The two organizers MCH Messe Basel AG and Interactive Publishing are ending their partnership at the Content Summit.News Divorce in Basel Messe Basel had previously contributed the "Content Show" trade fair. This will now be integrated into the computer trade fair Orbit as "Content Expo". Orbit will take place from September 24 to 27, 2002. Interactive Publishing will continue to organize the Content Summit, next time on 16 and 17 January 2003.
Marriage in Geneva The Edipresse publishing group acquires a 20% stake in Point Prod GmbH. The Geneva-based company was founded in 1996 by Vincent Gonet under the name La Rue Daubin and produces features, series and TV commercials. Its main customer is the French-speaking Swiss broadcaster TSR, but the French channels TV 5 and M 6 also work with Point Prod. Edipresse is convinced of the benefits that the TV production market can bring to a dynamic press group.
St.Gallen warning
In view of the takeover of Radio Basilisk by Tamedia, Günter Heuberger, President of the Association of Swiss Private Radio Stations (VSP), warned of the consequences of increasing media concentration. If the large media companies take over more and more local radio stations and these lose their regional sponsorship, there is a risk of impoverishment of the regional media scene, he warned the news agency SDA.
Aargauer Relaunch AZ Wochenzeitungen AG (AZW) commenced operations at the beginning of June. This marks the completion of the AZ Medien Group's takeover of Kromer Medien AG. The publishing houses and editorial offices of all AZW titles are located at the new site in Lenzburg, as are advertising sales for the weekly newspapers and the Kromer titles as well as the regional representation of the Aargauer Zeitung for the Lenzburg and Freiamt area. At the same time, a new concept for the Lenzburger Bezirks-Anzeiger and Der Seetaler/ Lindenberg will be implemented.

The future of Meyer's remains unclear: the loss-making women's magazine is still looking for a buyer and will continue to operate for the time being. The editorial team was informed of this on Tuesday. For the employees who have been made redundant in corpore, the uncertainty about their future continues and talks are underway with new interested parties. The editorial team did not learn any more on Tuesday. And yet Bruno Hug and Oliver Prange, publishers of Obersee Nachrichten and Persönlich, had only just burnt their fingers with Meyer's. Just three days after they had plunged in head over heels, the supposed bargain was already getting too hot for them.
Hug and Prange had primarily focused on the period in which the terminated editorial team was still paid and available. "The interesting thing about the deal was that the salaries were paid for three months, during which time it would have been possible to build up a new staff," explains Hug. In other words, the title could then have been trimmed to low-cost production, something in which Hug and Prange have a lot of experience. But that didn't happen - the two of them threw in the towel as soon as it became known that the editorial team was not affiliated with the CLA when the contract was signed. This would have cost the new owners several hundred thousand francs in additional employee claims.
One employee is convinced that the slip-up with the concealed CLA subordination was not deliberate, but the result of "catastrophic incompetence and a lack of transparency" at Verlag Meyer AG. Apparently there had been a mix-up with the CLA in the printing sector, which had been terminated in 1996. Hug has decided not to sue for the withheld CLA subordination. "I have not suffered any damage, at most damage to my image," he says.
Media planners are still of the opinion that Meyer's must have a future. Otherwise, German-speaking Switzerland would lack a conservative women's title. It will be interesting to see if anyone else can be found who wants to continue serving the target group covered by Meyer's - and has the money to do so. (dse)

