Newspapers Charles von Graffenried and Fritz Schuhmacher, the chairmen of the boards of directors of Espace Media and Vogt-Schild, are negotiating a collaboration between the Berner Zeitung and Solothurner Zeitung (SZ), as René Rhinow, member of the board of directors of Vogt-Schild, confirmed to the SonntagsZeitung. However, it is still uncertain whether SZ will really leave the Mittelland Zeitung group. Schuhmacher sees a cooperation with Bern as the best solution for the SZ.

Printing From the beginning of July, Tamedia will once again operate the finishing of its magazines itself, taking back the loss-making area from Printpark AG in order to increase production reliability. The Bubenberg commercial web offset printing plant will remain with Printpark. Tamedia transferred both divisions to the printing company in Jona last fall. The media group intends to part with the finishing operations again by the end of March 2005 at the latest.

Advertising bans Jenö Staehelin, Swiss ambassador at UN headquarters, has signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Prevention on behalf of the national government.Advertising bans Jenö Staehelin, Swiss ambassador at UN headquarters, has signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Prevention on behalf of the national government. Among other things, the agreement calls for far-reaching bans on tobacco advertising and sponsorship. It will enter into force as soon as it has been ratified by 40 countries. There are currently 21 ratifications. In order for Switzerland to ratify the convention, legal amendments are required. A ratification dispatch from the Federal Council is to be submitted for consultation during the current legislative period.

Karin Müller does crisis communication for gods in white instead of Edelweiss. Her PR office in Zurich is flourishing.
She has always been very determined and passionate. "I have to keep things moving. I hate standing still," says Karin Müller. The former editor at Annabelle, chief reporter at Blick, editorial manager at Tele 24, editor-in-chief at Edelweiss and current owner of Karin Müller Kommunikation in Zurich already knew after business school that she didn't want an ordinary job. That's why she started her first job at Bank Sarasin in Basel, not at the counter but as an assistant in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the stock market. At the interview, the twenty-year-old made it a condition that she would be allowed to move abroad for the bank a year later. When the impatient girl was put off twelve months later, the subject of a career in banking was closed. "That wasn't the deal." Instead, Karin Müller applied to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Bern and after a year was allowed to move from the FDFA's Protocol Service to the Swiss embassy in Moscow. "Unlike all the other secretaries there, that was my absolute dream job," she recalls of this historic time. In 1986, Gorbachev took up his new job at almost the same time as Müller.
After a year and a half, she returned to Switzerland. There she worked for Beat Curti's Russian-Swiss joint venture "Sadko". She wrote for specialist magazines on the side, attended a course at the MAZ and finally ended up as a police and court reporter at Blick. "The department was a coincidence at the time. But I really enjoyed working as a sleuth," explains the media woman, who later co-designed the investigative magazine "Wanted ..." for Roger Schawinski and produced it as editorial director.
The sniffer jumped ship from Tele 24 a good six months before the station was discontinued. In spring 2001, Karin Müller set up her own business as a media trainer and TV coach.
Today, it is mainly doctors who seek her coaching. "During my time as an editor at Annabelle and freelancer for health topics at SonntagsBlick, I noticed that doctors have a rather tense relationship with the media." Health issues have become increasingly important and are currently very topical. "Doctors are being dragged in front of the media more and more and are under fire," says Müller. The sector is finding it difficult to deal with the criticism. This is why she is now offering special media training for doctors at the MAZ.
Karin Müller's specialist book "Ärzte und Medien" (Doctors and the media) on crisis PR and dealing professionally with journalists was also published a month ago. Two years ago, she published a more general book on professional media relations in crisis situations under the title "Hotline Presse".
In January 2003, Karin Müller was unexpectedly offered a position as editor-in-chief of the bilingual women's magazine Edelweiss at Ringier. Müller still regrets today that the publishing house began takeover negotiations with its competitor Bolero just three months later. Most of her employees at the time are still unemployed. "I was much luckier," explains Müller.
She skillfully used her experience as editor-in-chief of the women's magazine for her communications office. In the meantime, she has also been able to assert herself in the lifestyle sector and win attractive clients. "More are coming soon," she smiles meaningfully.
For the perfume chain Marionnaud, she is responsible for the customer magazine in three languages as well as corporate communications. Another exciting challenge is the mail order company Ackermann, which wants to modernize its image. The fashion company has recently become involved in the designer trade fair Gwand and sponsored the Prix Prêt à porter. The mail order company is now launching an exclusive collection by the winner in the fall. This sponsorship is to be continued. Müller recently organized the press conference in Zurich. It was a success: all of Ackermann's key editorial representatives were present and immediately wanted to order items from the collection.
Karin Müller Kommunikation's office is located in the Technopark. She had to apply with a presentation in this center for a spirit of optimism. Her company is currently the only one in the park from the communications sector. She already has new plans: her "start-up" should be expanded to two or three employees in the future.
coaching doctors, communication for a perfumery chain and

a fashion mail order company: Karin Müller dances at many weddings.
Andreas Panzeri

