Associations Publishers defend themselves against SWA calculations. "Untrue, one-sided and in places indecent" - this is how Swiss publishers assess Gérard Stalder's statements. The President of the Swiss Advertisers Association (SWA) railed at its annual meeting: "The much-praised media diversity as an expression of Swiss federalism is no longer worth the newsprint it is printed on." Stalder said that "publishers are now eating 65 percent of the advertising pie". In a press release, the Swiss Press Association responded with corrections. According to the latest figures from the Swiss Advertising Statistics Foundation, newspapers, consumer magazines, specialty and trade press only account for 45 percent of total Swiss advertising revenue. Schweizer Presse considers Stalder's assertion that publishers are "exploiting their position of power to continuously increase advertising prices, which are already high compared to other countries" to be "completely unfounded". The publishers: "Firstly, Swiss advertising prices are rather low by international standards, and secondly, most publishers have exercised great restraint in their pricing policy in recent years. Where there have been increases, these have been justified by increased contact services."
The Swiss Press Bureau is demanding an apology from Stalder and "that future communication be conducted both in terms of content and verbally at a level that is customary among market partners". SWA Director Jürg Siegrist was not aware of the reaction of the Swiss press at the time of going to press and did not wish to comment, but said: "We have carefully checked the facts and data."
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As the new CEO of the Demoscope Group, Erwin Steiger wants to use the skills of the employees as potential. Erwin Steiger is convinced of this when, as the newly appointed head of the Demoscope Group, the first thing he wants to do is talk to all employees in person for an hour. "Welding people together," is what he calls this task. "We are giving ourselves a new strategy and it doesn't come from the top, but from the bottom," he explains this "development via employees". He has never done it this way before because his divisions used to be far too big.
Demoscope Research & Marketing employs around 80 people full-time, including psychologists, sociologists, economists and lawyers. Depending on the workload, there are also 400 face-to-face interviewers and around 800 freelancers in the three large telephone laboratories with a total of 280 workstations. Steiger sees the "good mix of young, dynamic project managers and experienced market research specialists" as one of the company's strengths.
Erwin Steiger was looking for just such a manageable company in the SME sector after he had already managed 6000 employees as Head of Switzerland at insurance giant Winterthur. He is not an administrator, but a leader who wants to inspire others.
After a month at Demoscope in Adligenswil, Erwin Steiger has already visited several important customers. He used to spend 80 percent of his time attending meetings. "Now I'm closer to customers and employees again."
After a long career in a corporate group, the new CEO of Demoscope also likes the fact that the shareholder base is still manageable.
Steiger is very familiar with the nature of market research. He has already worked with Demoscope as a client for several major contracts at Winterthur. He knows which questions are important from the customer's point of view. And he also knows: "The Demoscope brand is very well positioned."
The question of the USP is difficult. There are around four large market research institutes in Switzerland, most of which are full-service providers. Whether this will remain the case in the future remains to be seen. In addition to its extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative market research, Demoscope is characterized by its extremely efficient survey work. Surveys are conducted daily in the telephone laboratories. Within a very short space of time, we achieve results that the client can make use of," says the new boss, emphasizing the quality of his people and methods.
One of the largest projects in the past was the last census, in which the company played a key role. Products such as Market Radar and Brand Valuator are also well-known on the market. In the area of human capital, a tool has been developed that offers companies the opportunity to regularly measure and compare employee satisfaction. Demoscope also offers a tool for measuring customer loyalty, the Customer Orientation Monitor. "There is still too little emphasis on the market on the fact that employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction are directly related," says Steiger. The two tools offer the opportunity to establish this link.
Demoscope is also very active in advertising research. The costs of launching new products are enormous, which is why it is always worth conducting market research to sound out the market opportunities for products as well as advertising media and channels.
Since market research has been conducted on a larger scale, many new methods have been added and surveys via the internet or intranet have been introduced, but surveyors are still working in telephone labs or out in the field with laptops. In general, it is clear that respondents have less and less time, which is why interviews have to be shorter.
Steiger sees growth potential in political and social surveys. Even if he does not hope that things will ever get as far in Switzerland as they have in the USA. "When President Bush speaks for 90 minutes on the state of the nation, his advisors have collected the first poll results after 45 minutes and can rewrite the continuation of the speech depending on the mood that what has been said so far has triggered."
Erwin Steiger himself is very interested in politics. Everyone should do something for the common good, whether in the soup kitchen or in parliament. "If everyone was involved in the whole, we would have far fewer problems." Steiger was already involved in the local parliament at the age of 21 in his home town of Littau, which has a population of 17,000, was elected mayor at the age of 30 and held the position for ten years. But he has no further ambitions. "Debating clubs are not for me. I'm more interested in executive tasks."
After studying law in Zurich, Erwin Steiger worked at a law firm for two years before moving to Winterthur as a staff lawyer. After further training in risk management, he was soon in charge of this department. When he was offered a promotion to the wider Europe on the continuous career ladder after becoming Head of Switzerland, the fact that he has three school-age girls aged 12, 15 and 16 also played a role. "I didn't want to spend eleven months a year abroad."
In addition to his family, Steiger finds recreation with the U80 football team in Littau. The team is called this so that the name doesn't have to be constantly changed as the players get older. Steiger trains regularly once a week. His role is defined as an "offensive build-up player or center forward".
As the new head of the Demoscope Group, Erwin Steiger's aim is to weld the employees together.
Andreas Panzeri