Otto Schumacher runs Switzerland's first explicit business nomad agency in ZwillikonBy Ernst Weber He works with creative and lateral thinkers from all over the world and transforms their creative energy into communication solutions: Otto Schumacher in Zwillikon near Zurich is convinced that this form of collaboration leads to a form of advertising that stays in people's minds for longer.
Otto Schumacher was always a deep-digging advertiser. The hallmark of his work has always been sustainability. For example, layouts that he designed as a freelancer helped Lesch+Frei's first important campaigns to achieve a breakthrough, such as the appearance for the Zurich carpet retailer Schuster. The campaigns that his agency Schumacher Glattfelder designed in the 1980s for Lancia, the watchmaker Harald Schade and the fashion house Big, for example, intimately reflected the substance of the brand identity. The Inlingua language school is still "the strict language school" that he positioned it as in a campaign over ten years ago.
Just over a year ago, Otto Schumacher moved his Zurich-based agency to the countryside. To a small village at the end of the advertising world, to Zwillikon near Zurich. Many smiled at him, but in the high, bright factory rooms of a disused weaving mill, he set up the control center of a network of creative minds and planners from England, France, Spain and Switzerland on 600 square meters.
Schumacher considered the change at a time when SwissRe, a client acquired in 1995, had moved to the international network agency Advico Young & Rubicam in 2001. The reason for the change of agency at that time: Swiss Re wanted to be represented locally in the increasingly important market areas of America and Asia. At practically the same time, the landlord of Schumacher's agency premises had announced his own requirements. But the move to the advertising province had nothing to do with an escape. Rather, the change of location was a well-considered move based on the philosophy of sustainability.
Schumacher's hike to the center of his advertising world
Otto Schumacher entered the world of advertising in 1966. Born in Lucerne in 1941, he originally wanted to become an interior designer. However, while completing his preliminary course at the Lucerne School of Arts and Crafts, he began to focus more and more on advertising.
He became more interested in advertising and eventually decided to pursue a career in graphic design.
After completing his apprenticeship, he worked for a year and a half as a graphic designer at the Zurich agency Klöti, which was a very promising "store" at the time. His next stop took him to Svenska Telegrambyrån in Stockholm. At the Swedish creative agency, which employed 300 people at the time and won the most "golden eggs" (the equivalent of the ADC dice), he worked as a junior AD for a year. Due to developments in the communications industry at the time, Otto Schumacher did not plan to go to America after his return to Switzerland.
"It was an interesting time. Agencies such as Lürzer Conrad, Eiler & Riemel and others that later became well-known came into being. You could also make a big impact in Switzerland," recalls the advertiser, who returned to Klöti after a detour to Sweden. He worked there for ten years before setting up his own business as a freelance art director in 1977.
It was at Klöti that Schumacher met the consultant Edi Glattfelder. Together with him, he founded the Schumacher Glattfelder agency in 1980, which got off to a flying start: after just six months, the advertising duo was working on the prestigious Lancia and Erickson accounts and also worked for Migros. Lancia proved to be a key client that attracted further clients. "We never made acquisitions," says Schumacher. The partnership lasted around four years, after which Edi Glattfelder, who now lives on the Greek island of Andros, took on other tasks. Among other things, he was Managing Director of DDB Needham, Küsnacht, and Ogilvy & Mather, Zurich, and worked for Lowe|GGK's Eastern Bloc network in Bucharest, Prague and Warsaw.
Time works for Schumacher's agency concept
The decentralized structure was a characteristic of the agency from an early stage, explains the owner, who characterizes the culture of his company expressis verbis on the business card: "The special agency concept includes networking with creatives and thinkers who have set up their lives in such a way that they can support selected projects in the long term; constantly and across all borders."
Rulf Neigenfind, for example, ex-CEO of GGK Germany, has been writing and designing copy for Otto Schumacher for 18 years. Gerd Hiepler, an exceptional creative in many respects, has been contributing to Schumacher's communication solutions since 1981. Hiepler, who in his younger years often traveled in a VW bus and spent the night in underground garages, now lives in Spain. Another "loyal" free spirit named by Schumacher is Thomas Bernold, an astrophysicist with Nasa experience, who has been working in communications for ten years, "but whose training and way of thinking means that he contributes completely unexpected thoughts and ideas". The collaboration with Wolf Rogowski, which began in 1994, came to a premature end with his death. The top advertiser, who had built up GGK New York and managed GGK Paris, died two years later. However, he lives on in the term "talents unlimited", which Schumacher uses in his agency name.
"This stability is rather rare in the advertising business," says the advertiser, who sees one of his agency's strengths in the fact that it is primarily made up of people "who are really very individual".
The future belongs to business nomads
The young-at-heart creative recently found confirmation for his agency concept, which has been working for 20 years, from Matthias Horx. The Hamburg-based trend and future researcher predicted that there will be eight million so-called business nomads in German-speaking countries by 2010. These are "restless wanderers" who "lead a life on the move", whose "social contacts consist of business meetings, professional networks" and "circles of friends that are maintained by e-mail".
Madeleine Hermle belongs to the sedentary species. Born in Solothurn, she has been Managing Director of this business nomad agency since the end of last year. Hermle, who most recently worked as a consulting group leader at McCann-Erickson in Zurich, is convinced that the agency concept works. She believes that "communication is enriched by mobility, it helps to make a product interesting in the long term".
Hermle expresses a plausible thought and takes Horx's argument to the level of advertising. In doing so, she opens the door to Schumacher's agency concept. According to this concept, the original purpose of communication is to transform distance into proximity and the unfamiliar into the familiar.
In future, sustainable advertising could therefore be increasingly developed from the idea of mobility. This is because it has been shown that advertising novices are always unhappy when they are thinking about something far away but cannot physically overcome the great distance to this object. Those who try to overcome this feeling generally also produce communicative energy.
On the other hand, it is quite conceivable that Otto Schumacher's very own understanding of communication is the source from which his advertising draws its effectiveness.

