For about two years now, people have been talking about the new regional strategy for the Tages-Anzeiger. And there has also been repeated talk of a new layout. Now things are finally getting serious. In November, the four regional splits are to be realized. And not (as some thought) in tabloid format like the local split on the left bank of Lake Zurich, which has been published since March 2005, but as a broadsheet bundle. With this measure, Tamedia wants to strengthen its flagship in the main circulation area and at the same time compete against the established local newspapers. Rolf Bollmann, the creator of 20 Minuten, who is used to success, had to learn, like others before him, that everything just takes a little longer on Werdstrasse. And something else on his own account. After more than seven years at Werbewoche, Luca Aloisi has decided to take on a new challenge. He is changing fronts and will be jointly responsible for PR and sponsoring at the Pfister furniture store. Luca Aloisi was Head of Marketing & Communications and Deputy Editor-in-Chief since 2001. The Werbewoche editorial team and I personally would like to thank him for his many years of service. He was a critical but always fair journalist who, thanks to his network in the communications industry, was always informed about the latest developments. But Luca was also a good colleague and team player. We will miss him and wish him every success in his new job.
I am pleased that we have found his successor within our own ranks. Andreas Panzeri, who has been with Werbewoche since 2001, is the new Head of Marketing & Communications and also serves as Deputy Editor-in-Chief. We welcome Christian Lüscher as a new member of the editorial team. His first article for us was about trends in mobile marketing.
 
> Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief, [email protected]

At the beginning of September, Swisscom plans to launch its own blog on the topic of "Environment and Communication" - initially on a trial basis until the end of the year. As Swisscom spokesperson Christian Neuhaus told the Tagesanzeiger newspaper, Swisscom is already actively monitoring the blogging scene and producing weekly reports. This provides valuable input for tailoring products and services to customer needs, said Neuhaus.

The Swiss Press Council has approved three complaints in whole or in part, primarily concerning respect for privacy, including a complaint against the Toggenburger Zeitung concerning the identifiability of a man who had not yet been finally convicted. According to the Press Council, a report published in January and a picture made it easy for third parties to identify the man. In addition, the man in question had been lured to a meeting with the newspaper editor under a pretext and had not been informed about the newspaper report. The man was also not informed about the intended use of a picture taken during the conversation.
According to the Press Council, the Schweizerzeit also violated the right of an accused person to be heard. In an article written and signed by SVP National Councillor Ulrich Schlüer, serious accusations were made against a lawyer in February without the lawyer being able to comment on them.
The complaint of a woman about whom the French-speaking Swiss magazine Femina had published an anonymous report in December 2005 was partially upheld. The woman had complained to the Press Council that she was identifiable in the article. Her place of residence, the number of children and her rare illness were mentioned. In its statement, the Press Council emphasized that these references had no connection with the rape story and were therefore inappropriate.

Letter & Line, the St. Gallen-based agency for publishing services, wants a slice of the wellness pie and announces the launch of two new magazines about healing. "Heilen heute" and "Marma - fernöstliche Heilkunst" will be published quarterly in future and will be distributed throughout the German-speaking world. According to publishing director Marcus Caluori, the two health magazines will also have a very strong practical focus as well as a great service character.Heilen heute is published by Anouk Claes and Marcus Caluori at Heilen heute-Verlag, St.Gallen and will be available from September 6 at newsstands and by subscription. Marma - fernöstliche Heilkunst will be published for the first time on September 29 and is edited by Marcus Caluori and Bobby & Andreas Feurer at E-Druck AG, St.Gallen.

Martin Bürki is the new head of ConRadioTV. Bürki succeeds Daniel Flück, who wants to change his career and will leave the company at the beginning of September 2006, according to a statement. Bürki will join ConRadioTV as managing director on December 1. Until that time, management will be handled on an interim basis by Marc Friedli (Head of Audiovisual Media at Espace Media Groupe) and Michael Schüpbach (Sales Manager at conRadioTV). Bürki currently works as head of communications at Publisuisse. Previously, he held a management position at Publicitas in Bern.

The Zurich web agency Mitlinks has gained a new client in the Cardinal brewery. The collaboration with Cardinal will be launched at the end of September with the first web campaign, the agency announced on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Solothurn Cantonal Council will decide on a new health law that provides for a ban on advertising tobacco products. Parliament passed the bill on Tuesday. There were already heated discussions during the debate. The ban on advertising and sponsorship for tobacco on public land or on private land if it can be seen from public land is particularly controversial (see Canton of Solothurn wants to ban tobacco advertising).CVP and SP advocated a ban on advertising because advertising is too strongly geared towards young people. The ban on advertising means protecting young people, explained SP/Greens spokesperson Stephanie Affolter (Biberist). The FDP, on the other hand, called for the advertising ban to be removed from the bill. They considered this to be an inadmissible encroachment on the freedom of trade and commerce, as stated in their motion. The SVP demanded the same in its own motion.
The final decision will be made by the Cantonal Council at its meeting on Wednesday. The government wants to voluntarily submit the law to the people. On September 24, Baselland will also vote on a ban on tobacco and alcohol advertising. If the people of Basel vote yes, the business newspaper Cash predicts a wave of bans that will sweep through the whole of Switzerland (see
Impending advertising bans endanger the advertising industry).

