Special Interest More subscribers is the goal, more football and ice hockey the way to achieve it. The sports magazine is being relaunched after four years. "It will be difficult to increase readership," believes Christoph Marty. The magazine boss of the AZ Media Group can be satisfied with the readership of the sports magazine: 365,000 people according to Mach 2003. But the sports magazine is only bought by a fraction of them. Marty puts the (unaudited) circulation at 25,000 copies. The publisher is now tackling this imbalance with a relaunch. The content of the magazine has been realigned. In future, the focus will be on football, alongside ice hockey and motor sport. Skiing and athletics have been dropped. "We are focusing on the most popular sports," explains Marty. However, there will still be room for major Swiss athletes from other disciplines.
The sports magazine is also changing visually. Marty promises a stronger visual language with more action and a more streamlined typeface. Ulrike Beling and Nina Thoenen, who have already given Bolero and Ideales Heim a new look, are responsible for the layout.
Joint venture with Ringier
The redesign forms the background for a marketing offensive. The first step was taken in January: the AZ Media Group entered into a joint venture with Ringier. The aim: sports enthusiasts reading Blick and SonntagsBlick should subscribe to the sports magazine. A discounted combined subscription is being introduced for this purpose. But other subscribers and individual purchasers will also pay less than before. The offer will be publicized through advertisements in the publisher's own press.
The relaunch also brings a change in the advertising market: from June, advertising sales will be outsourced to Sportart AG. A logical step: the APG subsidiary already markets the special sports editions of Blick as well as the Swiss national football team and the Grasshopper Club.
Powerplay: The updated sports magazine focuses on popular sports.
Stefano Monachesi

Commentary From furniture to clothes to football: what used to be cool is now iconic - and has long since become so again
only mainstream, says Luca Aloisi.
Regardless of the countless victims of flight and the regime, the film "Goodbye Lenin" turned the GDR into a cult. Even living in the so-called "Arbeiterschliessfächer", the musty prefabricated buildings, was suddenly cult. A photo camera - or at least what was known as a Lomo in the USSR - was temporarily cult. The Ikea evergreens Billy, Klippan and co. still have cult status. The M-Budget parties, which will soon be touring Swiss clubs up and down the country, have great cult potential. Not to mention the flat Puma kicks, with which the wearers could count themselves among the cult community and gain entry to the hippest cult clubs.
In any case, when it comes to fashion, it seems that anything that can be tailored from fibers and skins can be or become cult. Let's not forget that kitsch and trash, advertising star Verona Feldbusch and pop star Heino are just as cult as the living and dead brands Aldi, Putin or Atari and Commodore.
Everything about David Beckham, who occasionally plays football with half the television world, is cult, from the tip of his toes to the end of his hair, even if the latter has recently given way to a total shave. Thanks to the great Beck, ManU have finally become a legendary team with iconic shirts and the absolutely iconic Old Trafford football stadium.
In short: cult has been very fashionable for some years now. Conversely, fashion has lost some of its cult status. Nevertheless, Brigitte, Petra and Annabelle know the cult color of the coming summer season, namely ...
But take your pick! Classics such as blossom white, black-beauty or chinared naturally have immense cult potential in the collections of cult designers. When googling, you currently come across 288 cult colors. So there aren't that many non-cult retina sensations left. Incidentally, the same applies when searching for cult fruits, cars, coffees or beaches: If you keep an eye out, you'll find them. And that is guaranteed.
Just don't ask what is not (yet) cultish or even decidedly uncultish. An answer to this question would automatically adorn the products, people, values or places mentioned with the aura of cult. Trend researchers and setters meticulously search for the last oases that have not yet caught up with the glamorous world. Deliberately avoiding cultization and cultism is therefore an art of survival. But even this seems to be becoming a cult again. US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who recently found himself in a tight spot, recently rumbled: "You gotta know, I'm a survivor." Long live the cult of the cult.
> Luca Aloisi, Deputy Editor-in-Chief

Banks The advertising activities of Credit Suisse Financial Services are once again coming from Switzerland:Banks The advertising activities of Credit Suisse Financial Services are once again coming from Switzerland: The major Zurich bank has entrusted Lowe Zurich with its international budget. The previous account manager was McCann-Erickson, Frankfurt, which had won the mandate in February 2002. Lowe Zürich secured the new client in a competitive presentation against the Swiss branches of TBWA and McCann-Erickson. In the second quarter of 2004, it will launch a new
campaign for Private Banking. At the same time, Lowe is developing a new international presence for all services and products for the third quarter.
Credit Suisse products.

