The online marketplaces of the Scout24 Group
will be expanding its marketing team in the coming year. Under the management of
of Frank Gerber, the new team intends to use an increased budget for
ensure an above-average perception in the market, such as a
communiqué. The various platforms will
also continuously supplemented with current and relevant content
and expanded into comprehensive information portals. At the address
At the beginning of the year, Motoscout24.ch will be a new marketplace for
motorcycles. In 2005, the Group increased its advertising volume by
by a third and recorded around 3.5 million new orders per month.
visitors, which corresponds to an increase of 25 % compared to the previous year.

The local station Radio Emme is expanding its
Management. Sales Manager Daniel Ruch joins the existing duo
Stefan Kipfer (Finance) and Jüre Lehmann (Program). Lehmann remains
Chairman of the Executive Board. In addition to Ruch's appointment, the
Board of Directors organizational regulations and a function chart
which defines the tasks, competencies and functions of the
According to a press release, this will set an important course for the future.

The Federal Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the publishing house Agefi and its CEO
Alain Fabarez dismissed. They saw themselves as victims of a press campaign in Le Temps, Bilan and Tribune de Genève and sued for unfair competition and personal injury. Because the articles in question, which appeared between January and April 2004, allegedly caused the Agefi share price to plummet, the plaintiffs demanded several million francs in damages. In May, the Geneva cantonal court had already rejected the claim.
rejected. The arguments with which the Federal Supreme Court has now followed this
is not clear from a report in Le Temps on Friday.
The newspaper itself affected by the lawsuit, on the other hand, notes that the
25,000 Swiss francs court fees and 30,000 Swiss francs
have to pay party compensation. Irrespective of this
court ruling, Agefi issued two press releases on Thursday
published: On the one hand, Alain Fabarez has sold his stake in the
company from 38.2 % to less than 20 %. The shares are held by
taken over by several individual investors. On the other hand, the
Board of Directors that the business objectives set at the Annual General Meeting
presented in May did not materialize due to the advertising slump.
could be complied with.

As of June 1, 2006, travel offers in
the advertising with the effective total price. Surcharges
for kerosene, airport taxes, security fees and other charges
must be included in the price. The State Secretariat for
Economy (Seco). In recent years, the
The practice of including additional cost elements in bait-and-switch offers such as
Seco reports that taxes, surcharges and fees are excluded.
Ultimately, customers would often have paid several times the price
that was advertised. Particularly disturbing are
the surcharges for high fuel costs, explained Seco head of legal affairs Guido
Sutter at the request of SDA. A year and a half ago, their
Introduction due to the extraordinary increase in kerosene prices
accepted in short supply. Now, however, fuel costs would become a business
belong. There is a suspicion that the surcharges are used to cover costs.
outsourced in order to be able to advertise with low base prices.

The search for a new owner for
the German advertising agency Springer & Jacoby (see Newsmail from 12.
December) is likely to take a while yet. According to Advertising Age, the
previous deadline (December 15) extended indefinitely. "It
there is no deadline," the US trade journal quotes the
S&J Chairman Oliver Schwall. Apparently, majority shareholders
Interpublic (51 %) and its founders Reinhard Springer and Konstantin
Jacoby (25 %) three companies to make an offer for the Interpublic stake
invited. Advertising Age only mentions the competitor by name
Scholz & Friends, whose interest has already become known. The
According to the report, the purpose of the deadline extension is to
Springer & Jacoby's lenders and to inform their
to obtain consent. DaimlerChrysler is particularly important in this respect.
Springer & Jacoby has been the regular agency of
Mercedes-Benz; according to Ad Age, the budget contributes around 30 % to gross sales.
with. Should this customer drop out, the takeover of the agency
lose much of their appeal. The industry has been buzzing for
some time ago that DaimlerChrysler was planning to reduce the Mercedes budget to
pitch could be put out to tender.

Carmen Wyss has been appointed to the study management of the
Courses for PR professionals at the Swiss Public Relations Institute
(SPRI) has been appointed. For the time being, she represents there study director and
SPRI Interim Director Christoph
Ottinger. With the start of the new courses in summer 2006, the
study management fully into her hands. Wyss was in the
Corporate Communications at Alcon/Nestlé, ESEC and Hapimag. At
In the fall of 2001, Wyss Communications took the step into the
Self-employment. The new director of studies herself graduated from the
Trained as a PR specialist (96/97) and PR consultant (00/02).
Subsequently, she lectured in the basic course Introduction to PR and Events.
In 2004, she took over the management of a Zurich course for PR professionals.

