Roland Zosso, former head of the printing company Fischer Print, has founded Zosso & Partner Management GmbH in Münsingen BE.The new company offers services in the areas of marketing and management consulting, personnel placement and consulting, as well as consulting and project management in the print media sector. "The focus of our activities is the placement of management and specialist personnel for agencies, the graphic arts industry and publishing houses," says Zosso. Zosso and his wife currently work with freelancers. In the print sector, clients include Bauer Verlag based in Germany, Escher & Schön Communications in Brig, the Weber advertising agency in Thun, BLS Schiffsbetriebe, and advertising agencies and publishing houses in the personnel sector. (dz)

Furthermore At the 13th General Assembly of the PR Society of Northwestern Switzerland, Regula Ruetz, an entrepreneur from Basel, was elected as the new president. She succeeds Jörg Weber.
Sonja Bietenhard-Ritter is appointed Head of Corporate Communications at BLS Lötschbergbahn AG. She was most recently a personal assistant to Federal Councillors Ogi and Schmid in the Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport.
Rainer Meier will succeed Beatrice Tschanz as Head of Corporate Communications at Swissair Group. Meier had been Tschanz's deputy since the beginning of 2000.
Peter Wyss has taken over as head of new media at Bund Verlag. He was previously with Swiss TXT. Regula Jaunerl, previously assistant to the publishing director, becomes advertising manager. She replaces Isabel Coello. Christoph Ramseier is now responsible as Product Manager for the Anzeiger Region Bern.
Bettina Jaques-Bosch and Karl Kobelt are now working for the PR agency Piar.
CD Thomas Schaub is leaving the Basel advertising agency cR Seiler DDB in mid-June.
Trade fair organizer Reed Exhibition Companies is strengthening its marketing activities in Switzerland and Germany by appointing Peter Plan as Marketing Director.
After 15 years at Fisch Meier Direkt, Christine Müller is setting up her own business and will continue to handle mandates for the dialog marketer. Müller was most recently a member of the management team.

As a result of the restructuring at Direct Group Bertelsmann - the division is integrating Bol.com and the book clubs in Europe and Asia - Bol.ch will be managed from Munich in the future. Bol.ch wrote this in a message to its business partners. As Andreas Németh, marketing director of Bol.ch, told WerbeWoche, 15 employees in Baar are affected by the decision. Direct Group Bertelsmann plans to manage the homepage of what it describes as Switzerland's "leading media store" from the Bavarian capital. As recently as last year, Bol.ch had advertised its store with TV and radio spots.Busy Annabelle. Annabelle Business, a lifestyle magazine for the business woman, has been on the market since May 11. On more than 100 editorial pages, the new line extension of Annabelle presents not only the latest information, entertaining articles and plenty of service on the subject of women and careers, but also tips and trends from the world of beauty and fashion. The first issue of Annabelle Business is designed as an oneshot; if successful, publication is planned twice a year.
not at all for the small-minded. Silvano Spezia, co-owner and consultant of the Lang Gysi Knoll agency, admits that it is nice to have success and budget gains. However, it is much nicer when the necessary man and woman power is also available. With a fancy local poster and flyer campaign, the Bernese agency shows that it has more to do with the second than the first. Since not only among advertisers, but among them in particular, the work atmosphere is becoming more and more important, the campaign hangs here with the message: We're a fun bunch despite work. And original - right!
FRITZ UND FRÄNZI SEEK ADVERTISEMENTS. Fritz und Fränzi, a new magazine for parents of school-age children, is advised by Pro Juventute, the Marie Meierhofer Institute for the Child, Schule+Elternhaus, among others. The project is sponsored by the non-profit foundation Elternsein with Ellen Ringier as president of the foundation board. The magazine is published six times a year with 100,000 copies. It is printed by Zollikofer AG in St.Gallen. The first two issues will find their way into classrooms thanks to the education departments. Fritz und Fränzi is edited by Sabine Danuser, Editorial Service, Zurich. Advertisements are also welcome for content such as generational conflicts, media consumption, drugs, violence, divorce and pocket money.
It's quite possible that the neo-Nazis in Switzerland will cause trouble again on Saturday," hopes the SonntagsZeitung in an advertisement and threatens its readers: "Don't miss a thing. If, contrary to expectations, there is no trouble, that's fine, of course. At least there's a warning, true to the motto: "Resist the beginnings!" The question remains whether this also applies to the advertising managers.
spring awakening at blick. Since May 15, Blick has been implementing the content expansion announced in March. This includes the new topic pages "WissenBlick" on Mondays and "GenussBlick" on Saturdays, a business page from Tuesday to Friday, and more soft news on the last page. Other new features include the "Left-Right Duel" on Tuesdays with Peter Bodenmann and Franz Steinegger and the "Happy Monday" party page. Instead, the readers' page will be cancelled on Monday and the Saturday puzzle will be halved.

