Internet The Neue Zürcher Zeitung website recorded 70.3 percent more hits in March than in the previous month. eBund and Weltwoche recorded smaller increases of 9.0 percent and 8.49 percent respectively. The number of participants in the Net Audit rose from 10 to 18 sites.

For the tenth time, the Swiss Advertising and Communications Agencies Association is awarding the Effie advertising efficiency prize, which is presented in gold, silver or bronze to campaigns that have achieved exceptional success in terms of their marketing and advertising objectives. Design criteria are also taken into account. The closing date for entries for the Effie'03 is May 9, 2003 and the awards will be presented on September 11. Further information can be found at www.bsw.ch.

The School for Practice-Oriented Communication (Spok) in Winterthur and Zurich has a new managing director.Ursula Krebs has taken over from Ronny Schmid. Krebs had already been working in course management at Spok for five years. Schmid remains a lecturer and co-owner of the school. On September 6, the next course in marketing communications will start at Spok. It runs until March 2005. The registration deadline is July 31, and documents are available at www.spok.ch.

Media research Despite the economic downturn, the market research institute IHA-GfK recorded sales growth of 4.2 percent last year, with the Hergiswil-based company turning over a total of CHF 79.5 million. In addition to the critical size as part of the international GfK Group, Managing Director Peter Hofer also sees the company's own research and development as a success factor. For example, the Radiocontrol system is currently being tested in France, Germany and Spain following its introduction at an English private broadcaster. In June, the Swiss invention will be presented to experts at the global media research congress in Los Angeles.

Advertising market Small ray of hope in the advertising tunnel: The number of companies that have reduced their communication budgets for this year has fallen again for the first time. Communications managers in Switzerland are cautiously optimistic about the future: they do not expect advertising expenditure to increase until the second half of the year at the earliest - but they are also happy if spending is not cut further. This is the general consensus among advertising experts who were asked by HandelsZeitung about the development of advertising volumes in 2003. Even those who expect the first half of the year to remain at the previous year's level or to see slight growth remain in the minority. This changes in the estimates for the second half of the year: the proportion of those who expect advertising expenditure to remain the same or even increase rises to around 60 percent.
These forecasts become more comprehensible if they are based on the development of communication budgets. At 28.2 percent, the proportion of companies with a larger communications budget this year than in 2002 is still smaller than the proportion of those with a reduced budget (32.1 %). However, this could be a turning point. Compared to last year, the proportion of clients with increased budgets remained stable, having fallen by more than a third between 2000 and 2002. And at 39.7 percent, those who have the same amount of money available for advertising still make up the largest proportion. Incidentally, most companies with higher budgets can be found in the clothing and cosmetics industry as well as in the retail sector.
Chef Schmalhans
Print expenditure on recruitment will fall again: three years ago, 42.9 percent of recruitment consultants invested more than one million francs, whereas in 2003 only 7.1 percent invested such sums. Among financial service providers, 71.4 percent will have to reduce their communication expenditure this year. The proportion of those spending more than five million francs has practically halved within three years. At the same time, the proportion of those investing less than one million francs has risen to more than half (52.4 %).
Nevertheless, even the agencies are optimistic about the future: 42.9% expect higher budget sales - last year, only 37.5% believed this. However, the proportion of those expecting a decrease also rose (plus 1.2 %).
How the Advertising Trends study came aboutThe Media Research Group conducted a written survey on behalf of HandelsZeitung from the beginning of February to mid-March of 400 communications managers from the 500 largest companies in Switzerland, 60 advertising agencies and all 25 media agencies, the 40 recruitment consultancies with the largest budgets for job advertisements and 50 banks and financial service providers. The response rate was between 39 and 90 percent, depending on the sector. (mk)
Question to the advertising clientsAre you facing a larger or smaller increase in advertising costs compared to the previous year?
Budget amount available?
Question to the agenciesDo you expect a higher, the same or a higher increase in sales compared to the previous year?
lower budget turnover?
Markus Knöpfli

