Media The annual advertising primer with current data on the Swiss advertising market is now available from Ringier Publishing and contains key data on the largest Swiss newspapers and magazines, demographic and economic figures and an overview of the most important media studies. The primer can be ordered at Go4media.ch in German, English or French. It can also be downloaded as a PDF file from www.go4media.ch.

SBB's New Image Campaign: "Step by Step Through Life" or a One-Track Attempt to Win Favor? A Grand Reception for Quick Opinions at www.werbewoche.ch/adrating
LTV Yellow Pages
A Happy Ending for the Publicis Ads: It's great to see Hollywood stars getting roasted—sorry, featured in the Yellow Pages! Top 70,47%
Flop 29,53%

Publishers The Zurich regional newspapers involved in the Oetwil printing center (DZO) have decided to increase their printing capacity by purchasing a new rotary press, and to this end Zürcher Oberland Medien, Zürichsee Presse, Akeret Verlag and Walter Reist Holding have renewed their shareholders' agreement. It now lasts until the end of 2012 and can be extended for five years at a time without notice. The new press is to be installed at the beginning of 2005 and commissioned in the middle of the year. The total investment project amounts to CHF 30 million.

Wording The Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft (APG) has revised and expanded its research lexicon, which for the first time includes the new terms from the Swiss Poster Research (SPR) project, which has been underway since 2001, alongside terms and key points that are already familiar. The publication strives to use language that is also understandable for the interested layperson. The lexicon can be downloaded as a PDF file at www.apg.ch.

Posters Not only in Zurich and Basel, but also in Berne and Lugano, airport advertising lost further frequencies in 2003. In Bern-Belp, passenger numbers fell by 4.6 percent compared to 2002 to 164469 travelers, while Lugano-Agno Airport fared even worse, with a 25 percent drop to 172015 passengers. Unique was down 5.1 percent on the previous year with 17 million passengers and EuroAirport was down 19 percent (2.5 million). Geneva-Cointrin was the only airport to post an increase, with 8.1 million passengers (+6.1 percent), a record result.
The following outdoor advertisers are affected by the falling number of passengers: Clear Channel Plakanda looks after Unique and parts of EuroAirport; APG is present in Basel, Geneva and Lugano; JCDecaux sells space at EuroAirport, and Publiscreen markets Bern-Belp Airport.
(mk)

Special interest dream team: Ringier acquires a stake in theAZ Media Group's sports magazine.
Breaking news: FC Aarau, FC Zurich and Grasshoppers have combined their points in the football championship. With 56 points, they are just ahead of leaders Basel. What must remain a fantasy in sport is being put into practice by the AZ Media Group (AZM): in future, it will publish its sports magazine jointly with Ringier. The strengths in editorial, marketing and sales are to be bundled. In publishing terms, the sports magazine will be placed under the Blick Group. Product management will remain with AZM. The two publishing houses have founded a simple partnership in which they will work together "as equal partners". AZM print manager Ueli Eckstein did not want to provide any information about the ownership structure.
The cooperation with the Zurich media company is intended to take the sports magazine from the provinces to the top league. "Ringier has a national marketing channel that the sports magazine has lacked until now," explains Eckstein. The regionally anchored AZM was apparently unable to give the monthly magazine, which was launched four years ago, the distribution it had hoped for. Readership figures are on the rise. According to Mach Basic, 365,000 people use the sports magazine. But only a fraction of them buy it. There are no official Wemf figures, but the circulation is put at 35,000.
For Ringier, the sports magazine complements Blick and SonntagsBlick. "We want to establish another mainstay in our core area of sport," explains Bernhard Weissberg to Werbewoche. As interim head of sports at Blick, the head of Ringier newspapers is responsible for implementing the cooperation. Weissberg believes that the glossy magazine is an attractive additional offer for Blick readers that can also be used to increase reader loyalty.
Know-how transfer with BlickThe collaboration between Ringier and AZM is not limited to marketing. Synergies will also be exploited in terms of content. The editorial office in Aarau will be retained. Will texts from the Blick sports editorial team appear in the magazine in future? It may be possible to read Blick columnists in the sports magazine in future, says Weissberg. Eckstein says that it is primarily about a transfer of know-how.
"The sports magazine is a small, fine business that we will expand," says Weissberg. Ringier and AZM intend to strengthen the editorial and marketing teams in the foreseeable future. A relaunch is already being planned. The new concept will not yet be revealed. AZM publisher Peter Wanner revealed the secret to the Aargauer Zeitung: the sports magazine will focus more strongly on football in future.
Soon in top form: sports magazine.

Stefano Monachesi

Internet Since a new design was launched on January 8, surfers on the online portal Tiscali.ch have been searching in vain for erotic offers. The corresponding channel was removed without notice.Internet Since a new design was launched on January 8, surfers on the online portal Tiscali.ch are looking in vain for erotic offers. The corresponding channel was removed without prior notice. Tiscali terminated the contract with Beate Uhse at the end of the year. Tiscali spokesman Reto Meyer explained that the Italian parent company had decided not to offer erotic content anywhere in Europe.

Germany Ringier's political magazine Cicero, which has been announced for the first quarter, is already available on the Internet at cicero.de, where, in addition to a newsletter, you can also order trial copies or an annual subscription for 75 euros. In addition, the Berlin editorial team has been reinforced by Christian Meier from the industry service Kress Report. Meier is to develop a media-political online format to accompany the parent title on the Internet.