Werd Expo. Expo.02 and the Werd Publishing House
(Tamedia AG, Zurich) have signed a cooperation agreement governing the publication of the official Expo.02 guide. It will appear in paperback format at the beginning of April 2002 in German, French, Italian and English. The planned print run is 350000 copies.
30000 cornets. From May 15 to mid-August, every guest will receive a Frisco cornet at the end of a ride in the Züritaxi. For this purpose, the entire Züritaxi fleet will be equipped with small freezers. The campaign, concocted by Publicis consultant Jean-Marie Egger, will also see 20 cabs redesigned to look like delivery vans from Frisco-Findus. It is expected that the cab drivers will hand over around 30000 Cornets during the course of the campaign.
Editorial

Trends emerge in the here and now
We are all stuck in the here and now and in the culture in which we move. It is difficult to break out of these thought patterns. In 1873, for example, British futurologists in all seriousness produced the "scientific proof" that England would disappear under a thick layer of horse manure by 1961 as a result of the boom in carriages. Even the Martians of science fiction still look remarkably like humans. Examples that teach us that serious futurology has one maxim:
The future is not predictable.
The search for the new for the sake of the new is a law that also and especially applies today, after hopes for meaning-giving grand concepts and warming certainties have been abandoned. Accordingly, the consulting industry and the advice literature are booming, trend reports are bursting with half-wisdom, mixed with scientific facts, esotericism and life assistance. Only the books by Matthias Horx are more than just simple instructions for managers (page 41). He meticulously examines our everyday culture and delivers an ironic portrait of society. Ultimately, his analyses are a plea for a culture of change. Trends are a kind of cultural adaptation exercise to changing circumstances. They say more about the present and our state of mind than about what will be.
There is no contradiction in the fact that much of what is reality today was considered pure crankery a short time ago. No one knows when the time is ripe for such outlandish ideas, because complex systems like our society are ultimately future-blind and self-referential. Nothing is as certain as the uncertainty of the future.
Samuel Helbling

