Regional press The titles Tribune de Genève and 24 Heures are combining sections instead of merging completely Pierre Ruetschi is the new editor-in-chief of the Tribune de Genève. Since the beginning of 2006, the 47-year-old former deputy has been responsible for the project group working on the reorganization of the Edipresse regional newspapers Tribune de Genève and 24 Heures (in Lausanne) under management member Eric Hoesli. The first visible stage of this renovation will be realized by the end of the year: the merging of the three sections Switzerland, Economy and International. The management of the Switzerland section will move to Lausanne, while that of the Business and International sections will move to Geneva. "Both editorial teams will retain their editorial freedom and two or three specialists in their respective areas," Ruetschi emphasizes. There will therefore be no joint pages.
Expansion of online presenceSince Edipresse bought the Geneva-based newspaper in the 1990s, the feared merger of the national newspaper has repeatedly caused a stir in the editorial offices. There were fears of massive job losses. The reasons for the uncertainty were once again the strict secrecy surrounding the plans for the multimedia orientation of the two titles. What is now coming is a "gentle" merger limited to individual sections.
Ruetschi, who is Hösli's favorite to guarantee the implementation of the multimedia strategy at Edipresse, was the Washington correspondent for both newspapers in the second half of the 1990s. He experienced the Internet boom there and was fascinated by the new multimedia possibilities. The next stage in the reorganization process has already been determined: the creation of a joint online editorial team for the two newspapers. This ambitious project will employ an additional 22 to 23 people from March 2007. This largest online editorial team in French-speaking Switzerland will develop various activities, such as continuous news production and its distribution via various multimedia channels.
The first stage in the reorganization of the editorial offices has already been completed: Employees at the two daily newspapers had until the end of August to take voluntary redundancy or reduce their working hours under financially attractive conditions. Numerous employees took up the offer. According to information from the editorial offices, this resulted in a combined reduction of around 18 jobs. "The convergence of the sections will free up further resources for the online editorial team," estimates Ruetschi. "However, our aim is in no way to reduce the print offering."
Helen Brügger

Madeleine von Arx-Richter (41) has been Managing Director at TBWA\Zurich since September. After a brief stint in Western Switzerland at Saatchi& Saatchi Simko in Geneva, she returned to the Zurich agency, where she had previously worked for five years. Previously, as Head of Marketing Communications, she had overall responsibility for the marketing communications of diAx Telecommunications.

Internet advertisers need to know podcasting: It will influence their strategies. Report from the 1st Swiss Podcast Day Media managers are currently observing a curious phenomenon. It's called podcasting. Users produce their own radio shows without much effort and post them on the Internet. The Goldbach Media Group hosted the 1st Swiss Podcast Day last Thursday. For the speakers and organizers, one thing is certain: podcasting will change and significantly influence media use and ultimately advertising. Although the word podcast was named word of the year by the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary last year, many communications experts at the Goldbach Media event were not quite sure what exactly podcasting meant. When one participant asked whether a podcast could be defined as an MP3, the speaker replied: "If you think of paper as a newspaper, yes."
In short: podcasting is a made-up word. It is made up of the English term "broadcasting" and the name of the popular audio player iPod. Wikipedia defines it as follows: "Podcasting refers to the production and provision of media files in a newsfeed via the Internet.
