The investment by Edipresse will take effect in January 2007, according to a statement from the SDA news agency. No details of the purchase price were given. However, Edipresse has the option of increasing its stake to 40 percent by 2010. The joint marketing company will be called Romandie Online and will focus on the French-speaking Swiss market. This measure is expected to increase the company's share of the online advertising pie. Romandie Online will market a total of 16 websites, including Lematin.com and 24heures.com.

In the competition for customers' favor, Coop is ahead of Migros by a nose. This is shown by market research figures from IHA GfK, which are available to SonntagsZeitung. The overall market for personal care, food and cleaning products grew by over 3 percent in the first 8 months of the year. This was achieved, among other things, by correcting the high-price image, through the numerous price reductions and the low-cost "Prix Garantie" line. Coop wants to further increase profits and achieve this by cutting supplier costs. From January, 3 percent less is to be paid - Coop is thus passing on its own price pressure to its suppliers. The branded goods association Promarca has protested that it is not the branded goods manufacturers who should pay if Coop grows through its cheap lines and own brands. It is also to be feared that other Swiss retailers will join in the song, to the detriment of Swiss branded goods manufacturers.

The population will have to live in a state of emergency during the EURO 08 European soccer championship, he said. For this reason, a 3.2-kilometer-long fan boulevard will be set up in Basel, extending from the Badischer Bahnhof train station through the city center to the SBB train station. Fans without tickets will be able to watch the games on large screens in several places. It is expected that 50,000 fans will be present every day. The fan boulevard is to be strikingly marked, with canopies, hanging towers and attractions. The whole thing is expected to cost five to ten million Swiss francs - and sponsors will be allowed to finance it. One of the major advantages, however, is already clear to Basel's security director Hanspeter Gass: during the football extravaganza, there is an increased need for basic security. Thanks to the fan boulevard, fans would move along controlled lanes and squares.

The Zurich agency Werbeanstalt has two new employees: Manuela Kern and Thilo Capodanno.  
Manuela Kern, previously Head of Communications at Swiss Exhibition, has joined the advertising agency as a consultant. Thilo Capodanno has also joined the company as a graphic designer.

The newspaper's business editorial team wants to find out whether the American cliché of unlimited social mobility also applies to Switzerland. Two young entrepreneurs from Bern are embarking on the journey from dishwasher to millionaire with a start-up, and the newspaper is accompanying them.  
The start-up is a catering service for discerning customers that will commence operations in the first half of 2007. Every three weeks, the Berner Zeitung (BZ) will report on developments in the young company. In between, the dishwashers Reto Wampfler and Daniela Perito run their own weblog, in which the young entrepreneurs report on the joys and sorrows of budding millionaires, according to the BZ media information. The dishwasher blog is the latest addition to Espace Medien's steadily growing family of weblogs. 

While the official side is struggling to get a grip on climate change, average temperatures are continuing to rise. That's why Greenpeace is launching the second part of its CO2 campaign this weekend.  
As the environmental organization reports, the urgent appeal "Reduce CO2" is once again being distributed to the public by means of various double-sided advertisements. These have once again been illustrated by the well-known artist, children's book illustrator and cartoonist Rudolf Stüssi. Over the coming weeks, climate change and the catastrophes it will bring, such as the destruction of permafrost, rockfalls and the melting of glaciers, will be dramatized.

The Board of Directors of the industry research organization WEMF has elected Marco Bernasconi as its new Managing Director. In March 2007, he will take over the operational management from René Schmutz, who has been Director for many years and will be retiring.  
Marco Bernasconi, 49, grew up in Schaffhausen and Portugal. He graduated from the University of Zurich in 1987 with a degree in business psychology and journalism. The most important stages in Bernasconi's professional career were positions as Head of Marketing at Rivella and Helvetia-Patria and as Head of Marketing Communications and Customer Segment Management at Swisscom. He has been Business Development Director at IHA-GfK since January 2005.
 