The giants of the music industry and the portal giants smell the big business with sound offers on the InternetBy Clemens HörlerLate in the day, the big music companies are also tinkering with web presences and looking for allies among the portal operators. Such coalitions could make life even more difficult for independent smaller providers such as music pioneer Launch.com.
After the battle against Napster, which has been successfully fought so far, the music indus-
The music industry is now rather late in launching its own Internet offerings. Accordingly, the two heavyweights Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group, which together dominate almost half of the market, announced a joint project called Duet. Other giants such as Warner Music, EMI and Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) responded in kind, unveiling plans for a music platform called Music Net.
The problem for the music giants is that they are certainly not among the top brands among Internet users, and launching such platforms on their own would probably devour vast sums of marketing money. That's why the two competing groups are looking for allies in the Internet industry who are already well-known and popular. The big portals are ideal for this. Yahoo has already joined Duet. And Microsoft has already announced its own music portal with partners BMG and Sony. MSN Music is currently in the beta phase.
The rulers of the music industry are also welcome partners for portal operators, especially since music is considered premium content in the Internet industry. Because of insufficient revenues from the online advertising industry, other sources of money are increasingly having to be tapped. Paid music offers could be a most welcome contribution to filling the coffers again.
Too many free offers reduce competitiveness
The planned cooperations between the music and Internet giants probably do not pose much of a threat to independent music file sharing networks like Gnutella. However, they could put the existing music portals in serious trouble. These have impressively demonstrated what can be achieved even with the bandwidths available today. However, despite large user numbers, many of these providers are in a position of weakness in the face of the impending competition because they too have relied too heavily on financing through advertising and offer practically everything for free.
A representative example is the American company Launch Media Inc. Its music portal Launch.com counted 5.6 million registered users and 9.7 million visitors in the month of December at the end of last year. Launch.com is a mixture of MTV and music magazine and offers soundsurfers a total of 50,000 video clips, interviews and features with musicians, concert notes and general news from the world of stars and starlets.
Users choose their own music program
Unlike MTV, where viewers are presented with a ready-made menu, visitors to Launch.com can put together their own music station according to their preferences. Music fans on Launch. com choose what they like best from 18 styles and a variety of subcategories, and list their favorite groups. Once registered, they only receive music played to their liking in the program window. If they still don't like a video clip that is played, they can wish it into pepperland with one click and never have to get upset about it again.
The disadvantage compared to MTV & Co. is obvious: The section on the screen is even smaller than on TV, and Launch.com rarely plays the latest music clips, which is probably due to licensing or cost reasons.
Sluggish online advertising market is responsible for losses
As interesting as Launch.com's free offering is to users, the operators' business model hasn't quite panned out. In 2000, Nasdaq-listed Launch Media Inc. made a loss of $34 million on revenues of $36.9 million. In the last quarter of the fiscal year, three-quarters of revenues came from advertising revenue, and 22 percent came from reselling content to other Web platforms. Sales of CD-ROMs containing excerpts from the Web program brought in only a little revenue. And the sale of concert tickets did not bring the hoped-for financial success either.
The company primarily blames the flat online advertising market for the unsatisfactory business performance. Nevertheless, Launch Media wants to continue to focus primarily on advertising in the future and, in addition to banner ads and sponsorship opportunities, also offers the opportunity for flash spots between the individual video clips. Charging premiums for the use of the personalized offer apparently still seems too risky for many providers - and would actually probably be the wrong way to go given the current reception quality.
Online music to break up the office routine
Primarily because of the sound and picture quality, websites are not too much competition for the TV music channels. At least now, they are still more of a supplement to them: At home, where Internet connections are not yet as good, Internet music services such as Launch .com probably still have a rather difficult time. In the office, on the other hand, where greater bandwidths are available but there is no TV, the service will certainly do. The big portal operators and their allies from the music industry can also hope for this. After all, it's no longer a secret that the Internet is also used in offices for non-work purposes.

