Gross advertising expenditure down in MayGross advertising expenditure fell by 1.4 percent to CHF 371.362 million in May. This is the second time this year that advertising expenditure has been in decline, with daily newspapers performing 4.8 percent worse than in May 2000. Consumer magazines were down 1 percent. Among the print media, trade journals were hit the hardest with a drop of 10 percent.
The electronic media also recorded a weak performance. Gross advertising expenditure fell by 3.5% for both television and radio. In addition to these negative developments, however, there were also opposing trends: Cinema advertising increased by 12.2%. Poster advertising soared with an increase of 21.6%. Internet banner advertising was on the rise at 11.8%. Teletext was also up by 2.6%.
Cumulatively for the first five months of the current year, gross advertising expenditure is still just in positive territory with an increase of 0.1%. Poster advertising is in a very comfortable position, up 10.2% for the current year. Internet banner advertising is even 10.6% up on the previous year. Television, teletext and cinema advertising are also still on the winning side. Daily newspapers have lost the most since the beginning of the year, falling by 3.1%. Radio also suffered a significant decline of 2.1 percent. Daniel Schifferle
Gross advertising expenditure by media May 2000/2001 in comparison
in 1000 Fr. / 2000 in 1000 Fr. / 2001 +/- in %
Daily newspapers 162823 154986 -4.8
Consumer magazines 71439 70728 -1.0
Trade journals 24064 21648 -10.0
TV 64785 62544 -3.5
Radio 11583 11175 -3.5
Cinema 2376 2667 12.2
Teletext 1865 1913 2.6
Poster 36231 44057 21.6
Internet banner 1470 1644 11.8
Total 376636 371362 -1.4
Source: Media Focus

Last July, Wirz Werbung, Zurich, appointed the former senior WHS creative Hans Tanner to the management board as deputy chairman; after a transitional phase of one year, Tanner should have taken over from Hans Ulrich Schweizer as CEO. This does not happen: due to the "current structural conditions", Hans Tanner declines the position and leaves the agency (ew).

Kiosk AG extends its contract with Plakanda ahead of scheduleBy Markus Knöpfli The outdoor advertising company Plakanda and Kiosk AG have extended their contract for posters at kiosk outlets. The new contract is valid until 2004. Plakanda also has most of the free kiosks in German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino under contract.
The previous contract between Plakanda and Kiosk AG would not have expired until the end of the year, but the new contract came into force retroactively from January 1, 2001. No reasons were given for this.
According to Claudio Tozzini, Head of Marketing at Kiosk AG, Plakanda's task is to work with Kiosk AG to market the B4, Baby-B4 (also known as P40) and Baby-B12 poster sizes commonly used at kiosks. Secondly, Plakanda takes care of the entire poster display.
Kiosk AG has 1,320 sales outlets in German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, 700 of which are equipped with trios (three baby B12s next to each other, the largest surface area in kiosks), 150 with B4 surfaces and 180 with P40s. Beat Roeschlin, CEO of Plakanda, describes the Kiosk AG poster network as an "important asset" for his company. "It gives us the opportunity to be in the right place at the right time to influence kiosk customers on their way to the point of purchase." However, Roeschlin did not want to confirm reports that the contract with Kiosk AG is larger in terms of turnover than the advertising contract with Geneva Airport.
APG would not have been interested in a logistics task
The contract between Plakanda and Kiosk AG already has a long tradition. In 1991, when Kiosk AG Bern and Schmidt-Agence merged to form Kiosk AG, Schmidt-Agence brought the contract with Plakanda into the marriage. Since then, it has been extended several times without interruption. This time, however, Kiosk AG also held talks with APG. Tozzini comments: "If you are satisfied with the previous partner in all areas, there is no reason to change."
Affichage CEO Christian Kauter takes a slightly different view: "We neither applied nor submitted an offer, as Kiosk AG sells the majority of its poster spaces itself. A pure logistics task was not of interest to us."
