Internet Advertising: Two advertising agencies are each launching a youth pool—under the same name. This is causing some tension. On April 1, the
Web2com, an online advertising company and subsidiary of PubliGroupe, with
launched its own youth platform. It includes websites that
are particularly popular among teenagers: 20 Minuten, Radio
105, ProSieben Sat 1, Cineman, and the party website Tillate. Through this
Pool allows advertisers to reach their target audience with just one booking
reach 14- to 29-year-olds. For over two months, the
The organizers are busy with the preliminary work.

And, of all times—in early March—the company, which is part of the Goldbach Media Group,
Adlink, a marketing agency affiliated with the company, has its own youth pool. Not only the
Not only is the name "Jugendpool" the same, but so are three of the five websites (20
Minuten, Cineman, and, since March 21, Tillate as well) «One could
»I think Adlink is trying to pull a fast one on us," says the managing
Director Ueli Weber, who makes no secret of his displeasure over this,
that the competitor apparently did not react until after it had been informed by the
I learned about Web2com's launch plans. Between the two
The atmosphere at the company is therefore tense, especially since, according to reports,
Web2com representatives accused the Adlink team of having
approached its exclusive clients, and conversely, Adlink claims that its
A competitor allegedly used commission dumping to lure customers to its own
Page loaded.

Ultimately, the dispute boils down to the question of who gets first access to the youth pool
launched. «We’ve had similar products in our
»Market," says Martin Radelfinger, Managing Director of Adlink, and
objects to the suggestion that they only jumped on the bandwagon at the last minute
jumped in. Companies will, in one way or another,
We'll have to figure out the details. «Maybe there will be a youth pool then—Adlink”
»and a youth pool called Web2com," says Radelfinger.    

René Worni

Swiss Television SF has suffered a defeat before the Swiss Press Council. SF had taken legal action against the tabloid newspaper "Blick" because it had published an article in May 2005 entitled "Reisebüro SF DRS" with a portrait photo of television director Ingrid Deltenere. The accusation made by "Blick" was that for the summer series "Once in a lifetime", television people could travel to "the most beautiful places in the world" at the expense of fee payers and spend dream vacations there. The Press Council ruled that the complaint was unfounded, as "Blick" had not exceeded its freedom to comment. The Press Council admitted that "Blick" had polemicized in a one-sided manner and had exaggerated sharply, particularly on the front page. However, it is readily apparent that it was not actually about paid vacations, but about professional assignments.

Publishing SoftCare has significantly expanded its K4 editorial system.
What is the best way to consolidate a product in the
market? Ideally, by developing an ecosystem around it
or enabled with simple and open interfaces so that other
providers do this. The prime example is the iPod, which has become not least
has become the number one music player also thanks to an ecosystem. What
in the case of the music player, an online music store linked to it, Cases,
connectable sound systems, adapters and the like are, that at
software products are the plug-ins or program extensions. They allow
the expansion of an application and enable functions that
main application per se does not cover.

Last but not least, the program extensions (XTension) for the software
In the 1980s, QuarkXPress helped the layout classic to become the
Breakthrough. Another important element in Quark's ecosystem was the
Linking with their own editorial system QPS, which enables Quark to use the layout application QuarkXPress in the
market and consolidate its position vis-à-vis PageMaker to the
was able to expand its market leadership.

Adobe's InDesign CS2 Server
With the introduction of the InDesign application, Adobe has now
QuarkXPress. Not unimportant in the battle for the
dominance, Adobe has also invested in the ecosystem and, with InCopy
for quite some time now has its own tool for journalists or
editorial staff developed. Another important
element, if not a key product, for Adobe in the
Desktoppublishing segment, could the towards the end of last year
introduced high-performance InDesign Server CS2 (InDesign Server).
be

With the help of its server technology, workflows are to be improved in
automate and optimize the layout phase as well as the interaction
in editorial offices can be improved. As a complement to Adobe's
Prepress software collection Creative Suite improves the InDesign server
as the central "rendering engine" (generates, among other things, the
thumbnails) the possibility to allow editorial content to be shared among several
made available to employees of a team and published by them
can be created. Thus, the InDesign server enables not least also
thanks to workflow automations, that content can be integrated into the
Publication necessary documents can be transformed.

"Boundless Publishing"
At a conference held in early March by Adobe, SoftCare and the St. Gallen-based
organized by the local system integrator Topix.
"Boundless publishing" was not, however, the InDesign server
itself, but the system developed by the German SoftCare
K4 publishing system takes center stage. Central new functions of the
new application that complements Adobe InDesign and InCopy is the
Integration of the InDesign server, which is available in a functionality
limited OEM license is involved. According to Fabio Sacilotto,
K4 product manager at Topix, who has been
together with moderator and Topix managing director Dieter Herzmann
InDesign server, editors who are integrated via the InDesign server can better
and, above all, check in more quickly, get acquainted with the production
documents used in a publication. The InDesign server
thus becomes the central component between layout/editing software
and editorial system.

