Telecom Advico Young & Rubicam (AY&R) has secured a mandate from the Sunrise telecom group in a competitive presentation, which, according to a press release, involves the conception and realization of an important sub-project in the field of mobile telephony. The measures are to be seen in the coming months.

Agencies After seven years in Zollikon, Initiative Media Western moves to Wallisellen, where the media agency moves into the same office complex as the advertising agency FCB Leutenegger Krüll. Both agencies are part of the Interpublic network. The aim is to "exploit synergy effects where they arise", according to a press release. The premises are also more cost-effective.

Advertising expenditure The sputtering advertising engine should finally pick up again this year. However, according to HandelsZeitung's 2004 advertising trends, we will have to wait until the second half of the year. The depressed advertising years of 2001 and 2002, with their dramatically reduced communication budgets, left deep red marks in the media's accounts. And in 2003, against all expectations, the trough had still not been reached. For the current year, however, the "Advertising Trends" study commissioned by HandelsZeitung assesses the climate to be noticeably more relaxed. "Although there is still no sign of marked optimism, the basic pessimistic attitude has largely evaporated," explains Ralph Büchi, CEO of the HandelsZeitung publishing group, although the media are still being asked to be patient, as cautious voices continue to predominate for the first half of the year, with no change in advertising volumes yet to be seen. A clearly positive mood is only emerging for the second half of the year. In the second half of the year, 60 percent of clients and 86 percent of agencies expect a "slight increase" in advertising volumes.
Majority positive or neutral
When asked about the advertising budgets available in 2004, the picture for clients was much brighter. The proportion of clients with increasing budgets has risen to 31% (+2.8%) compared to the previous year, while the proportion with decreasing budgets has fallen to 24% (-8.2%). The proportion of clients who want to continue with an unchanged budget has risen sharply to 45% (+5.4%).
The positive basic trend is mainly driven by five sectors. The retail sector is far and away in the lead, with more than 57% of companies reporting increasing budgets. In 2004, the retail trade was the only sector in which none of the companies surveyed had planned budget cuts. Budget increases are also above average in the food and beverages sector. Here, 37.5 percent expect to increase their advertising investments. The clothing and cosmetics sector is also more advertising-friendly than a year ago. Here, 33.3 percent reported an increase in their budgets. Exactly the same number in the leisure and tourism sector expect advertising spending to increase. And in the IT and telecommunications sector, 28.6% are also more relaxed about their advertising budgets than in the previous year.
The going remains tough for cars and traffic
Unfortunately, however, not all clients will be left with fuller advertising budgets in 2004. Every fourth client is facing further cuts. The automotive and transportation sector is particularly affected, with 46.2 percent of respondents expecting smaller communication budgets. Likewise, 44.4 percent of banks and insurance companies are planning lower advertising expenditure. But 33.3 percent of sellers of household appliances and home furnishings also expect to invest less money in advertising in 2004.
Confident media agencies
If their own sales forecasts are to be believed, agencies are clearly heading for rosier times. Media agencies are even more confident than advertising agencies. Seven out of ten are expecting an increase in turnover. Among advertising agencies, 47.1 percent believe that an upward trend in turnover is likely.
There is general certainty regarding the diminished future role of traditional advertising. Both clients and agencies expect a slight decline. According to the clients and media agencies, the shrinking of traditional advertising will favor direct advertising. Advertising agencies also expect a decline in traditional advertising messages, but assume that sales promotion will benefit from this.
Newspapers are clear losers
Daily newspapers faced a surprisingly clear rebuff in 2004. While they were undisputedly the most important lead medium for clients in previous years, this has changed dramatically in the current survey: Daily newspapers slipped way down to sixth place. The Sunday press has now moved to the top of the list of media most loved by advertisers. Commuter newspapers have moved into second place. And even trade journals, television and outdoor advertising have overtaken the daily newspapers.
This trend to the detriment of the daily press is likely to become more pronounced in the longer term. When asked how the media mix will look in 2008, the daily newspaper was the only media category to score negatively. Its share is expected to decline from today's
40 percent to between 35 and 36 percent. According to the long-term forecast, magazines will remain at around 20%.
Television can continue to look forward to a place on the sunny side. Its share of advertising expenditure is expected to grow from 15 percent today to between 17 and 18 percent. The forecasts are also balm for online media. Their share of the advertising pie is expected to grow from 7.5 percent to 8.5 to 10.5 percent by 2008.
Upswing is a long time coming
Although the economy has now recovered from its low point in spring 2003 and many companies are reporting pleasing results, the eagerly awaited upturn in the advertising market is still a long time coming.
The fact is that advertising pressure on consumers and decision-makers has decreased massively since 2000. "Today, you can get customers' attention with less advertising," says Ralph Büchi, CEO of HandelsZeitung. But this will certainly not remain the case. "In future, the competition will not become milder, but tougher." And advertising is indispensable in this battle. "What is still missing is the initial spark from the key players in the various sectors," says Büchi.
A sharp upturn: 57 percent of retail companies want to spend more money on advertising in 2004 than in the previous year.
Under the magnifying glassFor the annual "Advertising Trends" study, the communications managers of the 500 most advertising-intensive Swiss companies were surveyed. The sample includes all 60 BSW advertising agencies and all 25 media agencies. The survey also included the 40 largest recruitment consultancies and 60 banks and financial service providers.
The survey was conducted by the Media Research Group (Uitikon) on behalf of HandelsZeitung between mid-January and mid-March 2004. The annual advertising market study, which also contains the basic data for determining "advertising trends", is available at www.mediaresearchgroup.ch. To
special evaluations for media providers, agencies and advertising clients can also be found there. (dse)
Daniel Schifferle

