The communications agency based at Altenrhein Airport won the pitch for the communications measures for the opening of a new TopCC pick-up store in Rümlang. The cash & carry company, which is part of the Spar Group, is opening a new store for the first time in a quarter of a century and wants to enter into a dialog with restaurateurs and business owners in and around Zurich. The first measures will be on display shortly.

Helmut Hartlinger is to become the new Head of Sales/Marketing and a member of the Executive Board of the St. Gallen-based Trendcommerce Group, a long-established direct marketing company that is focusing on expanding its independent full-service business. In Hartlinger, the Trendcommerce Group has gained a specialist with twenty years of experience in the industry. According to the Trendcommerce Group, nothing stands in the way of the further expansion of its international business with the appointment of this experienced professional.
After completing a technical apprenticeship, Helmut Hartlinger switched to sales and worked his way up to become sales manager of the German industry leader GHP Dialog Services. In 2002, he was also promoted to the company's Management Board. Most recently, he was briefly Head of Marketing at the gift company Nici.   

Stämpfli from Bern, which specializes in printed and electronic publications, and Kromer Print from Lenzburg, a leader in print logistics, have agreed to cooperate in order to strengthen their respective market positions and offer their customers maximum benefit, "two successful companies are coordinating their market activities", as Peter Stämpfli is quoted in the corresponding press release. The two owner-managed family companies want to expand their range of services by working together in the areas of market development and production.
Kromer Print has established a leading position in Switzerland with its range of print logistics services, particularly for companies with a high demand for business stationery. Stämpfli has successfully specialized in electronic and printed publication processes in addition to production management.

The Lausanne agency Trio was founded on October 19, 1931. Now witnesses are urgently sought. It's time to nail Trio and make it stick, the agency informs.

To mark its 75th birthday, the agency is therefore launching a general appeal and has sent "investigators" into the field.

Wanted are witness statements (deadline September 8), who were in contact with Trio in any way. Anecdotes, sympathy messages and impressions are explicitly requested by the agency, disagreeable and critical will probably rather fall under the table. Trio wants to publish print-ready statements in the planned anniversary book. Discretion not guaranteed.

M-Budget, the low-cost line launched 10 years ago, is trending. On Monday, the M-Budget credit card was launched. It has all the basic services of an ordinary MasterCard - and with no annual fee and a low credit interest rate. The credit card can be obtained by all creditworthy persons, a Cumulus membership is not necessary.
Cumulus is Migros' customer loyalty program. The M-Budget credit card also functions as a Cumulus card that can be used to collect Cumulus points. Cumulus points can also be collected when shopping outside Migros: for transactions outside Migros, one Cumulus point is awarded for every two francs spent. The card is issued by GE Money Bank, a Swiss bank and Migros partner responsible for issues.Photo: Migros

The TV movie Death of a President, about a fictional assassination attempt against George W. Bush, is causing a transatlantic uproar. 
The film is set in 2007, when the American public no longer approves of the Iraq mission and mass demonstrations are taking place in major American cities. Also in Chicago, where a visit of the republican US president George W. Bush is accompanied by massive protests. He gives a speech in front of fine businessmen, then is gunned down and dies of his injuries. The suspect is a man from Syria.
 
Neither sensationalism nor simplification The film Death of a President is to be shown next month on the More4 television channel. Reactions to the film's announcement were immediate and fierce. "Shocking" is any film "that takes as its subject the assassination of our president, whether as fact or fantasy," the Republican Party spokeswoman indignantly told the British tabloids Friday. The United Kingdom's media watchdog, WatchDog, goes a step further, fearing the film could give ideas to militant Bush opponents. The White House, on the other hand, is its usual moralistic self: "We're not going to comment on this because it doesn't merit a response."
 
Yet it is all so well-intentioned. As More4 CEO Peter Dale told the media, the film is meant to show the problems of a society fighting terrorism. "This is neither sensationalism nor simplification, but a drama that makes you think," Dale said. He added that he hoped people would see the good intention behind it.