Wyler Werbung amazes with political parody campaign for Shoppi&TivoliWith a poster campaign developed by Ruedi Wyler, Switzerland's second-largest shopping center is advertising its sell-out. The Zurich agency brazenly and unprecedentedly used the style of Swiss election posters. Both the creator and the client are sure to attract attention, as they are running this "election campaign" alone a year before the National Council and Council of States elections. Anyone who thinks that the ex-Glatt advertiser is following in Abächerli's footsteps is mistaken. Wyler: "We just wanted to find a funny approach to the subject of selling out." Page 11

The merged media agencies present their management teamsWith the takeover of the Tempus Group by the WPP network, the media agencies CIA and The Media Edge have merged to form Mediaedge|CIA. In Switzerland, the organization of the new management has now been completed, with Bernd Lecke-busch at the head of the Swiss branches of Mediaedge|CIA as CEO Switzerland and Chairman of the Executive Board. He will mainly manage the agency's fortunes from the Lausanne office. He will be joined on the Executive Board by Urs Rueb, Urs Renner and Gérald LeMeur.
The new management has been operational since May 27, although Mediaedge|CIA does not actually exist as a company in Switzerland yet. "We have to keep the companies separate until the end of the year for legal reasons," explains Bernd Leckebusch, "but we are already operating together."
While Gérald LeMeur continues to manage the management consultancy unit LeLab in Geneva, Urs Renner and his team from The Media Edge joined CIA in Zurich at the beginning of the year. Rueb and Renner are effectively co-managing the operational side of the business, but Rueb is responsible for the Zurich branch. "In practical terms, this means that Urs Renner continues to look after the clients of the former Media Edge in addition to various management tasks," says Rueb, "so we can guarantee the greatest possible continuity.
The new Executive Board was formed definitively after the previous CEO Switzerland, André Funk, decided to leave the company. Leckebusch emphasizes that this step was taken by mutual agreement. Funk and Andres Palomares, the previous head of the Media Services organization in Berne, will turn their attention to their own projects.
According to Leckebusch, the composition of the Executive Board came about without any influence from the network. The proposal from Switzerland was accepted without any objections.
"You certainly can't deny that two cultures come together at Mediaedge|CIA," admits Leckebusch, "but everyone has been pulling in the same direction from the very beginning." Urs Rueb is also a little wistful: "It certainly hurts to give up the independence of CIA. But a new and extremely promising era has now begun."
In addition to giving the two companies a stronger position in the market, the changes have also given them access to the market.
The merger has given us access to new tools and working methods that will soon be introduced to the market. The merger made Mediaedge|CIA the number two among Swiss media agencies. Bruno Amstutz

The PR agency Reinhard Frei & Partner AG, based in Balgach, is merging with the advertising agency fkp & Partner AG, St.Gallen, and is now trading as Freicom Beziehungsmanagement und Kommunikation AG. This takes the cooperation between the companies a logical step further. Reinhard Frei & Partner AG had already taken over the advertising agency on January 1, 2001, but continued to operate under its own name. "Now we want to make even better use of the synergies," says co-owner Reinhard Frei, explaining the reasons for the merger of the companies. Freicom offers comprehensive communication services and is divided into four divisions: Marketing and Advertising BSW, Public Relations, Project Management and Event Management. Frei is not considering merging the two locations in St.Gallen and Balgach.
When he took over FKP & Partner, St.Gallen, the new owner expressed the medium-term goal of becoming one of the top ten Swiss PR agencies. The agency achieved this faster than expected: the NZZ newspaper on April 26 listed Reinhard Frei & Partner as the PR agency with the tenth-highest net fee income in 2001.
Instead of growth, the new company is focusing on expanding its network. Cooperation with the agency Schabus PR+Marketing already extends to Austria. Further contacts to Bern and Zurich are planned (ba).

