In a statement published on Tuesday, the Swiss Press Council made it clear that there is no right to freelance work. The complaint of a journalist who had accused the Grenchener Tagblatt of not editing an article as he had deemed appropriate was rejected as unfounded. After the incident, the editorial team decided to end its collaboration with the freelancer. The Press Council was unable to recognize any violation of the declaration of professional ethical obligations and rights of journalists in this action.

The part-time postgraduate master's program "Executive Master of Science in Communications Management" (MScom) at the University of Lugano will become more flexible from 2007. The program will be adapted to the changing requirements of participants and the current needs of companies. Until now, participants in the MScom program had to complete a four-and-a-half-day teaching block once a month. From January 2007, these blocks will take place every two months, but will last seven days. The previous 21-month program comprised 13 blocks in Lugano. The new format, on the other hand, provides for only seven modules in Lugano, one of which will be attended by participants from the "Master in Corporate Communications" (MCC) course at Copenhagen Business School. In addition, the MScom participants will attend a teaching block of the MCC in Copenhagen. MScom and MCC participants will also spend a two-week study visit together at the Anderson School of Business at UCLA, Los Angeles (California). The changes will come into effect in January 2007 with the start of the 9th MScom year.

Swiss brewery Cardinal has chosen Ruf Lanz as its new advertising agency following a competitive presentation. According to Chantal Weibel and Philipp Wetzel from Cardinal, the Zurich-based creative agency impressed them with an integrated concept that makes it possible to advertise both new launches and existing products. The first works should be on display this summer.

From May 7, 2006, the regional editions Graubünden, Glarus, Gaster and See as well as the "Bündner Tagblatt" will appear with a seventh edition, the "Südostschweiz am Sonntag". The Sunday edition will appear in the same layout as Südostschweiz. The publisher wants to provide readers with an attractive additional offer. The Sunday edition, which will result in an increase in the subscription fee of around 30 francs, will be supplemented with an opinion page, background information, a major interview, reports and other reading material. From the fall, a lifestyle magazine in tabloid format will also be added to the newspaper. 50,000 copies are to be distributed to subscribers and sold at newsstands in the "Südostschweiz" circulation area every Sunday from May 7, with an expected readership of 130,000. Eight to ten new full-time positions have been created with the Sunday edition. The plan is for the Graubünden publishing house to be in the black for the third year. As was reported in Friday's edition of Südostschweiz, the advertising industry has so far shown great interest in the seventh edition of the daily newspaper. The response has been very good, according to advertising manager Karin Waltenspühl and managing director Susanne Lebrument at Südostschweiz Publicitas. The goodwill towards the new Sunday newspaper is not limited to individual sectors; the advertising market is happy about such an innovation. The booking status for the first issue is very good.

The publishing group "L`Agefi" in French-speaking Switzerland was able to significantly reduce its loss in the 2005 financial year. The operating loss fell from 1.7 million francs to 1.48 million francs. Agefi Groupe announced on Friday that the result had been negatively impacted by CHF 400,000 due to new accounting standards. On a comparable basis, the loss was 35 percent lower than in the previous year. The cost-cutting program launched in 2005 should take full effect in the current year: The workforce has been reduced by 10 percent and the scope of the business newspaper of the same name has been downsized without touching the substance of its content. The Agefi Group has now been reporting losses for four years. However, the company has made a good start to the new year and made a profit of 407,000 francs in the first quarter.

Starting with the first summer campaign, Zurich-based creative agency Grey will be working alongside Electrolux and will be responsible for the national promotional presence of Electrolux, the leading manufacturer of kitchen and household appliances. As the agency announced on Tuesday, activities will not only be developed for the Electrolux brand, but also for the AEG and Zanussi brands. Electrolux Switzerland is a subsidiary of the Swedish company of the same name, which unites over 20 brands under its umbrella.