Specifically, listeners of podcasts can download and consume audio contributions via a receiver software such as iTunes. They also have the option of subscribing to podcasts so that the software automatically searches for new episodes and updates the archive. A microphone and production software also make it quick and easy to produce your own radio broadcasts and put them online. Experts often refer to this as community radio. Just like Berthold Brecht's radio idea.
The development and spread of podcasts is scaring publishers. German publisher Dr. Hubert Burda is considered a thought leader and pioneer when it comes to the integration and development of digital media: "In the last 40 years that I've been in this business, I don't think I've ever experienced a time of such upheaval and so many opportunities and risks as the time we're living in." By risks, Burda means the proliferation of weblogs and the many new offerings that have become possible thanks to broadband and digitalization.
The speakers at the Goldbach Media event agreed that media use will change from the ground up. Never before has it been so easy to communicate with the world. And never before have so many people taken advantage of this opportunity. You don't have to look far for examples. More than 35,000 users upload videos to Youtube.com every day. They are viewed more than 35 million times a day.
However, it is not just technology that is driving a rethink. Surprisingly for many, viewers, listeners and readers have suddenly become eager producers and therefore also competitors. Since the new generation iPod came onto the market, the reach of podcasts has tripled. Seven percent of all German Internet users are said to listen to podcasts every day. According to the Association of the German Internet Industry (Eco), this figure is set to rise to more than three million in 2010.
The number of podcasts is difficult to estimate. There are more than 40,000 of them in the Apple online store iTunes alone, and they are updated regularly. The topics range from science to comedy.
The majority of the podcasts currently available are the kind of talks we are familiar with from conventional radio broadcasts. For example, Annik Rubens, a podcast pioneer from Munich, reports on everyday life in the big city in her daily podcast "Sleepless in Munich". Thomas Wanhoff has dedicated himself to the "Wonderful World of Science" and explains black holes, prehistoric organisms and forest and meadow research in Jena via podcast. There are also language courses, radio plays, regional news and much more.
According to the experts, the typical podcast user is male, just under 30 years old, has an above-average education, is 50 percent likely to be single, earns a good income, subscribes to an average of eight podcasts and listens to around three and a half hours of podcasts per week.
You can hear that most podcasts are made by amateurs. They cough and stutter. For Thomas Wanhoff, guest speaker at the 1st Swiss Podcast Day and podcast pioneer from the very beginning, that's what makes it so special. "Listeners appreciate the authenticity," he says. He believes that the podcast scene tends to detest "clean" contributions because they demand honesty.
For Alexander Wunschel, operator of the "Markendreiklang" podcast, this also explains the fascination of podcasting quickly and briefly. "The trend towards podcasting has also emerged from a mass media frustration where the language and the broadcasts are perfect. Podcast listeners don't want cuts. They want the blurbs. That creates trust."
Trust is interesting for the advertising industry, says Wunschel. Podcasts are a medium that can have a strong influence on branding precisely because of their honesty and style. Thanks to the multiplication effect, a podcast with a reach of 100 regular listeners can achieve more than expensive advertising in the form of advertisements. In addition, 76 percent of podcast listeners would accept advertising. Money is a sensitive issue in the podcast scene. After all, podcasters primarily produce for themselves and their community. "That's a good thing," says Wanhoff, "You don't ask stamp collectors why they collect and how they earn money from it."
Christian Lüscher

