On Wednesday, October 22, the Bern Advertising Club will be showing the Cannes Roll '03 with the best advertising films of the year, starting at 10 am. For the first time, the reel will be shown in the Cinématte and no longer, as was the tradition, in the Alhambra cinema. The reason for the change is the fact that the reel is no longer produced as a 35 mm film, but only in Beta-SP format or as a DVD. The Cinématte is one of the few cinemas in Bern that can play these formats.

Press promotion The publishers' reservations about the media article were not heard in the National Council. The Swiss Press Association (CHP) is dismayed that the National Council voted in favor of a media article in the Federal Constitution. CHP Managing Director Daniel Kaczynski rejected the tactics of the supporters to blur the clear lines in the matter. During the council discussion, members of the SP and the Greens had presented the CHP's proposal for a foundation for press promotion as a concession by the publishers. There are no differences of opinion on this point throughout the association. They are less opposed to the article itself than to the idea behind it: that politicians want to use subsidies to gain influence over publishers. Kaczynski does not believe that this can still be corrected at the legislative level, as the influence of parliamentarians is even stronger there. The CHP is now pinning its hopes on the Council of States.
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Cinema magazines The October issue of the monthly magazines Film demnächst and Avant première, which are available free of charge in cinemas, will appear at newsstands for the first time on October 7 - at three francs per copy. The incentive to pay for the magazines will be an enclosed DVD. This contains 50 trailers of films showing in cinemas between October and January. The campaign will be accompanied by commercials on Radio 105 and Star-TV.

Customer magazines Hangar 21 will be published for the last time in November: Winterthur Insurance is discontinuing its customer magazine for 17 to 28-year-olds. The three-person team around editor-in-chief Marius Leutenegger has been made redundant, as reported by the Tages-Anzeiger (TA). This is due to ongoing cost-cutting efforts at the insurance company. One issue of Hangar 21 costs the insurance company around half a million francs, the TA quotes an external employee of the magazine. Hangar 21 is published four times a year in three languages with a circulation of 185,000 copies.

Advertising statistics In August, gross advertising expenditure in Switzerland rose by 1.3% compared to the previous year, the first time this year that advertising researcher Media Focus has been able to present a positive trend. Consumer magazines reported a surprisingly high increase (20.3 %). Trade journals also increased (5.4 %), while daily newspapers, the third print sector, recorded another poor month at minus 9.1%. Television achieved an 18.4% increase in advertising revenue and is thus in the plus zone for the year to date (1.4 %). There was also growth in radio (4.5 %) and cinema (6.4 %). Posters, on the other hand, lost ground (5.6 %).

The PR agency Piar has opened its permanent branch in Bern and is headed by René Bucher (photo). Bucher was most recently Head of Communications at Lobag Management AG. As the originally intended managing director had to leave at short notice, Piar had to be represented in Bern by Renatus Gallati, President of the Swiss Public Affairs Association. Gallati now sits on the Board of Directors of Piar Bern, which was founded as an independent public limited company. ...
The Zurich-based Internet company E-Market is spinning off its web services division as an independent company. Jürg Unterweger, Anita Bürgler and Walter Bucher take over the management of the new Synergetics AG.
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McCann-Erickson Switzerland has appointed Timo Kirez to the management board. As Chief Creative Officer (CCO), he will be responsible for the advertising agency's locations in Zurich and Geneva from October. Kirez has been working as a copywriter and creative director for McCann in Geneva for five years.
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Swisspool, the advertising combination of the seven strongest Swiss daily newspapers, is expanding its customer service. At the beginning of October 2003, Marco Reale takes over the newly created position of Key Account Manager.
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The editor-in-chief of the Zofinger Tagblatt, Paul Ehinger, is taking early retirement at the end of September. Ehinger has been editor-in-chief of the Tagblatt, which is published as part of the Mittelland Zeitung, since 1988. He will be succeeded by his former deputy, Beat Kirchhofer.
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Bendicht Lüginbühl, program director of DRS3/Virus, has appointed Daniel Schneider as the new head of the youth cable station Virus. Schneider will succeed François Mürner, who has moved to DRS 3 as head of presentation, at the beginning of 2004. Until then, Matthias Völlm, deputy head of Virus, will take over the management of the youth channel.

A new specialist magazine for teachers and lecturers has been launched under the title Educetera. Edupanel AG, founded in June and based in Hergiswil, wants to support teaching staff with advice, tips and ideas with the new publication, writes advertising agency Publimedia in its newsletter. Educetera will be published from October with an initial print run of 55,000 copies and will initially be published every two months. It will mainly be sent free of charge to the recipients' private addresses.

The Biel-based design office 2. Stock Süd Netthoevel & Gaberthüel is developing the new image of the University of Bern after winning a competitive presentation against three competitors.