The new Goldbach Media offers all cross-media servicesBy Andreas PanzeriGoldbach Media consists of the Medien-Z holdings IP Multimedia (Switzerland), Suchtreffer Schweiz, Banner.ch, Net-Promotions, B&J Fastline and Swisscontent. Under the leadership of Klaus Kappeler (CEO) and Hans Ueli Keller (Board Delegate), the Group bundles the entire range of services for electronic online and offline media under one roof.
"Gold is the symbol of healthy prosperity. A brook is the symbol of flowing," said Beat Curti at the welcoming ceremony in Küsnacht. For the Chairman of the Board of Directors, the attributes proven and new resonate in the name of his newly founded company Goldbach Media. As part of a network of partner companies, the new holding company will in future open up the way to integrated cross-media services for companies and advertisers. "An offer that is so far unique in the whole of Europe," said Klaus Kappeler at the press conference.
From a network of 120 specialists in the elegantly renovated loft in Küsnacht and 100 employees in Bern, a competent contact for the development of target and success-oriented cross-media strategies "including all electronic media" was created.
The services range from planning and conception through purchasing and order processing to independent downstream auditing of the entire media deployment. "How do I reach my customers as targeted, fast and cost-optimized as possible?" is the question fished for the golden answers in the stream.
In order to do justice to the increasing importance of measuring the success of cross-media activities, the electronic media planners already want to use the latest technologies and tools for reliable success monitoring in the near future - "and thus make the vision of comprehensive trust marketing a reality," as it says, for example, at www.gold bachmedia.ch.
Unbureaucratic processes speed up the workflow
The innovative network unites partners from all areas of digital marketing. The close proximity and open atmosphere in the open-plan offices right next to the Goldbach S-Bahn station should enable "quick and unbureaucratic decisions", because interactive cross-media scenarios must "overcome organizational boundaries". Networking and matching are therefore key pillars of success.
The company is already profitable today. "No debts, our house pays for itself," Kappeler is pleased to say. Although fully self-financed, Goldbach Media does not rule out an IPO or private placement in the future. "We will be able to show projects that are likely to interest investors."
The Goldbach should also flow throughout Europe
There are "reasonable ambitions" to be able to grow in Europe as well. "We are already in contact with a wide variety of institutions in the international market that are asking whether they can also export this model with us," explains Hans Ueli Keller, delegate to the board of directors. In addition to Rosmarie Michel from Z-Holding as Vice President, the Board of Directors also includes Peter Blum, former head of Microsoft Switzerland, as well as Gaston Guex and Ronald Sauser.
Another vision is for Goldbach Media to develop the latest tools in-house for its comprehensive media strategies. As the market leader, the company wants to grow as rapidly in Switzerland as it has in the past. The individual partners generated sales of CHF 110 million in 2000, with IP-Multimedia contributing CHF 80 million as the most important partner.
"We are convinced that by bringing all these individual parts of our six partner companies together, more is created than the sum of the individual parts," Hans Ueli Keller is convinced. Specifically, a company that only offers banners is struggling because Internet hype is at its lowest ebb. "A combination of all these instruments brings opportunities on the market," Keller calculates.
Corrigendum

In the article "SF-1 viewers are loyal" (p. 25) in WerbeWoche No. 18, a mix-up has crept into the caption and the text. The gentleman on the far right of the picture is not Peter Kaufmann, but Othmar Stadelmann, Head of Finance, Controlling and Operations at Publisuisse.
Peter Kaufmann is also not head of communications, but responsible for PR and sponsoring. Markus Holenstein has been responsible for Publisuisse communications since April 1, 2001. And last but not least: Peter Kaufmann is not the only member of the former Publisuisse management team, but Publisuisse CFO Othmar Stadelmann.

Mainland launches Drive, a magazine for public and club golfersInterest in golf is increasingly taking hold even among people who cannot afford club dues equivalent to a mid-range car. In recent years, the so-called public golfers have grown to such an extent that club golfers are already slightly outnumbered. The assumption that golf is in the process of becoming a popular sport is further substantiated by the efforts of Migros, which is building public golf courses at various locations in Switzerland, and by the fact that St.Galler Tagblatt AG is publishing the new golf magazine Drive. The special-interest title, which is intended to be read by "old" and "new" golfers, is launched by a commanding performance by the St.Gallen advertising agency Festland. page 10