The free reading for afternoon commuters and time-restricted online travelers called "today" has a new gadget. You can now admire the "Singles of the day" together with the links to the latest news in a plug-in for the Google homepage. If you have a Google account, you can personalize your Google homepage and add the gadget from Heute-online.ch.

Annual reports SBB took first place in this year's Bilanz rating: They emerged as the winner of this year's annual report rating by the business magazine Bilanz. UBS and Valora follow in 2nd and 3rd place. The overall rating is based on the assessment of design and value reporting. SBB also tops the list of the most beautifully designed reports. It is followed by Espace Media Groupe in 2nd place and Migros in 3rd place. UBS is ahead in terms of value reporting, followed by Roche and ZKB. This year, Bilanz is showing which ten annual reports have been the best over the last five years. Novartis takes first place here.
The jury for design was headed by designer Peter Vetter. Rudolf Volkart, Professor of Economics and Director of the Swiss Banking Institute at the University of Zurich, chaired the Value Reporting jury. Bilanz has published a ranking of the best Swiss annual reports since 1988.

As the new Managing Director at TEQUILA\, Daniel Brüngger wants to turn the dialog agency at TBWA\ into a leading address for "connections marketing" in Switzerland. "Why don't you just buy a brass plaque, have your name engraved on it - and there you have your own agency," said a few colleagues when Daniel Brüngger, as Managing Director of Lowe Direct, could no longer oppose the restructuring decision of the international network.but that was not his solution. "I'm not a lone wolf," says Brüngger, who prefers to work as the new Managing Director at TEQUILA\ in the large TBWA\Omnicom network from October 1. "Here I have clients where I can make a big difference on a broad level. This work in a professional team interests me more than having to spend years building up a small agency."
Customers like SBB, for whom
TEQUILA\, which manages the "Magic Ticket", or now McDonald's are demanding solutions where Brüngger can play on all the registers that he has been refining in the DM industry for 20 years.After training as an electrical engineer, Daniel Brüngger began his career at the Datron data center, a leading service provider for dialogue marketing. As sales manager, he was responsible for databases for major customers such as Quelle Europa, Kurfürst Warenversand and the Red Cross. "We were doing CRM, but we didn't know what it was yet," he says today with a smile. The idea that a consumer comes to a brand via the connections in a database and that you can control a dialog via data structures quickly fascinated him. He later developed these possibilities further as Head of the Direct Marketing Profit Center at AT&T/NCR.
Eight years ago, the technician felt the time had come to switch from pure database marketing to advertising. Together with Guido Wietlisbach, he quickly developed his own agency so successfully that the newcomers were able to acquire their competitor OgilvyOne Switzerland in 2000. After these years of development, the relationship was "a little strained" in 2004. They were looking for the best way to continue running the company.
Brüngger subsequently left the company and switched to Lowe. There he took over Lowe Direct in a cloak-and-dagger operation. This was at a time when the "merry-go-round" in the DM sector with customers and staff was spinning very fast and his predecessor moved to the competition.
Daniel Brüngger had to replace a team very quickly, reassure customers and get to grips with Lowe's well-known cluster risk. He succeeded in doing this with six well-known new customers. He was also able to set up a new core team.
However, as Lowe increasingly hit the headlines in the wake of international developments at the network, even this success was no longer of any use. Brüngger was not interested in an MBO of Lowe Advertising, but wanted to take over Lowe Direct & Interactive in isolation. However, their ideas about the conditions diverged too far. "Fortunately, after the painful closure, all the people found good jobs with well-known agencies."
Of course, Brüngger is proud that he also received "many offers" from all Swiss regions and various communication disciplines. He quickly found out that TBWA\ had the best groove for him. "There is an inspiring spirit of optimism." He found "very good people who are masters of classic communication" and also saw that Daniel Huber had "built a TEQUILA\ that is good and solid".
Particularly important for the new Managing Director: "There is also a great understanding of other disciplines among the unit managers." Brüngger has already seen this during a few trial days at TEQUILA\. Many specialists often want to do everything with the same tool. One dialog marketer says of the communication problem: "Let's send emails and the problem is solved." - "And an event agency will say: let's fly in Pavarotti - and the problem is solved," jokes Brüngger.
His approach is now to define the relevant connections across the communication disciplines and for all consumer touchpoints. At TEQUILA\ and TBWA\, he sees "good opportunities to offer leading Connections Marketing in Switzerland. We have a solid basis for this with our own new tools, a professional team and a jointly developed instrument called Connex."
Brüngger believes in his profession: in Germany, 35 percent of all advertisers chose direct communication channels in the first half of 2006. "Over a third, I see that as an opportunity," says the "man between the disciplines".
The specialist is motivated for his work when, thanks to DM, over five million francs can be raised for a charitable organization with a budget of 300,000 francs, for example. "When you see that, it's fun. For direct marketers, the satisfaction lies more in the solution, and an Effie counts for more than other prizes - which you are of course proud of."
When he's not between CRM, dialog and advertising, Brüngger can often be found at the market, for example at Helvetiaplatz, and in the evening behind the cooking pots or in front of the wine rack. He can also switch off very well in any opera house in the world. Because "eating and drinking is not good for your figure", he likes to balance things out with exercise - sometimes in the forest, sometimes in the mountains, but mostly between holes 1 and 18.
Andreas Panzeri

Environment On behalf of the WWF, Spinas, Gemperle sensitizes Switzerland to the problem of climate change How far has climate change already progressed? The dramatic answer to this question is provided by a hologram. If you move the beautifully designed map, you can see a frightening picture: The polar ice is melting. The current campaign for WWF Switzerland by Spinas, Gemperle argues with a convincing "before and after" visual idea. The northern polar ice caps in 1979 and 2005 are shown for comparison. Spinas, Gemperle aims to "counteract trivialization" with such campaigns. The communications specialists in fundraising have to "bridge the gap between research and the people" with their work for the WWF.
For most people, global warming is an abstract environmental threat. We see dead fish and deforested rainforests. But everyone loves the warm sun. However, they associate this with vacations rather than climate change. Spinas, Gemperle therefore visualized the threat of global warming in an understandable way in last year's campaign with the melting of the glaciers in the Swiss Alps.