Gastronomy McDonald's is continuing its global advertising campaign under the slogan "I'm lovin' it" with 13 new subjects, and the US fast food chain reports that the campaign is a complete success. In the ten key markets, it has achieved awareness levels of 89 among young adults. In addition, the slogan has now become part of everyday language, says Head of Marketing Larry Light. When it was launched a good eight months ago, the campaign by Munich agency Heye & Partner was met with skepticism because the slogan was grammatically incorrect and because the shift from the family idyll to a youthful lifestyle was questioned. The new TV commercials are intended to appeal to mothers and children again. They were realized not only by Heye's mother DDB, but also by the Leo Burnett network.

Media Second-largest Swiss print product and redesigned: The Migros magazine is launched by Wyler Werbung Almost five years after its last redesign, the Migros customer magazine has reinvented itself. The aim: to make up for the stronger media performance of its competitor Coop and to integrate the Cumulus magazine in the medium term, which, together with the new content and design concept, should increase its appeal and reach. Comparable caliber would transform the advertising campaign into an act of national monumental drama to publicize the innovations. Migros, however, remained true to itself and opted for the safe value of Wyler advertising.
In keeping with Migros' typical headlines and typography, the team led by CD Ruedi Wyler presents the magazine in a pragmatic and sober launch campaign. Various advertising media and subjects convey the message that Migros is now also available to read. As additional subscribers are difficult to gain with a readership of 2.6 million, the concept had to have a "salesy" staging, according to Marius Hagger, Head of Migros Press. And: "We didn't want to base the campaign on the visuals of the magazine, but directly on the Migros brand."
However, the MGB committees made a concession in the advertising campaign, "which plays with exaggerations from the world of fairy tales", says Wyler. Wittily modified Kamasutra positions are intended to position the revamped weekly as an interesting read.
The second phase is already being worked on carefully, according to Migros Presse. "Due to the new proximity to the brand, the continuation must of course fit into the overall communication concept," says Hagger. Further fresh press appearances are therefore guaranteed.
Migros has it - and now customers have it too.
Luca Aloisi

Motorcycle The Textwork.org media agency now looks after 3W Motosport in Winterthur. The third-largest motorcycle clothing store in Switzerland has entrusted Textwork.org with all its media and PR work as well as the coordination of its advertising budget. Textwork.org is working closely with the Ruf Lanz advertising agency on this mandate. Ruf Lanz designed a radio spot for 3W Motosport for the first time this year, which is currently on air.

Oliver Classen on the opportunities and risks of a second tabloid The speculation about a "right-wing" Blick alternative - in the political and qualitative double sense - is almost as old as Frank A. Meyer's invention of the emancipated tabloid. Ex-editor-in-chief Peter Uebersax alone, who whipped the circulation to almost 400,000 copies with a lot of blood and bosom, was asked twice after his departure in 1986 whether he would be available for this: first by the powerful publisher of the Haider-affiliated Kronenzeitung, then by Christoph Blocher himself.Ringier had the resulting war costs and the then still unchecked progress of its newspaper flagship to thank for the fact that these attack plans were buried. Today, however, Blick is known to be languishing at a circulation of 275,000 copies, with a tendency to fall further in the medium term at the same price - despite tabloids and terror. And: since the political shift to the right, the former regulars' table organ has also weakened more clearly than ever in journalistic terms.
So the time seems right for the "rude and disrespectful megaphone for the people's voice" that Uebersax recently called for in Weltwoche. But beware: neither the 1,200,000 lost Blick customers nor the presumed 100,000 more who would abandon the now mannerly mass-circulation paper if an alternative were offered are a guarantee of success. In addition to journalistic verve, this would require above all non-partisan credibility, also to reduce any fear of contact in the "effeminate" Swiss advertising market.
A financial show of strength from circles close to the SVP therefore seems ill-advised and unlikely, also because Ringier could, in a defensive reflex (and contrary to FAM's doctrine), once again prescribe more radicalism and proximity to the people for its Blick. "We are not wimps", editor-in-chief Werner De Schepper prophylactically announces via the in-house Schweizer Illustrierte. However, this could and should also apply to any future opponents (or their financial backers).
> Oliver Classen, Editor