At the One Show, the 86 Swiss entries came up emptyBy Thérèse BalduzziThe One Club in New York celebrated this year's One Show with a four-day festival. The crowning glory was the award show for TV, radio and print advertising and the new Design category at Lincoln Center. However, there were no Swiss among the 91 winners.
Y&R from Chicago won the most awards in the TV commercials category: two gold pins and a silver pin for their humorous campaign for H & R Block, a tax consulting firm with branches all over the country. In the spot "Another Baby, another Deduction," for example, the birth of another child is welcomed primarily as an additional tax deduction.
New York-based Cliff Freeman and Partners won gold twice for their campaign for the Fox Sports channel. The campaign capitalizes on the most primitive preconceptions about gender differences: In one spot, for example, a little girl asks her dad if it's true that the deceased dog is now playing with other dogs in heaven, to which the father, who has degenerated into a caveman (read football fan) because of football season and has become completely insensitive, replies that no, he's buried in the backyard. Other gold awards went to Saatchi & Saatchi, London and Hong Kong. Two silver pens were won by Foote Cone & Belding for their highly original campaign for Amazon.com, which ran over the festive period.
The big winner in the print category was the Mullen agency from Wenham with a campaign for the American Heritage Dictionary. It uses words like "aequenos" (for "wet") that don't exist - but are strongly reminiscent of the word creations of the current American president. In addition, the dictionary is referred to for improving English. Arnold Worldwide won gold twice for their Volkswagen America campaign, which exaggerates using a volcano, a spaceship and a stuntman. Print awards were also won by Leagas Delaney of San Francisco for her Adidas campaign. Three offshoots of the TBWA network also won gold once each.
A total of 16276 entries were submitted to The One Show and 91 gold, silver and bronze pencils were awarded, 56 of which went to American agencies. Of the remaining countries, Singapore won the most, with nine awards, followed by South Africa with seven and England with six. Spain carried off three, Germany, France and Canada received two each, and Argentina, Brazil, New Zealand and Denmark one medal each. Swiss entries are not even to be found among the finalists, despite 86 entries.

A moderately serious event collision occurred last week. In addition to ADC and Annabelle events, the program also included the renaming of the Red Cell agency (formerly Conquest) and the big inauguration party at the Goldbach Center in Küsnacht. The latter two benefited from the good weather, as both venues also had fresh air refueling stations thanks to spacious terraces.
Back in March, IP Multimedia (IPM) moved from Seefeld to the renovated Terlinden building in Küsnacht in just one weekend. Now, finally, the big party took place and the new rooms were presented.
However, Klaus Kappeler would not be Klaus Kappeler if they did not also come up with important news. At a press conference in the morning, the founding of a new company was announced. Under the name Goldbach Media, a joint marketing platform in the form of a cross-media provider was created for the companies IPM, Suchtreffer.ch, Banner.ch, Net-promotions, B&J Fastline and Swisscontent. Beat Curti pondered philosophically about the name Goldbach, Klaus Kappeler and Goldbach Media Managing Director Hans Ueli Keller presented the company and its goals (see also page 3).
One or the other visitor quipped that Goldbach, in contrast to Crossmedia, sounded a bit provincial because there was nothing English about the name. On the other hand, the company will certainly be easy to find; the neighboring
S-Bahn stop bears the name Goldbach.
Almost omnipresent was also IPM Managing Director Michi Frank, who welcomed us at the jazz breakfast. Although instead of the expected salmon rolls with caviar and champagne, we had plaited pastries and meat slices - which caused a slight disappointment among early risers; however, the morning sun and the prospect of a superb lunch made up for this culinary sin of omission.
Among the very early arrivals, we spotted MLB media manager Isabelle Vetter; for her, it was a stone's throw - the offices of Metzger Lehner Briccola are located in neighboring Erlenbach. Epa advertising manager Jürg Kräuchi, on the other hand, spoke highly of his companion: "Small but nice, the agency of media specialist Kurt Schwab, because there you are still looked after by the boss himself, which Kräuchi greatly appreciates.
There were great expectations for the lunch. The most important V.I.P. members were seated for lunch on a Lake Zurich ship, where star chef André Jaeger of the Schaffhausen Fishermen's Guild demonstrated his culinary skills. In addition to host Klaus Kappeler, other guests enjoying the fine meal included advertisers Peter Lesch and Hanspeter Detsch, BSW President René R. Hürlimann, Keystone CEO Walter Grolimund and Wolfgang Mecklenburg, who is rarely seen at advertising events.
Those who had time then enjoyed a relaxing afternoon in the company of Goldbach employees, before the Big Party continued in the evening. And because it was a beautiful and mild summer evening, the nearby lakeshore also invited for a short visit.
The beautiful roof terrace at the Red Cell advertising agency also invited visitors to linger a while. The company, which is part of the WPP network, used to be called Conquest and has been operating under its new name since March. This was, of course, a reason to celebrate, especially as it was an opportunity to present the new, ultra-modern offices to customers, suppliers, friends and neighbors.
The agency, headed by Romaine Marti, can be found right next to the Hardturm stadium, with the best view of the training ground of the soccer players from the noble kicking club Grasshoppers. This might be one of the reasons why Red Cell's payroll is predominantly made up of women - if you have the Coca-Cola light commercial with the muscular construction worker in mind, we don't mean that, of course! But women are naturally less distracted by the round leather than men. And that's probably why the workplaces of the three male employees are all on the side of the agency facing away from the stadium.
Football or not: Piero Schäfer, agency boss Remy Fabrikant, media specialist Peter Döbeli, Gilberto Petecchia from Fiat, Roli Hofer, head of the Red Cell trust agency BTO, and Facts advertising manager Kilian Gasser, who was especially pleased with the meat specialties flown in from his home canton of Uri, were all part of the party.
During the course of the party, many people saw red, but only in a positive sense. In addition to red tablecloths and floral decorations, all Red Cell and catering staff were dressed in red; and the color also ran through the menu like a red thread.
The guests were greeted with a red welcome drink, and the food included coconut soup with red peperoncino oil, a red Thai curry whose spiciness made one or two guests turn fiery red, tagliatelle with red pesto sauce, and Swedish cakes decorated in red for dessert. And all of this - self-praise is allowed without blushing in the face - inspired even the most demanding connoisseur completely.
BEAT FRITSCH