WeltwocheChristophe Guye wants potential Weltwoche readers to believe that advertising for this magazine is superfluous. Really? AdRaters click their opinion on this at www.werbewoche.ch/adratingSonntagsBlick
Too many puzzles, too many pictures, too few Sundays - the AdRaters gave it a thumbs down: Keep smiling.
Top 44%
Flop 56%

Wemf circulation statistics II: Magazine market Magazines lost a net 75,000 copies in 2002.
Weltwoche and Zeitlupe are on the rise, while Facts, Stocks and Du are losing circulation: the changes in magazine circulation could not be more ambivalent this year. On the one hand, seven of this year's ten biggest winners among all print media (see "Tops and flops") belong to the magazine category. On balance, they gained around 25,000 copies. At the same time, however, this category accounted for almost half of the 23 biggest losers. The losses of the eleven titles, each of which lost six or more percent, add up to around 100,000 copies. The bottom line is a negative balance of 75,000 copies - an irony of the current print media crisis: Zeitlupe, a newspaper for senior citizens, achieved by far the biggest growth last year, with a gain from 6,859 to 6,6911 copies (see also p. 3). Weltwoche and Facts offered a veritable surprise in the turbulent circulation year 2002. The Jean-Frey paper, which had been declared (apparently) dead several times, has now been certified as a magazine for the first time and has overtaken the Tamedia news magazine at full throttle - a development that hardly anyone would have thought possible until recently. On the eve of the switch to magazine format, Weltwoche had certified 84,957 copies (based on 2001), while the Tamedia news magazine was still the undisputed leader at that time with an impressive 10,3363 copies. With Weltwoche's now respectable gain (+6137 copies) and the simultaneous massive circulation cut at Facts (-23163 copies), this ranking has changed abruptly: Weltwoche is now positioned with a comfortable lead of over 10,000 copies over Facts - a lead that will be difficult for Facts to catch up with.
Weakness in women's titlesA disappointing result was achieved by the women's press in German-speaking Switzerland. Even though the departure of Meyer's last year meant one less competitor in the market. With a huge drop of 26,315 copies, Annabelle lost more than a quarter of its previous circulation. The symbolic 100,000-copy mark, which the Tamedia magazine had just managed to maintain in previous years, is now definitely a thing of the past.
Bolero has also suffered massive cutbacks - and with a loss of 4,500 copies, has had to cope with the biggest slump in its history. Similar to Tamedia, "a streamlining of the circulation" led to the losses, explains Bolero advertising manager Susanne Frischknecht. "We have removed many free subscriptions and reduced target group sales," says Frischknecht.
An indication that women have not generally become tired of reading is provided by Glückspost, which only lost 1,391 copies. Or Schweizer Illustrierte, which is also predominantly bought by women and was even able to slightly increase its circulation at a high level.
Observers back at the top
