Andreas Wysling (48) has taken over as head of the International section of NZZ am Sonntag, the newspaper announced. The experienced NZZ foreign journalist will ensure that reporting and commenting on world affairs remains a core competence of the newspaper. Wysling joined the NZZ's foreign desk in 1990, where he also worked as correspondent for Southeast Europe. Wysling has taken over his new role from Markus Spillmann, the new editor-in-chief of the NZZ.

Angelink yourposition, a full-service provider in search engine marketing, is launching Swiss Adex, an index for keyword advertising. According to Angelink yourposition, a corresponding instrument has been lacking in Switzerland until now, although more and more companies are turning to search engine marketing. The newly launched Swiss Adex measures the cost of advertising with Google and the development of booking volumes on a monthly basis. The survey is based on click prices that Google offers potential advertising customers online, as well as other publicly accessible Google data. In March 2006, Angelink yourposition indexed the key data of 600 terms from 40 categories, and now the first comparative values are available: In April, click prices fell by 3.4 points to around 1.70 francs per click. This is a value that makes Switzerland a high-price island in international comparison. On average, more than 30 advertising spaces were booked per search query, and the trend is rising. Swiss companies only occupied 40 percent of Google's Swiss advertising space.

On Monday, Yahoo presented a new booking system for online advertising. The completely redesigned platform for search engine marketing is to be launched in the third quarter of this year and will replace the original system. With the new platform, Yahoo wants to make it easy for companies to target Yahoo users worldwide. Search engine marketing campaigns will be brought online faster on Yahoo and its partner networks and achieve a better overall return on investment, according to a statement. The new system is intended to better prioritize advertising linked to search results and thus generate more clicks. Among other things, the new "Campaign Management" should have a simplified interface, enable a more precise geographical allocation of search queries, activate ads quickly and display different ad versions for selection. The Share of Clicks Forecasting feature "shows what bid is required for a given share of expected clicks, making it possible for advertisers to define and achieve traffic and conversion goals," writes Yahoo. The company plans to further improve ad formats with graphic or "rich media" elements and - similar to what Microsoft is promoting for its AdCenters - targeting capabilities based on factors such as demographic information or online behavior. For Yahoo, the new platform represents the first complete overhaul of its existing advertising platform, which was developed in the late 1990s. Over the past two years, Yahoo has invested several million dollars in the development of the new platform. The new platform will be introduced market by market in phases. This will ensure that the transition to the new system runs as smoothly as possible for the several hundred thousand companies that advertise with Yahoo. This would give tool providers sufficient time to develop new products based on Yahoo's interfaces (APIs), writes Yahoo. As soon as customers have become familiar with the majority of the new functions after the launch, Yahoo will implement a quality-based ranking model in a further phase.

The SGD Swiss Graphic Designers association elected Danilo Silvestri from Baden as its new Central President at its General Assembly. Silvestri is a freelance graphic designer and lecturer at the University of Art and Design Northwestern Switzerland. His most important goals are to develop and implement a new, future-oriented mission statement and to strengthen the image of the profession, as detailed in a press release. The SGD is the largest Swiss professional association for graphic designers.

After 27 years as CEO, Max Stark handed over responsibility for Druckerei Flawil AG to Erwin Lüber on May 1, 2006. Stark can look back on a successful quarter of a century, during which turnover quadrupled and the number of employees grew from 50 to 120. In the printing sector, Druckerei Flawil is one of the most modern companies in Switzerland. Stark will remain on the company's Board of Directors. Erwin Lüber joined Druckerei Flawil at the beginning of 2003 as Marketing and Sales Manager. His aim is to achieve a leading position in the industry and further growth, for which Druckerei Flawil is ideally equipped thanks to ongoing investment in state-of-the-art printing infrastructure.

SBB has commissioned its communications partner Euro RSCG Dialog to further develop the existing concept for customer relationship management. An interdisciplinary team has spent six months developing a program that combines and coordinates various online and offline customer loyalty measures. The concept provides for comprehensive, customized communication with holders of GA, Half-Fare and Track 7 travelcards. As Euro RSCG Dialog announced, the individual approach differs not only according to product, but also according to the age and interests of the customers. One of the core elements is the MobilBonus, which offers discounts and special offers for GA and Half-Fare travelcard holders. Euro RSCG Dialog worked together with Maxomedia for all online measures. The Bern-based agency for cross-media communication realized the e-platform www.mobilbonus.ch as well as the e-marketing measures.

The new slogan "Feel the Difference" will be heard and seen throughout Switzerland from mid-May and will also be gradually introduced throughout Europe. The new brand claim consistently expresses the Ford brand values, according to a press release. In particular, the plan is to push the transfer of emotions in the customer approach. In future, the "value" of Ford vehicles will be emphasized in communications in radio, daily and magazine press. The outward expression of Ford quality is the "Kinetic Design", the new Ford design concept. For the first time, the new brand claim consistently links vehicle development, design, communication and sales across all models. This is one of the reasons why Ford will appear throughout Europe with the uniform and identical statement. The first model on which the new brand philosophy can be admired is the Ford S-MAX, which will be launched on the Swiss market in the second half of May.

Oscar Todeschini (42) has been appointed Head of Consulting and Member of the Executive Board at Zurich-based branding agency Scholtysik Niederberger Kraft (SNK). This will strengthen the agency's expertise in the areas of brand strategy, brand management and brand communication and consolidate its position as one of the leading brand agencies in Switzerland, the agency announced on Monday. Companies' awareness of the importance of brands is constantly growing and with it the sensitivity for brand-specific issues. After various training courses in marketing and communication, Todeschini held management positions at Alcatel and Zurich Insurance, among others, and was a member of the management team at Wirz Identity Zurich for four and a half years. Most recently, he worked as an independent brand and communications consultant for various well-known agencies in Switzerland.

On May 5 in Biel, the watchblog "Pendlerblog" won the Rookie category. The watchblog focuses on the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten and is subtitled "Explained 20-minute fans explain 20 minutes". The audience in Biel voted the English-language blog "Don't mention the skiing" as the most popular Swiss weblog, while the blog "Scanblog@jungundfrei" was named the most attractive multimedia weblog in the multimedia category. The winners of the Swiss Blog Awards were chosen by the public at an evening event in Biel on May 5.

The German television journalist Günther Jauch and the editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Giovanni di Lorenzo, have received the 2006 Media Prize for Language Culture for their sophisticated use of the German language. The two received the award from the Society for the German Language on Saturday evening. Di Lorenzo gives the news a human soul, the jury said in its statement. Günther Jauch was praised for never abandoning the toolbox that the German language provides. He had set linguistic standards in German television through his courage and talent.

The Federal Department of Communications (Uvek) has initiated a procedure to increase reception fees and has asked the SRG to clarify its financial requirements. This was reported by the SonntagsZeitung. SRG has until the summer to clarify the matter. Insiders at the federal government are assuming a significant fee increase that will affect the coming year. However, neither the federal government nor the SRG wanted to comment on this. Price watchdog Hans Rudolf Strahm could prevent the adjustments to television fees. He will assess the plan in late summer and take a close look at any increase, he told the SonntagsZeitung.

Reto Wüthrich, Managing Director of the Bern-based information agency Pepper, has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the leading Swiss trade magazine for the retail trade, Handel Heute. Handel Heute is published bi-monthly and reaches around 80,000 readers. As Pepper announced on Friday evening, in addition to content responsibility, the mandate also includes consulting and support for the upcoming content and design relaunch of the print magazine and the online presence. As a further consultancy mandate, Pepper will also support the Wave&Wheels event in the media sector. Wave&Wheels combines trend sports with culture and social responsibility.