Bernasconi was chosen because his professional experience in management, marketing and market research provides him with the necessary skills. The WEMF management is convinced that with Bernasconi, the challenges of the media and advertising market will also be mastered in the coming years, as stated in the corresponding press release.

As of October, the 32-year-old Kuster will serve as deputy editor-in-chief. His previous position of Art Director will be taken over by Andrea Brändli.  
The former primary school teacher started his journalistic career at Radio Top as regional editor. After attending the Ringier School of Journalism from 2001 to 2002, he spent four years as an entertainment journalist in the music and television departments at Glückspost. Since 2006, Roger Kuster has been Art Director at TV-Star. This position is now being filled by 30-year-old Andrea Brändli, who previously worked as art director at Facts and Meyers and as graphic designer at Schweizer Familie. She has been with the TV magazine TV-Star since January 2005.

The second Zurich Film Festival starts next Wednesday. Actor Eddi Marsan (Miami Vice) and director Neil Burger will open the happening.  
In the opening film, Edward Norton (Fight Club) will captivate the audience in Neil Burger's hypnotic thriller "The Illusionist". According to a press release from the festival, many prominent guests from the worlds of film, politics, business and show business are expected on the red carpet: Jessica Schwarz, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Michael Steiner, Melanie Winiger, Mario Fehr, Samir and many more. At the after-show party, the young Chinese star pianist Yundi Li will play a short concert. The Chinese pianist is the youngest prizewinner in the history of the international Chopin Competition.

With the latest Kommtech study, the electronic media interest group IGEM and Publica Data document the ongoing digitalization of communication and entertainment technology. The survey was conducted throughout Switzerland in June and July of this year.  
The digital upgrade of Swiss households is progressing rapidly. Take cell phones, for example: a year ago, just under a third of people used a device with a built-in organizer function; today, half of those surveyed do. Similarly, more than half of all cell phones used now have a camera - in 2004 it was only 18 percent. Among 15 to 26-year-olds, the proportion of cell phones with radio reception rose from 9% to 26%, and those with a built-in MP3 player from 3% to 23%. An interesting discrepancy is revealed in the use of the Internet via cell phone: although half of the devices have an Internet function, only three percent actually use it. Cell phones are also rarely used to listen to the radio or watch television.
 
Football World Cup led to flat screen boom A rapid development is also evident in the area of consumer electronics, particularly in the picture sector. The proportion of flat screens has risen from 11% to 20% since 2004, which the authors of the study attribute to the World Cup, among other things. In terms of playback devices, the DVD player has overtaken the analog video player, while the video recorder is still in the lead among recording devices, but here too the trend towards digital recorders is clear. Broadband Internet access is also gaining ground. ADSL and TV cable already account for 45% of connections, and in young households the figure is as high as 61%. In these households, the WWW is also used more often than average to download music and films or to listen to the radio.

The long-standing head of reader marketing at Basler Zeitung is leaving the paper. His successor is Markus Jörin. The 45-year-old Fasnacht has been responsible for all aspects of the readership market since 1994, such as circulation development, retail subscription sales, sales campaigns and sales promotions. He will now pursue a new career direction, according to a press release from Basler Zeitung. His successor is 36-year-old Markus Jörin, who has been working as project manager for publishing projects at Basler Zeitung since August of this year.
 

In the fall of 2008, stores and a restaurant will open on the first floor of the NZZ editorial building on Falkenstrasse.  
As the NZZ writes in a press release, the conversion project has now been definitively approved. The planned conversion will allow the first floor rooms, where the NZZ was printed until 1989, to be used for commercial purposes. If the city approves the planning application, the conversion will start in 2007. In autumn 2008, 450′ square meters of retail space should then open in the area of the Opernhaus streetcar stop. The part of the building facing Sechseläutenplatz will house a restaurant with 110 seats and a bar/lounge with around 120 seats and standing room. The NZZ itself will be present on the first floor on Falkenstrasse with an advertising acceptance point and book sales.