Karajan on his deathbed: «God, do I deserve this?»Bild Doesn’t Want to Celebrate with Eichborn. These and many other headlines from Germany’s largest daily newspaper, Bild, are now collected in a book that could be called a treasure trove for copywriters—but Eichborn Verlag is no longer allowed to sell it. That’s because Axel Springer Verlag has prohibited the Frankfurt-based publisher from shipping the book and billing retailers for it. According to Eichborn, this raises the «disturbing suspicion» that «they are, for the time being, acting against their own interests.» Well then: let’s head straight to the nearest bookstore—while supplies last—and revel in the textual thrills evoked by the following sentences, which were not written by Günter Wallraff: «Castrated by the mother-in-law’s dachshund,» «Kennedy’s brain stolen,» «Khomeini stops a jumbo jet because of Carrell’s bra,» «The seemingly dead: From the coffin to Mallorca»—only to hold our breath at the all-consuming question, «Was it sperm theft?» «What,» we ask in alarm, «does Axel Springer Verlag have against the headlines in *Bild*?» It’s not just Eichborn Verlag that’s at a loss. King of Radiocontrol. A book celebrating Matthias Steinmann’s 60th birthday features a collection of materials on the theme of «Audience.» «The Audience as Program» is the title of the work published by Stämpfli Verlag. The editors are Roy Oppenheim, Dieter Stolte, and Franz A. Zölch. As they write in the foreword, they did not want to commission a «commemorative volume» for Steinmann, the “researcher, entrepreneur, and author.” Instead, the result is a document containing numerous scholarly facts and insights on audience and media research. Among the authors are, in addition to many others, Bakom Director Marc Furrer, publisher Charles von Graffenried, SRG Director General Armin Walpen, and media scholars Roger Blum and Ulrich Saxer. With some of the contributions, however, one cannot shake the impression that the authors did not come up with anything new here, but rather dug through their drawers for presentations they had already given.
«Not smoking is cool!» The Swiss Cigarette Industry Association (CISC) is launching a campaign in June aimed at discouraging young people from smoking. Through a TV commercial and a series of posters displayed on public transportation, the campaign—under the slogan «Not smoking is cool»—aims to promote a tobacco-free lifestyle. The website Youthsmokingprevention.ch also leverages the internet for this purpose. Edgar Oehler, president of the CISC, emphasized in a statement: «The industry’s initiative demonstrates that it actively supports the efforts of parents, teachers, and health officials to keep young people from smoking. The fight against youth smoking is an essential part of the industry’s objectives regarding personal responsibility, regardless of the fact that this could mean a decline in cigarette sales in our country.» The CISC includes manufacturers Philip Morris, British American Tobacco, and JT International.

Summer’s here again. What would the start of the winter or summer season be without the customary campaigns from Sportplausch Wider and its two creative directors, Markus Gut and Markus Ruf? And now that the days are getting longer and warmer again, new designs are also being featured on posters, ads, and “Cards for free.” For this year’s biking season, the creative duo has signaled new bike routes to owners and potential buyers of Wider’s line of two-wheelers. For example, the yellow bike path icon is shown on the left lane of the highway for racing cyclists, on a dam for downhill cyclists, and on a steep mountainside for mountain bikers. But even casual city cyclists are warned: they, too, sometimes fall victim to police car rearview mirrors. At the heart of the campaign are once again radio spots in which Stierli-Sport takes a dig at Wider, thereby vigorously beating the drum for the brand.
Swiss Gold in New York. The Zurich-based advertising agency Publicis won a gold award at the New York Festivals« international competition for print and radio advertising. The image campaign conceived by Art Director Ralf Kostgeld for the committee advocating Switzerland’s accession to the UN received a »Gold World Medal« in the political advertising category. The design (posters and ads) depicts a world map as the camouflage pattern on a combat uniform, accompanied by the slogan »Let’s talk to each other. UN.” Matter & Partner also took home a gold award: their print campaign for the Zurich Theater Spectacle was honored in the Entertainment Promotion category.
Mirer is a local friend. Ursin Mirer is in the process of transforming himself from a culinary event organizer (see also page 8) into a one-of-a-kind event publisher. First, at the turn of the year, he brought the official guide from Zurich Tourism (City Guide Zurich) into his publishing house, Tourismus AG; it is now published four times a year. Then, in March, he followed that up with the weekly, 24-page fold-out brochure *Event Guide Zürich*, which is distributed in a print run of 20,000 copies through movie theaters, Zurich Tourism, restaurants, clubs, and hotels. Michèle Roten serves as the guide’s editor. It was designed—as was the City Guide, incidentally—by typographer Kurt Schwerzmann. The leaflet clearly lists the week’s events, highlights the top events you shouldn’t miss—and also accepts advertisements for exactly 1,650 francs per four-color page—which can be easily booked at www.hello visitors.com. It also lands on the desks of 150 advertising agencies every week. Mirer expects the Event Guide to become self-sustaining starting next year, as he explained to WerbeWoche.
Editorial