The Beobachter provided a surprise. Despite growth of only 300 copies, it managed to recapture the top spot in the Swiss-German magazine market, which it had had to cede to K-Tipp for several years. This was made possible by a slump at K-Tipp, which, after a huge dip in 2001, again had 9,349 fewer copies certified. Part of this loss is probably due to cannibalization within the company. The advertising-free sister magazine Saldo was able to increase its circulation by 3589 copies. However, Puls-Tipp bled even more than K-Tipp, losing 11654 copies. The magazine GesundheitSprechstunde provides an indication of where buyers may have migrated to: after climbing in previous years, the Ringier magazine once again gained an impressive 4679 copies this time.
Newspapers in German-speaking SwitzerlandTitles 2001 2002 %
SonntagsBlick 336336 312312 -7.1
View 309444 292292 -5.5
Tages-Anzeiger 250000 234518 -6.2
SonntagsZeitung 221100 202100 -8.6
Mittelland Zeitung 197688 193665 -2.0
Neue Zürcher Zeitung 170113 166291 -2.2
Berner Zeitung 162202 163000 +0.5
Southeastern Switzerland 138933 138257 -0.5
Neue Luzerner Zeitung 133820 133304 -0.4
St. Galler Tagblatt 110502 110209 -0.3
Basler Zeitung 109095 103649 -5.0
The Confederation 68212 66242 -2.9
Cash 68088 60606 -11.0
PCtip 56074 60060 +7.1
Zürichsee Zeitung 47494 47023 -1.0
Der Landbote 46724 48016 +2.8
Neue Thurgauer Zeitung 47919 46976 -2.0
Finance and economy 50397 44308 -12.1
Zürcher Oberländer 44118 43846 -0.6
HandelsZeitung 35571 33044 -7.1
Bieler Tagblatt 31456 32453 +3.2
Walliser Bote 27493 27459 -0.1
Schaffhauser Nachrichten 26198 26206 --
Basellandschaftliche Zeitung 24535 24003 -2.2
Online PC newspaper 21772 21362 -1.9
Freiburger Nachrichten 16470 16330 -0.9
WoZ 14210 13213 -7.0
Newspapers Western Switzerland and TicinoTitles 2001 2002 %
Le matin dimanche 215049 203838 -5.2
24 heures 88043 88543 +0.6
Tribune de Genève 76708 75029 -2.2
Le matin semaine 65498 66531 +1.6
Le temps 53522 52112 -2.6
Nouvelliste 42150 42694 +1.3
Corriere del Ticino 39589 39855 +0.7
La Liberté 37783 38238 +1.2
La Regione 32901 33062 +0.5
L'Express 29059 29028 -0.1
La Presse Riviera-Chablais 24986 24197 -3.2
Giornale del Popolo 27396 22045 -24.3
L'Impartial 21025 20940 -0.4
Magazines in German-speaking SwitzerlandTitles 2001 2002 %
Observer 335226 335561 +0.1
K-Tip 337486 328137 -2.8
Schweizer Illustrierte 254657 255777 +0.4
NZZ Folio 224394 221303 -1.4
Tele 223739 214214 -4.3
The best 184388 170799 -7.3
TR 7 168036 169035 +0.6
Lucky mail 170128 168737 -0.8
Balance 161277 164866 +2.2
Swiss family 155724 160000 +2.7
Pulse tip 139409 127755 -8.3
Weltwoche (84957) 91094 +7.2
HealthConsultation hours 78416 83095 +6.0
Facts 103363 80200 -22.4
Annabelle 100015 73700 -26.3
Animal world 71156 71867 +1.0
Slow motion 60052 66911 +11.4
Balance sheet 55377 47402 -14.6
We parents 41978 43082 +2.6
K-money 42974 42096 -2.0
Automobil Revue 41046 38237 -7.3
Auto Illustrierte 24421 24812 +1.6
Bolero 27066 22473 -17.0
Stocks 26982 21124 -21.7
Fit for Life 20259 20856 +2.9
Pegasus 21662 20360 -6.0
You 21800 17600 -19.3
Magazines Western Switzerland and TicinoTitle 2001 2002 %
Bon à savoir 102904 104251 +1.3
L'Illustré 96084 93187 -3.0
Sélection 61796 56986 -7.8
TV8 53062 53268 +0.4
L'Hebdo 50466 48207 -4.5
Générations 40797 41368 +1.4
Cuisine de Saison 38658 39458 +2.1
Terre et Nature 25760 26482 +2.7
Edelweiss 25199 25467 +1.1
Animan 22933 22933 --
Balance 19930 19894 -0.2
Revue Automobil 18976 17767 -6.4
Cucina di Stagione 11581 11959 +3.3
Daniel Schifferle

