Schweizer Fernsehwoche launched on Swiss newsstands on Thursday. The launch was deliberately quiet, "only the competitors knew we were coming", publishing director Rüdiger Hahn told Werbewoche. The German publisher is no stranger to Switzerland. He sold TVvier to Ringier in 2004. Hahn went on to explain that the advertising measures for the new TV guide, which has a Swiss influence, will soon be on display. In particular, TV commercials and POS measures are planned.
The new program guide aims to offer readers the greatest possible value, explains Hahn. It consists of three parts: An editorial section of around 10 pages. The jacket section is deliberately Swiss in character, emphasizes Hahn. This is followed by the program section, which includes 53 TV channels and 2 radio stations and in which emphasis was placed on an "extremely quick overview". The third part is the entertainment section, which currently consists of puzzles and horoscopes. Further expansion of this section is planned, taking into account readers' wishes. The website is also under construction.

On Wednesday evening, Fabio Lo Verso was appointed as the new editor-in-chief of the Geneva daily newspaper Le Courrier. The Tribune de Genève journalist succeeds Marco Gregori, who is stepping down as editor-in-chief for family reasons. However, Lo Verso is taking over the paper in a difficult financial phase, as a deficit is looming for 2006, according to the SDA press release.

The left-wing weekly WOZ presented its anniversary issue to the media on Wednesday. With an 80s look, the paper celebrates independent journalism, quality and itself. Clichés are like mother's proverbs: generalizing and subtly annoying because they are always true in some way. The WOZ made use of the cliché and the proverb at the same time: weeks before its birthday, it solemnly played the hymn to the dead. And editorial director Susan Boos doubled down at the opening of the anniversary issue on Wednesday: the WOZ should have been dead a long time ago.
Well, it is anything but dead, but is still alive and kicking and doing what it does extremely well: building on its own myth and producing well-founded journalism. For the festive event, it is presenting this myth in three volumes: it starts with the "WOZ story", continues with "The big topics" and ends with "Careers" with around two dozen portraits of former exponents of the left.
The table of contents reads like a to-do list for journalists: it opens with "the pure truth", confessed by the last WOZ star and current Tagi reporter Constantin Seibt, followed by a "surprising confession" by long-time WOZ editor and poet Fredi Lerch. He explains why he was never really a leftist. This is followed by the emotions of a reader who has been outraged by the newspaper for over 20 years, as well as layout expertise and a photo novel about crises of meaning.
Then the big topics: Nicaragua, third world literature, multinational corporations, cucumber salad, the secret army and the gender debate. This section also includes interviews, for example with former city councillor Emilie Lieberherr. The current head of Tagimagi and former WOZ contributor Res Strehle indulges his fetish for SVP politicians, and Christoph Mörgeli even makes it into the jubilant WOZ because he admires Niklaus Meienberg.
PS: If you were wondering whether the WOZ also has younger employees, you can rest assured: Yes, they had to organize the party - and if they do their job as thoroughly as the old ones, then the party for the paper next Saturday, 7 Oct. in the Rote Fabrik will be a big one. And most likely without Mr. Mörgeli.

As part of the 2nd Zurich Film Festival, the oneodotzero_ch_award was presented for the first time Wednesday at Kino Academy. The award honors outstanding Swiss works from the categories Music Videos and Short Films. The winner was the experimental short film "Lauschsicht" by Jasmine Lehmann.  
The expert jury consisted of Michel Goldschmidt (Art Director Arte), Los Angeles-based Swiss director Serge Hoeltschi and Asta Baumöller (Managing Director VivaTV, Switzerland). The oneodotzero_ch_award comes with benefits in kind worth 10,000 Swiss francs. For this amount, the proud winner can use the extensive infrastructure of Condor's film studio Bellerive including a 260m2 picture studio, Dolby Surround sound studios, edit suites and shooting equipment for future projects. Condor Films supports onedotzero_ch to promote high quality talent and make it accessible to the creative industry. Further reels of onedotzero will be screened at the Zurich cinemas Frosch and Academy until Sunday, 8.10.06. All finalists are now available at www.condorfilms.com.

