According to well-informed sources at the NZZ am Sonntag, 20 to 30 jobs are to be cut at the Tagesanzeiger's editorial services.
 
The Tagesanzeiger's publishing house, Tamedia, plans to publish the redundancies soon, writes the NZZ am Sonntag. The editorial services include layout, proofreading, photographers, picture editors, graphics and documentation. Tamedia spokeswoman Eta Pavlovic confirms that "the work processes in the editorial services" have been reviewed in view of the launch of the regional editions on November 6. Everything else is speculation, Pavlovic continues. The Tagi employees do not understand the possible cutbacks, as the daily newspaper was able to present good half-year figures.

As the latest Publicitas index shows, the Swiss daily press saw an increase in advertisements in August. With expenditure remaining the same, the index is up 0.2 points on the previous month with a total of 92.6. 

According to the SDA report, the positive balance is mainly due to investments from the local market and companies such as banks and car importers. Bookings of job advertisements also continued to develop positively: up 2.2 points. Growth in real estate advertisements remains rather modest, while sales of political advertisements can even be classified as weak.

Even a week after the election, the Miss Switzerland case has not been completely settled. The NZZ am Sonntag now consulted a study to clarify why the "wrong one" was chosen.
 
Even on the day of the election, it was clear to many that it was not the nice Christa Rigozzi with the big nose who should have won, but the impulsive Xenia Tchoumitcheva with the thick lips. Since that fateful election Saturday evening, people have been puzzling over and debating in the columns and on the channels of the country how this can be explained. The NZZ am Sonntag based its explanation on a study by the Allenbach Institute for Public Opinion Research. Their surveys show that it is mainly older and less educated women who pick up the phone when it comes to televoting to choose the country's king or queen. The 167,000 people who voted by phone for Miss Switzerland were no different.
 
Now, contrary to rumors to the contrary, not only men but also women are sometimes very simple creatures. Tchoumitcheva embodies everything that men want and therefore everything that women hate in women: she is young, plump, single and equipped with an almost outrageous sex appeal. The average woman immediately senses danger there, no, such an offensively sexy woman simply must not win. And so the pageant has unintentionally mutated into a battle of the sexes. The fact that the Miss Switzerland organization also signed a contract with the runner-up did nothing to calm the situation - in the discussion forums, the questions piled up: "Do we want a Miss for the women? And one for the men? Is there even a threat of a schism?" Answers won't be found until next year.

The Swiss Advertising Agency is now responsible for the communication of the Züri Fäscht, Switzerland's largest folk festival. In 2007, the event will next take place from July 6 to 8. According to a press release, the first works will already be on display in September and October 2006.

The Press Council has partially upheld the complaint of paraplegic doctor Guido A. Zäch against the SonntagsZeitung. The doctor and his lawyer had filed a complaint against several articles that appeared in the fall of 2005 in connection with the appeal proceedings against Zäch before the Basel-Stadt Court of Appeal. As reported by the SDA, the SonntagsZeitung had written that Zäch's lawyer had disregarded a ban prohibiting defense attorneys from contacting witnesses before or during trials.
 
In doing so, the newspaper violated the Declaration of Rights and Duties of Journalists, as the Press Council wrote in its statement published on Friday. Legal representatives are only prohibited from influencing witnesses. Contact is permitted. It was also criticized that the quotes used were not presented to an interviewee for proofreading as agreed. The Press Council also objected to the statement that the minutes of a resolution passed by the Paraplegic Foundation showed that the Board of Trustees had refused to approve Zäch's remuneration retrospectively. The resolution could be interpreted in this sense. However, the wording rather suggests approval.
 
However, the Press Council considers statements such as "Zäch wants the trial to collapse" or "misstep by the defense" to be evaluations within the scope of freedom of comment.

Swedish-born Catrin Rubenson is the new Managing Director of the Swiss branch of online marketing specialist TradeDoubler. For the past six years, she has been Head of Marketing at Tamedia Stellenmarkt. Prior to this, Rubenson studied business administration and completed her double degree in international management in Sweden and Austria. 

Ulrika Ytterholm, who previously acted as Managing Director for Germany and Switzerland, will next focus on developing the strategic growth market of Russia as Director New Markets. 

TradeDoubler was founded in Sweden in November 1999 and offers online marketing and sales solutions throughout Europe. Its services include classic branding campaigns, the online marketing management system Media ToolBox and affiliate marketing. In addition to its headquarters in Sweden, TradeDoubler is represented in 16 other European countries with over 300 employees. In Switzerland, TradeDoubler currently has six employees and works for Apple, Bluewin, Dell, Ex Libris and Orange, among others.

After a strong July, advertising pressure was also at its best in August 2006, climbing to 10 percent above the previous year. Cumulatively, the 2006 advertising year is 6.4 percent up on the previous year after eight months, as Media Focus reported on Friday.
With the exception of one media group, there were only winners in August: these included the internet (+33%) and print media (daily newspapers, consumer and trade magazines). All three were up 10% or more on the previous year. Television (+5.7%), radio (+5.1%), posters (+3.2) and teletext (+0.8%) also increased. Cinema advertising was the only area to take a dip, with -36.6%.
 