Publishers "Increase in profits despite drop in business", reports Switzerland's largest media company The protagonist at Ringier's annual press conference on Zurich's Dufourstrasse this time was not the publisher, but its CFO. Firstly, because the Group only survived the catastrophic year 2002 without a major slump thanks to Martin Werfeli's rigid cost management. And secondly, because the long-standing CFO and COO will rightly take over Michael Ringier's role as CEO in June. The patron himself becomes Chairman of the Board of Directors and withdraws from the operational business. Werfeli's successor Ulrich Flörchinger also made a significant contribution to the "reasonably satisfactory result" (Ringier) - albeit twelve years ago, as co-initiator and financial strategist of the Eastern and Central European business. This area also grew the most in 2002 (+15.6%), ahead of Asia (+12.5%). By contrast, the Swiss business segments shrank - across all areas, with business media (-19.5%) falling the furthest under the economic wheels.
However, newspapers also lost a further 6.5 percent and now contribute just under 202 million francs to the overall result. In addition to advertising revenues (-11 million francs), sales revenues (-3 million francs) also fell for the first time. For Michael Ringier, however, a price increase for the two newsstand newspapers Blick and SonntagsBlick will only be discussed "if we can offer readers something additional in return". Werfeli also sees "room for maneuver of 30 or 40 centimes", but would first like to research the price sensitivity of tabloid customers in more detail.
Ringier AG: Business results 2002In CHF million 2002 2001 +/- %
Total sales 1033.3 1062.9 -2.8
Profit for the year after taxes 39.2 34.8 +12.6
Cash flow 124.1 121.1 +2.5
Employees 5419 6079 -10.9
(oc)

The BSW agency Dachcom Gmeiner from Eastern Switzerland won over Bezema AG in a two-stage competitive presentation.the BSW agency Dachcom Gmeiner from Eastern Switzerland won over Bezema AG in a two-stage competitive presentation. The company produces chemical dyes for the international textile industry and has an international branch and distribution network. A complete CD, documentation, product branding, trade advertisements and PR are planned. The first works can be seen from April.

Public transport With Tasmanie, Lausanne's public transport operators are setting a new course The figures speak for themselves: TL (Transports Lausanne) transported over 70 million passengers on its 206-kilometre network in 2001. The annual surveys also show that the population is satisfied with the offer and service. This was not always the case: As recently as 1997, the people of Lausanne rated their public transport company as "inactive and old-fashioned". Among other things, the poor route network and outdated vehicles were to blame. Over the last six years, the TL managers have expanded the infrastructure and service offerings. At the same time, they entrusted the agency Tasmanie, also based in Lausanne, with the concept of a uniform communication strategy - with success. But TL want more: they envision a fare network that extends beyond the Lausanne region. A pool of mobility partners - under the leadership of TL - whose tariff unity should considerably simplify travel in the Léman region. The current campaign concept "parfum d'empathie" aims to communicate this vision to the population. "The claim 'une idée qui fait son chemin' aims to reinforce TL's image and present the visionary mobility concept," explains Tasmanie consultant Jérôme Boillat. The eye-catching motifs are metamorphoses of round shapes into the square, blue and white TL logo. A human eye iris and the planet Earth are suddenly given corners and edges.
Simone Keller

According to the advertising research company, gross advertising expenditure in Swiss cinemas fell by 9.5 percent in February compared to the previous year. "This picture is irritating because our sales have risen by over 8 percent compared to February 2002," Cinecom Managing Director Matthias Luchsinger is quoted as saying in a press release. The latest Sunday press also reported that the cinema industry is on the upswing despite the slump. This positive trend applies to all cinemas represented by Cinecom, which account for around 87 percent of all cinemas in Switzerland.

TV pools In the first three months of 2003, Publisuisse achieved a turnover of 1.2 million Swiss francs with the marketing of the TeleNewsCombi (TNC), explained Publisuisse Director Ingrid Deltenre, adding that the combi was most in demand ahead of the SF DRS "Tagesschau" and the news blocks of the private broadcasters. According to Managing Director Marcel Geissbühler, the TNC achieved a net customer income of just under three million francs in 2002, twice as much as in 2001.