is spooning up the soup he has made for himself. In the truest sense of the word - because at the company event of the Red Cell agency, our shortlist author was also responsible in the function that he still performs in addition to his WerbeWoche commitment. As F&B manager, he designed and organized the catering for the Red Cell party - to his surprise, to everyone's satisfaction. Lesson learned is lesson learned; not to mention the not inconsiderable wealth of experience gained at the previous shortlist parties.
Who else inaugurates or is inaugurated, cooks or cooks, we locate at the most diverse events of the scene. Do you already have something to report? Reach for the handset (01
296 97 98) or into the keys ([email protected]). Event tips as well as further shortlist pictures are available online at www.werbewoche.ch.

SF DRS strengthens themed evenings and intensifies the hunt for viewers in pre- and post-primetimeBy Daniel SchifferleWith the cancellation of the shows "Time out," "Alavida" and "Lipstick," SF DRS is taking a step further in programming themed evenings. But the real audience hunt is now on for pre- and post-primetime.
It's true that the audience figures for the three shows that were canceled weren't exhilarating. But they weren't so bad that swift action was called for: The last three editions of "Alavida," which was launched at the beginning of the year, achieved market shares (MA) of between 16 and 20 percent, or more than 200,000 viewers. Lipstick" was not one of SF DRS's weakest programs last year either, with an average MA of 15 percent or 133000 viewers. Only "Time out" ran away from the audience in droves in the recent past. Nevertheless, the sports background magazine still reached an average of half a million viewers in 2000, or 29 percent MA per program, thanks in part to "Sydney Spezial.
Audience figures play a secondary role in the recently communicated programming adjustments (see box), says SF-DRS spokesman René Bardet. Rather, work is continuing to make the individual program slots more predictable for viewers in terms of subject matter. That's why there's no more room for "Alavida," for example, because one goal is to convert Wednesday evenings into a pure comedy slot. Conversely, the sports-oriented environment of "Lipstick" - Sundays at 5:55 p.m. - with the corresponding viewing expectations for "Lipstick" content has always been a weak point. For this reason, and because the background magazine "Time Out" is no longer being broadcast, this slot is to be allocated to sports, and the content of "Lipstick" is to be placed in at least equally suitable slots.
Publisuisse sees potential before and after prime time
If the prescribed program streamlining is able to generate more audience loyalty, Publisuisse will profit from it. But more important than prime time, which is practically booked out, will be pre- and postprime time, where the company believes there is still potential (WW 18/01).
That's why SF DRS already launched a programming offensive at the beginning of this year around the "Mittagstagesschau," which has been successful for years. Together with the new half-hour "Mittagsmagazin" and the equally long "Trend," SF DRS wants to develop a "small primetime" between 12:30 and 1:40 pm. The topics of the discontinued "Lipstick" are also to be accommodated there and increase the attractiveness of this broadcasting slot.
It remains to be seen how large the Swiss TV audience will actually be drawn to the TV at lunchtime. Experience in neighboring countries shows that audience expansion at this time tends to be slow. But even without new programming and additional audiences, Publisuisse has already proven in the past year that more can be achieved outside prime time: With additional marketing efforts alone, revenues in pre-primetime grew by more than 14 percent, and in post-primetime the increase was even almost 25 percent.
Program changes At SF DRS