The Mobiliar insurance company and Publicis are expanding their campaign concept to include themes relating to Euro 2004. Hardly any company misses the opportunity to be present in the media hype surrounding the football event. Mobiliar has also seized the opportunity: With new damage sketches on the subject of football. However, advertising manager Marco Fioroni does not want to talk about ambush marketing: "We simply wanted to build a bridge between our campaign and the European Championships". In contrast to its competitor Winterthur, which is omnipresent as the official sponsor of the Swiss national football team, Mobiliar, which is organized as a cooperative, "never invests so much money in sponsoring". Such commitments are broken down to the level of the general agencies. "At national level, we mainly invest in prevention projects," explains Fioroni. In addition to the radio spots produced for the first time, the creatives at the in-house agency Publicis were able to celebrate another premiere for Euro 2004: the T-shirt with a printed damage sketch. The advertisements depicting these tops were placed in the Sunday press and included a coupon for ordering the garment. According to Fioroni, around 1,200 T-shirts were sold after three appearances. Most of them through the company's own general agencies.
According to Publicis consultant Beat Hürlimann, the T-shirt as the "first wearable advertisement" follows the Mobiliar credo of customer proximity: "You can hardly get much closer. The communication is practically tailored to the audience". However, the designed sketches do without a direct reference to Switzerland. In this way, Mobiliar escapes the fate of some other companies that had to look for a new advertising personality after the spitting affair. On the other hand, the creative team could easily have left out the "Not" in front of Kahn and Beckham in the car motif of the Mobiliar sketches.
Damage sketches on T-shirts: Mobiliar draws inspiration from the Euro 2004 footballers.

The oldest private insurance companyMobiliar was founded as a cooperative in Berne in 1826. Helvetia was founded in 1862, followed by Basler in 1863, Zurich in 1872 and Winterthur in 1875. Today, the all-lines insurer Mobiliar positions itself through a system that is unique in Switzerland, whereby each of the more than 80 general agencies has its own claims team. The group includes the umbrella company Mobiliar Genossenschaft, the management center Mobiliar Holding, and the subsidiaries Mobiliar, Providentia and Protekta. After two years of losses, the entire Group generated a profit of around CHF 205 million in 2003. (sk)
Simone Keller

Corporate Design At the Berlin fashion fair "Bread and Butter", the Kreuzlingen-based fashion label Strellson is presenting its new logo and its independent sportswear collection to the public for the first time.The introduction of the logo allows a clear visual separation of the ready-to-wear and sportswear divisions as well as a clear positioning of the casual label towards retailers and end consumers, says Pia Scharrenbroch from Strellson. The new logo reflects the year in which Strellson was founded and its location. The basic idea is based on the successful "Swiss Cross" program.

