The daily photo soap for cell phones "mittendrin - Berlin rockt!" has already attracted over 35,000 subscribers in Germany four weeks after its launch. Following the principle of a cross-media approach, users can follow the story not only via cell phone, but also in the print magazine and online. It is also possible to meet the production team at the original locations. The life of young people in Berlin is portrayed in the style of telenovelas. The soap subscription is free for the first two weeks, from the third week it costs 1.99 euros per week.

The English publishing house Essential Publishing, based in Colchester, has been acquired by Hubert Burda Media. Essential Publishing publishes the magazines Women's Fortnightly, Real and Your Home, among others. The acquisition complements Hubert Burda Media's activities in the UK, which began in 2005. The weekly magazine Full House was launched at the beginning of 2005. The monthly magazine Living & Gardens was added in February of this year. The publisher, which publishes 252 titles in 19 countries, intends to further expand its portfolio on the island.

The former editor-in-chief of the French-speaking Swiss daily Agéfi is moving to the agency side at the Geneva-based public relations agency Rochat & Partners. Roulet studied philosophy and taught at schools. He learned the journalistic trade at various newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland. Roulet was most recently editor-in-chief of Agéfi. Rochat & Partners has also built up a group of external consultants to support the agency with special mandates.

With a paid circulation of 482,569 copies, the German weekly newspaper die Zeit was able to increase its previous year's result by 3.8% in the first quarter. According to its own figures, this is the 16th consecutive quarter in which it has exceeded the previous year's result. The growth in subscription sales is significant with an increase of 7.8 percent. This corresponds to 21,808 more subscribers than in the previous year. Single copy sales remained almost constant. Other sales were reduced by 45.1 percent (-9,696 copies). The news magazine Focus reported 734,593 copies sold in the first quarter. This corresponds to a decrease of 5.8% compared to the previous year.

After strengthening its team with three employees at the beginning of this year, the Swiss advertising agency is once again on the lookout for new staff. This time, however, it is taking unusual measures in its search for new employees. Instead of using advertisements or banners as in the past, it is using wild posters at other advertising agencies to encourage employees who are willing to change jobs to quit and switch to the advertising agency. The guerrilla campaign focuses on each of the 14 advertising agencies with statements and appeals such as "If you want more than just a draw" (Remy Fabrikant, Creative Director of JWT+Hostettler+Fabrikant), "You are the Schmid of your own happiness" (Kurt Schmid, CEO of Lowe) and "Come out. Wirz soon!" (Wirz). As the posters say, "new office holders" are being sought for the positions of consultant, AD, copywriter and graphic designer.

The Zurich-based advertising and guerrilla marketing agency Propaganda has taken three new employees on board as of April 1. Sasa Gabriel Grzinic, the new Head of Marketing and Sales, joins from the IT sector. Nicole Sandri, Advertising Assistant in Training, and Sandro Minasi, Distribution and Logistics, will also be supporting the Propaganda team.

The discount supermarket chain Denner advertises in a double-page spread in the Sunday press. An unwrapped bar of chocolate is shown on a red background. Under the slogan "Cailler sells packaging. Denner chocolate." Denner informs about the fact that Cailler no longer supplies Denner, because Denner does not accept the price increase for the newly packaged products. "The elaborate and senseless packaging" had led Cailler to this "unjustified and one-sided price increase." In an interview with Sonntagsblick, Denner CEO Philippe Gaydoul doubles down, calling the new design of Cailler chocolate a "marketing stunt." Denner talks about a price increase of 8 percent, but according to Nestlé, prices have risen by 0.8 percent. And this is due to higher raw material prices and not to the new packaging. Denner wants to sell Cailler chocolate, but at the same conditions as before. If this is not possible, Denner will not make any further efforts to obtain Cailler supplies.

The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) has initiated supervisory proceedings against Swiss Television SF, Sat 1 Schweiz, Star TV, Presse TV and the production company Alphavision for surreptitious advertising. As reported by the SonntagsZeitung, there is suspicion of a breach of the ban on surreptitious advertising, inadequate declaration of sponsorship and other breaches of the law. By law, brands and products placed in advertising must be declared. If company names are not mentioned in the credits, it is surreptitious advertising. The five television stations concerned have until the end of April to submit their comments to the supervisory authority. As part of the large-scale campaign, OFCOM randomly checked several shows for hidden advertising content. Viva and U1 TV were also targeted, but no irregularities were found in either case.
 
The SonntagsZeitung also reports that proceedings for surreptitious advertising in the program "Traumjob" are still pending. SRG has lodged an appeal against the ruling and the decision of the legal department of Media Minister Moritz Leuenberger is expected soon.

The news agency Reuters will publish commentary from bloggers. To this end, Reuters has entered into a partnership with the weblog network Global Globalvoicesonline.org, which is managed by the elite Harvard University. The comments in the weblogs mainly revolve around major political and economic events. Reuters wants to open up the website to other opinions. The bloggers' comments will either be published directly on the website as labeled posts or links under the news items will direct readers to the comments.
Since the end of 2005, Reuters has been making its first attempts to cooperate with bloggers. Short news videos can be integrated into blog sites via the Video Affiliate Network program http://labs.reuters.com/video. The news agency wants to strengthen its presence on the Internet and also test new ways of using online videos. The project is financed by advertising. The film sequences start with a 15-second video before the news article begins.

For the third time, the association "Créatifs Romands" and the Fédération romande de publicité et de communication FRP are calling for entries for the Welsche Kreativpreis. The competition is open to communication and advertising agencies as well as freelance graphic designers and creative professionals. The condition is that the projects are in French and can be seen in French-speaking Switzerland. The categories are as follows: TV/cinema, radio, poster, press, cultural communication, edition, flyer, graphic design, corporate design. Entries can only be submitted via the Internet. The deadline for entries is May 1, 2006. You can find more information on the website.

Zurich-based film production company Condor Films is taking over Bern-based FaroTV, which develops and produces TV formats such as "Joya rennt" and "Celebrations". FaroTV founders Mathias Ruch and Björn Hering and the 25 employees will continue their activities at the current headquarters. The FaroTV name will also be retained. Mathias Ruch and Björn Hering will join the management of Condor Films. The acquisition will increase the pool of permanent and freelance employees and create synergies in format development, production and post-production, Condor announced. Among the advantages of the acquisition, the Zurich-based company also counts the fact that it now has a location in Bern, which will bring it closer to clients for advertising and corporate films in the capital. It is also hoped that the growth potential of the Condor Films Group will be strengthened.

With Blogburst, the US company Pluck has launched what it claims is the first service that places blog content with media companies. Headlines and entries from web diaries are to be placed in newspapers. Media such as the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Gannett, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and Austin American-Statesman want to cooperate with the service. Over 700 bloggers are already active in the Blogburst network. They will supply the daily press with well-founded commentaries or texts on niche topics, as reported by Netzeitung. According to the head of Pluck, Dave Panos, articles on topics such as travel, technology or entertainment, which are often neglected by daily newspapers due to staff shortages, are particularly popular with editors. The bloggers will not be paid for the time being. However, once a test phase has been completed, they will receive compensation for increased traffic. In order to maintain the quality standards of the individual daily newspapers, the registered blogs are subject to constant monitoring by Blogburst employees.