The correspondent for Swiss Television (SF), Werner van Gent, has resigned from his position at the media company. According to an article in the Sonntagszeitung, he criticizes SF for using its correspondents less and less and neglecting foreign reporting. He suspects that SF is showing more and more agency material to save money, but that this is significantly reducing the volume of work for freelancers. Van Gent describes this development as dangerous and sees it as a loss of information.

Other SF correspondents also appear to be dissatisfied, as the Sonntagszeitung further reports. SF only deployed the individual journalists a little, but in Leutschenbach they were expected to be on permanent stand-by duty. Editor-in-chief Ueli Haldimann denies the accusations. There have never been so many permanent and freelance correspondents on duty as at present.

The Rhäzüns case is currently receiving a great deal of media attention. In this context, the question repeatedly arises as to whether the nationality of the offenders may be mentioned. The Blick newspaper described the two perpetrators, aged 11 and 13, who are accused of abusing a five-year-old girl, as "boys from Kosovo", and others used the same wording. Peter Studer, President of the Swiss Press Council, told the SonntagsZeitung that in this case it was right to name the origin of the perpetrators. For him, this was part of the information. However, care must be taken to ensure that no racist slurs or prejudices are attached.

The presenter Kurt Aeschbacher was awarded the Swiss Television Prize TV-Star in the "National" category on Friday evening. According to a press release, the jury of the TV magazine TV-Star chose the TV entertainer because he has consistently developed the "Aeschbacher" brand this year.

Actress Melanie Winiger wins in the "Film" category, "SonnTalk" on Tele Züri wins the "Regional" prize. 10,000 TV Star readers helped the TV soap "Lüthi und Blanc" to victory in the "Program" category. The chocolate soap clearly won ahead of the other nominated programs "Glanz & Gloria" and "Der Match". The Swiss Television Award TV-Star was presented for the third time on September 1. The next award ceremony will take place in September 2007.

 

On September 4, TeleTicino will start the new season with some programming changes. "TicinoNews" returns to its old slot from Monday to Saturday at 6:45 pm. From November, Thursday evenings will be dedicated to sports: "Fuorigioco" - the new talk show under the direction of Luca Sciarini, in which everything will revolve around regional sports. Starting in October, newcomer Sciarini will also present the new sports magazine "Fairplay," a twelve-minute program about various sporting events that will be supplemented by interviews with local athletes.

Starting on September 25, the new series "Gulliver," directed by Gianfranco De Santis, will take viewers into the world of Ticino companies. Starting on September 17, the new series "Gli uomini del Merlot" will be devoted to viticulture in Ticino on Sunday evenings at 7:15 pm. Another new addition to the program will be "Confessioni," which goes on the air in November. A provocative, but at the same time sympathetically relaxed talk show with Prisca Dindo and Andrea Leoni, with the participation of cartoonist Corrado Mordasini.

The Zurich-based dialog marketing specialists have been added to the register of certified UBS Brand Partners, a panel of international experts that annually certifies the best work in the areas of corporate design and brand identity for UBS Brand Management. Only the best submissions meet the high standards applied in the evaluation. The Zurich agency Fisch.Meier was able to impress with its campaigns and dialog marketing advertising. 

The SDA news agency now also has a French-language regional service for French-speaking Switzerland. The "Service régional Arc lémanique (SRAL)" was launched on Friday. The service offers the media in French-speaking Switzerland reports from the Lake Geneva region. It covers the area from Chancy GE to the Vaud Chablais.
The SRAL corresponds to the five regional services of the SDA for the
German-speaking Switzerland that have been created in the last 12 years:
the regional services of Zurich, Berne, Eastern Switzerland, Central Switzerland and
Northwestern Switzerland.
As the news agency announced on Friday, the workforce has been increased accordingly.