communication and Business Development divisions have been merged to form the new division. Peter Baumann and Mats Önner, the two previous heads of the former divisions, have already left the company and will be leaving at the end of the year. Previously, 49-year-old Mercandetti had been with Rieter since 1997, most recently as Head of Corporate Planning.

Music Sony breathes new life into the legendary Walkman sub-brand with a range of new MP3 players. The radio campaign developed by Grey focuses on two products: An MP3 player for sports enthusiasts and an MP3 player for sound enthusiasts. Both devices have functions and features that you won't find in the competition. For example, a calorie counter and distance meter. The radio campaign has been running throughout Switzerland from mid-November to the beginning of December.

Regional press The Landbote is about to cooperate with the Thurgauer Zeitung. The Zürcher Landbote is to cooperate with the Thurgauer Zeitung on an editorial level. Discussions between the editors-in-chief have been concluded and a rough concept has been drawn up. "Now we are just waiting for the decision of the Board of Directors," explains Landbote Editor-in-Chief Colette Gradwohl. The exact content of the concept is not known and those responsible do not want to say anything about it. If the aim is to exploit synergies between regional newspapers - which primarily means savings - then a jacket section with joint supra-regional departments is the rule. "I can imagine that we will get clarity this year on how to proceed," says Andreas Netzle, Editor-in-Chief of the Thurgauer Zeitung.
Landbote expanded its positionBut why should the Landbote cooperate? "The Landbote is not in a bad position," says Gradwohl. A good year after the total restructuring of the paper from a dusty city newspaper to a modern forum paper, the Landbote was able to maintain and slightly expand its position. Job cuts are therefore apparently not an issue. "There is no need for action at the moment," says Gradwohl. "But that could change." However, the editor-in-chief is convinced that a cooperation with the Thurgauer Zeitung makes sense.
However, it is not really clear why a regional newspaper in Winterthur should focus more on eastern Switzerland instead of the cantonal capital of Zurich, where the commuter flows go. On the contrary, one could get the impression that the Landbote is increasingly being sidelined in the crossfire of interests.
It is clear that the Tages-Anzeiger publisher Tamedia, with its 20 percent stake in Winterthur and the 100 percent stake in Thurgauer Zeitung, is looking for synergies to refinance the high purchase price of TZ, officially CHF 56 million, and is therefore trying to push ahead with the cooperation using the most diplomatic means possible. Because there are obstacles.
Tamedia prints the Landbote and the Landbote publisher Ziegler Druck AG in turn prints the magazine and other commercial publications. These contracts remove an important means of pressure for Tamedia, as a corresponding contractual clause prohibits it from launching a regional edition of the Tages-Anzeiger in Winterthur, a flaw in Tamedia's regionalization strategy for the Tagi. Nevertheless, the statements made in Winterthur by the bustling Tagi publishing director and ex-Mister-20-Minuten Rolf Bollmann must seem like threatening gestures: As the responsible regional strategist, Bollmann emphasizes at every opportunity that there are too many newspapers in the greater Zurich area.
This takes on a bizarre double meaning, especially when Bollmann intends to print a large print run for the Tagi and the regional editions, but the print jobs for the Tages-Anzeiger, 20 Minuten and other regional newspapers, including the Landbote, bring Tamedia's rotation to the edge of its capacity.
After all, the millions are not flowing so freely in the joint Tagi Plus advertising combination between Tages-Anzeiger and Landbote, which Gradwohl's predecessor and former editor-in-chief Rudolf Gerber, for example, had raved about. Tagi Plus is not affiliated with the Metropool, so the national connection in the media triangle of Basel, Berne and Zurich is no longer available. This may explain why the initial euphoria about Tagi Plus has given way to widespread disappointment. In the advertising combi 1, the residual product of the former north-east combi with six regional newspapers, the Landbote, together with the Thurgauer Zeitung and the Schaffhauser Nachrichten, is the partner with the highest circulation and is now the only Publicitas title in the region.
The Thurgauer Zeitung only recently broke away from the advertising giant and is marketing itself in the same way as its parent company Tamedia. However, this should not have any impact on Kombi 1, through which the Landbote also enters the national advertising business. The strong position in Kombi 1 could at least be a small argument in the negotiations with Tamedia.
On the other hand, the former allies, the three Zurich regional newspapers Zürichsee-Zeitung, Unterländer and Oberländer, have joined forces to form the Zürcher Landzeitung with a joint cover and have been cooperating even more closely since the beginning of October. This also severed the last links between the three papers and the Landbote, which until the end of September still claimed the same Federal Parliament correspondent.
In the past, i.e. until the takeover of the aforementioned share package from Tamedia in Winterthur and the associated affiliation of the Landbote with the Zurich group, the regional newspapers regularly exchanged editorial information. The Winterthur newspapers were once regarded as a secure value in the group, which also manifested itself physically with the founding of the joint printing center in Oetwil and whose departure was a severe blow to the regional publishers.
From a journalistic point of view, a cooperation would still make more sense today than connections to Thurgau. Even the media experts who flew in from Hamburg had to realize that Winterthur and Frauenfeld are not neighboring communities and that the savings potential of a cooperation between Landbote and the Thurgauer Zeitung was probably somewhat overestimated.
For the time being, Winterthur is keeping quiet. "We are seriously considering a cooperation with TZ, but the matter is still too immature for us to comment," says Lothar Dostal, Managing Director of Ziegler Druck.    
René Worni