Column The tabloid hype harbors opportunities as well as the danger of degrading editorial content to advertising teasers. However, this would mean the industry digging its own grave. Switzerland is rarely talked about as a hotbed of revolutions. And yet we are currently witnessing a small revolution that, at least in the German-speaking world, originated in Helvetia, has since been eating its way northwards and seems to be spreading in the opposite direction in the rest of Europe. In addition, some newspaper publishers seem to be realizing - partly due to cost-cutting pressures - that demanding readers in particular are suffering from constant "information overload". One of the challenges of our media society is therefore to convey the most important information in a short, concentrated, concise and handy way. But not too abbreviated and still with a clear added value in terms of depth and background compared to TV and radio, which unfortunately tend to compete throughout Europe to satisfy the information needs of the illiterate.
Weltwoche has shown that a reduction in the size of premium titles does not automatically indicate small-mindedness. This example is currently being followed in Germany by Springer's Welt-Kompakt. Although still a classic broadsheet, the Financial Times Deutschland is also proof that business elites in particular are prepared to pay almost the same price for a newspaper that is often not even half the size of its direct competitor.
Because fewer newspapers can certainly mean more value for the reader. On this important point, I would like to expressly disagree with my esteemed co-columnist Heribert Seifert (WW 15/04). The crisis, which newspapers will have to contend with for some time to come, certainly offers opportunities to reinvent journalism: There is a market niche for high-quality and highly compact content.
Looking back, one wonders why it took so long for the Independent and Times, Dagens Nyheter and most recently even a tabloid like Blick to make the switch - and why the Berner Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau and Berliner Tagesspiegel have not yet exercised the option of going big in the mini format when they relaunched. Of course, this has a lot to do with the advertising industry, which is concerned about the impact of its advertisements and still wants the more lavish design options of the large format. However, publishers should not forget that their main customers and addressees are neither agencies nor companies but, as always, the readers.
Without their willingness to spend time and - in most cases still - money to consume printed matter, not a single advertising franc will reach the publisher's coffers. Publishers and advertisers alike, however, would rather have a newspaper buyer who is happy leafing through his tabloid in the subway or on the plane, but also on the beach or on the balcony, than someone who puts the broadsheet down in annoyance because he is bothering his neighbor while turning the pages or because the wind is ruffling it. Because only those who really read their newspaper will also receive the advertising.
PS: The New York Times has recently shown format in a completely different way and at the same time revolutionized journalism. Its front-page admission of guilt that it had placed too much trust in the US government and a few shady Arab informants in its Iraq reporting is a milestone on the long road to regaining lost credibility. Such signals should also be registered in the advertising industry and perhaps even rewarded with orders, because only credible media are good advertising media in the long run.
> Stephan Russ-Mohl is a professor of journalism at the University of Lugano.

The 3D mailing with the bent fork is intended to impressively demonstrate to representatives of major German automotive companies and their suppliers that HBB Biegetechnik in Walzenhausen is one of the leading precision bending technology companies in Europe. The original invitation to various trade fairs was designed by Eugster Kommunikation in Rorschacherberg.

InternetWhat impact do advertisers believe online advertising has and how important is it in the media mix? Search.ch, the online platform, wants to find out exactly and is launching a survey of advertisers together with market researcher Dr. Pascal Sieber & Partner. The questionnaire can be found at www.poll.search.ch. The results will be summarized in a study and presented at the X'04 marketing fair in Zurich.

Alex Schmid believes that direct marketers also owe this year's Cannes misery to classic agencies that have eaten over the hag.direct marketers' main medium, mailing, performed poorly at this year's Cannes Festival. No Golden Lion was awarded in the supreme discipline. An attempt at an explanation: awards for direct marketing are relatively new, and direct marketers are not yet really familiar with presenting their results on cardboard. Advertisers are better at this. Accordingly, many entries came from traditional agencies, which is perhaps an expression of a cyclical "we do direct too" mentality. The attention and favor of the judges was wildly courted with elaborate "Schächteli" mailings and slick invitations. As a result, many a good 2D mailing fell by the wayside in the preliminary round - regardless of its results. And no one asked themselves whether the cost of some boxes, including postage, was in any reasonable proportion to the task or the result.
Our clients also noticed this and wondered what was going on with the DM industry. We on the jury often had to ask ourselves "is it really direct?" or just another lively advertising idea. Constructed entries for the sake of it, as well as works with no business relevance and without adherence to the DM principles, were consistently sifted out by the Cannes jury. After all, spreading advertising messages via direct media is far from being direct marketing. And a big box does not make a flat idea into a dialog campaign either. Unfortunately, no mailings made it into the final round (either).
We DM providers - and I am referring in particular to the BSW's group of specialist agencies - are now called upon to redevelop and demonstrate the professional level of our discipline. BSW agencies, says association president Peter Leutenegger, are guarantors of professional communication work for their clients. That is why I would like to use my Lions experience to strongly advise all advertisers to work with experienced specialists and not to rely on "me too" strategies.
The organization and jurors agree that new categories need to be created for the entries. Perhaps the judging criteria should also be reconsidered. Cannes is by no means alone in this task; developments could also be observed at the Swiss DM Award this year that require correction. Presumably, there simply needs to be sharper distinctions between the various award categories in general. This should probably be possible, as hardly anyone would seriously claim that there were too few events in Cannes.
> Alex Schmid is the owner of the DM agency of the same name and was a member of the Lions Direct jury in Cannes this year.
Guest commentary Direct marketers also have classic agencies to thank for this year's Cannes plight, Alex Schmid believes.