The jury for the Eurobest Awards was announced on Thursday. Among them are the two Swiss Däni Sulzer and Christian Erni. Sulzer is Creative Director at Pucci, Sulzer and will be judging in the "TV/Cinema, Print, Outdoor & Radio" category. Christian Erni, Creative Director at Futurecom Interactive, will be a creative judge in the "Direct" and "Integrated" categories.

Together with the market research institute Le Lab Consuling, Swiss Post and IG Adscreen conducted an effectiveness study on the new medium. The conclusion: Adscreens are effective advertising media. The measurement of advertising effectiveness was carried out using a post store campaign. For the study, Swiss Post supplemented its campaign with presences on all ad screen networks of various marketers and in combination with TV, weekly newspapers, consumer magazines, POS posters and brochures. According to IG Adscreen, 620 interviews with people between the ages of 15 and 49 from all over Switzerland were conducted to determine recall, brand recognition and sympathy for the campaign.
The study shows that the medium is widely used in Switzerland and is well perceived: Every fourth Swiss respondent remembers seeing the Postshop campaign on an ad screen. Swiss adscreens can be divided into three main categories: Those at the point of sale (e.g. Coop Pronto), those at points of interest (e.g. sports stadiums) and those at points of traffic (train stations). The study also showed that adscreens are more widespread and attract slightly more attention in French-speaking Switzerland than in German-speaking Switzerland, and that they are particularly effective with men. The study also showed that adscreens are particularly suitable for generating double contacts.

Italy will experience an information blackout in the coming days as the media guild goes on strike. The strike is intended to emphasize their demands in connection with new collective agreements. On Friday and Saturday, Italians will not be able to enjoy a newspaper with their espresso, as the press has been at a standstill since Thursday. Print and online media as well as news agencies are affected. Radio and television also offer no relief in the information emergency, as journalists there have also refused to work and will not be broadcasting on Friday and Saturday, as reported by the SDA. Media workers had already walked off the job a week ago.
 
Journalists and employers in Italy have been at loggerheads for months over the renewal of collective agreements. While the trade unions want to extend the current contracts by one year, the publishers are pushing for renewal. The journalists' associations reject this because the publishers' proposals amount to a production model that would reduce the independence, quality and rights of the Italian media landscape.

The communications consulting and marketing agency is the second PR agency to join the association.  
Cr Kommunikation is one of the ten largest agencies in Switzerland and is now officially a member of the industry association Bsw Leading Swiss Agencies. It is the second major PR agency to join the association after the two associations Bsw and BPRA failed to merge in 2003.

In September 2006, Swiss television achieved an average market share of 32.9% for the whole day. The drop of 2.0 percentage points compared to the same month last year is mainly due to FC Thun's participation in the Champions League and the national soccer team's World Cup qualifying matches in September 2005. From January to September 2006, SF generated an annual average of 35.1 percent. This puts SF 1.7 percentage points above the 2005 annual average. September 2006 compared to September 2005: decline due to football matches with Swiss participation in the previous year In September 2006, Swiss television achieved an average market share of 32.9% for the whole day. This is a drop of 2.0 percentage points compared to the same month last year. September 2005 was characterized by Champions League matches with Swiss participation and World Cup qualifying matches of the Swiss national football team. The high market shares that SF was able to generate in 2005 due to the sporting events, particularly on the main evening, are missing this year.
January to September 2006 compared to 2005 annual average: SF is up 1.7 percentage points Compared to the 2005 annual average, SF is up 1.7 percentage points in the months of January to September 2006. While SF achieved a market share of 33.4 percent last year, the figure for January to September 2006 is 35.1 percent. SF is up in all time periods. The biggest increase is in the evening before (up 5.3 percentage points on the 2005 annual average).

