In good time
PRfact is celebrating its 6th anniversary with three new clients.
The Zurich-based company supports the dental company Nobel Biocare with communication projects
for end customers. On behalf of Remington (hair styling products), PRfact takes over
the press work for the new products that will be launched this fall.
become. For the fashion brand J.Lindeberg, the agency takes care of the
Media work for the skiwear collection on the occasion of the freestyle.ch event in
September.

The two PR consultants Andreas Hugi and Lorenz Furrer launch their PR agency on November 1 under the name Furrer.Hugi&Partner. The company specializes in public affairs, political communication and lobbying and focuses on the areas of IT/telecoms, culture, trade and associations/NGOs. On 19 October, Furrer.Hugi&Partner will be one of the organizers of the Bern Political Talks. The young agency has offices in Zurich and Bern and employs five people.

The Swiss Press Association has now also commented on the draft of the new Radio and Television Ordinance (RTVO). The content of the current draft is to be welcomed in principle. The draft further implements the liberalization of advertising regulations for private broadcasters as stipulated in the law, but still contains unnecessary restrictions that take insufficient account of changes in the market and usage. The association sees the "relatively tight restrictions on SRG's commercial activities" as positive, as these counteract the dominance of the fee-financed media company over the private sector.
Furthermore, Schweizer Presse criticizes that individual provisions of the draft are primarily geared towards the television sector. This would result in unclear or inappropriate regulations for the radio sector. The association also criticizes the obligation to report shareholdings, which is to apply to private broadcasters. The regulations are "disproportionate" and have "no basis in the revised RTVA".
Similar to the electronic media interest group IGEM (see
RTVV: IGEM against paternalism and advertising bans), the Association of Advertising and Communication Agencies in Switzerland (BSW) also speaks out against unnecessary restrictions. In a statement, the BSW speaks of the danger of over-regulation and warns against trying to protect the public from advertising through ever more restrictions and bans.

The managers of the "Thurgauer Zeitung" and the "Landbote" are currently discussing a possible cooperation. This was confirmed by the two editors-in-chief Andreas Netzle and Colette Gradwohl to the "NZZ am Sonntag". Apparently, the two newspapers are planning to publish a joint jacket section: The foreign, domestic, culture, sport and business sections are to be merged. There is also talk of a uniform layout. According to "NZZ am Sonntag", the media company Tamedia - which owns the "Thurgauer Zeitung" and holds 20 percent of the "Landbote" - is pushing for cooperation. It is currently not known how many employees would be affected by the plans.

On Thursday evening, the AZ Medien Group presented the director and film producer Samir with the Aargau Culture Prize. This year marks the ninth time that the award, which is endowed with 25,000 francs, has been presented. The filmmaker ("Snow White", "Fräulein") has not only created outstanding works, but has also contributed to the current success of Swiss film as a producer and politico-cultural activist, according to a press release. With his tenacity and perseverance, Samir has already helped some films get off the ground and onto the big screen - but has also caused headaches and perplexity for others. Samir was born in Baghdad in 1955 and has lived in Switzerland since 1961. He founded the Zurich production company "Dschoint Ventschr" with Werner Schweizer in 1994.

The regional edition of the "St. Galler Tagblatt", the "Toggenburger", is appearing under a new name. The title will change its name to "Toggenburger Tagblatt" on September 1, 2006. Apart from the name, nothing else will change; the regional section will remain part of the two combinations "Wil-Toggenburg-Kombi" and "Wil-Toggenburg-Presse". A large print run of 11,458 copies is published every Thursday.

The Berner Zeitung (BZ) is launching the second round of its "Newspaper in Schools" project. In the coming months, 65 school classes from the Espace Mittelland region will take an in-depth look at the daily newspaper and actively integrate the medium into the school curriculum. In the first phase, the third to sixth graders will engage intensively - both playfully and seriously - with the medium of the daily newspaper. In the further course of the project, the school classes research topics of their own choice and, under the guidance of members of the editorial team, produce reports that are printed on an editorial page of the BZ.

The project was launched in 2004 in response to the Pisa study under the title "Reading at school". It has since been adopted by numerous Swiss publishers, as the BZ writes in a press release. The project receives technical support through cooperation with the German Institute for Objectification of Learning and Examination Procedures (IZOP). There is already a waiting list for a planned continuation of the project in 2007.