The brand for natural remedies and cosmetics Weleda is switching to By Heart in Zurich following a competitive presentation, and the agency will provide communications support for the entire consumer market of the Arlesheim-based company. The agency also won chocolate manufacturer Camille Bloch as a client in a pitch. The traditional family business from the Bernese Jura wants to realign its communication strategy with the umbrella brand.

Laser engraving A new technique for luxurious substrates has a haptic and visually impressive effect. Laser beams instead of ladyshave - this is almost normal for ladies who want to get rid of annoying hair. Laser operations that correct the visual acuity of the eye are also on the rise worldwide. Laser engraving has so far been considered for ferrous and non-ferrous metals, even wood and plastics. But laser engraving on paper? Why not? Jan Staecker, Christian Feichtinger and other market strategists at a Hamburg advertising agency asked themselves this question. Their experiments and developments over several years led to the agency brand Paperlux (www. paperlux.de) in July 2004. At Paperworld 2005 in Frankfurt am Main, together with Büttenpapierfabrik Gmund, they presented laser engraving in filigree applications for high-quality printed matter for the first time.
It is known from other materials that laser engraving does not allow any "engraving color". This means that the "base color" of the paper also appears. As the graphics, logos and lettering are removed from the paper at different depths using a laser beam, this type of finish appears brownish yellow on beige paper or slate grey on dark blue paper, for example. Such subjects have contour and contrast, are razor-sharp, tangibly fine and basically tactilely and visually innovative. Provided a minimum grammage of 120-150 g/m2 is used, the laser light does not scorch the worn, thin-skinned areas of the paper.
Paperlux only recommends Gmund papers, but advises against the Kashmir Cloth collection. The delivery time for laser engraving is around three weeks from approval. Motif testing and proof production are part of the service. Preferably vector-oriented data formats are processed.
Examples of Paperlux laser engraving.
Photo: hjl
Hans Joachim Laue

Food Convenience food group Orior has commissioned Ground 15 to redesign its website. In addition to the Orior Food corporate site, Ground 15 also redesigned the websites of the subsidiaries Pastinella, Fredag and Lineafresca Logistik.

Magazines With the latest issue, Pulstipp was renamed Gesundheitstipp. The new name is intended to avoid confusion with the SF DRS program "Puls", but the concept remains the same. The health magazine was founded in 1994 as a companion to "Puls". They have been going their separate ways since 1997.

IT trade media More optimism than ever in the industry. The last two years have been "a good time" for PCtipp in terms of subscription development, individual sales and advertising, says Gebhard Osterwalder, General Manager at IDG Switzerland.IT trade media More optimism than in the industry. The last two years have been "a good time" for PCtipp in terms of subscription development, individual sales and advertising, says Gebhard Osterwalder, General Manager at IDG Switzerland. At the same time, Computerworld from the same company has had "tough years".
The IT scene is similarly controversial in many places, so the two IDG titles are representative of the entire industry. In general, the economic outlook is seen as positive, but there are also differences here: people are either cautiously optimistic about the future or almost euphoric.
Relaunches and two new titlesHowever, several publishers expect further consolidation in this market. It may even have already begun in small steps. For example, the Compress Information Group ventured to launch an IT report last year, but discontinued it after three publications. The announced relaunch of Computerworld with its five specials on May 20 also points to a certain market shakeout: The newspaper will be reduced to tabloid size and the specials integrated. At the same time, the title is trying to bring developers and software architects on board. For this reason, a 16-page section for this target group will appear once a month in the magazine, which will continue to be published weekly.
InfoWeek is also undergoing some changes and will be published with a facelift on April 18. There are no plans to change the concept, but the previously text-heavy magazine will become "more reader-friendly and lively and the articles will tend to be shorter", says Editor-in-Chief Daniel Meierhans. InfoWeek will remain a professional magazine, but with a strong thematic focus on the management of larger IT systems.
At the same time, it is certain that at least two new titles will be launched on the market in 2005. It4kmu (see "Someone who wants to take advantage of the PR trend" on page 17) will be published in time for the iEX in May. SIR Medical, a line extension of Schweizerische Informatik-Revue (SIR) focusing on medical IT topics, is also planned for the fall. Interesting: SIR, SIR Medical and it4kmu work according to similar patterns: SIR Medical will fill its pages - like the parent title SIR - largely with paid content, it4kmu even exclusively. Apparently, other new IT launches currently have little chance.
Lifting for greater reader-friendliness: InfoWeek.
Markus Knöpfli

TV The regional station TeleBasel is launching a major viewer contest. Starting April 15, a daily prize question will be asked before the «7 vor 7» news program, relating to the upcoming commercial break. Three answer options will be provided, each assigned to a phone number. The prize—a flight to any destination on a date of the winner’s choice—will be raffled off among the correct answers. The prizes are sponsored by tour operator FTI Touristik.