Radio Top, the private radio station in eastern Switzerland, can now also be received in the city of Zurich on the frequency 104.5 MHZ. Coverage from the "Zürichberg" transmitter was ensured for the "See-Gaster" region following the opening of the "Feusisberg" transmitter. The "Zürichberg" transmitter connects seamlessly to the "Brühlberg" transmitter in the Effretikon area and to the "Oberhasli" transmitter in the Kloten area and ensures reception of the "Mantel" program and the Zurich regional program of Radio Top, according to a media release. Radio Top was granted the right to serve the city of Zurich by the Federal Council's VHF transmitter network planning directives of October 27, 2004, in conjunction with the granting of the new license on January 1, 2005, which merged the former regions of Winterthur, Thurgau and Wil into the new coverage area of Eastern Switzerland West. In the view of the Federal Council, this was primarily intended to cover the considerable commuter flows from eastern Switzerland over the entire journey from St. Gallen, Romanshorn, Kreuzlingen/Konstanz or Schaffhausen via Winterthur to Zurich. Radio Top's goal is to be the best "away team" in Zurich, i.e. to stand out behind the big Zurich stations Radio 24 and Energy Zurich for listeners, customers and partners as an occasional supplement or alternative to the existing offerings. As Radio Tele Top goes on to say, however, because of the competition that already exists in the Zurich marketplace, the station wants to keep a low profile and try to bring the eastern Swiss point of view to Zurich.

Andy Bürki is the new advertising manager for the national advertising market of the Tages-Anzeiger. He succeeds Fridolin Holdener, who took over as head of advertising for the magazine at the beginning of April. Bürki is currently Key Account Manager at Clear Channel Plakanda. He previously worked for Tamedia between 1999 and 2002. Bürki will take up his new position at the Tages-Anzeiger on August 1 at the latest.

The advertising agency walder,werber in Uster is upgrading. New to the team is typographic designer Oliver Imhoff, who previously worked at CP9. Also joining the team are Inma Mendiola, graphic designer/junior AD and formerly with Unikat, and Raphaela Brühlmeier as a consulting assistant. In addition to three new heads, walder,werber also acquired three new clients. In a competitive presentation, they won over Bellini Baupersonal, a recruitment agency in the construction and technology sector. The agency is in charge of the entire communications mandate and has announced the presentation of its first work for June. The agency is also realizing a new overall image for the Ilgenhalde Foundation in Zurich, ranging from corporate design to the website and various internal communication tools. The creative agency is also designing its own magazine, "Dimension3", for 15 partner companies in the fields of architecture, interior design, product design and architectural photography.

The Web2com index for internet advertising rose by 2.1 points in March compared to the previous month, closing at 100.1 points. This means that investment in internet advertising has picked up again after a weak February. An upward trend can also be observed in the development of Internet usage in Switzerland, Web2com announced on Tuesday. As the new figures from Wemf's MA-Net study show, Internet usage in Switzerland exceeded the four million mark for the first time this year. The Web2com index is based on monthly surveys of investments in commercial advertising on national and international online platforms and shows how Internet advertising is developing in Switzerland.

Zurich-based Intervinum Verlag, publisher of Europe's wine magazine Vinum, is taking over Marmite, the traditional magazine for eating and drinking culture, in mid-2006. Marmite, which was previously published by AZ Fachverlag, is to be continued as an independent title. The magazine will continue to be published 4 times a year. However, its form and content will be revised. In future, Vinum subscribers will also receive Marmite as part of their subscription. In addition, certain key topics of Marmite will be synchronized with those of Vinum.

The Basler Zeitung (BaZ) is featured in the current handbook "New Ideas To Engage Newspaper Readers and Promote Editorial Content" published by the International Newspaper Marketing Organization INMA. Only one Swiss title, BaZ, made it into the book, which lists the best ideas for newspaper advertising. According to BaZ, it made it into the list with its campaign "Die baz gibt zu reden. Have your say." BaZ is also among the winners of the European Newspaper Award. As part of the annual congress of newspaper publishers, which will take place this year from May 14 to 16 in Vienna, BaZ will receive seven "Awards of Excellence". The awards recognize the design of several newspaper pages and the culture magazine.