The media unions Comedia and
Imprint want to submit to the Federal Council in the next few days.
Arbitration board for the settlement of collective labor disputes
reach. Through the mediation of this institution, the constructive
Dialogue between the industry's social partners resumed
become. "Specifically, it's about getting out of the dead-end situation regarding
of a new CLA for German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino",
Impressum Central Secretary Urs Thalmann explained to the
Advertising Week. The trade unions continue to fight for a
collective labor agreement and uphold the tradition of social partnership
high. You don't want to have to deal with internally signed
regulations. These could reduce the binding nature of a
CLA, the trade unions announced in a communiqué.
How do Comedia and Impressum assess the chances that the
a CLA come about? "Difficult to say," said
Thalmann. They definitely want to end the "ice age" between
unions and publishers. "It is possible that in the
past claims were misinterpreted on our part. A
The sticking point is the new wage structure. We do not insist on exactly
the same wage regulations that the last CLA stipulated - including
if that was perhaps how it was understood." The publishers would like to
the position that these wage scales no longer correspond to the
would correspond to the current course of business. "Although we want a binding
The new CLA will stipulate a payday for journalists," says
Thalmann. But what exactly this looks like, how the scope, gradations and form
are determined, everything is a matter of negotiation. "We are not so
naive that we can't keep up with the changes in the business world.
recognize," emphasized Thalmann.
The time horizon of the talks before the Federal
According to Thalmann, the decision of the arbitration board is still open. This federal institution
is not permanently in function, but is used on a case-by-case basis for a
specific procedure. It can be used either as an actual
conciliation or arbitration board or - only with the consent of
both parties - as an arbitration board. According to the
corresponding federal law, the parties involved may not
of the proceedings.
The Swiss Press Association has reacted cautiously to the announcement of the
Trade unions. "Basically, we knew that this initiative
will come," explained Hanspeter Kellermüller, legal advisor to the
Publishers Association, told Werbewoche. If a subpoena from the
conciliation board arrives, the matter will be examined. Beforehand
it is too early to comment. "The topic has no relevance for us.
particularly topical," says Kellermüller. The association also insists
that the wages are not set out in the CEC, but in the
are to be defined at company level.
Carole Scheidegger and Stefano Monachesi

On April 7 and 8, 2006, the
International TV commercial and advertising film festival Spotlight for the 9th time
will be held. The "Euregio Bodensee" festival takes place in
Friedrichshafen. The closing date for the competition is 27.
January. The submitted works will be evaluated by a
2000 members of the public as well as by a jury of experts.
Parallel to this, a separate competition, Spotlight for students
for film students. Further information can be found at
the website of the festival.

The Swiss Press Association has applied to the
Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) complaint against the
SRG's Internet projects. At the same time, he calls in a submission
to the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport and Communications
(Uvek) that the SRG will not be granted a fee increase for so long.
how they "spend millions of francs in fees on the inadmissible and
unnecessary competition with private media companies". With
the news portal launched at the beginning of December by the Swiss
television (SF), the semi-state-owned SRG is once again interfering in the
core business of the private media companies, according to a
Message from the association. The association welcomes any form of
competition, but strongly protest against the fact that the SRG is using
risks associated with such projects exclusively through
"compulsorily levied fees".
The publishers are demanding that OFCOM "include SRG in its licensing rights".
and to examine how their Internet activities can be prevented from
from the fee-financed area and transferred to the normal
can be exposed to entrepreneurial competition. At the Uvek
It has also suggested that the ongoing review of SRG's finances should also include the
Financing of new ventures that are not financed by their
public service mandate are covered. The supervisory authority
should ensure that the SRG does not compete with the commercial
Exploitation of productions and rights acquired with concession money
into the "free competition for protected content"
can intervene. As a "minimum requirement", the publishers put forward the idea of
to the discussion of granting free access to private Internet providers.
to SRG content for streamlining films, original soundtracks etc. to
as the production of this content is already covered by fees.
and was therefore financed by the general public.

The editorship of the Anzeiger Region
Bern is to be simplified. The newspaper is currently published by the city of
Bern and an association of the surrounding municipalities together
issued. Both the city and the association represent the
production companies as contractual partners and coordinate the
business within the framework of joint management. This
solution would require separate resolutions on both sides of the
responsible bodies, according to a press release. Now the
Bern's city government requests parliament to join the
community association. This would allow a single organization for all
involved municipalities, commissioning third parties and
contracts, writes the municipal information service. The
Although joining the association would give the city certain decision-making powers
because it is no longer them but the association that makes the decisions regarding
falls on the publication of the scoreboard. According to the
Communication but takes into account the special situation of the city of Berne
and adopted new regulations that provide the city with appropriate
rights of co-determination and co-decision. According to the
Parliament, the bill must also be approved by the electorate before
it can be implemented.

Since mid-December 2005, Fabian
Zahner joined the editorial team of the internet agency MitLinks. The 24-year-old
Eastern Swiss successfully completed his studies this fall in
Journalism and Organizational Communication at the Zurich University of
University of Applied Sciences Winterthur. He gained practical experience at the
Thurgauer Tagblatt in Arbon and at the BEXMedia short news service in
Zurich.

On December 14, the SDA Board of Directors
Markus Schwab appointed new Chairman of the three-member Executive Board
of the Swiss
Dispatch Agency (SDA). Since July 1, 2003, the
certified public accountant and business economist, is responsible for the
Finances and
Administration. In this function, according to a statement from
news agency was instrumental in the recovery of the company
contributed to this. In the course of 2005, Schwab took over the SDA Group's
also assumes the function of Delegate of the Board of Directors of
Sports information and news. Since 2003 he has also been a member of the
Board of Directors of the AWP business agency.