Since August 14, 2006, the TBWA agency has had two new employees on its team: Armin Korf and Martin Fritsche. Korf moved from Berlin to Zurich Seefeld as Senior Art Director. Previously, the creative worked in advertising agencies such as BMZ+more (Düsseldorf), Rempen&Partner (Düsseldorf) and most recently for the advertising agency Grey-Dorland in the German capital. There he was responsible for clients such as Barcadi, Citibank, Coca Cola and Levis. Fritsche succeeds Cary Steinmann and is the new Head of Strategic Planning at TBWA. Following his involvement as Head of Research at the Design2context Institute at the Zurich University of Art and Design, the communications scientist will be working on establishing TBWA's exclusive Disruption tool alongside client consulting and newbiz, according to a press release. Fritsche is a lecturer in brand management and corporate design at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and a permanent member of the FlowTeamAcademy.

The AZ Medien Group's magazine publishing house is now under the management of Irene Frei. She succeeds Ueli Eckstein, Head of Print Media, who has been managing the magazine publishing house ad interim. Irene Frei will take up her new position in Aarau on September 1, 2006. She has extensive management and marketing experience in the publishing and communications industry. In the 1990s she worked for Tamedia, Ringier and Weka Verlag before setting up her own business in 1998.

In 2002, Irene Frei played a key role in setting up the AZ magazine "Kochen" as project manager. For the past three years, she worked for the German Haufe Media Group and was Managing Director of its Swiss subsidiary Haufe BusinessMedia in Zurich.

The AZ Medien Group's magazine publishing house employs around 50 people, who generate sales of around CHF 20 million with the publication of "Kochen", "Natürlich", "Fit for Life", "Technica", "Batitech", "MegaLink Precision", "Elektrotechnik" and "HK Gebäudetechnik".

The new ORF Director General Alexander Wrabetz announces rapid innovations and improvements for the program under his leadership. According to Kurier.at, he is even planning a "complete redesign" of primetime from 7.30 to 8.15 pm. Decentralization is also planned.

The Social Democratic candidate Wrabetz had surprisingly prevailed on Thursday in the vote for the post of ORF Director-General. With his victory, Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel's ruling People's Party (ÖVP) suffered a heavy defeat - Monika Lindner, the incumbent Director General with close ties to the ÖVP, lost by 12 votes to 20. Wrabetz was previously the commercial director of ORF and will take up his new post on January 1, 2007.

Publishing specialist Monika Schneider will take over the management of Insider Verlag on September 1. She succeeds Ronnie Hürlimann, who is moving to Publicitas Basel as advertising manager for the titles of Basler Zeitung Medien (see
New advertising manager at Publicitas Basel). Monika Schneider is currently Head of Advertising at Annabelle within Tamedia. She previously worked as Key Account Manager for the Berner Zeitung and as Product Manager at Orell Füssli Werbe as well as for various advertising agencies. Monika Schneider also worked for six years as an independent publisher for Swiss Agenda, a publishing title and an advertising agency.
Event database established.

The Central Swiss leisure magazine Insider is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Insider Verlag has strengthened its position in recent years with the "Insider TV" program window, the strategic partnership with Lucerne Tourism and the introduction of new products, according to a press release. Ronnie Hürlimann had managed the company since January 1, 1996.

After almost twelve years at Universal McCann, Marco Rose has decided to take on new challenges and leave the company as of October 1. Yvonne Boller has been recruited as the new Managing Director of Universal McCann Switzerland. The proven media specialist will start on September 1 and brings with her a wealth of management experience, according to a press release. She was a member of the management teams at O&M, Lowe/GGK and W,H,S, among others. Yvonne Boller also worked for the McCann Erickson Group as Head of Media at the Zurich agency from 1984 to 1987.

Marco Rose was promoted to Managing Director of Universal McCann's Geneva branch in 2002 and took over responsibility for Switzerland in 2005. The Zurich team continues to be led by Group Account Director Andrea Niedermann-Fuchs, while in Geneva this position was newly created and filled by Carine Liardet. She has been part of the Geneva team since 2000.