In German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, Plakanda has a virtually seamless network of kiosk posters (albeit without petrol station stores), as it also has a contract with the Swiss Kiosk Owners Association. There are 350 free
kiosks, 40 of which are in French-speaking Switzerland and 20 in Ticino. In French-speaking Switzerland, on the other hand, the press wholesaler Naville markets the poster spaces itself with around 200 sales outlets.

Pool 2000 and City-Pool will remain for the time being - but the new Radiocontrol data could change thatBy Markus Knöpfli The large radio advertising combinations City-Pool (Basilisk, Pilatus, ExtraBern) and Pool 2000 (Z, Argovia, BE1, Edelweiss, Regenbogen, Sunshine, BeO, Canal 3) will continue to exist as before for the time being. However, it cannot be ruled out that the Radiocontrol data will give rise to new teams within a year at the latest.
At separate meetings, City Pool and Pool 2000 decided not to separate. Any terminations at the end of the year would have had to be made in both pools by June 30. "We can live with this situation," says Felix Kilchsperger, Head of Radio Sales at marketer Radiotele.
The biggest change occurred at Pool 2000: BeO broadcasting manager Martin Muerner was unanimously elected as the new Pool Managing Director (but will remain with BeO). He succeeds pool founder Christian Stärkle. Two months ago, Stärkle moved to the marketing company Belcom (Radio 24, Tele 24, Tele Züri) as Managing Director of Radio Argovia and Tele M1 and has therefore left Pool 2000.
However, the fact that the two pool constellations have remained unchanged is not entirely self-evident. Firstly, because the city pool is "a courted bride", as both Monique Stauffer, Head of Sales at Radio Basilisk, and Joachim Freiberg, Managing Director of Radio Pilatus, emphasize.
However, neither gave any information about the source of the advances. Just this much: former member Radio 24 and Radio Aktuell are not among the suitors. And other independent radio stations would probably not be considered for the city pool anyway. And anyway, according to Stauffer, serious thought will only be given to expanding the pool once the Radiocontrol figures are on the table.
However, the City Pool had obviously also expected Pool 2000 to break up. It was not entirely far-fetched to assume such a move. After all, Christian Stärkle of all people had apparently tried to bring in Radio 24, which he now looked after, to take Radio Z's place.
However, Pool 2000 did not receive an official application, as Muerner said when asked, and this topic was not on the agenda. Nevertheless, this point was discussed - under the question: What next for Pool 2000? Muerner also confirms that there were "tough discussions", but points out that the necessary pool termination was never considered.
The broadcasters are most annoyed about price dumping
Under the aforementioned agenda item, the (lack of) price compliance of individual pool members was also criticized. According to reports, Radio Z seems to be the black sheep in the price range. This could also be the reason why some pool members have half-considered swapping "Radio 24 for Z". "No comment", says the good shepherd Muerner. Just this much: price dumping is a recurring theme in the whole scene.
Michael Frank, Managing Director of Radio Z marketer IP Multimedia, can "only laugh" at the accusation of dumping. "We don't charge dumping prices, but of course we have to compare ourselves with Radio 24," he says. And with reference to the new Radiocontrol figures, he asks why Radio 24 is looking for a pool again. He is right - but the question remains unanswered, as neither Stärkle nor Richi Gasser were available for comment from Radio 24.
The only thing that is certain is that everything will remain the same for Pool 2000. Muerner's reasoning behind this statement: "If the boat is floating reasonably well, it would be foolish to jeopardize the pool and its name." In addition, the radios had agreed not to present the new Radiocontrol figures to each other until Radio Day on August 30. Without knowing the facts, i.e. the losers and winners, a recomposition would therefore be "a bad prerequisite for a stir in the scene", said Muerner.
