The first special of the French-speaking Swiss women's magazine Femina will be on newsstands on March 27. Femina Forme is dedicated to topics such as laughter, outdoor activities to combat pain and menu suggestions for young female readers. The issue has a circulation of 25,000 and is distributed selectively alongside newsstand sales. The second issue will follow in October.

The Eichhof Group has informed the Board of Directors of Amazys that it is considering an offer for all outstanding registered shares of the company. The conditions for the takeover of the provider of color management solutions are subject to a due diligence process, according to a press release. A possible price would be at least 108.80 Swiss francs per share. According to Eichhof, a combination of its subsidiary Datacolor with Amazys would make it the global leader in the color management market.

A company can use clear warning signals to recognize when its reputation is in decline. According to a study by Burson-Marsteller and the market research institute Economist Intelligence, companies must initiate measures in internal and external communication when the following alarm lights are flashing: a drop in morale; internal politics becoming more important than professional work; top managers leaving the company, loss of CEO credibility in the public eye; employees passing on problems to the customer. The executives surveyed agree with the course and extent of this corporate development. "The processes within a company are extremely important for the public perception of a company," says Roman Geiser, CEO of Burson-Marsteller Switzerland. The study found that declining morale and employee dissatisfaction can be improved by the accessibility and openness of management, clearly defined management responsibility and optimized internal communication. The survey was conducted online between May and July 2005 among 685 executives in 65 countries. The participants were selected from a cross-section of 19 industries.

Peugeot and Chevrolet are letting their customers advertise: Communications agency Euro RSCG is sending potential car buyers on the hunt for a Peugeot 107 with their cell phones, and anyone who lands a cell phone snapshot can take part in a competition. The advertisements take up this idea and show situations in which people try unsuccessfully to catch the small car. The General Motors subsidiary Chevrolet is also putting consumers to work: At www.chevyapprentice.com, there are trips and cash to be won until mid-April - in return for a specially produced commercial.

For some time now, MTV has only been playing music videos at off-peak times - early in the morning and at night. Now its little brother Viva Plus, which belongs to MTV Networks, is following suit. If everything goes according to plan, a non-stop comedy program will be flickering across the channel from next winter. The new offer is intended to attract a further specialist audience, with a focus on adults up to the age of 49. MTV boss Catherine Mühlemann told the Aargauer Zeitung that the first comedy channel on German free TV is being established. The MTV Group already operates Comedy Central in the USA and comedy channels in Europe, some of them with considerable success. The German offshoot is to consist of a balanced mix of international and national productions. A program from the subsidiary Brainpool, which produces "TV total", "Die Wochenshow" and "Mein neuer Freund", among others, would be conceivable for the domestic material. Paramount Comedy is in play as a possible title for the channel. Around one and a half years ago, MTV Networks swallowed up the Viva Group. But anyone who assumes that this growth strategy means more music on television is wrong: the channel's clip offering has been steadily shrinking for years.

Diana Hofstetter is taking over the position of Head of Marketing at the Rhaetian Railway in Chur in mid-April. She replaces Thomas Meier, who is leaving the company. Diana Hofstetter has a degree in business administration and most recently worked for a trading company. The Rhaetian Railway plans to expand its marketing with the new head.