Beat Fritsch on the lessons to be learned from the IAF from a Swiss perspective.The IAF 2004 is history, and Switzerland's performance evoked anything but storms of enthusiasm. Contrary to expectations, however, this year no-one seemed to be upset, let alone angry. Observers with an insight into the scene even got the impression that the result had been expected. However, this perception is contradicted by the not insignificant number of 281 submissions. Anyone who believes there is nothing to win is not taking part, so there remains a glimmer of hope that our advertisers have not yet resigned themselves to the fate of being creative underdogs. Nevertheless, let's talk straight: Cannes showed that, in an international comparison, we are currently at best in the upper reaches of the creative middle class. So it comes as no surprise that the only trophy they brought home was "only" bronze.
However, the fact that the winner entered the race with just two works should make you prick up your ears. As a small agency, Catsky & Partner lacks the financial resources of the network agencies, which send their work to the starting line in legions.
So it's time for a little root cause analysis. Is it the oft-cited lack of an international lobby for our country? Should Swiss jurors be briefed in advance about the work submitted? Should the agencies be offered workshops on how to submit correctly - as Catsky & Partner has obviously succeeded in doing? And who should implement these quite reasonable demands - which are made year after year by leading creatives and also the jurors?
In Switzerland, there are two associations, the ADC and the BSW, which have the financial and human resources to do this. However, someone should tackle it from time to time. So get out of the creative agency réduits and look out into the wide world
directed. Because nothing ventured, nothing gained!
> Beat Fritsch, editorial assistant

Mobile advertising Mobile phones are not yet a goldmine as an advertising medium. In the first quarter of 2004 alone, market leader Swisscom increased revenue in the mobile segment by 6.1 percent year-on-year to CHF 872 million. In the same period, the number of mobile customers grew by 204,000 net to 3.84 million. Swisscom has a market share of 73 percent in the mobile segment, Orange has 17 percent and Sunrise 10 percent. All these figures say little about the extent to which third parties, such as publishers and other media companies, can participate in this growth market. But they do at least indicate great potential. The example of MusicStar and SF DRS further fuels expectations (see box), even though part of their turnover was also achieved via landline telephones. While considerable revenues can already be achieved with SMS, some are even hoping for twice as high revenues thanks to MMS (image transmission) and UMTS (video transmission).
Network operators skim off the top
But one person warns: Moritz Wuttke, Head of Business Development at PubliGroupe. "The network operators earn the money, third parties receive at most 60 percent," he criticized at the publishers' conference in Thun. This percentage is not bad by international standards. But it usually has to be shared with an IT service provider and a content provider. That leaves a maximum of 30 percent. Wuttke's conclusion: "Realistic publishers know that you can't get rich with SMS in the first two years." Nevertheless, he considers mobile communication to be an indispensable tool for publishers. This is because SMS can be used "extremely well" for reader marketing, especially with young target groups.
Wuttke essentially distinguishes between four interactions in mobile. In the first case, the consumer sends an SMS because they are taking part in a game or voting. In the second case, consumers receive text messages because they have subscribed to a certain service (e.g. traffic jam reports). In both cases, this costs between 50 centimes and 1.50 francs per SMS. In the third case, the consumer sends an SMS to order something. This is possible with or without an SMS surcharge. And finally, they can call up chargeable information (weather, stock market prices).
However, Wuttke is less optimistic about the short-term opportunities for MMS. On the one hand, the content is much more expensive to produce, but the revenue share remains constant (25%). Secondly, the distribution of MMS-enabled cell phones is still too small. Although their share in Switzerland is 27%, only a quarter of these cell phone owners actually use MMS. With UMTS, a technology that Wuttke sees little future in, the costs for consumers would rise by a further 100 percent. In addition, UMTS will face competition from other wireless technologies (Wi-Fi) - which will at least significantly reduce data transmission costs.
P offers full mobile service Publicitas also entered the mobile market two years ago - with Quickandmore (Q&M). Q&M is an additional service for advertising customers and publishers with the aim of making the advertisement more versatile, interactive and therefore more attractive. For example, if an advertising customer wants to place an advertisement with a competition and an SMS number, P offers Q&M to handle, receive and evaluate the SMS - for an additional charge of CHF 2,000 to CHF 10,000 - similar to a direct advertising agency.
It is also possible to provide content, whereby P purchases this externally. Publishers can also take part in other activities, such as voting and games, which are embedded in the editorial section. Does advertising via SMS not play a role for the P? No, because for technical reasons it is not possible to integrate banners into an SMS (see interview).
The situation is very different in Japan. Takashi Ishioka from the media group Asahi Shimbun Company (publisher of the daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun with a circulation of 12.3 million) explained at the publishers' conference that his company generated a turnover of half a million Swiss francs last year with mobile banner advertising alone. However, Asahi generates the majority of its mobile sales (17 million Swiss francs) from subscription-based services, games, downloadable images and ringtones.
The strategy behind this is as follows: because Asahi offers access to the various services at an extremely low price (CHF 1.50 per month), the Group has already recorded
1.2 million subscribers (one percent of the Japanese population). Of these, only 22 percent are also Asahi subscribers, 38 percent subscribe to other newspapers and 40 percent do not subscribe to any newspaper at all. Asahi has therefore gained access to people outside its existing customer base.
SMS as an introduction to print
Building on this, mobile subscribers will be able to access the
Asahi online archive, which is now used by 35,000 people. Finally, subscribers are also offered an Asahi print subscription via SMS, which has brought in as many as 7600 print subscribers in the last five years. Above all, however, the Group has managed to keep the younger generation on board in this way.
And what Ishioka particularly emphasizes: Different age groups can be addressed via the print, online (Asahi.com) and mobile channels: Mobile appeals to young people, the Internet to 30 to 40-year-olds and print primarily to the over-50s. But one thing stands out: Unlike in Switzerland, text messages are not used in conjunction with advertisements. The two channels remain largely separate.
Mobile growth market: information, games, services - but cell phones are not suitable as an advertising medium for the time being.