Radiocontrol and tariff policy A conference on "Radiocontrol and tariff policy" was held on July 3 at the invitation of Martin Muerner, member of the board of the Swiss Private Radio Association (VSP). In addition to Publica Data and Radiotele, all (!) private radio stations in German-speaking Switzerland were present, as were several representatives of the French-speaking private radio association RRR. The main question was how the new radio currency will affect the tariff structure and how Radiocontrol data should be offered to the market in future. Although it was agreed not to disclose the results, Muerner announced that the main points were agreed. A working group has now been formed to work out the details. A second meeting may follow at the beginning of August. In any case, definitive results should be available by Radio Day.

Media specialist Urs Schneider (51) has founded his own agency, Mediaschneider AG, which he will launch with his team in Zurich's Seefeld district on July 9. The former managing director of m & m Mediaagentur for many years intends to use his expertise for personal, individual media and marketing consulting in the future, which, according to Schneider, includes all classic and new media as well as special forms of advertising. The services of the newly founded agency cover the areas of strategy, planning and service, which can be used individually or as a full service by clients or advertising agencies, depending on their needs.
For Urs Schneider, the focus is "always on the advertising impact, the expectations and the goals according to which advertising investments are made". He therefore sees the foundation for success in strategic consulting, which will be the focus of his work.
Schneider has rented premises from the media agency Robert C. Baier at Seefeldstrasse 108 in Zurich. These had become vacant following the downsizing of Baier's media agency last spring (WW 19/01 and 23/01). According to Schneider, both media agencies are completely independent of each other; only the infrastructure is shared.
Schneider is launching his agency together with two other employees. "Both of them have a broad knowledge base and many years of experience in the media industry, marketing and advertising," says Schneider. He assures us that he already has clients, but does not want to name them at the moment.
His agency wants to offer "new possibilities", particularly in the area of TV planning and optimization. In addition to media buying and processing, the service also includes a comprehensive media control system that includes new aspects of performance monitoring. Schneider: "Through competent advice and targeted service, we want to deepen cooperation in the sense of a genuine partnership and make the results of media investments more transparent." (dse)

Gruner und Jahr upgrades its Swiss edition of Geo magazine with its own editorial team.NewsGeo now with Swiss editorial team
Alex Baur is in charge. Brigitte Hürlimann assists him with the realization of the reports. She has specialized in
with reports in the NZZ
weekend supplements. From the July issue onwards, Geo Switzerland will regularly feature Swiss topics. Ten areas have been defined, which will be covered alternately: Research, national projects, architecture, portraits, urban life, rural regions, customs, society, events and culture. The first Geo Switzerland will be published on July 23. Advertisers benefit from the placement of Switzerland content at the front of the magazine.
TV 3 relaunches website The website of the private television channel TV 3 has a new look. The previous gloomy black has given way to changing colors, navigation has been improved and the right-hand side of the window is now available for a skyscraper banner. In terms of content, community offers in particular have been added: In the "Millionaires" training camp, visitors test how well they would do in the quiz show. Other quizzes and online games are also available, as are forums on selected programs. The site was realized by the agencies Pixelpost (design) and Gate 49 (programming).

The business magazine A Propos is distributed free of charge to employees by French-speaking patronsBy Christophe BüchiA Propos is a new newspaper with an unconventional marketing concept being published in French-speaking Switzerland. The monthly magazine is distributed free of charge by a group of companies to their employees - the company only pays ten francs per subscription.
The business press in Switzerland is currently sending out conflicting signals. While some publishers are suffering and some are even thinking of quitting - a few days ago the Agefi Group announced the closure of the e-economy magazine Future(s) - others are full of optimism and plans for the future. These include the publishers of the business magazine A Propos, which was relaunched last year and already has nine issues to its name.
A Propos wants to be neither elitist nor shallow
The magazine, which appears ten times a year, is a hybrid between a free newspaper and a subscription-based publication. It is published by a cooperative to which French companies and employers' associations belong. The magazine is aimed at companies and is sold via collective subscriptions. It aims to provide information on political and economic issues that directly affect the private sector. However, the magazine is also intended as a broadly diversified magazine with entertainment value.
