The Lausanne agency Angebault Portenier is launching a campaign for the Abilis label on behalf of the Professional Association of Swiss Pharmacists (Ofac). Over 230 pharmacies have already joined the nationwide network, and now the public is to be made aware of Abilis with posters, print ads and advertising in pharmacies: The message is simple and places the emphasis on healthcare costs. Abilis aims to ensure that patients receive medication regardless of where they live and to keep cost sharing as low as possible.

The tour operator Nouvelles Frontières and the airline Corsair have commissioned the Geneva-based search engine marketing and online promotion agency Agence Virtuelle to optimize their respective websites. The Geneva-based agency has extensive experience in the tourism sector: previous clients include companies such as Jet Tours, Club Med and Ebookers.

At an extraordinary meeting on Monday, the French-speaking Swiss section of the Swiss Press Association decided to continue the social partnership with the Impressum journalists' union. The collective labor agreement for journalists in French-speaking Switzerland expires at the end of 2006 and was terminated by the publishers. The publishers have announced their intention to maintain the journalists' wage bill. The minimum wage regulation is to be simplified. Furthermore, wages are to be indexed according to the wishes of the publishers and the companies and not the industry, reports the news agency SDA. Impressum welcomed the publishers' willingness to talk, but considers the approach to be insufficient. The union wants to negotiate its position at the end of the month. It rejects an empty new collective employment contract, but is prepared to discuss an economic clause that would allow publishers and companies to make adjustments depending on the economic situation. Print journalists in German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino have had to make do without a collective employment agreement for almost two years. Since then, the media unions Comedia and Impressum have been trying to negotiate a new collective labor agreement with the Swiss Press Association.

According to data from Wemf AG für Werbemedienforschung, newspaper advertisements in the Swiss daily and regional weekly press fell by 7.2 percent in April 2006 compared to the previous year. However, three fewer issues were published in April than in the previous year due to the Easter holidays, which fell in April. On the other hand, there were five Sunday editions in April.
Commercial advertisements fell by 7.8%. Income from job advertisements continued its positive trend and increased by 4.9%. The financial and business press suffered a 5.2% decline in advertisements compared to April of the previous year. The general press, on the other hand, saw an increase of 6.1% compared to the previous year. The Sunday press recorded an overall increase of 43.4%. This year, however, there were five Sundays in April rather than four as in the previous year.

The figures for the specialty and trade press below relate to page volumes. The specialty press recorded a 9.1% decline in advertising. The trade press, on the other hand, recorded a 2.3% increase in revenue.

Construction work on the new media center of LZ Medien Holding began on Monday. The new building and conversion at the existing Maihof site will provide workplaces for 400 people and should be ready for occupation by spring 2009. The conversion and new construction will be carried out in stages, which will guarantee that operations can be maintained. In September 2005, the Board of Directors of LZ Medien Holding decided to build a media center at the same location in Lucerne. Publicitas Lucerne will now also move into the Maihof, and Tele Tell television will also be housed in the premises. The new media center will house the administration of the LZ Group, the publishing, editorial and pre-press departments of the Neue Luzerner Zeitung as well as pvg and LZ Fachverlag. The locations of the Luzerner Druckenzentrum in Adligenswil, Calendria AG and Multicolor Print AG in Baar will not be affected. According to its own figures, LZ Medien Holding employed 499 people in 418 full-time positions at the end of 2005.
The new LZ media center (model)

The market leader in the music television segment proves that the diversification strategy adopted last year and the more hit-heavy focus are meeting the interests of viewers. Since the start of the repositioning in the first quarter of 2005, market shares have increased by 43 percent to an average market share of 2 percent. This means that VIVA is watched by half a million viewers every day, 205,000 of whom are in the target group of 15 to 34-year-olds. The data is based on Telecontrol data from Publica Data. VIVA Switzerland announced on Monday that young women, who already make up 57 percent of the audience, are primarily responsible for the pleasing viewing figures. A year ago, they were still underrepresented in the audience. VIVA is also enjoying growing popularity online, with a 138 percent increase in page impressions compared to the same quarter last year. The VIVA community now has over 32,000 registered members, the press release continues.

Entrepreneur and publisher Jürg Marquard is taking over the Mister Switzerland organization with immediate effect. The company Marquard Event Promotion, based in Zug, will manage the title and organize the election in future. The current owner of the Mister Switzerland organization, Urs Brülisauer, will remain Managing Director and take a seat on the Board of Directors of Marquard Event Promotion. In addition to Jürg Marquard as active chairman, the board is made up of the television director and producer Max Sieber, the editor-in-chief of Schweizer Illustrierte Marc Walder and the business lawyer Dr. Thomas M. Rinderknecht.

The Red Bull DJ bus is now on the road for spontaneous parties; from August 14 to September 10 exclusively for rundfunk.fm. Lowe Direct has redesigned the branding of the bus and is advertising with posters, flyers and stickers for the website.

The creative agency Jung von Matt/Limmat is entering the next phase with the international Rivella campaign "The world is crazy enough". The Zurich-based agency has developed a package of communication measures that will be used in the core markets of France and Germany from May. At the heart of the campaign are two TV commercials that confront viewers with statistical observations of normal madness. For example, a man is greeted in the evening by all the new partners he has statistically been with during his lifetime. Or a letter carrier hands a family's mail into their car, in which they statistically spend more than four years of their lives.

Thomas Meyer (32) has been co-owner and creative director of the Zurich advertising agency Malstube since May 1, 2006. In addition to his work as head of copywriting for the news magazine Facts, he has already been working as a freelancer for Malstube for the past year. The advertising agency in Zurich's Seefeld district was founded in 2001 and employs four people. It looks after clients such as Warner Bros, Hostpoint, Piazza.ch, Itsystems, PartnerWinner, Merck, TV täglich and Replica. The most recent work is the poster for PartnerWinner.ch, which communicates with its neighbors.

Rhaeto-Romanic radio and television (RTR) have moved into the new "Casa RTR" media center in Chur. This is the first time that Romansh television has had its own television studio and production technology. In addition, radio and television are now united under one roof. RTR Director Bernhard Cathomas emphasized that the benefits of the "Casa RTR" are in good proportion to the costs. The owner of the new media building is the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG, and RTR pays the rent. The media building also houses the offices of the SF and SF DRS correspondents, Radiotelevisione svizzers di lingua italiana (RTSI), the headquarters of the Agentura da Novitads Rumantscha (ANR) and the field office of the SDA news agency. The "Casa RTR" deliberately involves the German and Italian-speaking colleagues, as this is how the "idea grischuna" is realized. According to this idea, all languages in the trilingual canton of Graubünden should be given a chance.
The media house will be officially opened on June 6, with a speech by Federal Councillor Christoph BLocher planned. Open days will also be held on June 9 and 10.

The financial situation of local radio station Radio Emme remains tense: The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Karen Wiedmer, announced a profit of 41,000 Swiss francs at last Wednesday's Annual General Meeting. According to a press release, however, this sum is only due to a debt waiver of 300,000 francs by Heimstätte Bärau and the completed share capital increase. The new fee splitting is therefore urgently needed.
At the AGM, the local broadcaster also bid farewell to the two members of the Board of Directors Bernhard Witschi and Fredy Ruf as well as Executive Board member Stefan Kipfer. The two directorships will remain vacant for the time being. In Stefan Kipfer's place, commercial director Daniel Ruch will take over the finance and administration departments in addition to the sales department. Radio Emme will also be able to expand its broadcasting area around the Napf: The remaining coverage gap near Willisau is to be closed shortly.