Anniversary I It doesn’t always have to be roses. Agreeing on this, the two McCann-Erickson creative directors, Timo Kirez and Dominik Imseng, designed a congratulatory ad for 20 Minuten, peppered with bits and bytes, watts, and volts. For the congratulatory ad for Media Markt, they quickly transformed a tangled mess of cables into a spring-like cable bouquet. The electronics discounter is celebrating its tenth anniversary in the Swiss market this year (see also page 9).

Marketing To celebrate their relaunch, the April issues of the cinema magazines Film demnächst and Avant Première (WW 7/04) will be increased by a total of 44,500 copies; the additional print run will be distributed to 89 post offices for 14 days. At the same time, a spot will be running on the plasma screens of these post offices, drawing attention to a competition in the magazine. Radios 105, One FM and Lausanne FM are involved in the prize distribution.

Executive Creative Director Urs Schrepfer is leaving the advertising agency Jung von Matt/Limmat (JvM). Schrepfer's successor is Alexander Jaggy, who has been Creative Director (CD) at JvM for three years. Alexander Jaggy will continue to be supported by CD Michael Rottmann and now by Tom Seinige, who has been promoted to CD. Seinige has been working as a copywriter for JvM for three years.
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Zuger Media is parting ways with its Managing Director for Publishing and Administration, Daniel Neukomm. He is leaving the publisher of Zuger Presse by mutual agreement at the end of April. His duties will be divided up: The Board of Directors has appointed Daniel Troxler as Head of Publishing Marketing, Thomas Akermann as Head of Advertising Sales and Claudia Rogenmoser as Head of Administration. Together with Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief Florian Hofer, they form the management team. In addition, Carl-Axel Englund, previously Head of the Current Affairs department, has been appointed Deputy Editor-in-Chief.
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TopJobsScout24 has strengthened its management team. Dominik Walder (pictured) has been Sales Director of the online job platform operator since the beginning of March. Walder was most recently the Swiss Managing Director of the Harvey Nash Group, which is active in the recruitment sector.
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Benedikt Erni is the new editorial director at Radio Basilisk. He replaces Raphael Suter, who took over from Christian Heeb as program director in mid-March. Deputy Editorial Director will be
Nicolas Drechsler. Jean-Luc Wicki will take over as presenter. All of them have previously worked for Radio Basilisk.
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The two Tamedia stations Radio 24 and Radio Basilisk will be sharing the
Head of Music at the beginning of July. Andreas Meier replaces Leila Adriana in Zurich and Nick Schulz in Basel. The two previous music directors are leaving their respective stations. Andreas Meier has been a Radio 24 presenter for many years and will continue to present the program "Top24 - d Chart-Show vo Züri". In his new role, he will be a member of the program management of Radio 24 and Radio Basilisk.
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Christoph Vollenweider is to become the new editor-in-chief of the regional newspapers Zürcher Oberländer and Anzeiger von Uster. He replaces Oscar Fritschi, who is retiring in mid-May. Vollenweider has been working for the Zürcher Oberländer for two decades and is currently head of the foreign department.