Close-up magazine is now going on tour with 20 minutes. The idea is two years old, but only now can it be realized: The film magazine Close-up will be stapled into the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten once a month in a reduced version and on newsprint. This increases the free magazine, of which 160,000 copies are otherwise distributed.
in cinemas belonging to the Kitag Group (including 20 Minuten Luzern, which will be launched at the beginning of June).
At first glance, it also looks as if close-up is the best option thanks to
20 Minuten could now exceed the one million mark in terms of readers. However, Cinecom, which markets Close-up exclusively, points out that this would be a fallacy. Because Close-up, which will appear in Mach Basic for the first time in the fall, can probably only "take over" around one twentieth of the 720000 readers of 20 Minuten due to the specific Mach question for daily newspapers ("Read yesterday"). This is also shown by the experience of the event magazine Good News, which has been attached to the commuter newspaper in a similar way for two years. Last fall, including Split, it had a "mere" 120000 readers.
The eight-page close-up supplement is published in 20 minutes with its own front page and two pages of advertisements. For these we charge
Cinecom 28600 francs, the same price as 20 Minuten. The full-page four-color ad in the original Close-up magazine, on the other hand, still costs 12034 francs. A combined discount has not been published, but packages are available on request, says Jean-Claude-Bruhin, Head of Marketing at Cinecom.
The next close-up split in 20 minutes will be published on June 23. However, the maiden combination was quietly and secretly launched at the beginning of May - as a trial balloon, so to speak.
Film news for short fodder: Close-up is now also available as a 20-minute supplement.
Film demnächst celebrates its anniversaryThe June issue of the film magazine Film demnächst will be its 200th issue. It will be celebrated by the publisher - the Geneva-based Quorum Group - on June 2 with an industry event at the new Multiplex Dietlikon. Its sister publication in French-speaking Switzerland, Avant première, is a little older, with its June issue already number 226. The two magazines will be published again in the second half of June, but will then focus exclusively on this summer's cinema open-airs. As cinema owners do not want to publish the open-air edition for competitive reasons, it will be distributed with the usual circulation (99500 and 81200 copies) in the larger post offices in German- and French-speaking Switzerland. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

Regional TV The Mister Switzerland election did not thrill all viewers, as the technical deficiencies in the sound and picture quality were too obvious. Tele M1 reacted immediately and apologized to its audience with a full-page advertisement in the Aargauer Zeitung. The seven regional TV stations that broadcast the election are not to blame. They took over the ready-made production of the programme from the Mister Switzerland organizing committee. This in turn had entrusted the Decatron company with the production contract. "As long as we as regional television have too little financial means to really have such big boxes professionally realized, we should rather do without it completely in the future," says Tele-M1 boss Florenz Schaffner angrily.
Despite the shortcomings, 148,000 people (net reach) watched the election of the most beautiful Swiss on Tele M1 alone. On TeleZüri, the show was even a huge success with over 700,000 viewers.
(dse)

Finanzinfos The Zurich-based company Derivative Partners has launched a free magazine for private investors, asset managers and investment advisors.Payoff deals with the retail derivatives market, analyzes products and outlines strategies. It is sent to subscribers fortnightly as a PDF file by e-mail - or in printed form by post on request for a fee. The first issue comprises 17 pages and contains two advertisements. Over 15,000 copies are currently being sent out. Derivative Partners already operates the online platform Warrants.ch.

Newspapers Instead of in the greater Düsseldorf area (WW 16/04), Springer has been testing the 32-page Welt tabloid offshoot right on its doorstep in Berlin since Monday - because it has the highest density of newspapers and non-readers in Germany. "If we make it here, we make it everywhere", is the obvious motto at Europe's largest publishing house. In eight weeks, it should be clear whether the 50-cent quality commuter paper will initially be launched nationwide and perhaps later internationally.

Circulation falsification The public prosecutor's office in Ticino has brought charges in the Giornale del Popolo circulation falsification affair, and in addition to the former editor-in-chief Filippo Lombardi - now head of TeleTicino and Telesuisse - nine other people are being prosecuted, according to the SDA news agency. At Wemf, the Giornale del Popolo reported a circulation of 25,223 copies in 1993 instead of 24,143. In 1994, the further decline in circulation was even adjusted from 23556 to 27319 copies.