If a person bites a dog… In our frenetic media society, everything revolves around the economics of attention. In this battle for (life’s) time, the media are both perpetrators and victims. Their significance in this competitive landscape is measured by ratings, readership figures, and circulation numbers. Ultimately, the media’s recurring goal is to present real-life stories in a way that transcends the familiar and the ordinary. «If a dog bites a man, that’s no news, but if a man bites a dog, that’s news»—this is the pithy maxim of Anglo-Saxon media professionals.
Reports of taboo-breaking, accidents, war, and terrorism all serve this cult of the eternally new.
But in addition to this «shock aesthetic» designed to grab attention, the media also serve to offer comfort and instill confidence.
Images and stories about celebrities play this role because they are both eye-catching and unifying. Celebrity is well-suited to constant repetition. Some things fade away the longer you look at them—but celebrity apparently isn’t one of them.
This comforting factor is likely also responsible for the trend in which celebrities are in high demand as a versatile tool for advertisers, especially during times of economic uncertainty. According to a study by the Bielefeld-based market research institute TNS Emnid, about half of consumers welcomed celebrities as advertising spokespersons in March of this year.
Even higher than the popularity of testimonial advertising are the attention-grabbing qualities that celebrities
Results: More than two-thirds of respondents said that advertisements featuring celebrities stand out more than those without them. This trend is on the rise. Furthermore, willingness to purchase the corresponding products reached a record high of over 80 percent among this group.
It’s only natural that, against this backdrop, our cervelat celebrities are currently making a cheerful comeback in advertising. This should finally put to rest the persistent myth of the secret seducers. Samuel Helbling, Editor-in-Chief

Theo Fennell spotted a gap in the market and created the perfect accessory: jewelry for strippers. Set with real diamonds, it costs £750; the version with less precious stones is available for as little as £250. In both versions, the diamonds sparkle on the front, while the word «Strip» is engraved on the back. What a token of appreciation for the multicultural ladies of Langstrasse. Perhaps this little gold piece will even become a symbol of the world’s oldest profession—provided, of course, that the clients don’t prefer to spend their money on more hands-on services. It’s being advertised in the Financial Times’ weekend magazine, tailored to the target audience. Once again, an advertising campaign outshines the genius of the product. Chandra Kurt [email protected]
Column

In the Land of the Dwarves by Dominik Imseng
«Good morning,» my shaving cream greets me, and it also advises me to «shake it well.» Both are written on the can, and as I shake it, I think this would be a perfect sentence to start this column with, because a first sentence like that is important. Important for me, because I can use it as a stepping stone to walk into the text. And important for you, because I’m using it to pick you up—to take you on a little tour of the lake of words. And in that sense, an opening sentence like this is a way to promote my column.
Speaking of advertising: When advertisers are cynical—and that’s still a common occurrence despite the recession—they like to say things like, «When I’m sixty, all I want to do is play golf and improve my handicap.» Or, «I need someone who can lead a thousand people.» Or: «I’ve invented a new art movement.»
Those aren’t very smart things to say, and even the advertisers know it. So why do they let themselves be quoted that way anyway? Because they’re so bitter. And why are they so bitter? Because all too often they feel like high jumpers with just two dwarfs setting the bar: Dwarf Client (that’s the one who pays for their work) and Dwarf Consumer (that’s the one who decides whether their work pays off)—and these dwarfs won’t even stand on their tiptoes, that’s how stupid and lazy they are.
That’s why advertising often isn’t fun for advertisers; they sit around in a bad mood, or play soccer with their Jack Russell terriers, or come back from a trip to the restroom looking strangely refreshed, or have their portraits taken by *Schweizer Illustrierte*.
But they would never—that much is clear—NEVER write columns.
Writing columns—where would that get us?
[email protected] Dominik Imseng is a copywriter at Jung von Matt/Limmat.
Business lunch