Online Schweizer Agrarmedien GmbH combines the online presences of its publications BauernZeitung and Die Grüne.the joint news portal offers information for and about the agricultural industry, from news to specialist dossiers and weather to market and target prices. The portal was realized by the web service provider Agrigate.

TV SRG closes 2003 with a profit of 16.1 million francs (previous year -4.4 million francs), while sales rose by 0.4 percent to 1.503 billion francs. A 5.1 percent increase in fees was offset by a 1.5 percent fall in commercial income (CHF 321.8 million) and a 34.5 percent fall in other income (CHF 80.9 million). In addition to the increase in income, savings also contributed to the improved result.

Education: At the Media Training Center (MAZ) in Lucerne, 54 journalists received their diplomas. Of these, 39 completed the two-year part-time diploma program (DAJ), and 15 completed the three-semester, career-preparatory Master’s-level journalism diploma program (DJMA). Eighty percent of the graduates are already employed in the media. The application deadline for the next DAJ (starting in March 2005) is October 18; for the DJMA (starting in October 2004), it is May 31.

Brands In April, Migros launches a new product line made from mountain milk under the Heidi brand, comprising 30 products and featuring motifs from Johanna Spyri's story on the packaging. Migros bought the Heidi brand from the Lucerne-based dairy group Emmi, which had previously taken it over from the bankrupt Swiss Dairy Food.

Blick Circulation has been falling for years. With the tabloid trial, Ringier is testing a new recipe against the decline.It's a frustration: Blick circulation has been falling for years. In 1996 it was 322,032 copies, a year ago it was 292,292 (-9.2 percent), and now it has dropped again by 5.8 percent to 275,275 copies, partly because of the lost Swiss subscriptions. "Readership has been very stable for years. But for years we lost circulation drop by drop, despite changed concepts, revised layouts and new editors-in-chief," says Bernhard Weissberg, head of newspapers at Ringier. In the meantime, the conviction has matured at Switzerland's largest media group that more far-reaching changes are necessary. They looked around abroad and came to the conclusion to try the tabloid. Weissberg: "We finally want to make a difference." The main goal: to stop the circulation decline.On May 3, the time has come: at 3,000 kiosks, both a stapled single-page tabloid and a standard broadsheet Blick will be available. Newspaper boxes and airlines will receive the "small" Blick, while subscribers will receive the "large" Blick. The latter, however, receive a voucher that they can use several times to obtain a tabloid Blick free of charge from the newsstand.
"No more expensive than a pretest"
No advance market research was carried out. "Only with actual proof can we show that there is actually the same amount in both formats. What's more, the test is live market research: It doesn't cost us much more than if we had done a pretest," says Weissberg.
Ringier will also set up and evaluate various reaction channels for readers: letters to the editor, calls to the call center, the Blick telephone (the first run took place last Thursday). Reader research is also planned, which will then also investigate aspects of content.
Blick, whose regular print run is 310,000 copies, will be increased to a good 340,000 copies for the trial. Of these, around 115,000 copies are likely to be printed in tabloid format. "For advertisers, the trial is ideal," Weissberg advertises. "They get more eyeballs in every respect: a higher circulation, increased reader interest and additional media attention." The trial will also be accompanied by a campaign by the GGK agency (ads, posters, TV and radio). And: the additional print run is free of charge for the advertisers, they only have to supply two different templates. The question is, for how long? Weissberg: "Between one and three months, but at most until the summer vacations. Then a decision will have to be made." He does not rule out printing Blick in both formats in the future, but two formats can currently only be printed in a ratio of 1:2. Weissberg suspects that the tabloid format will gain the upper hand.
Same content, different packaging: At the newsstand, Blick shoppers can choose between two formats.
"For advertisers, the trial is ideal." Bernhard Weissberg,
Head of Newspapers, Ringier
Independent: Tabloid pays offThe Independent has spent £4 to £5 million on converting part of its circulation to tabloid format. Thanks to this
measure, however, the British quality newspaper was able to increase the number of copies sold by almost 43,000 to over 250,000. "This is the most sensible issue we've ever done," commented Independent CEO Ivan Fallon. Younger people and women in particular have apparently responded to the smaller format. It is possible that the Independent will soon be tabloid-only: the broadsheet is preferred by a mere 26 percent of readers. "A 90 percent compact, 10 percent broadsheet split wouldn't make much sense," Fallon said. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