Cynthia de Araujo, President of the Editorial Board, formulates the objective as follows: "A Propos wants to be popular and generally understandable, but at a good level. The magazine should therefore be neither elitist nor shallow. It wants to offer committed analysis and thus provide a counterpoint to the arbitrariness of the tabloid media."
To achieve this goal, the editorial team was entrusted to a seasoned professional, Jean-Jacques Zuber from Valais, owner of a communications office in Monthey. François Matile, secretary of the employers' association of the watch industry, who also has a background in journalism, is the director of publication. Freelance journalists are also employed. This high-caliber editorial team is intended to guarantee a high level of quality, but also a professionally pleasant style.
The magazine really does look neat, strikingly unpretentious and yet visually appealing. It is printed on a medium-weight paper, but without a glossy finish. The text clearly takes precedence, but great efforts have been made to generously break up the text area with pictures. Solid grass-green titles provide visual highlights. Photos, crossword puzzles and other illustrative elements are used selectively. And the French cartoonist Mix et Remix, a rising star of the French comic scene, contributes a cartoon to each issue.
A legacy of the class struggle from the pre-war years
A Propos is the new edition of an old good idea. The "grandmother" of the media baby was founded in the crisis year of 1933 under the very respectable name Industrie et Travail. It was inspired by the Swiss Engineering Industry Association. The idea was to bring employees closer to the patronage perspective and to form a counterweight to the trade union newspapers.
The idea took off. The newspaper thrived and was soon exported to German and Italian-speaking Switzerland, where it was called Werkzeitung and Industria e Lavoro. It all went very well for 40 years. But in the crisis-ridden seventies, the magazine began to falter. In the face of audiovisual media, the paper suddenly looked old. In 1983, the magazine was relaunched and renamed Opinions. But even this did not bring about a real turnaround.
So last year the decision was made to make a real fresh start. The result? 11,600 subscriptions are currently being sold. That's quite respectable. A Propos aims to inform companies and their staff about political and economic issues that concern them - "former et informer" is how de Araujo puts it. But are companies still prepared to spend money on a magazine, even if it doesn't directly do PR for the individual company? In the age of short-term return on investment, this is the big question.
Off to the NZZWith this article, our long-standing French-speaking Switzerland correspondent Christophe Büchi says goodbye to WerbeWoche. Büchi is moving to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, where he will keep readers up to date on political, economic and social developments in French-speaking Switzerland. WerbeWoche wishes him joy and satisfaction in his new challenge.

Fuhrer und Partner analyzes Swiss retailers and manufacturers with the Market Development 2001 studyThe Swiss Sales Promotion Forum presented the Market Development 2001 study at the Promo-Power 2001 seminar. It deals with the conflicts between sales promotion at the POS and classic advertising as well as the competition between own and manufacturer brands. Martin Hotz is co-owner of the marketing agency Fuhrer und Partner, which conducted the study.what are the most important results of your study?
Martin Hotz: The importance of sales promotion is impressive. Understood as an investment in retail, it will become even more important in the future.
So is traditional product advertising losing importance?
Hotz: Experts are predicting the stagnation of traditional advertising. Retailers and manufacturers are looking for means and measures that lead to immediate sales success. Swiss companies are being forced to focus their financial and human resources more on retailers. The latter has the power of disposal over the POS. This is where the majority of purchasing decisions are ultimately made.
What tips does the study have for retailers?
Hotz: Price-based positioning is omnipresent in retail, in both the food and non-food sectors. Alternative approaches such as service, customer orientation and convenience, on the other hand, are still of secondary importance. There is great untapped potential here. Although low prices can generate sales volume and market share, they do not necessarily promote profitability.
Where is the potential of Swiss trade?
Hotz: Knowledge about customers and their behavior is the success factor of the future. This is a major weakness of the Swiss retail sector. Only a few can afford the egg-laying wool-milk sow, i.e. the business that offers everything for everyone. Everyone else has to strive for a niche policy. Retailers should therefore know exactly who they want to focus on.