MusicStar goldmineA call to MusicStar costs 70 centimes, half of which goes to SRG - the other half goes to Swisscom. The phone calls from MusicStar fans earned SF DRS four million francs. A total of 11.3 million calls were received. On average, each participating person called four times per vote. (mk)
"SMS makes advertisements more attractive "Moritz Wuttke from PubliGroupe on the importance of mobile advertising.
WW: MusicStar has shown it: Media companies can generate additional revenue via telecommunications, especially via SMS. How great is the potential in Switzerland?
Moritz Wuttke: That's difficult to say. Because the majority of SMS traffic is from person to person. This market is difficult for publishers or content editors to reach. However, there are examples where a publisher has managed to integrate consumers into a kind of virtual chat and thus divert some of the SMS fees to itself.
How big do you think the potential of actual business traffic is? In this area, however, at least 50 percent or more of the revenues remain with the network providers. Another 25 percent goes to the service providers and the last 25 percent to the initiator, in the case of MusicStar to SF DRS. We estimate that at least 50% of the revenue generated by network operators today thanks to third-party providers comes from adult content. Only then come ringtones, competitions, games and polls such as MusicStar.
How big do you estimate the turnover from banner advertising on cell phones in Switzerland to be? it is practically non-existent because the end devices here are not designed for this form of WAP advertising or I-Mode. Swisscom and Orange have now introduced a second WAP version in which the user no longer uses the cell phone to send SMS messages, but to surf the Internet. The latter is the basis for bringing banners to cell phones. In Switzerland, however, we are three years behind Japan. And it is doubtful whether WAP technology will gain a foothold in Switzerland. Because next year, devices with larger screens and the ability to surf online will be coming onto the market. There will no longer be a need for a WAP portal. And then advertising on the Internet will also be visible on cell phones. Until then, this type of advertising cannot be marketed in Switzerland.
With Q&M, the mobile offering from Publicitas, you leave the path of traditional advertising sales.
Yes, with this approach we want to make print advertising more interactive. In this respect, Q&M is a service for publishers and advertising customers and not a sale. With Q&M, the advertisements are provided with added value, making them very attractive and more competitive compared to new electronic media, because the reach of the daily newspaper is coupled with a rapid response option.
How much turnover does P currently generate with Q&M? Net turnover (excluding the publisher's share) amounted to around CHF 0.5 million in 2003. That's not much compared to the overall advertising market. But it represents a growth segment, so that in five years we will reach around five to six million francs. Interview: Markus Knöpfli
Markus Knöpfli