On Thursday, the Contexta advertising agency took home two of the three Gold Effies. The Bernese won with the two campaigns "Beck & Bondi" for Swisscom Fixnet and "Call to Action" for Appenzeller cheese. The third gold award went to the Sulzer Sutter agency for its Parisienne campaign. Silver went to Zurich agencies Jung von Matt/Limmat for Panasonic's "Cutting Edge" campaign, Publicis for Migros-Genossenschaftsbund and Exxtra Kommunikation for Perskindol. Three bronze awards went to the Zurich agency Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett for Feldschlösschen Getränke, Lindt & Sprüngli and WOZ. Two bronze awards went to Ruf Lanz for their work for SuvaLiv and Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich. Other bronze awards were won by Advico Young & Rubicam for Bread for All and Fastenopfer, Werbeanstalt Schweiz for Oltner Tagblatt, Wirz for Helsana Insurance, JWT+Hostettler+ Fabrikant for Kraft Foods Switzerland, Publicis for Schweizerische Mobiliar, and Grendene, Ogilvy & Mather for Dove. This year, for the first time, two media prizes were awarded to campaigns. Publisuisse, marketer of SRG SSR idée suisse's radio and TV programs, presented the "Best TV Campaign Award" to Swisscom Fixnet and Contexta for their "Beck & Bondi" campaign, while the "Sappi Print Media Efficiency Award" went to Jung von Matt/Limmat for Panasonic's "Cutting Edge" campaign.
This year, for the first time, the Swiss Effie was entered and judged using an online system. A total of 98 campaigns were submitted - a good third more than in 2003, the year of the most successful competition to date. 68 dossiers met the effectiveness and efficiency criteria and were evaluated by the twelve jurors. The Swiss Effie does not primarily judge the creation of marketing communication, but its effectiveness and market success. The jury members are representatives from industry, trade, media, marketing theory, market research and advertising/communication agencies.

At the General Assembly of the VSP (Association of Swiss Private Radio Stations) on Thursday, the members elected Jürg Bachmann as the new President. Jürg Bachmann is Managing Director of Radio Energy Zurich and previously held management positions at St. Gallen media (Radio Aktuell, Anzeiger, Tele Ostschweiz). He sits on the Board of Trustees of Toxic.fm and the Board of Directors of Radio Ri. At the same time, the members elected current Board members Frederik Stucki (Radio Canal 3, Capital FM) and Alfons Spirig (Radio Central) for a further three-year term of office. The members also approved an increase in the size of the Board from seven to nine members and elected Matthias Bärenfaller (Radio Rottu) and Martin Freiburghaus (Radio BE 1) to the Board for a three-year term of office. The terms of office of the remaining Board members Martin Muerner (Radio BeO, Vice President), Roland Baumgartner (Radio Argovia), Markus Ruoss (Radio Sunshine) and Peter Scheurer (Radio 32) will run for a further one to two years. The members bid farewell to outgoing President Günter Heuberger after 20 years on the Board.

The Norwegian Schibsted Group has put its plans for the free newspaper 20 Minuten in Germany on hold for the time being. As new.business.de reports, the company is currently struggling with circulation losses at some of its Scandinavian daily newspapers. Insiders had thought the launch of the Norwegian newspaper was possible before the World Cup.

Based on the concept of the "Musicstar", the Jungfrau Zeitung raised the "Politstar" - in collaboration with the SVP, SP, FDP, GFL, EVP, EDU and SD parties. At the four podium discussions (3 qualifying podiums and one final podium) with the 27 candidates for the Grand Council, their performances were judged. The final was won by the Mayor of Meiringen, Christoph Ammannn (SP). Although the jury rated Peter Flück higher, the audience turned the decision in Ammann's favor. According to the Jungfrau Zeitung, Ammann is now naturally one of the favorites for a seat on the Grand Council.

The Valais native has presented his first watch collection. It is the Spinmaster collection from 121Time, a virtual Swiss watch boutique based in Martigny. The watch can be customized to suit your own style on the 121Time website. According to the Presseportal news service, Lambiel will be presenting his new watch collection during a tour on March 29 and 30 in the region from Sierre to Geneva.

According to Wemf AG für Werbemittelforschung on Thursday, advertising revenues from daily and weekly press fell by 1.6 percent year-on-year in February. This means that the situation has improved again after a drop of 9.2 percent was recorded in January. Commercial advertisements in particular have not emerged from the trough and recorded a further negative result of minus 11%. In contrast, income from job advertisements increased by 16.2 percent. Business with inserts developed particularly well, with sales up 25.6 percent on the previous year. The Sunday press, which was not affected by the January slump, increased by 12.9 percent compared to the previous year. The financial and business press developed positively with the same increase of 12.9 percent. The general press increased by 1.8 percent, but the trade press already recorded a decline of 2.8 percent. The advertising volume fell the most in the specialty press, which lost 6.1%.