But customer loyalty programs are not the yellow of the egg.
Hotz: Customer loyalty measures are often an electronic form of collecting discount stamps. Ultimately, only the bargain hunters benefit from this. Loyal customers, on the other hand, are the profitable customers. As a retailer, I have to concentrate on making a lot of profit with fewer customers rather than little profit with many customers. To achieve this, you have to position yourself very clearly.
Should retailers focus less on price leadership?
Hotz: Exactly. Today, pig farm advertisements announcing a price reduction are very dominant. You can't achieve any relevant differentiation with them. If you want to stand out from the competition, you shouldn't focus so much on price. Successful international companies such as Ikea, H&M or Fielmann always convey emotional lifestyle elements in addition to the price argument.
Has the time of universal retailers run out?
Hotz: Today, there is no sector in which there are not enough or too many providers. If you want to survive as a retailer, you have to specialize. Otherwise they will become interchangeable.
What demands does the study make of manufacturers?
Hotz: The balance of power between manufacturer brands and retailer brands is shifting in favor of the retailer brands. Manufacturers must deal with the topic of category management and be able to provide retailers with competent advice in their specialist area. They need to think more about the needs of retailers, who ultimately act as gatekeepers.
It would make sense for retailers and industry to develop their communication measures together.
Hotz: That would be the ideal case. Retailers want to be involved as early as possible, especially when it comes to new launches. Otherwise, it often happens that a retailer produces a private label before the brand manufacturer launches a new product on the market.
The integrated communication you are calling for is anything but original.
Hotz: The buzzword has lost none of its topicality. There is a conflict of interest between manufacturers and retailers at the POS: the manufacturer wants to improve the placement on the shelf, while the retailer focuses on its retail brand and wants to maximize the cash register coupon value. If the competition sells the same product in the same form of presentation, the retailer cannot distinguish itself. As a result, the key visuals of manufacturer brands often suffer at the POS.
Retailers are struggling with the idea of service. Consumers repeatedly complain that Switzerland is a service desert.
Hotz: This is because customers often cite service-related factors when asked why they no longer visit a particular store. Today's customers know that there is only one scarce commodity, namely their attention. Compared with the USA, there is certainly room for improvement in day-to-day business.
Are there valid rules for this?
Hotz: In principle, there is never enough service. But you have to think about which service suits your retail concept and how much of it you can offer. At Ikea, customers accept that they have to put the furniture together themselves. In the food retail sector, forced processes like those at Ikea had to be abolished.
On the one hand, the study states that the POS should become more emotional, while on the other hand the complexity of impressions must be reduced. How can these demands be reconciled?
Hotz: Retailers need to generate as much customer footfall as possible and increase the value of checkout coupons. Remote communication must lure customers into the store, the POS must inspire and surprise them. However, the promotional rhythm at the POS has led to information overload. Interview: Bruno Amstutz
Market development 2001

The recently published third edition of the study Marktbearbeitung Schweiz 2001 provides a comprehensive overview of facts, analyses, trends and benchmarks relating to the design and use of the various communication disciplines. The work (136 pages) is based on an empirical study and can be ordered at a price of CHF 850 by calling 01 716 13 73, e-mail [email protected]

DreiMediaTeam in Zug is said to have obtained IPM customer dataIs the TV marketer IP Multimedia (IPM) passing on sensitive customer data to the Zug-based media agency DreiMediaTeam because IPM is unable to analyze the data itself? A rumor to this effect has persisted for weeks. However, IPM and DreiMediaTeam have indignantly denied the rumor, saying that anyone who books commercials with a TV station wants to know how many people in their target audience see them. To this end, TV marketers carry out an evaluation for customers after the broadcast using data provided by Telecontrol. A tool called TC 2000 is required for this purpose.
Rumor has it that this tool has not been working at IPM for two months, which is why the Swiss marketer of Pro 7, RTL, RTL 2 and Kabel 1 has outsourced controlling to the DreiMedia team. This is how the DreiMedia team came into possession of sensitive customer data and media strategies from competitor agencies.