Column: White vests in newsrooms are as rare as clean boots in Westerns. And that’s a good thing. Because calculated venality has always been a journalistic necessity and virtue. A dinner. A little indiscretion. A product sample. Two tickets. Or three days on the Côte d’Azur. What’s your price, Mbwana? In short: With what, from whom, and in what amount do I want to be bribed? It’s worth giving this question some serious thought. After all, journalism is, by its very nature, writing for money. And the most accurate definition of freedom of the press comes from Hunter S. Thompson: «Free food. Free drinks. Free press.»
Back in the good old days, when there were no monopoly newspapers yet, I was an intern at the St. Galler Tagblatt. There, I covered the fourth-rate events: press conferences at the local shopping center, art openings, and lectures. And every time, I ran into colleagues from the competition. They all—men and women alike—looked surprisingly similar: enormous bellies and noses, as red and pore-filled as Mars. With one hand they’d reach for a glass of champagne, with the other for a salmon sandwich—and with a third, they’d underline the passages in the press release that they’d later copy word for word.
That’s all I remember: With two or three press events a day, I was constantly drunk back then. It was also during that time that I came up with the plan to work as a car journalist for one year—just once in my life: An invitation from Mercedes—or God knows who—to a five-day test drive in southern Spain, with candy-colored drinks and long-legged people handing you glossy brochures of the new model to copy down. Vroom! Luckily for me, the only things missing are a) a driver’s license and b) a car section in the WOZ.
So, Mbwana, what would your price be? Don’t tell me, «I don’t have one.» People who can’t be bribed are unfit for this line of work. For one thing, because they won’t have a single informant. Every investigation needs people working behind the scenes: tipsters, experts, sympathizers. And they want exactly the same thing from you as Mercedes or the department store: kind words about themselves. And, if possible, nothing but nasty things about the competition.
Behind almost every exposé you read, there’s someone who ratted someone out. And rarely out of a pure love of truth. So how far should you go? It depends on how much you love information or luxury. Or people. Because corruptibility is also a great virtue—especially among journalists. Only the deaf remain unmoved by charm; only the stubborn prefer their prejudices to surprising ideas; only the heartless refuse to be swayed by the fear and helplessness of the person across from them. And to hell with it: objectivity isn’t just impossible to achieve—it would also be cruel: It would be a grim world if everyone got only what they truly deserve.
So, on the question of whether you can be bought, the answer is a clear, resounding yes. The only thing left to determine is the price: How much? And, above all, the currency: Do you want luxury? Respect? Less hassle? Exclusive information? Confirmation of your own mistakes? New ideas? The feeling of importance when a celebrity smiles at you? Or the icy chill of power when he trembles? What exactly is your price?
It's up to you, Mbwana!
P.S.: When asked about his patriotism, the diplomat Charles de Talleyrand proudly declared: «I would stand and die for France—even for up to a million livres!»
P.S. After the advance copy of his novel *Answered Prayers* was published, the American author and jet-setter Truman Capote was surprised to find that he had lost three-quarters of his friends: «Who the hell did they think they were inviting? A writer.»
> Constantin Seibt is a political and business editor at the weekly newspaper WOZ.