Press The weekly newspaper (WOZ) has revealed further details of its financial problems. The business targets after the relaunch in fall 2003 were clearly missed.500 new subscriptions and an average of 500 newsstand sales per week were missing, as well as 200,000 francs in additional advertising revenue. In order to survive the year 2005, 300,000 francs are needed, writes WOZ. A third of the money is already available: Following the appeal for help in the last two issues, WOZ sympathizers have already donated 100,000 francs.

Press Axel Springer Verlag declares war on the Holtzbrinck Group in Saarland After Holtzbrinck launched the second edition of its commuter newspaper 20 Cent under the umbrella of Saarbrücker Zeitung (SaZ), Springer is launching two competitors on the market. Both Welt Kompakt, the tabloid edition of Die Welt, and Bild are getting a regional edition for the Saarland. "The publisher of SaZ is trying to flood the market with 20 cents," says Welt publisher Jan-Eric Peters. Holtzbrinck sees it the other way round: they have pre-empted an offensive by Bild, says Michael Grabner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

Daniel Flück (photo) will replace Marcel Geissbühler as Managing Director of ConRadio-TV AG, which markets the audiovisual media of the Espace Media Groupe, at the beginning of May. In recent years, Flück was commercial director of Radio Canal 3, which was taken over by Espace Media in 2004. Michael Schüpbach, Sales Manager of ConRadio-TV, will take over as Sales Manager of the Biel branch.
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Martin Hitz joins SF DRS at the beginning of May. He takes over the management of the project for an improved Internet presence for the "Tagesschau". Hitz was head of the NZZ Online editorial team from 1997 to 2001. Since then he has worked as a freelance journalist, weblogger (medienspiegel.ch) and employee of the European Journalism Observatory at the University of Lugano.
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Giuseppe Sammartano is the new Key Account Manager of the Ticino advertising combination Tre Top Ticino at Publicitas Lugano. He is responsible for German-speaking Switzerland and French-speaking Switzerland. Sammartano most recently worked for regional broadcaster Tele M1. Prior to that, he managed the Olten branch of the marketer The Cover Media.
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The Zug-based event agency Vitamin D has appointed Mike Gut as Head of Major Projects. Gut previously worked as Head of Marketing at Radio Z and as Managing Director of an agency for corporate events. Most recently
he applied for the Zurich youth radio frequency with the RadioMax project.
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Viktoria Vaczi has joined the consulting team of the Adliswil-based dialog agency Fisch Meier Direkt. She previously worked for the production company United Visions in Berlin. Graphic designer Nora Cista, who previously worked independently, joined the Fisch Meier creative team in February.
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Radio 24 has hired Shiva Arbabi (pictured) as a presenter. She will be heard on the daytime program from mid-May. Arbabi previously worked for Hitradio Z and Energy Zurich, where she was made redundant in August 2004.
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In mid-May, Max Fischer will take over as head of the business section at the Aargauer Zeitung. He replaces Susanne Mühlemann, who has moved to the editorial management of SonntagsBlick. Fischer most recently worked as a communications consultant at Contract Media.
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TeleBärn weather fairy Sylvie Kempa is starting an internship at Radio ExtraBern. The former Miss Bern will spend six months training in the areas of editing and presenting.

Balance sheet II Despite its loss in 2004, Edipresse is full of plans - now also for Asia and Latin America The French-speaking Swiss publishing house Edipresse reports a net loss of CHF 7.9 million for the past year. In the previous year, the media group had made a profit of 11.8 million francs. Considerable restructuring costs and high investments in new products are cited as the reason for the red figures. Turnover rose by 7.1 percent to 862 million francs. With a comparable scope of consolidation, however, sales rose by only 0.5 percent. In the home market of Switzerland, sales actually fell by 4.7% to CHF 479 million - largely due to lower advertising revenue.
Growth abroadIn contrast, international activities increased by 26.8 percent. In Portugal and Spain, sales rose by 32.2 percent to CHF 278 million. In Eastern Europe, Edipresse achieved sales of CHF 104 million (+14.3 percent). Edipresse intends to expand further in the current year. Eight new magazines are to be launched and several medium-sized companies acquired. The Group also intends to penetrate the Latin American and Asian markets. Here in Switzerland, the Group is also in the process of reopening the local TV market in French-speaking Switzerland.
Following the separation of the roles of Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer at the beginning of the year, Tibère Adler, previously Chief Executive Officer of Edipresse Switzerland, is now Chief Executive Officer of the entire Group. Pierre Lamunière, a member of the owner family, is stepping down from operational management but will remain full-time Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Markus Knöpfli