The Belgian group Agfa-Gevaer increased its group turnover in the first quarter of 2006 by 8.1 percent compared to the same period last year. Turnover thus amounted to 810 million euros, compared to 749 million euros in the same quarter of the previous year. EBIT increased by 31.7 percent from 41 million euros in the first quarter of 2005 to 54 million euros. The EBIT margin rose to 6.7 percent compared to 5.5 percent in the previous year. However, Agfa's net profit decreased: it amounted to 20 million Euros or 16 Euro-cents per share, compared to 29 million Euros or 23 Euro-cents per share in the first quarter of 2005. The financial result amounted to -16 million Euros, compared to +20 million Euros in the first quarter of 2005, which was positively impacted by significant one-off effects, according to Agfa. On a comparable basis, Graphics increased its turnover by 9.3 percent. HealthCare's turnover increased by 6.2 percent compared to the first quarter of 2005, due to the good result of the business group's IT activities, positive currency effects and the activities of Heartlab, which was acquired some time ago. In the Specialty Products division, sales rose by 10.7 percent to EUR 62 million on a comparable basis compared to the first quarter of 2005.

Neue Luzerner Zeitung AG is taking over Zuger Media AG in its entirety through a merger. This was decided at the general meeting of the two companies on Friday. This means that Neue Luzerner Zeitung AG will become the publisher of Zuger Presse. This has been a weekly newspaper since January 1, 2006. It is published free of charge every Wednesday with a circulation of around 50,000 copies in the Zug area. The previous publisher was Zuger Media AG. LZ Medien Holding, the publisher of the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, was already the main shareholder with a 98 percent stake. The previous main shareholder Daniel Brunner sold his stake in Zuger Media AG to LZ Medien Holding last November.
The company hopes that the merger will generate further synergies. These already exist in advertising sales and publishing, according to a press release. Zuger Media AG and its executive bodies will be dissolved with immediate effect as a result of this absorption merger. With the integration, all assets and liabilities will be transferred to Neue Luzerner Zeitung AG. According to the press release, this will have no impact on the publication of Zuger Presse and will not result in any personnel consequences for employees.

The Bern branch of Publimag will soon be at the same location as the other PubliGroupe companies in the capital. The service provider for the general, special and trade press is moving from Laupenstrasse 35 to Seilerstrasse 8. As of May 22, 2006, Publicitas, Publimedia, Publiconnect and Publimag will be united under one roof in Bern and will thus be able to benefit from synergies, as Publimag announced.

In December last year, the
Media trade union Comedia and its partner organization Impressum an
the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco). They requested the appointment of
of the Federal Conciliation Board for the settlement of collective
Labor disputes. This should be included in the negotiations for a new
Collective labor agreement for the print press. How the
journalist organizations was announced on Friday, the
Swiss Press Association does not take up this offer. This is what
Comedia in a press release. The two organizations had
hoped that the use of the conciliation committee would resolve the conflict with the
publishers' association has been defused and negotiations on a
Collective labor agreement for journalists and technical staff
editorial staff can be resumed. The publishers refuse to
now apparently decided against using the arbitration board. The trade unions
are "very disappointed" about the publishers' statement to the attention of
of Seco, writes Comedia. The publishers want to "once again
refuse to engage in any talks," the press release continues.
The union expects Seco to take its concerns on board and
set up the conciliation committee as quickly as possible. After two missed
years, it is now time to take the place of "publishing
Daniel Kaczynski, who is a member of the
Managing Director of the Swiss Press Association, told
of Werbewoche is surprised at the timing of the Comedia announcement. The
Association had already submitted its statement months ago. The
Kaczynski justifies his rejection with the fact that the conciliation committee
is not regarded as competent. This is a
Institution that mediates conflicts surrounding an existing CLA. Since
Currently no collective labor agreement for print journalists
the Federal Agency could not be deployed. "We
maintain the position that a possible CLA should not address the wage issue.
should not be regulated," Kaczynski continued. The wages
are to be regulated at company level. As the views of the publishers
and the trade unions on this point from the outset
diverge, there is also no chance that a
arbitration board would be successful. The Swiss Press Association would
a possible offer to negotiate a CLA without wage regulation.
negotiate for the time being. However, in the last three
years, we have developed a different practice that is more focused on
The media companies should clarify employment issues internally. This
Carole Scheidegger wants to stick to this path.

