In the fourth quarter of 2005/06, Rupert Murdoch's media group News Corp. increased its profit to 852 million dollars. This represents an increase of 19 percent compared to the same period last year, as reported by SDA. The Group achieved the increase in profits through the sale of Sky Radio Limited in Germany and Holland, which brought in around 134 million dollars, through advertising revenue from the Fox News TV channel and through proceeds from the film "Ice Age 2". In operational terms, however, growth was less strong at 8 percent to one billion dollars. Turnover rose from 6.11 billion dollars to 6.78 billion dollars. The media group suffered losses in the newspaper, magazine and book business. However, these were offset by better results in the cable, television and film divisions. News Corp. includes newspapers such as The Times and The Sun in the UK, the film studio 20th Century Fox and Fox television channels, as well as the website MySpace.com.

Christian Messerli-Montandon will take over the overall management of DRS Musigwälle at the beginning of November 2006 and will also become a member of the program management of Schweizer Radio DRS 1. In this function, Messerli-Montandon succeeds the co-management Christine Gertschen/Thomas Wild. He has held various positions at Swiss Television since 1997. He previously gained radio experience as a presenter, head of presentation and deputy station manager at Radio ExtraBern (now Capital FM) for around 5 years. SR DRS will continue to expand the development of DRS Musigwälle as a complementary program to DRS 1 explicitly in the area of Swiss folk music and folk culture.

The New York Festivals are calling for entries for their two competitions in the fields of "International television programming & promotion" and "Film and video". Those who submit their work by August 18, 2006 will receive a 10 percent discount on the entry fee. The final submission deadline for both the "International television programming & promotion" and "Film and video" sections is September 8, 2006. Incidentally, next year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the international competition.

Following a multi-stage pitch, Zweifel Pomy-Chips AG decided to entrust the creative agency Advico Young & Rubicam with the mandate for all its communication measures. According to Marketing Director Roger Harlacher, the decisive factor was the overarching concept, which can incorporate the specific directions of the individual flavors and sub-brands and at the same time show in a humorous and likeable way what the Zweifel brand stands for. As the agency announced on Tuesday, the first commercials are expected to be shown in mid-September. They will be accompanied by an on-pack promotion and measures at points of sale.

The company A&T Factory from Sachseln is now called Sprudelwasser. The element of water is intended to symbolize the versatility of business owner Anita Steiner. "I bubble over with ideas, write 'drinkable' texts, am as flexible as a mountain stream and impress with refreshing concepts," Steiner writes on her website. The services offered by the Obwalden agency include PR, communication, text and event organization.

On Tuesday, August 8, Liselotte Dolder-Spengler (39) took up her position as media spokesperson at Coop. She takes over from Jörg Birnstiel, who is taking on new professional challenges, as detailed in a press release. Liselotte Dolder-Spengler has a degree in journalism and communication sciences and broad journalistic experience in various media companies. Most recently, she was Head of the Press Office at Swiss Post.

Internet giant Google has opened up further sources of income on the web with new big deals: An agreement has been reached with Viacom, the parent company of MTV, that Google will redistribute program parts and videos including advertising from MTV to website operators in return for payment. MTV reserves the right to decide which sites from Google's advertising network may show the channel's program parts. This is the first time that Google has distributed not only text ads but also video content via its advertising network. The internet giant is increasingly working to reduce its reliance on text ads and to enter the advertising market, and the deal with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. provides for Google to be the only search engine to appear on MySpace and most other News Corp. websites.
In return, Google is guaranteeing News Corp. at least 900 million dollars in advertising revenue, which the group will generate in the period between 2007 and the second quarter of 2010 - via News Corp. websites. Nevertheless, it is a successful deal for News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch, who should soon have amortized the 580 million dollars previously invested in MySpace - with interest.

As far as MySpace is concerned, the agreement with News Corp. stipulates that the Google search function will be integrated on every page of the MySpace portal from October onwards. As MySpace already has almost 100 million users, the advertising revenue via Google's AdSense advertising system is likely to be considerable. The Internet giant has thus snatched what analysts estimate to be the largest advertising contract on the Internet from under the noses of its competitors Yahoo and Microsoft. News Corp. and Google have announced that they are discussing an expansion of their cooperation.

Zurich-based online communications agency Eye Media is the new web agency for SAAB Switzerland. The agency won the pitch against two other agencies. In addition to online design and adaptations of international specifications to the Swiss site, electronic newsletters, electronic promotions and online advertising campaigns are to be further developed or implemented. 

The competition period for the radio spot competition "The Golden Ear" runs from Friday, August 18 to Friday, October 6. Competitors will also compete against their German and Austrian rivals, as the competition was also opened up to applicants from Germany and Austria last year.
In addition to radio spots, advertising jingles and corporate audio concepts are also eligible for the first time this year. The jury, chaired by Matthias Freuler, Creative Director of Wirz Werbung, will award the gold, silver and bronze ears after the submission deadline.
The award ceremony will take place on Thursday, October 26, at the Theater an der Sihl in Zurich.
Further information and competition documents can be found on the website
www.goldenesohr.com.

On Tuesday, the Schaffhausen government council also announced that it rejects the planned amendments to the Unfair Competition Act (UWG) and the creation of a new special offense against ambush marketing (free-rider marketing). The proposals are disproportionate and unsuccessful. The current provisions offer sufficient protection.
As the news agency SDA writes, the government believes that all traders should be allowed to benefit from major events to a reasonable extent. It is not clear why the interests of the European Football Association UEFA or other major associations and organizations and their sponsors should be given special protection by the state at the expense of the concept of competition.

Schaffhausen is thus following the lead of the governments of the cantons of Thurgau, Solothurn, Baselland and Basel Stadt. The consultation period runs until mid-August.

Roland Wahrenberger is to become the new publishing director of the Swiss consumer and advice magazine "Beobachter". He succeeds Roland Oetterli. Wahrenberger previously held various positions in the advertising and publishing industry and was responsible for the publishing management of "Schweizer Familie" and "TV Täglich" for several years in addition to working for the publishers AZ-Medien, Jean Frey and Ringier. He is currently Business Manager at the publishing house Reader's Digest Germany Switzerland Austria. Jean Frey Verlag has announced that he will take up his new position as soon as possible.

The television channel StarTV and the Zurich-based company Cinergy, content and service provider of well-known online/mobile portals and publisher of Cineman.ch, Teleboy.ch and Clubgirl.ch, will be working together in future. Cinergy will be responsible for developing Start TV's online presence into an entertainment information portal. With this new offering, StarTV aims to provide its audience with in-depth information and useful services relating to entertainment. In addition to the technical and editorial operation of the new StarTV.ch portal, Cinergy is also responsible for its marketing. The relaunch of StarTV.ch took place on July 31. Further expansion steps will focus on streaming video formats and cross-media synchronization between broadcasters and the online portal.