According to the latest report from Wemf AG für Werbemedienforschung, the trend towards increased use of the Internet continues unabated. The latest figures from the 2nd wave of "MA Net 2006" show growth rates of almost 10 percent among regular users compared to the previous year.
In the 2nd wave, 12,125 people were surveyed between October 2005 and March 2006. Compared to the 1st wave, the Internet community has increased by a further 100,000 users (wide user group WNK = use within the last six months). This corresponds to 71.8 percent of all Swiss over the age of 14. The narrow user group ENK has also increased: 190,000 more people than in the first wave stated that they use the Internet at least several times a week. Compared to the previous year, this represents growth of 8%.

Internet market not yet saturated Wemf interprets these figures to mean that the Internet market has not yet reached its full potential. Although the number of non-users is steadily decreasing, it still accounts for around a fifth of Swiss people aged 14 and over. Regional differences are particularly evident among non-users: While the majority of people in the economic areas use the Internet, more than a third do not surf the net at all in the areas of Lower Valais, Schwyz, Uri, Jura and Ticino.
Usage behavior The Internet is still used most frequently for e-mail (81.8 percent). 71 percent use it for search queries via search engines. However, the third most common use of the internet is to read the latest news, with 43.3% stating this as their answer. 19.2 percent use the Internet to retrieve articles from newspapers and magazines, 17.8 percent for timetable information, 12.8 percent for online banking, 10.6 percent for downloading programs, and 9.7 percent call up job offers on the Internet. All other usage figures were below 10 percent.

The study is available as a PDF from Wemf
viewable: http://wemf.ch/d/studien/manet.shtml

The Confederation should not have to keep a register of the vested interests of accredited journalists in the Federal Parliament. The State Policy Committee (SPK) of the Council of States wants to weaken a National Council motion. The National Council had approved a motion by Jürg Stahl (SVP/ZH) by 105 votes to 52 with 20 abstentions that journalists in the Federal Parliament should have to disclose their party affiliation, shareholdings, mandates and membership of politically relevant organizations (see Federal Parliament journalists should have to disclose interests). Stahl argued that the same level of transparency that applies to members of parliament should also apply to media professionals. Federal Chancellor Annemarie Huber-Hotz replied that employed media professionals were not comparable to militia members of parliament. The SPK asked the Council to amend the motion by 7 votes to 6. The Federal Council should only examine the extent to which journalists' vested interests should be disclosed as part of the revision of the Accreditation Ordinance.

After a difficult cinema year in 2005, things are looking up again. In the first half of 2006, the number of admissions to Swiss cinemas rose from around 7.5 million in the previous year to 8.4 million. This corresponds to an increase of 11.5 percent, with three Swiss films in the top ten, according to the industry association Pro Cinema. "Grounding - The Last Days of Swissair" (367,000 admissions) is in third place, "Handyman" (194,000) in eighth place and "Vitus" (166,000) in tenth place.
The American animated comedy "Ice Age 2" topped the list in the first 26 weeks of the year, with over one million admissions. "Ice Age 2" is only the fourth film ever to attract more than one million people to the cinema in Switzerland. The last time "Finding Nemo" exceeded the million mark was in 2003. In second place with around 540,000 admissions is the thriller "The Da Vinci Code", based on Dan Brown's bestseller. Other successful US titles include "Brokeback Mountain", "Inside Man" and "Mission: Impossible 3".

In the current issue of Focus, a new form of advertising can be admired: The thermal ad. What looks like an ordinary advertisement at first glance suddenly changes shape and color when touched and reveals messages - as if by magic or like the letters written in secret ink in childhood.
And this is how it works: The advertisement is coated with special thermal ink, different temperature levels are possible. When touched, the hidden messages appear. As soon as the heat effect subsides, the messages disappear again and the ad looks the same as before.

This method is already being used in the USA. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom has embarked on the premiere with the ad special. When exposed to heat, a labeled tear shows the answer to the question of how many tears a phone is capable of drying. Truly touching.

Daniel Frey and Claude Weill are joining the team at the Pressetext news agency in Zurich. As of September 1, Frey will take over the management of Pressetext Switzerland and Weill will be responsible for the Swiss editorial team. The aim of the duo is to double both news production and the customer and subscriber base within two years, according to a press release. The media professionals will be supported by the Pressetext head office in Vienna.Frey worked for many years as a telemarketer for media companies, most recently as an independent communications consultant and publishing director. Weill worked as an editor for numerous print media, including Werbewoche and Persönlich. He also worked in the online editorial departments of Bilanz online and Swisscontent. According to Pressetext Switzerland, his task will be to put the Swiss Pressetext stamp on the news service in Switzerland in future.
The Pressetext news agency supplies almost 11,000 subscribers in Switzerland every day, around 2,000 of whom are journalists.