Server integration is a means for various purposes. Thus
the server enables in interaction with the in a web browser
accessible tool K4 Overview the production monitoring and the
Visualization of all pages of an issue. In addition to the already
previously possible to display the pages in JPEG image format can be set in the
browser now generates PDF documents, displays them and subsequently also
can be sent. The PDF documents are then sent by the K4
linked InDesign server in the background - without any
the editorial system is loaded. Another advantage of the
Server connection is the visualization possible in the new version
of document variants. This makes it possible to track in the web browser from
which language variant already translated and produced documents
present.

The K4 Revision Manager enables the management of versions. With
this extension, an older version can be specifically accessed and
these are compared with the opened version. For this purpose
a text window the textual differences between the versions
visually highlighted.

Edit from anywhere
Thanks to the K4 Web Editor tool, for the first time in an InDesign environment.
Documents from externally with a browser not only visualized, but
can also be edited in a line-by-line manner. Via a browser running
applets, server access is used to dynamically change the preview views in the
browser generated. The applet also enables the correction of
Texts. For this purpose, a text selected in the preview view is displayed in a
separate text field in the correct font representation (Wysiwyg).
and can be edited in it. If the corrections are
confirmed, then the original document within the K4 environment is
updated accordingly.

Further new features of version 5.6 simplify above all the
production and enable third-party providers to offer their solutions to
K4 even more easily. To media databases,
News management systems or, for example, the
FotoStation asset management system from the supplier FotoWare,
K4 provides a technology called DropFolders. K4
DropFolders monitors defined folders for this purpose and posts from
Assets stored in third-party systems including the metadata they contain
automatically into K4. This means that this data is available in K4 directly in the
Access. With the likewise new extension K4 Caption&Credit, the
is primarily applied to images, the files attached to the image will be
Information for legends and photo sources placed directly in the layout
and linked to the image to form a unit.

New K4 functions
In its version 5.6, K4 comes up with various innovations. Central
is the integration of Adobe InDesign Server CS2 (see text) to the
among other things, dynamic calculation of preview images and generation of
of PDF documents. The following are the most important new functionalities
of the K4 version 5.6.

Customizable interface: Within a K4 environment, the user can customize the
Access rights controlled, functions or command groups such as the
For example, manual text formatting (instead of using character or
Style sheets) in InDesign/InCopy to inactive. The
Functionalities of these programs connected to K4 can even be
status-dependent: For example, a user can be assigned a status towards the end of a
production are granted fewer rights than at the beginning. This will reduce the
Significantly reduced review effort before going to press.

The K4 Revision Manager allows you to track how pages or
texts have changed in the course of production. With this optional
plug-in can also undo changes and save them in a separate
windows are highlighted and thus can be compared very well.

The K4 DropFolders function enables asynchronous check-in of
data into the K4 publishing system. The program extension monitors
defined folders for this purpose and assigns objects stored in them with
relevant meta information. The data is then sent to defined
target folder. Using K4 DropFolders, it is also possible to transfer
Integrate asset management systems into K4 environments.

When checking in images, K4 Caption&Credit also transfers the
corresponding captions and image credits to the system. At
Placing images in the layout, which is based on templates stored in K4.
can take place, these elements are adopted as a single unit and
logically connected.

The K4 XML Exporter add-on can be used to automate data for
Web presence and archive generated or information sent to commercial
systems are generated. In the new version, these operations can now be
automated and, for example, transferred to FTP servers or sent by mail.
be shipped.

K4 in Switzerland
In Switzerland, publishers such as the Zehnder Group, AVD
Goldach or Compress Information Group K4 publishing system.
K4 publishing system is also used by various
communications agencies and prepress companies to produce their
Customer objects used successfully.

Jürgen Franck

The real estate portal Homegate.ch has been on the market for five years. To mark this occasion, the website has undergone a facelift. The comprehensive redesign is intended to underline the company's modern image and at the same time emphasize its market leadership. According to CEO Urs Hügli, the portal thrives on the topicality of its offer and the quality of its services. The aim is to take account of changes in customer requirements at an early stage. Homegate is a subsidiary of ZKB and now employs 27 people. The two publishing houses Tamedia and Edipresse have each held a 14.5 percent stake in the company since 2005.

Annemarie Widmer (27) is the new marketing manager and a member of the management team at Louis Widmer SA, headquartered in Schlieren. Even before joining her family's business, the qualified marketing planner gained professional experience in the fields of communications, marketing and sales promotion. Louis Widmer SA employs 100 people in Schlieren and has subsidiaries in Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland.

