The Alliance of Swiss Advertising Agencies (ASW) has launched the media agency ASW Media for its members. However, the subsidiary is not a media agency in the traditional sense, ASW announced in a press release. It will be managed operationally by the M&M Media agency in Glattbrugg, Zurich. ASW Media starts with a purchasing volume of 160 million Swiss francs in Switzerland and opens up nine European and three non-European media markets to its members.

Robbie Williams' song "A Place to Crash" from his current album "Intensive Care" is to become the anthem of the 2006 World Cup, at least for ARD viewers. The song will be played during all World Cup broadcasts on the first German television channel. However, Herbert Grönemeyer's "Celebrate the Day" and the international classical pop band Il Divo's "Time of Our Lives" are the official songs for the 2006 World Cup. Switzerland also has several World Cup songs. Although the Graubünden rapper Gimma won the vote for the Swiss World Cup song with his song "Hymna", Swiss television wants to use Baschi's song "Bring en hei" before and after all broadcasts.

In collaboration with Geneva-based Neo Advertising, Coop is equipping all of its shopping centers with flat screen networks. In 21 Coop shopping centers, 400 high definition LCD flat screens with a screen diagonal of 107 cm are to be installed. The program content will inform and entertain customers from 1 September. General information from the shopping centers and daily news, entertainment and commercial messages will make up the mix, Coop announced on Tuesday. After a first promising experience with Neo Advertising, Coop has decided to extend the initial project to all shopping centers. Neo Advertising, for its part, has set itself the goal of becoming the pan-European market leader in the point-of-sale ad screen medium.

The Axel Springer media group is considering reducing the size of its daily newspaper "Die Welt". A reduction in the size of quality newspapers is justified by an increasingly mobile society. According to a study by TNS Emnid Medienforschung, however, Germans are said to have reservations about the tabloid format. A definitive decision has not yet been made, as Springer spokeswoman Edda Fels explained to Kontakter. As far as Welt Kompakt, which already exists in small format, is concerned, a tabloid edition of Welt will continue to differ from Welt Kompakt in terms of content and scope - at least initially - as the two editions appeal to different readerships.

According to the Publicitas Index, advertising expenditure in the Swiss daily press fell by 0.6 points in April. However, the main reason for this was a lower number of newspaper issues. As Publicitas announced on Tuesday, the Publicitas Index fell by 0.6 points to 92.2 points.
Classified ads were hit hardest by the calendar shift. Commercial advertisements recorded only a moderate decline. Job advertisements also suffered from the lower number of issues and the trend slowed down. By contrast, the index of job advertisements rose by 0.2 points to 141.3 points.

The arbitration hearing before the justice of the peace in Kilchberg on Tuesday ended without agreement. The fronts between Frank A. Meyer and Weltwoche columnist Christoph Mörgeli remain hardened. The dispute will now go to the courts. Frank A. Meyer had sued Christoph Mörgeli for personal injury when the latter described Meyer in his Weltwoche column of April 6, 2006 as a caricature of the well-off class warrior who fires off anti-capitalist manifestos on a weekly basis. Meyer also used Nazi vocabulary. In his lawsuit, which is also directed against Weltwoche publisher Jean Frey AG, Frank A. Meyer is demanding a declaration of personal injury, publication of the verdict in Weltwoche and on Mörgeli's website and a compensation payment of CHF 10,000.

Last Friday, the first Zurich Life Science Week kicked off in RailCity and at the university and ETH. Wunderman accompanies the scientific findings on the secret of staying young with a gesture of the cult of youth and illustrates how exaggerated this can appear from a certain age. Outdoor, print and DM measures, together with the event website of sister agency Futurecom interactive, are intended to attract as large and broad an audience as possible to the event, according to a press release. The first Zurich Life Science Week is intended to enable visitors to make the leap in time - thanks to a personal exploration of the topic of growing old and staying young through free experiments, forums and short presentations.

Swiss international footballer Philippe Senderos is entering into a long-term partnership with Nike. The young Genevan, who plays for Arsenal FC in the English Premiere League, will in future receive training, textiles and equipment from Nike and will also be integrated into Nike Switzerland's marketing communications. Senderos thus joins the ranks of top international players such as Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. Swiss footballers Ludovic Magnin, Daniel Gygax and Philippe Degen are already Nike partners.

Sales of the World Cup mascot "Goleo" have fallen so short of expectations that the German toy manufacturer Nici is having to consider filing for insolvency. One of the reasons for the financial difficulties of the company with 400 employees is the production of the "Goleo" mascot under license. The license costs for the exclusive rights did not play as much of a role as the lack of success of "Goleo". With the planned insolvency, the management hopes to be able to react quickly and flexibly to the difficult situation. It is not yet clear what impact the insolvency will have on the production of the mascot three weeks before the World Cup kicks off. Meanwhile, Nici has reduced prices in its own store by up to 30 percent.

The daily newspaper Bild, the Bertelsmann Lexikon Institut (Wissen Media Verlag) and Club Bertelsmann are launching another joint book project: the Bild Knowledge Library. The twelve volumes of the thematic series will be published from September 19 at a price of 9.95 euros. They cover Earth and space, countries and continents, science and technology, animals and habitats, plants and the environment, people and the body, antiquity and modern times, the greats of history, art and architecture, music and literature, religions and faith, and business and society. Bild and Bertelsmann want to get people excited about education, according to a press release. The Bild Knowledge Library is distributed in bookstores via the Bertelsmann Lexikon Institut. Interested parties can also purchase it from Club Bertelsmann. Bild and Bertelsmann had already jointly launched the Immendorff Bible in March 2006.

"Young readers are happy if they can finish their newspaper quickly," explained Peter Rothenbühler, Editor-in-Chief of the Swiss daily newspaper "Le Matin" at the European Newspaper Congress in Vienna. According to Rothenbühler, a daily newspaper needs short, neutral texts that are simply structured and get to the point quickly. This is the only way to attract young readers. "The free newspapers are currently doing this best," explains Rothenbühler. The fact that they are succeeding in getting young people interested in the daily newspaper is revolutionary. However, the former editor-in-chief of Schweizer Illustrierte added that publishers' hopes that young people will automatically become paying readers later on could be misguided. Rather, there is a danger that free newspapers will want to accompany young readers throughout their lives - with a wealth of additional titles.In French-speaking Switzerland, Rothenbühler has been producing "Le Matin bleu", a daily free newspaper for six months, which is similar in format and appearance to the paid-for newspaper Le Matin, which he is also responsible for as editor-in-chief. "Le Matin" has lost practically nothing, said Rothenbühler. Compared to April of the previous year, nothing at all and compared to October of the previous year, "we sell 3,000 fewer copies a day".

The journalist and television presenter Iris Radisch will be the new presenter of the SF and 3sat "Literaturclub" from September 2006. She succeeds Roger Willemsen. He will host the next two programs on June 6 and July 11, 2006, before devoting more time to his own books, projects and travels, according to a press release. Iris Radisch studied German, Romance languages and literature and philosophy. She began her professional career at the "Frankfurter Rundschau" and in 1990 moved to the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit", where she worked in the features section. As a journalist, she also held guest professorships in the USA and Göttingen. She also worked as a presenter for various broadcasters such as ZDF, ARD, WDR, HR and Vox. In August 2000, she replaced Sigrid Löffler on Marcel Reich-Ranicki's book program "Das Literarische Quartett".