Banks Experts attribute the brand erosion of financial institutions in part to the depersonalization of the banking business. In order to balance their image, they are counteracting this with emotional advertising worlds.banks Experts attribute the brand erosion of financial institutions in part to the depersonalization of the banking business.
In order to balance the image balance sheet, they counteract this with emotional advertising worlds. A laudable endeavor, if only their creatives didn't have the whim of exaggerated differentiation goals and throwing stones into the viewer's brain. We felt small pebbles in this work. One wonders what the marine explorer-to-be - let's call her Sally - has discovered on the horizon. "Look, Dad, the humpback whales are taking advantage of the good flying weather today to glide north!" Or has Sally possibly learned in Pixar's hit movie that members of the pangolin species can also fly if they can be transported from A to B in the beak of a pelican? An equally plausible explanation for Sally's ornithological perspective could be climate change and the resulting development of new hunting grounds by marine fish. We don't know, and unfortunately the look of dismay on her father's face doesn't help either. We can only hope that Sally's financial future offers better prospects than her career plans.
(la)

Column Advertising is irreplaceable. Do you understand that, dear lawmakers and clients? Otherwise the advertisers will simply go on strike." A sociologist from Göttingen recently published the essay "World without electricity" in the NZZ. Modern civilization without its elixir of life: a threatening thought experiment about the failure of the seemingly self-evident and therefore worthy of reflection. Does the same apply to the question "World without advertising?" - is advertising the electricity of the economy? All wheels stand still when the advertising brain doesn't want to: is this analogy true?
Yes, because since time immemorial there has always been some form of loud advertising for and, above all, against something: politicians do it in talks, churches with holy bimbam and market women with shouting. For this reason alone - i.e. regardless of cluttered real and electronic letterboxes - the sigh of relief is not surprising: less would be more!
So isn't advertising also a waste of resources and partly responsible for communicative overkill? Especially for the fact that single mothers, worn down by the begging of their offspring, buy them dentist-intensive branded treats from their already tight budget instead of cheap and wholesome apples?
So be it: advertising is still unavoidable because it is irreplaceable for publicizing and maintaining market offers. But then please only for those of the right, monochrome variety - black in theocracies and brown or red in secular dictatorships.
However, such one-size-fits-all advertising only works temporarily at best and regularly checkmates those in power as a boomerang.
After all, it was not just the anger of the people of Eastern Europe at the mismanagement of the communist system of rule that brought it down. It was also their bitterness at the state propaganda's constant shameless denial of the dreariness that really existed. Where there is nothing to buy, there is no need for advertising; but scarcity of goods and consumption is hardly an attractive alternative for modern democracies.
However, there is also a capitalist counterpart to this, namely in the form of punishing unruly media by withdrawing advertising contracts, commonly known as advertising boycotts. Such partial advertising eclipses, decreed by hypersensitive industries, are of course rarely seen in this country. Fortunately, because the fact that, according to recent language, instead of "boycott" we are only talking about "the freedom of advertisers to do without a suitable advertising medium" does not make the matter any less questionable. Freedom of insertion and freedom of opinion are, to put it mildly, in a hopeless contradiction here. It would probably be more convincing - attention, an even more daring thought experiment! - if the much-maligned advertising went on strike of its own accord, i.e. boycotted its clients and the rest of the world for a while. As with so many familiar circumstances, the saying "familiarity breeds contempt" also applies to them. Why is the city suddenly so gray? Wasn't it more colorful? In other words: Advertising is also an integral part of today's everyday aesthetics.
What would even science be worth without self-promotion? Little, because it is not beautiful in itself. That's why even professors occasionally spread their feathers as columnists. But not too often! After all, this column was quite uplifting, treating advertising as sporty, educational, emotionally competent, politically indispensable, morally powerful and generally the best of all forms of communication (at least in their eyes). Have you learned anything from this, dear creatives? Exactly! So goodbye to the next columnist from the science industry.
> Ulrich Saxer was a professor of journalism at the University of Zurich and
Professor of Sociology of Communication in Lugano.

Private TV The Liechtenstein government had already revoked the license of the local broadcaster XML in November due to a lack of in-house productions, and now the attempt by the operating company X-Media AG to ensure the survival of XML through a cooperation with the St. Gallen private broadcaster Tele Ostschweiz has also definitely failed. XML went on air at the end of 1998 with an annual budget of CHF 1 million

Environment If you drive with the times, you are protecting the environment. But how can you do this if you have to queue up in city traffic or use the highway every day? EnergieSchweiz commissioned Eco-Drive to promote energy-conscious driving. A study has shown that "eco-drivers" consume around ten percent less fuel. In order to exploit this potential, however, Eco-Drive must first make its activities and courses known to a wide audience. Publicis, commissioned with the realization of a national poster campaign, implemented the message "Learn to drive economically too" with a learner driver sign. Attention, dear Renault, Toyota or Subaru drivers: when it comes to economical driving, you are at best of pre-school age. So, dear Lenault, Loyota or Lubaru drivers, off to driving school! APG supports the Eco-Drive campaign and provides empty poster space.