Cultural magazines Nobody in the media scene had expected Niggli Verlag when Tamedia put its "Kulturprozent" magazine up for sale. One thing is clear to the new owners: the magazine needs to become more up-to-date again. publishing director J. Christoph Bürkle (Niggli Verlag, Archithese) and printing company owner Viktor Heer from Sulgen TG have a busy few weeks ahead of them. By the end of October, Heer, the new owner of the cultural magazine Du, wants to have decided together with Bürkle what the magazine will look like in terms of appearance and content from January 2004 and, above all, who will be in charge of the editorial team. It is clear to Heer that not all of the 20 or so employees will appear on the payroll of the new owners: "It has to be streamlined," says the printer with a view to Du's wage costs. The clean-up work is necessary: "Nothing has been done at Du for ten years," says Bürkle. The art historian with a doctorate sees a need for action in terms of content, both written and designed. "We want to increase topicality and reduce the monothematic focus," he says. For him, it is clear that the magazine has recently had a hybrid status that has not served it well: It was not a book and not a magazine. The readers didn't like that, and the subscribers even less. Only 55 to 60 percent still pay in advance to receive the magazine. From the once impressive circulation of just under 30,000 copies, Du has now reached around 20,000 copies sold per month. Of these, 14,000 are delivered to subscribers, while the remaining 6,000 are sold half at newsstands and half in bookstores. Bürkle's conclusion: "We have to push subscription sales."
Tamedia stopped Du relaunch
Bürkle does not yet want to reveal what course the future flagship of Druckerei Heer will sail. This much is certain: "There are too few topics of interest in Du", which is why he wants to expand the range of content and ensure that the magazine as a product "will no longer be so close to the book". The format and design of the new Du still need to be harmonized. The relaunch announced by Tamedia in the spring was halted when Du was offered on the market - logically, according to Heer, no seriously interested party would have bought a freshly repositioned magazine.
The new owners will also have to invest in advertising sales, because "the magazine has maneuvered itself out of the advertising market," says Bürkle. But Heer also sees a need to expand the magazine's printing operations. "We are already running a three-shift operation and didn't need you to keep our machines running at full capacity," he says. On the contrary, he is now considering whether he needs to purchase new machines for the production of the magazine. However, the fact that the cultural magazine is printed in-house is of eminent importance to him: "Without its own production facility, a publishing house no longer has a chance today. This allows us to use the entire infrastructure and thus guarantee that Du will survive."
Bürkle and Heer know that money alone will not be enough. "It's not just about the print shop, there also has to be passion," assures Heer.
J. Christoph Bürkle (left) and Viktor Heer have already led the magazine Archithese and Niggli Verlag out of the red and are investing their passion - and money - in a new you.
Carlo Bernasconi

Baden Tourism has commissioned Spot Werbung to create a new overall visual identity, and the full-service agency from St. Moritz came out on top against four competitors in a competitive presentation. Spot Werbung created a new corporate design around the existing logo and developed a structured communication strategy to position Baden Tourism as an umbrella brand in the tourism market between Zurich, Basel and Lucerne. The publications with the new look are to be used from the beginning of 2004.

Zeitschriften Matter & Partner is promoting the Prix Courage sponsored by the Beobachter, which honors people who have shown particularly stubborn courage in the face of injustice. The prize will be awarded on September 27 at a high-profile event in Zurich's Saalsporthalle. The nominees were presented in the Beobachter and readers were able to decide who would win the Audience Award. A further prize is awarded by an independent jury. The nominees include, for example, two men who snatched a little girl from five attacking dogs and two passers-by who fished a drowning man out of the ice-cold Emme. Courage was also shown by a woman who single-handedly stood up to the felt in her local council, or the ICRC team who persevered in Baghdad despite the constant hail of bombs during the Iraq war.
The advertising agency Matter & Partner looked for images from the world of fairy tales for these specific heroic deeds. The campaign for the Prix Courage uses well-known fairytale characters to dramatize what can happen if there is no courageous prince or huntsman on hand. "This is a relaxed way of calling for more civil courage without coming across as schoolmasterly," says CD Daniel Matter.
A total of three subjects were developed in which the fate of Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and the Frog King is pondered, had the protagonists of these fables lacked courage. The advertisements can be seen in newspapers and magazines for three weeks.
Classic fairy tales have been re-illustrated by Matter & Partner.
Magazines For the Beobachter's Prix Courage, Matter & Partner has re-illustrated some classic fairy tales.
Andreas Panzeri

Under the name Tensid Communication Services, a new company in Baar is offering itself as an "electronic letter carrier" for investor relations, corporate and marketing communications.Tensid will be transmitting texts, sound and images to recipients worldwide via the Internet from the beginning of 2004. Tensid offers the minimum ad-hoc distribution in accordance with the regulations of the Swiss stock exchange free of charge. The founder and managing director of the new company is Konrad Baechler, who previously headed the Swiss branch of a Norwegian Internet company.