On Wednesday, Ringier sent out a notice that an "explosive revelation" had been published in the TV magazine TV2: TV ratings would only take into account a portion of the audience. However, this is a well-known problem. Read the statements made by the SRG SSR subsidiary Mediapulse, which collects the TV ratings, here. Five questions for Markus Jedele (Head of Television Research):
WW: Mediapulse has problems measuring digital cable television. Does this mean that the shift towards digitalization cannot be measured at all? Jedele: It is true that we currently do not optimally map all constellations when measuring digital cable television. However, this only applies to part of digital cable television, especially the new Cablecom boxes; other digital boxes can certainly be measured. However, we have the measurement of satellite reception (analog or digital) - currently in a good 10 percent of households - fully under control. In the course of ever faster technological change and the increasingly diverse range of digital options, new measuring devices and techniques are required. This is a problem that means that the development of measurement methods always lags somewhat behind the market. When a new product is launched on the market, we often don't know whether it will catch on and need to be measured. WW: What efforts are being made to solve the problem? Jedele: Specifically, it concerns the new models of the Cablecom set-top box, which cannot yet be read by the measurement technology. Two approaches are currently being pursued to solve the problem: Firstly, our partner for measurement technology, Liechti AG, has been in contact with Cablecom in order to solve the problem at a technical level. Discussions are still ongoing. The example of western Switzerland shows that such collaborations can be successful. For example, we have a corresponding contract with NAXOO with a data protection agreement. We can now read these digital boxes. On the other hand, we are also looking for an independent way. This involves reading the communication between the box and the screen. Corresponding technology is already in use in Puerto Rico. Liechti is currently working on an adaptation for Switzerland and Austria. WW: How long could it take to solve the problem? Jedele: It's hard to say. Depending on which path proves to be the most promising. However, it could take up to six months for the independent solution. WW: What is the problem with the different recording methods for broadcasts? Jedele: We have the video recorder under control. Hard disk recorders and DVD recorders are currently in need of further development. WW: Has Mediapulse already taken measures to measure the soon to be launched BluewinTV or HandyTV? Jedele: Discussions have already taken place with BluewinTV, which have been very positive and give cause for optimism. However, HandyTV is still in the theoretical phase. Although the operators have all the relevant data, they do not (yet) want to disclose it. As an alternative, an adaptation of the cell phone operating software would be conceivable. 
Kathrin Fischer 

The Zurich agency has brought three new consultants and one new editor on board. 
Prisca Huguenin-dit-Lenoir joined the consultancy team at the beginning of September. The qualified PR specialist contributes her extensive communications knowledge and language skills to various projects. She replaces Christian Kuhn, who is moving to the client side after five years at Viva. From November, Sarah Käch will also be working in Viva's consultancy division. The trained PR consultant was most recently Head of Communications and a member of the management team at a national association. Carmen Ackermann joined the Viva team in August as a consulting assistant.
 
The editorial team is also growing: on November 1, Markus Pfanner will move from Tages-Anzeiger to Viva in order to expand the range of services in this sector together with the previous editor Thomas Maag.  
 
 

The top 100 leading American media companies generated over 268 billion dollars in 2005. This corresponds to an increase of 6.6 percent compared to the previous year. Time Warner continues to lead the rankings with a turnover of over 33 billion dollars (+0.9 %), according to the Leading Media Companies Report published by the US trade magazine Advertising Age. Time Warner owes its success to an Internet and cable offensive, followed by cable provider Comcast Corporation in second place with 22.08 billion dollars, displacing Viacom. Last year's runner-up is now in ninth place with a turnover of 8.25 billion. This loss of place results from the integration of the company into CBS Corporation, which itself achieved a turnover of 11.8 billion dollars (7th place).
Internet steals advertising revenue from other mediaAd Age describes the Internet as the ultimate distribution system - if not today, then definitely in the future. 14 of the 100 companies earned 16.92 billion dollars from advertising and subscriptions in 2005. Google occupies 19th place (3.71 billion), Yahoo 21st (3.67 billion). AOL, however, is in the lead with 6.32 billion dollars.
Around 135 billion dollars were generated in the TV sector. 103 billion came from the cable segment and 31.75 billion from network broadcasters. Although advertising revenues in the cable segment did not decrease in 2005, growth in the current year has already fallen from eleven percent to 2.6 percent. Network broadcasters, on the other hand, were able to increase their revenues by 5.4 percent - thanks to the Winter Olympics and political advertising.
Magazines on the rise Advertising revenue is also slowly migrating from print to the internet. 35 companies were only able to achieve just 35.68 billion dollars in this area, which represents growth of 2.1 percent. Magazines, on the other hand, seem to be doing a little better. 30 media companies generated 20.39 billion dollars, which corresponds to an increase of six percent.