The publishing house St. Galler Tagblatt Medien achieved total revenues of 129 million francs in 2005. This corresponds to a decline of 3.4 percent compared to the previous year. The Group result of the Eastern Swiss media house was influenced by the falling volume of advertisements.
Compared to the previous year, the Group result fell by 18 percent to CHF 6.6 million, as reported by the St. Galler Tagblatt in its Friday edition. Retained earnings amounted to 3.4 million francs, compared to 7.3 million francs in the previous year. A dividend of 33 francs per share will be distributed.
The General Meeting of St. Galler Tagblatt Medien elected Alfred Hümmerich, member of the NZZ Group Management, to the Board of Directors on Thursday. He replaces Jean-Philippe Rickenbach, who stepped down from the Board of Directors of St. Galler Tagblatt Medien in spring 2005 for health reasons.

Kalaidos, the largest education group in Switzerland, has awarded the agency Guhl/Partners the contract for the corporate design and the entire communication. The decision was made on the basis of a concept presentation for the SIS Swiss International School, Guhl/Partners announced. SIS is managed by educational institutes that belong to the Kalaidos Bildungsgruppe Schweiz. The agency for communication has been commissioned to implement the content and form of the brand - from the logo design, the design of the letterheads, building and vehicle lettering to the publications and classic advertising. The launch will take place at the end of August with the start of the next school year.

Most Germans would still opt for television if they were only allowed to keep one medium: 44% of those surveyed in the ARD/ZDF Long-Term Mass Communication Study 2005 would save their television in such a situation. In 1970, however, the proportion was still 60 percent. In general, the study, which was conducted in the ninth wave, again found a significant increase in media use:
In 2005, German citizens spent a total of ten hours a day with the media. In 2000, the figure was just under eight and a half hours. People continue to devote most of their time to radio and television: On average, every adult aged 14 and over listens to the radio for 3 hours and 41 minutes a day and watches TV for 3 hours and 40 minutes. Even though the authors of the study note a change in society due to digitalization and the Internet has tripled its usage time, it cannot keep up with the established media: At 44 minutes a day, Internet use is on a par with listening to music via CD/MC or MP3 player (45 minutes a day). The daily newspaper is read for 28 minutes a day, books for 25 minutes and magazines for 12 minutes.
A comparison of the image profiles and usage motivations reveals clear task assignments for the four media of television, radio, daily newspapers and the Internet, although there are overlaps between the media: Television, with its wide range of offerings, fulfills both information and entertainment functions, the daily newspaper remains an information medium, radio a daily companion and "mood modulator". The Internet is primarily an information medium. Large sections of the population have now integrated the Internet into their everyday media life without fundamentally changing their previous usage patterns and the functions assigned to the media.
ARD and ZDF are using the results of the study to call for the legally stipulated upper limit for their Internet expenditure to be lifted. "In today's media landscape, the digitalization of content and its distribution on a wide variety of platforms is playing an increasingly important role. The study proves once again that our public service offerings fulfil a central and indispensable function in this new media world," commented the Chairman of the ARD/ZDF Media Commission, Dr. Helmut Reitze, on the findings.

The Ukrainian daily newspaper Blik, published by Ringier, will appear for the first time on Monday. It marks Ringier's entry into the Ukrainian market. According to the Zurich-based media company, Blik is the country's first tabloid newspaper. The circulation of 150,000 copies is expected to reach a readership of around 500,000 people. Blik will be launched in Kiev, with editions in other major cities to follow in the coming weeks. According to the press release, Ringier has created 125 new jobs in Kiev with the publication of the new newspaper. The new newspaper is published Monday to Saturday in A3 format and has 16 pages. The introductory price of 50 kopecks (12 centimes) is far below the usual market price. Blik is the first daily newspaper of a Western European
media company in Ukraine and, like all Ringier publications, is non-partisan and independent, the press release continues. The editor-in-chief of Blik is 33-year-old Alexei Gazubei. He was most recently deputy editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian daily Segodnya.