Eight years after the liberalization of the telecommunications market, the last mile has now also been opened up to competition. The conciliation conference of the National Council and the Council of States reached a compromise early on Tuesday, thus saving the revision of the Telecommunications Act (TCA). Swisscom must grant its competitors access to house connections on the copper cables of the former PTT for four years. Swisscom's other infrastructure is not affected. The National Council was originally in favor of a temporary opening for two years, while the Council of States was in favor of an indefinite opening. The compromise proposal of the conciliation conference was then presented to both Councils again this morning for a final vote and both Councils agreed. If the National Council or the Council of States had not approved the compromise, the entire revision of the Telecommunications Act (TCA) would have been off the table.
In an initial reaction, Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger expressed his delight that the new TCA is now being implemented. In addition to opening up the last mile, it aims to further liberalize the telecommunications market and adopt EU standards. The new TCA also regulates requirements for companies wishing to maintain the universal service obligation, aims to improve consumer and data protection and prohibits spam by e-mail or SMS.
Swisscom's competitors Tele2 and Sunrise were quick with their statements. According to Tele2, the new TCA finally brings legal certainty and improvements in consumer protection. However, it was regretted that the opening of the last mile was limited to four years. This means that investment activity will probably be limited to the centers. The new TCA brings advantages for consumers. Consumer protection will be improved and in future there will only be one bill for all services purchased. Cablecom spokesman Stephan Howeg told SDA that after a four-year transitional period, the obligation to provide access to the last mile will trigger sustainable infrastructure competition from which consumers will also benefit.

As of April 1, 2006, Ruth Wittwer will take over the position of DRS3's new Head of Daily Affairs (TAV). She succeeds Susanne Witzig, who has been Head of Journalism at DRS3 since February 1. Wittwer has been working as an editor at DRS3 since October 2001 and has been in charge of TAV assignments since the beginning of this year. Ruth Wittwer shares the TAV function on a weekly basis with Bettina Walch and Pascal Scherrer.

From June 1 to 30, Publisuisse is offering a 100% performance guarantee on all TV advertising campaigns in the SF 1, TSR 1 and TSI 1 channels. This is despite the fact that the TV audience will be split into two camps: football fans and World Cup fans. The former will primarily watch the direct broadcasts of the World Cup on the second channels. If the predicted performance in the first channels is therefore not achieved, Publisuisse will make up for this on an ongoing basis in June, or at the latest at the beginning of July.

The MAZ School of Journalism has been forced to make savings as a result of the budget debate in the National Council and Council of States. The Federal Office of Communications (Bakom) is cutting its contribution to the training center by CHF 70,000, which corresponds to a fifth of the previous subsidies. According to SDA, the school received 350,000 francs in 2005, this year it is still receiving 280,000 francs. According to the MAZ, the reason for the cut was a parliamentary decision to cut half a million francs from the Bakom for training and further education. The applicant was FDP National Councillor and Jean Frey CEO Filippo Leutenegger. The MAZ will now discontinue or shorten some radio and television courses that were subsidized by Bakom. Among other things, the ten-day radio journalism course, which served as an introduction for new radio employees, will be discontinued. The measures have been approved by the Board of Trustees of the School of Journalism. They were carried out in consultation with the Swiss Private Radio Association (VSP).
In addition to the journalism school in Lucerne, other institutions are also affected by the cost-cutting measures. For example, the French-speaking Swiss counterpart to the MAZ, the Centre romand de formation des journalistes (CRFJ) in Lausanne, will also receive a fifth less. According to the CRFJ, the subsidy amount is now CHF 64,000. No courses will be canceled.

The national online youth pool launched at the beginning of March has been joined by the leading Swiss party site. The youth-oriented advertising pool now includes the sites 20 minuten, Cineman, Energy Zürich, Usgang and Tillate. As Adlink explains in a press release, the ad-impression-rich website tillate.com can generate enormous pressure on the attractive target group of young people with a single ad placement.

The Leone Ming agency in Schaan has conceived and designed a campaign for the Commission for Accident Prevention and the Liechtenstein National Police. The aim is to persuade people who don't wear seat belts to buckle up in the car. This is because only 80 percent of Swiss and Liechtenstein residents still wear a seatbelt when driving. Raising awareness of the issue could save up to 60 lives a year in both countries, according to Leone Ming. The campaign will be displayed on buses and large billboards in the form of oversized seat belts with the ambiguous question "buckled up?". Radio spots will use words and sounds to raise awareness of seatbelt wearing.

On Tuesday night, Google launched the beta version of a financial information service at Finance.google.com, which offers price information on American companies and funds with news from 4,500 sources. The service will soon be available in Germany and other countries. Google has purchased financial data from several providers for the new service and links this with freely available information such as news, blogs, stock analyses and forums. Google is thus moving away from the idea of a search engine and towards the concept of a news portal, writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Google is attacking Yahoo's supremacy in the financial business with its finance site. Until now, Google had redirected users who searched for the abbreviation of a stock to Yahoo.