The World Cup is a major event: 15,000 journalists, photographers and technicians are to be accredited and the Swiss media are also making a huge effort. SRG SSR is spending CHF 17 million on rights and production costs alone, plus additional World Cup-related costs in the studios in Zurich, Geneva and Lugano. Swiss German television is showing 56 matches live and reporting on the World Cup for around 140 hours. On the other hand, there are personnel costs: Swiss Television has 20 people working on the program and 22 on the technical side. Swiss Radio DRS will have three journalists and a technician at the games, while two other journalists will also be covering stories outside of sport. Larger private radio stations are also sending journalists to the World Cup to produce reports on the Swiss national team. The news agency Sportinformation will be reporting from Germany with 8 journalists, while 4 others will be covering the World Cup at the editorial office in Zurich. For "Blick" and "SonntagsBlick", five journalists and one photographer will be on site. The "Tages-Anzeiger" and "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" have also sent the same number. A total of 80 Swiss journalists and photographers received accreditation from the Swiss Football Association.

The Grand Prix de la création honored the best campaigns from French-speaking Switzerland at the beginning of June. Over 200 works competed against each other. The audience prize and the award in the "TV/cinéma" category went to the Grey agency for its campaign for French-speaking television station TSR. In the "Radio" category, Saatchi & Saatchi scored points for BPA, Conseil de la Sécurité Routière, TCS. In the "Posters" category, Jung von Matt/Limmat took gold with the smoke-free campaign for SBB. In the "Press" category, the Trio agency won with its work for Honda Motorcycles. In the new "Flyers" category, Michaël Terraz from Micacreation won with a wedding invitation and in the "Graphic Design" category, GVA Studio won with work for Groupe8 Architectes Associés. More information at the following address:

The owner of the three domain names Schweiz.ch, Suisse.ch and Svizzera.ch intends to challenge the decision of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) under civil law. WIPO awarded the three domain names to the Swiss Confederation at the end of May. After years of unsuccessful attempts by the Federal Chancellery to persuade the holder of the domain names to hand over the internet addresses to the Confederation without compensation, it took the matter to WIPO last February. It wants to use www.schweiz.ch for a national entry portal that will open the door to federal and cantonal websites. Stefan Frei, who lost the case, has now told the NZZ am Sonntag that he will not simply hand over the domains to the Confederation, but will take the dispute to a civil court. WIPO had not considered many of his arguments. On the one hand, the Confederation is insisting on the domain revenues Schweiz.ch, Suisse.ch and Svizzera.ch, while on the other hand it is allowing private individuals to snatch up the addresses Schweiz.info, Schweiz.eu or Switzerland.eu, Frei continued. He also plans to found an association and transfer the disputed Internet addresses to it. The association would be supported by the more than 10,000 users of the websites concerned.

According to the World Association of Newspaper Publishers (WAN), newspaper sales in 2005 were 0.56 percent higher than the previous year and reached a record level of 439 million copies. This means that sales revenues have risen by 6 percent in the last five years. Advertising revenues for paid newspapers worldwide rose by 5.7 percent compared to the previous year and by 11.7 percent measured over the last five years. This means that newspapers remain the second-largest advertising medium after television, and it is expected that they will be able to maintain this position for years to come. 1.21 percent increase in circulation to 464 million copies worldwide last year if free newspapers are included, WAN also reported. Free newspapers now account for 6 percent of global circulation, and in Europe the figure is as high as 17 percent. The number of newspaper readers on the Internet continued to increase. Growth reached 8.71 percent in 2005 and 200 percent in the last five years. The survey, which has been conducted annually by WAN since 1986, covers all 216 countries and territories in which newspapers are published. It was presented to over 1700 publishers, editors, senior editors and other executives in Moscow at the 59th Annual Congress of Newspaper Publishers. The most important findings from "World Press Trends 2006" are listed below.
In 2005, circulation of paid newspapers increased in 35 percent of the countries surveyed. This results in an increase of 28 percent over the last five years. In the case of free newspapers, 54 percent of the countries recorded an increase compared to 2004.
The total number of paid-for daily newspaper titles fell by 0.3 percent worldwide in 2005, but increased by 8.1 percent between 2001 and 2005. A total of 7700 newspapers were on the market. Including free newspapers, the number of titles rose by 0.06 percent in 2005 and by 8.9 percent since 2001 to 7862.
Over 439 million people buy a newspaper every day. In 2001, the figure was only 414 million. The number of readers is estimated to be over one billion per day.
out of ten of the 100 best-selling daily newspapers in the world are now published in Asia. Of the top 100, 62 titles are published in China, Japan and India.
The five largest newspaper markets in the world were China with 96.6 million, India with 78.7 million, Japan with 69.7 million, the USA with 53.3 million and Germany with 21.5 million copies sold daily. While sales in China and India increased in 2005, they fell in Japan, the USA and Germany.
Belgians spend the most time reading their newspaper at 54 minutes a day. They are followed by the inhabitants of Ukraine with 50 minutes and Canadians with 49 minutes.
Internet traffic on the pages of daily newspapers increased by 8.71 percent in 2005 and by 200 percent between 2001 and 2005.
Revenues from Internet advertising continued to record high growth rates and in 2005 achieved the highest growth in five years at plus 24 percent.
The number of newspaper websites increased by 20 percent in 2005.
A total of 169 free newspapers achieved a total daily circulation of 27.9 million copies, 18.6 million of which were in Europe.
Free daily newspapers have achieved impressive success in several countries. They account for 51 percent of the market in Spain, 33 percent in Portugal, 32 percent in Denmark and 29 percent in Italy. Further information can be found at