However, the polar photos from NASA in the new campaign are only the "tip of the iceberg" when the WWF wants to motivate the population in Switzerland to get involved with the environmentalists with posters and advertisements.
The public campaign lays the carpet. "Nobody donates anything in response to an advertisement," says Lorenz Spinas. That's why, after the publicity, the campaign is followed up with scatter shots and addressed mailings. The Internet is also playing a growing role in collecting donations. Donations can also be made by credit card.
In the industry, it is calculated that at least 2 percent of direct mailings should trigger a donation. The aim of the initial contact is to cover costs. "It's like subscription advertising," explains Spinas. Once an addressee is registered as a patron, up to 80 percent of them will automatically continue to donate if the annual payment slips are then sent out in a targeted manner.
The fundraising market has become "a very tough cut-throat market". It needs experienced specialists. With its "fundraising professionals", Spinas, Gemperle works more expensively than a conventional agency that occasionally supports a prestigious fundraising campaign as goodwill. However, it can be calculated that Spinas, Gemperle generate more donations for their clients than the occasional goodwill agency. For this reason, both WWF and Greenpeace have their fundraising campaigns managed by Spinas, Gemperle.
Spinas, Gemperle won the WWF's Swiss budget three years ago in a pitch. The "value-positioned agency" works exclusively for social and political causes. Its clients include Caritas, Arbeiterhilfswerk, cancer research and many others.
Lorenz Spinas previously worked at GGK Basel and founded the specialist agency six years ago with freelance AD Oliver Gemperle. The two-person team quickly developed into a company of around 20 specialists today. The agency has not been affected by the general slump of recent years caused by the economic crisis and, on the contrary, has even been able to grow. They are already looking for new creative people "who want to offer their skills for a little less money and thus live out their idealism..."
In the past, customers only came from Switzerland. Today, German non-profit organizations also find their way to the specialists in Zurich. The agency has just won a pitch for the Heinz Sielmann Foundation in Germany, as well as for Caritas International.
Andreas Panzeri

Posters An important chapter in the development of visual communication in Europe took place in Milan between 1945 and 1970. Graphic designers and photographers from Switzerland played a major role in this. Equipped with a sound education, which Italy could not offer at the time, as well as an eye trained in the "Swiss style", they encountered an inspiring attitude in Milan. The need for visual communication was growing in Milan during the phase of reconstruction and economic upswing. The exhibition "Zürich HB - Milano Centrale" now shows this fruitful exchange of mentalities and the various Italian and Swiss design trends with selected works from the holdings of the poster collection and the graphics collection of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. The vernissage is on October 23.

The race for the coveted D&AD Awards is on. The deadline for entries is January 10, 2007 for works published or launched between January 1 and December 31, 2006. Creative works ranging from poster advertising and games to television graphics are eligible. The jury, headed by Michael Johnson (Johnson Banks, London), will evaluate the entries at the end of March. The winners will be chosen on May 24, 2007 in London. 

The Quotidien Jurassien has decided not to take on the new mantle of its three neighboring papers and will continue to produce all sections itself. The daily newspaper has thus turned down the invitation to participate in the "ARC" project and is foregoing a new domestic, foreign and sports jacket, which the Journal du Jura, the Impartial and the Express will be publishing from February. The Journal du Jura in Welschbiel and the two Neuchâtel papers are merging some of their editorial teams in the "ARC" project (see ). In future, each paper will only produce the local section individually; the existing printing locations will remain. The three newspapers will have a combined circulation of around 50,000 copies in Biel, the Bernese Jura, the canton of Neuchâtel and the Franches-Montagnes.

The "Only an advertisement can do that" campaign of the Swiss Press Association is entering its fourth round in 2007. As last year, the twelve subjects are to be realized by young creative duos. Teams born in or before 1978 have until December 4 to submit their designs. A high-caliber jury will then decide by mid-December which advertisements will be placed in almost all publications in the country. The three best teams can also take part in the European final of "BestYET", where the main prize is a trip to Cannes.The Swiss press competition is being promoted this year by Matter & Gretener. For their subjects, the agency has styled legendary advertisers into icons in the style of holy pictures. Erik Vervroegen, the Creative Director of TBWA/Paris, Alex Bogusky from Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Marcello Serpa from AlmapBBDO posed. The 2nd Young Creative competition is also supported by the BSW Leading Swiss Agencies association, Schweizer Werbung SW, the Allianz Schweizer Werbeagenturen (ASW), Publimedia and Werbewoche.
 
Vote and win The Swiss Press Association is also running a poll on its website to find the favorite advertisement of the 2006 campaign. Votes can be cast at the click of a mouse and a car can be won. All advertisements for the 2006 campaign were designed by creative people born up to 1977. The closing date for entries is November 13, 2006. 

One of Switzerland's leading PR agencies, Burson Marsteller, has opened a new office in Geneva. In Geneva, four people will strengthen the network, which is already represented in Switzerland in Zurich and Bern. In Geneva, where Burson Marsteller opened its first European office in 1961, PR services will be offered for the French-speaking Swiss market as well as for internationally oriented companies and organizations. The Geneva office is intended to complete the offering for clients at national and international level. The team in Geneva consists of Joanna Corsaro, Head of PR, and PR consultant Thomas Maginnis. Public affairs specialist Kate Lipsitz has recently joined Burson Marsteller.