Karin Steiner from the DreiMedia team rejects such cooperation with IPM. They have never taken on controlling tasks, she says. IPM Managing Director Michael Frank also reacts indignantly. "We have no interest in handing over this data," he says.
Marcel Zwahlen, IPM Head of TV German-speaking Switzerland, believes he knows how the rumor could have originated: Firstly, IPM and the DreiMedia team are on friendly terms, and the DreiMedia team recently conducted internal training at IPM on the TC 2000. Secondly, after the move to Goldbach, the TC 2000 only worked on one computer at IPM for several weeks. "But we never took controlling off-site," says Zwahlen.
André Funk from the Media Services Organization in Bern continues to book IPM's TV commercials. Michael Frank has assured him that the rumor is not true. "That's good enough for me," says Funk. Markus Knöpfli

Yellowworld.ch wants to be a centralized postal portal and reduce non-postal servicesBy Clemens Hörler Yellowworld has not gone as planned. Its owner, Swiss Post, therefore went over the books: Yellowworld is to focus more on postal-specific services in the future and become a central postal portal.
Swiss Post has decided to focus its Yellowworld.ch Internet portal more on services and information related to postal products. Yellowworld is to become the central postal portal. An important component will be the virtual post office with financial services from Postfinance and a large information area. However, new offerings will also be launched in which Swiss Post can showcase its core competencies (payment transactions, logistics, etc.). For business customers, a wide range of marketing services, fulfillment services (finance and logistics) and special industry solutions will be offered. In the B2B sector, Yellowworld AG is already operating in the black, according to Gerhard Schwab, CEO of this Internet portal.
The reorientation of Yellowworld is a consequence of the unsatisfactory business performance of the previous portal. Yellowworld had primarily focused on a broad range of news, shopping, games and e-mail services. However, the earnings situation in the portal business had been far below expectations and had not arrived on time, Swiss Post now had to admit. When Yellowworld was launched in September 2000, there was talk of investments of 350 million francs and revenues of 150 million francs in the first three years. These figures have since been revised downwards significantly. However, no jobs are to be cut at Yellowworld.
A retort portal has everything but easy on the Internet
The fact that Yellowworld.ch, with its current orientation, is not one of the top websites among consumers is not necessarily due to the quality of the content. The question is whether content in itself is a sufficient reason to visit a horizontal portal or whether users do not prefer to go directly to the website of their daily newspaper. Add to this the fact that Yellowworld is a retort portal. As such, it was not built around a central, well-known service such as a search engine or Internet access, but was more or less created from scratch. This is where Yellowworld differs from SwissOnline or Bluewin. Even the latter's users do not primarily click on the portal to read the latest news. But at least these portals have the possibility to lure the users with cleverly placed headlines right after dialing in or with the use of another service and to encourage them to stay.
Yellowworld would therefore do well to link the portal more closely to new postal services. These are also in demand on the web. According to MMXI Europe's Digital Media Audience Ratings Report, Swiss Post websites are among the top 20 properties among Swiss home users, with Yellownet.ch leading the way.
In the future, visitors who type the address www.post.ch on their keyboards will be redirected to Yellowworld. Other postal services on the Internet will also be integrated, according to Schwab. At the very least, the postal portal will now be more closely linked to the websites of Post Finance (Yellownet.ch, for example).
Swisscontent remains content partner of the postal portal
The reorientation of the content from a multimedia news and lifestyle portal to a postal portal logically also has consequences for Yellowworld's content partner, SwisscontentCorp. Swiss Post media spokesman Hubert Staffelbach said that content on the portal would continue to be supplied by Swisscontent. However, the type and volume would depend on future needs, he said. "There will be savings in horizontal content, as well as in non-profitable, non-postal offerings," Schwab specified. Multimedia content is also to be dispensed with.