The "SonntagsZeitung" newspaper tested the mobile TV offers from Swisscom, Orange and Sunrise. The result: watching football on your cell phone is not a pleasure. Jerky pictures, crashes and insufficient bandwidth are still the order of the day. To be able to watch football on a cell phone at all, a model with a large screen is indispensable. In addition, the delay of mobile live TV compared to live television is 9 to 14 seconds. The World Cup is expected to bring mobile phone operators a breakthrough in mobile TV, and not only in Switzerland. However, the prospects for the success of mobile TV are uncertain and the potential is overestimated, the "SonntagsZeitung" continues. According to a survey conducted by "Netzwoche", over 70 percent of those questioned could not imagine watching the World Cup on their cell phones. Most respondents in a German study (University of Bonn/IBM) even rejected mobile TV, as there were sufficient alternatives.

As a special supplement to the "NZZ am Sonntag", the 48-page "Magazin zur Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft 2006" has been distributed and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is also on the ball on the Internet. Since the beginning of June, news, commentaries, interviews, portraits, team rankings, statistics, news about the national teams, etc. can be found at Nzz.ch/fussball. From June 9, 2006, a live match ticker will also report on all 64 games.

The electronics discounter Fust is not in breach of lottery law with its World Cup football competition with free televisions. This was the conclusion reached by the St. Gallen public prosecutor's office. It is therefore not opening criminal proceedings. In its advertising, Fust promises to refund the purchase price of newly purchased TV sets if the Swiss national football team reaches the World Cup quarter-finals. However, the buyer must also correctly complete a betting slip with three questions, and investigating judge Thomas Näf confirmed on Friday that no criminal proceedings will be opened. According to a Federal Supreme Court ruling, lotteries of this kind are not subject to the Lotteries Act. According to Näf, it remains to be seen whether gambling under the Gaming Act is involved. The Department of Finance of the Canton of St. Gallen asked Fust AG to stop the competition at the end of April. The department was of the opinion that the competition was possibly in breach of the Lottery Act because participation was linked to the purchase of a TV set.
The campaign is completely legal, based on a federal court ruling, writes Fust on its homepage. The company's legal department has thoroughly examined the campaign from a legal perspective.

Publicitas Swiss Press has redesigned its brochure "Medienland Schweiz" - "Paysage médiatique Suisse" - "Switzerland and its media scene". The brochure for foreign customers is now in its fifth edition. It is intended to provide an overview of the most important features of the Swiss media landscape. In sections such as "Switzerland in international comparison", "Media scene Europe", "Crossmedia" and "Media research Switzerland", the media country Switzerland is illustrated in graphics and texts. Media usage characteristics, structures, trends and strengths can thus be presented to foreign customers in a compact form. The brochure is published in English, German and French. It can be obtained for CHF 30 from Publicitas Swiss Press by calling +41 44 250 37 00 or sending an e-mail to [email protected].

Christoph Haas took over the position of Marketing Manager at Harley-Davidson Switzerland on June 1. He succeeded Markus Kramer, who was promoted to Dealer Development Manager Europe on March 1, 2006. Haas studied business administration at the University of Zurich. He then worked for several years as Brand Manager at Masterfoods and Senior Brand Manager at Unilever. According to Harley-Davidson, he reports directly to Managing Director Gerard Staedelin and works closely with Franco Iaderosa, Marketing Events and H.O.G. Manager Switzerland.

Ronnie Hürlimann will take over as advertising manager for the Basler Zeitung Medien titles at Publicitas Basel from October 1, 2006. He will also become a member of the management of the Basel branch, as announced by Publicitas. Hürlimann is a federally certified publishing manager and worked as a product manager at ofa Orell Füssli Werbe AG in Lucerne from 1990 to 1996. In 1996, he moved to Insider Verlag AG (UD Medien Group) in Lucerne as Publishing Director and was responsible for the publication of Insider magazine. Last year he took over the management of the publishing business and communications within the UD Medien Group.  
Otto K. Walter is taking up a new position within Publicitas Basel as Head of Marketing and will continue in his role on the Executive Board and as Deputy Director of the Basel branch.

Soccer legend Pelé will be writing for the German Sunday title Bild am Sonntag during the World Cup. From June 4, 2006, the Brazilian football star will be analyzing the events surrounding the World Cup, strengthening Paul Breitner's team of columnists. "We are thus offering all readers a unique look behind the scenes of the World Cup in their own country," editor-in-chief Claus Strunz is quoted as saying in a press release.
The BamS team of columnists during the World Cup also includes the comedian and official World Cup ambassador of Hanover Oliver Pocher and the Berlin entertainer Désirée Nick, who approaches the World Cup as an avowed anti-football expert.

Radio 105 has been able to engage the "Emperor" for its coverage of the 2006 World Cup: Franz Beckenbauer will report exclusively for Switzerland on current events at the World Cup. According to Radio 105, he will pick up on the top issues, provide analysis and discuss curiosities.