This foundry has become a cohesive whole. It all began in the early 1990s with a sculptor at Birchstrasse 108, who set up a kitchen in his studio and hosted guests on the weekends. Back then, people would whisper the name of this semi-illegal spot to one another as an insider tip. Those days are long gone. Ever since Ursin Mirer leased the site of the former foundry, he has been working with Alfredo Häberli to transform it into a gem. Mirer has proven himself to be a man of the fine arts. After all, Häberli and his firm, Design Development, are by no means newcomers to restaurant design: his Teca in London is brilliantly conceived and executed, and the Ginger on Seefeldstrasse is aesthetically compelling.
Mirer in Oerlikon offers a “three-course” concept: three appetizers, three main courses, and three desserts rotate daily. It’s hard to pin down the culinary style. Somewhat Mediterranean, perhaps. That doesn’t quite fit with the Thai fish curry that was on the menu on Day X: quite spicy and made with high-quality fish, it was served with basmati rice—and was absolutely delightful. The lamb skewer with tabbouleh (beautifully stacked into a cylinder) also tasted impeccable. The chocolate mousse was tender and melted in your mouth. Admittedly, this isn’t the haute cuisine of the pinstriped business lunch crowd—and thankfully so: after all, the interior has to complement the food, and vice versa. And the prices are perfectly reasonable as well: main courses cost between 22 and 30 francs.
The space itself is the experience: six to eight meters high, whitewashed up to head height, with traces of soot and sweat preserved in their original state above that; even the two-by-two-meter fireplace is used in the winter: this industrial chic in the post-industrial age is truly enchanting. So much so that the restaurant is open for private parties on Friday and Saturday evenings (and must be booked six months in advance). At lunchtime, when the weather is nice, you can dine in the garden—though seating is a bit cramped.
A quick note about the wine list: There are plenty of discoveries to be made, and many of them are also available by the glass. Don’t miss out on taking a look at the list. Reservations are recommended for lunch. Carlo Bernasconi [email protected]
Oerlikon Foundry
108 Birch Street
8050 Zurich
Tel. 01 311 70 44
Parking spaces: 24; they fill up quickly.
Evaluation

Food .......................4
Drinks ..................5
Operation ................3
Business Factor ……..3
5=top, 4=very good, 3=o.k., 2=naja, 1=flop

Belcom, the marketer of the electronic media of the Zurich media group Tamedia, has completely redesigned its online presence www.belcom.ch.Service Belcom with new website The new design has thrown all elements from earlier times overboard and presents itself with wallpaper understatement. The design comes from the graphic agency Aformat, the implementation was realized by the Webfactory of Green.ch. On Belcom.ch, the rates and conditions of Radio 24, Tele Züri, Züritext and the associated websites as well as information about Belcom AG are available.
Dukas launches its own website Since the beginning of this week, the Dukas press agency can also be found on the Internet. Dukas represents well-known picture agencies in Switzerland and offers professional picture users motifs from all areas. Excluded from this, however, are purely Swiss subjects. The website www.dukas.ch provides, among other things, news, contact addresses, a possibility to order pictures and a list of the represented picture agencies as well as portfolios from the areas of topicality and archive. In a later phase, an online database with direct access to the agency's image offerings is also planned.
SRG annual report available "Without a strong SRG SSR, there will be no competitive Swiss television": This is the conclusion reached by President Hans Fünfschilling in the new SRG Deutschschweiz annual report. Therefore, the revision of the RTVA must first and foremost ensure that SRG can continue to maintain its public service, he says. The report also contains facts and figures on Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen DRS in 2001, as well as articles on the work of SRG Deutschschweiz's committees. The annual report can now be ordered online at www.srgdeutschschweiz.ch.