The 2006 Tele Prize was presented to 350 guests at the Casinotheater Winterthur on Friday evening. Sven Epiney, presenter of "al dente" and "5gegen5", won the audience award. He was voted the most popular TV presenter by the readers of the TV magazine Tele. In addition to Epiney, Christine Maier, Roman Kilchsperger and Ueli Schmezer from the Tele editorial team were also nominated for the Audience Award, as announced by the publishing house Ringier. This year's television prize went to the editors of the SF1 series "Reporter". The film prize was awarded to Swiss director Michael Steiner for his successful films "Grounding" and "Mein Name ist Eugen". The evening was hosted by TV presenter Frank Baumann.

The Fujifilm Euro Press Professional Awards, which honors the best press photographers in Europe, were presented in Bratislava. The winners in the four categories Digital Photo Composing, Night Life, Sport and Wildlife came from Lithuania, Germany, Denmark and Latvia. Jvan Baranowski was the only Swiss photographer to receive an award in the Wildlife category. The jury, which was made up of photo editors and photographers, judged the photographs on their expressiveness, composition and technical quality. The national winners were chosen in a preliminary round in February. They each won CHF 3,500 and qualified for the European finals in Bratislava. The Swiss winners were Christian Ammann (Zurich, Digital Photo Composing category), Mischa Christen (Ebikon, Night Life), Denis Balibouse (Lausanne, Sport) and Jvan Baranowski (Zurich, Wildlife).
The following winners of the European prize each received a prize worth 10,000 euros:
Digital Photo Composing: Evaldas Ivanauskas, Lithuania
Night Life: Gerald Förster, Germany
Sport: Niels Hougaard, Denmark
Wildlife: Andris Egilits, Latvia

At their congress in Bern, the delegates of Impressum reaffirmed their willingness to discuss new collective labor agreements. This was announced by the journalists' association in a communiqué. Impressum appeals to publishers to keep the common fate of journalists and publishers in mind. According to the press release, media professionals are willing to take account of the difficulties facing the industry. However, they are not prepared to make sacrifices that are not necessary, such as a reduction in cost-of-living compensation. With regard to the situation in German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, the delegates expressed their outrage at the Swiss Press Association's rejection of the mediation offer before the Federal Arbitration Board. According to Impressum, the overall employment contracts for female press journalists are in question in both French and German-speaking Switzerland and in Ticino. In French-speaking Switzerland, the previous Convention Collective du Travail (CCT) is still in force, but has been terminated by publishers at the end of this year.
The delegates also decided to support Josef Lang's motion. This calls for the deletion without replacement of Article 293 of the Swiss Criminal Code, the article of the law on the publication of official documents classified as secret. The delegates of the Journalists' Association are also calling on the Council of States to reject the motion by National Councillor Jürg Stahl. The motion provides for the disclosure of the vested interests of federal parliamentary correspondents.

The German pay-TV company Premiere can now show Bundesliga soccer matches after all. Deutsche Telekom and Premiere have agreed on a cooperation. Under this agreement, the pay-TV provider will be able to show Bundesliga matches using the IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) television standard. At the end of 2005, Premiere lost the bidding battle for the live rights to the Bundesliga to fellow bidder Arena. The fact that the provider can now broadcast live matches after all is due to the fact that Telekom, as the holder of the online rights, has granted Premiere a corresponding sub-license for broadcasts in the IP standard. This makes Premiere the first German TV company to be able to broadcast the Bundesliga live via Telekom's broadband networks as part of T-Home, according to a press release. The agreement covers the 2006/2007, 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 seasons. 612 matches will be broadcast live in the 2006/07 season. Premiere will be responsible for the Bundesliga broadcasts in terms of editorial and media law. In addition to the Bundesliga, the company's entire program will be available as an IPTV service on T-Online's T-Home platform from summer 2006. This means that Premiere can also be received via broadband networks in future.