However, Yellowworld does not have a completely free hand in the cost-cutting exercises, because Swiss Post must take into account the existing longer-term contracts with Swisscontent. Bendicht Luginbühl, CEO of Swisscontent, said he was open to market adjustments as long as they remained within the framework of the jointly developed content strategy.
Yellowworld is in good company for the realignment
Yellowworld is not the only Swiss portal that has had to go over the books in recent months. As already reported in WerbeWoche, market leader Bluewin was also forced to revise its portal strategy and reprioritized the portal's various offerings. The reason: the unsatisfactory earnings situation in the portal business.
A few weeks ago, Cablecom also announced that SwissOnline would have to tighten its belt. All business areas and projects of the "better world" are being examined for their profitability or cost-benefit ratio. Unlike at Yellowworld, the restructuring at Bluewin and SwissOnline will also lead to job cuts.
The cost-cutting efforts and realignments of the major Swiss portals show that many players have bitten off more than they can chew, especially in terms of content, and have calculated advertising revenues somewhat optimistically. The challenge for them at present is to develop new sources of revenue and to concentrate on those areas which are really in demand by users in the small Swiss market and which can also be reasonably financed.

The marketing and PR agency Culture & Art Communications GmbH is celebrating its seventh anniversary this year, and with the move from Basel to Zurich last September, the small company has realigned itself and specialized in PR and marketing for cultural projects as well as fundraising. Owner and managing director Françoise Binet sees the agency's relocation as marketing on its own behalf, as Zurich has a better name in the international cultural world than Basel. At the Rhine knee, the agency had mainly been involved in sponsorship brokerage in the sports sector. "Relationship networks are much more important in the cultural sector than in sport," says Binet. "In contrast to sport, culture is not just about traditional marketing, but also about cultivating relationships and patronage." Binet also discovered a gap in the market for cultural marketing, as this sector is still much less organized than the sports sector.
The agency employs four people and intends to maintain this size for the time being. Culture & Art Communications is responsible for the relaunch of the Heinrich Neuhaus Foundation, The International Piano Art Center in Zurich and the foreign management of ballet choreographer Valery Panov, among others. (ba)

The young Edipresse subsidiary now only sells Edipresse magazinesSenger Media AG, which was taken over by the Edipresse Group at the beginning of the year, is now called Edipub SA and has a clear task: it looks after all the magazines of the French-speaking Swiss publishing group.Until now, the Edipresse Group had outsourced the advertising acquisition of its magazines to three different companies: Senger Media looked after Bilan, Femina and the recently sold Animan, SCD Communication & Partenaires (SCD) took care of Optima and Optipharm, and Publimag looked after Télé Top Matin and TVguide.
At the beginning of the year, the French-speaking Swiss publishing group acquired 100 percent of Senger Media with the intention of transforming it into an in-house advertising acquisition company for its own magazines. The restructuring and realignment under the management of Marcel Siegenthaler has now been completed: All non-Edipresse titles - such as Welt am Sonntag, Galatea or Gas + Wasser - were transferred to various media intermediaries by June 30 and in return the eight own magazines were taken over. The Edipub team now consists of Siegenthaler as CEO, Fabiana De Cassan as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Frédéric Zamofing as Chief Operating Officer (COO). The team will start selling and acquiring advertising sites immediately.
Nevertheless, SCD and Publimag will continue to manage the respective magazines for a while. According to Siegenthaler, SCD terminated the contract at the end of the year because it can no longer provide exclusive support for Optima and Optipharm. The contract with Publimag, on the other hand, expired on June 30, and at least the current contracts will continue to be handled by Publimag for another year. "After that, the market will be free," says Siegenthaler, who goes on to speak of "very harmonious, benevolent transitional arrangements". Stefan Staub, Head of Publimag, notes that the Edipresse Group, in which PubliGroupe incidentally holds a 25 percent stake, carried out the restructuring for strategic reasons. "This has nothing to do with our services." And, almost regretfully, he recalls that Publimag has managed Edipresse's two TV program titles from the very beginning. Markus Knöpfli