The St. Gallen people magazine Faces now has an offshoot in Zurich.News Faces in Zurich Faces was launched by the communications company Fairlane Consulting as a party and lifestyle magazine with a regional focus. The Zurich edition is produced by Zentner Kreativproduktionen GmbH by Jürg Zentner, copywriter and co-founder of Kult. Faces Zurich is distributed in a print run of 40,000 copies.
Eviva becomes Central After Radio Central acquires a majority stake in folk music station Eviva, Eviva's headquarters are relocated from Zurich to Brunnen SZ. Alfons Spirig takes over the management of both stations. Program responsibility for Eviva remains with Martin Sebastian. The sales departments are transferred to the new marketing company Ceniva AG under André Hasenmile's aegis.
Jean Frey sells ads for Dezibel The Federation of Swiss Associations for the Hard of Hearing (BSSV) will launch its magazine Dezibel with a new design in September. According to the association, the magazine will be published in full color and with a monthly circulation of 10,000 copies. Advertising sales will be handled by Jean Frey Fachmedien.

Al Dente complements Schweizer Illustrierte with a culinary lifestyleBrun Bruno Amstutz In collaboration with Betty Bossi and Gault Millau, Schweizer Illustrierte presents its new special edition Al Dente. The title will be published four times a year together with SI.
With Al Dente, Ringier is expanding the range of special editions that regularly enrich Schweizer Illustrierte. Alongside Bon Voyage, which specializes in travel, and Auto Extra, the newcomer is positioning itself in the culinary field. Recipes, gastronomic tips, lifestyle advice and interviews with a bite are designed to make readers' mouths water.
It is no coincidence that the magazine is being launched with the same name as Betty Bossi's cooking show on SF2. "The public success of the show was ultimately the deciding factor in launching the booklet," comments SI publishing director Urs Heller. Parallels are welcome: all the recipes from the show are transferred from the screen to paper.
However, the print version of Al Dente aims to be more than just a collection of recipes and cover topics relating to gastronomy across all budget categories. "The boundaries between everyday and high-end gastronomy are becoming increasingly blurred and the target audience is becoming broader," comments Heller, who himself contributes an illustrated Gault Millau test.
Comparative tests are intended to increase the usefulness of the special edition and show whether the spaghetti plate from Versace is a must or whether the low-budget version from Interio will suffice. The service section is supplemented by restaurant and shopping tips. This also includes the presentation of world-changing technical innovations such as the electric corkscrew or the coffee machine with internet connection.
Finally, Schweizer Illustrierte lives out its core competence in celebrity interviews and explores the eating and cooking habits of famous faces. In the first issue on June 3, Publicis boss Fredy Collioud provides insights into his wine cellar and his culinary preferences.
Al Dente wants to benefit from SI's large readership and use a lifestyle approach to set itself apart from other culinary titles such as Salz & Pfeffer. Urs Heller does not see any direct competition for the new special edition, especially since Meyer has practically left the market with Chuchi.
Al Dente also hopes that the mix of topics across the budget categories will attract interest from a wide range of advertising customers, from major distributors to manufacturers of luxury goods. The advertising rates are identical to those of Schweizer Illustrierte.

The internet agency Marvel Communications from Gland VD wants to separate from Swissquote.News Marvel without Swissquote The Swissquote Group and the Marvel management have signed a letter of intent for a management buyout, which is to be completed by the end of June. Swissquote intends to concentrate on its core business of online financial services.
Good start for Toxic.Fm
The St.Gallen radio station Toxic.fm, which has been on air since December 3, 2001, has a net reach of 25,300 listeners in the first quarter of 2002 according to initial Radiocontrol listening figures. The radio station, whose license area is limited to the city of St.Gallen with a potential audience of 75,000 people (15+), only has an average listening time of 7.4 minutes. Nevertheless, the operators are confident: "With these listening figures, Toxic.fm has become an attractive partner for the advertising industry," write the students of the University of St.Gallen, who run the radio station.
Radio Fribourg with financial problems The expansion of the bilingual local station Radio Fribourg, together with management errors, has led to major financial and personnel problems, which are now exacerbating the general decline in advertising revenue, according to a press release. In order to secure its future, the station is resorting to measures such as staff cuts and adjustments to the program. An advertising partnership with the Freiburger Nachrichten and appeals for donations should generate additional income.
SRG receivable via satellite On Monday, SRG switched all 18 radio channels to Eutelsat's Hotbird 3 satellite. This means that all SRG programs can now be received via satellite, as SRG announced on Monday. This applies throughout Switzerland and Europe. A satellite antenna and a decoder are required.