The following key markets recorded the strongest year-on-year growth in August: Energy (+71%), Clothing (+66%), Cosmetics/Toiletries (+31%), Vehicles (+25%) and Finance (+18%). The key markets of tobacco products (-37%), transport (-28%) and consumer electronics (-9%) invested significantly less. Migros has managed to return to first place in the ranking of the largest advertisers. The major distributor is followed by its competitor Coop, Siwsscom, L'Oréal and Procter & Gamble.
Media Focus has been measuring and recording gross advertising investment in the traditional advertising media of print (newspapers/magazines), television, radio, posters, cinema, teletext and the Internet in Switzerland since 1990. Media Focus is a joint venture between the two global market research companies IHA-GfK AG and ACNielsen SA/Nielsen Media Research.

What was intended to be a one-off issue is now entering the next round: Zollikon-based Walde & Partner Immobilien has published its second real estate newspaper. After the response to the first edition in May on the subject of "Home ownership in old age" exceeded all expectations, the real estate company spontaneously decided to publish another edition. The Zurich-based communications agency Sensus Pr is responsible for the concept and realization of the newspaper, which has a circulation of 192,500 copies.

 
A big turnout today at the Publishers' Congress. In addition to highly interesting panel discussions, Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Media Affairs, addressed the audience, and the congress welcomed Samuel Schmid, the Swiss Minister of Defense and Sports. Federal Councillor speeches are always something of a problem. The magistrates don't like to go too far out on a limb, and if one of them does formulate something a little more pithy, his press officer is guaranteed to cut the relevant passages out of the script.  
Not so with Samuel Schmid. His speech was peppered with amusements and he proved to be an exceptionally quick-witted and eloquent speaker. Publisher President Lebrument, on the other hand, had familiar words to say. His speech entitled "The Swiss economy - a pillar for the diversity of the Swiss press" had already caused unease in left-wing circles, namely the journalists from Klartext. The fact that the President would attack another cornerstone of the Swiss media at this congress, namely editorial independence, was heard from this side. As is well known, Lebrument has already made himself unpopular with the journalists' associations when he overturned the collective employment contract and replaced it with the so-called minimum standards. The fact is, however, that the advertising revenues of the print media have been falling for years and this loss of income has to be compensated for or distributed in some way. And the editorial offices are also affected. It should be obvious that Lebrument cannot simply ignore such developments and is hoping for more advertising orders through a business-friendly editorial environment. After all, it is the job of an industry association president to help his members save costs and minimize revenue losses. The audience seemed to share this opinion and rewarded Lebrument's speech with a round of applause.  
Another highlight is expected on Friday evening with the Publisher's Night Gala, before the congress draws to a close with a nightcap at the bar around midnight. And we can already look forward to the next congress in Lucerne, the city of lights, with its wonderful culture and congress center.

Publicis Zurich is the only Swiss agency to be represented in the current issue of Lürzer's Archive with the "Bike Posters" for Sportplausch Wider. Lürzer's Archive is the international specialist publisher for advertising and publishes a bi-monthly magazine with advertisements and posters from all over the world. A total of 38,000 copies of this catalog are distributed in over 35 countries. Lürzer's TV Archive is also published quarterly as a DVD with exceptional TV commercials from all over the world.

From Saturday, the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung (BLZ) will take over the front page from its partner, the Mittellandzeitung (MZ). The two papers announced their cooperation five months ago (), and now the new BLZ is being delivered to households for the first time.
 
According to a press release, this means even more information, analysis, background, services and entertainment for readers. BLZ has also adapted its appearance and paper architecture. It has also joined the Mittelland Zeitung national advertising network.
 
The paper architecture is based on a basic structure of four to five bundles. The pages with national and international topics (foreign, domestic, business, national/international sport, national/international culture, special interest, TV/radio) are supplied by MZ partner Aargauer Zeitung (AZ); BLZ can now also draw on content from Solothurner Zeitung for reporting on Schwarzbubenland. The pages obtained from the MZ can be adapted to its regional and local topics and needs. Regional and cantonal topics such as culture and events will continue to be produced by the BLZ editorial team.

The Bern-based agency LangGysiKnoll (LGK) has added another dimension to the Moonliner campaign with an animated film produced in-house. The protagonist of the commercial is an animated version of El Nino, who experiences the horror of the radio commercial first-hand. Only the Moonliner is able to save him from the ugly groupie girl known from the basic campaign.
 
The spot was created by graphic design youngsters Dominic Beyeler and Mathias Zimmermann as part of their apprenticeship. It is being distributed via e-mail, iTunes podcast, blog featuring and links on various websites. Thanks to generous sponsorship, it can also be seen in cinemas in Bern this September.
Since the beginning of 2005, LGK has been motivating people to use the Moonliner service with a striking illustration campaign. It shows real-life, daunting scenarios from an evening program - resolved with the baseline "Moonliner. We'll get you out of there." Posters, advertisements and streetcar hangers are complemented by radio spots, intoned by Bernese dialect rapper El Nino.
 
The Moonliner night bus from Bernmobil operates 18 routes covering over 120 municipalities in the cantons of Bern, Solothurn and Fribourg. It offers young passengers the opportunity to return home late at night after going out in the cities.