SF DRS is planning various programming changes, which are to be introduced in stages, but completed by January 1, 2002 at the latest:
- "Time out" on Monday at 9:05 p.m. will be canceled.
- "Alavida" on Wednesdays at 10:20 p.m. will disappear at the end of the year. The Wednesday slot after "10 vor 10" is to be converted to a comedy-only slot. In addition to "Viktor's Late Night Program" and the purchased English sitcom "Waiting for God," another comedy format is to be placed in place of "Alavida. The show "ch: filmclub" is to remain in its current Wednesday slot only until a fourth comedy format is found.
- "Lipstick" on Sunday at 5:55 p.m. will be cancelled, with the freed-up time devoted to sports.
- "Puls" will be moved from 9 p.m. on Thursdays to 9 p.m. on Mondays, and will now be broadcast weekly instead of biweekly as before. A new entertainment format on the subject of travel is being developed for the slot that will become free.
- "Hit auf Hit" moves from Monday to Saturday evenings, where it replaces "Top of Switzerland. The Monday slot at 8 p.m. will thus become a quiz-only slot.

Urs Schneider, Wolfgang Mecklenburg's right-hand man until the end of April, will move in with Robert C. Baier in Zurich's Seefeld district on June 1. On the one hand, the two media professionals each want to be active on their own, i.e. by moving in together, they want to take advantage of the synergy opportunities offered by an office community with a shared infrastructure. "We will do certain things together," Baier reveals. It was only in January that Baier's Managing Director Petra Kreussler and Rolf Altwegg completed a management buyout, transferring all employees and clients of the Baier media agency to the new company The Generation Media (WW 6/01). The newly founded agency was forced to move out and set up its own premises on Alfred-Escher-Strasse in Zurich in mid-March.
In the future, Baier wants to turn to "specialty chemistry in the area of media planning and operate more in niches," as he says. "Media audit in new quality, optimization of media buying, creative media planning" - these are some of the focal points he will devote himself to in the future. (dse)

JCDecaux's Affichage stake is not disputedIt is not JCDecaux's entry into Affichage that is weakening competition among outdoor advertisers in Switzerland, but the negligence of some Swiss municipalities. This is the essence of a press release issued by the Competition Commission (Comco) on May 14. The result: The Weko allows the cooperation between JCDecaux and Affichage.When the French outdoor advertiser JCDecaux in autumn
1999 from Publigroupe a
30 percent stake in Affichage, the Weko suspected a competition agreement and initiated an investigation. After a good year and a half, the Weko came to the conclusion on
May 7 concluded that the cooperation between JCDecaux and Affichage was "unobjectionable."
The investigation showed "that there are other, significant companies that are active in the field of outdoor advertising in Switzerland, such as Clear Channel, or could become active, such as TDI Worldwide, Wall AG or Ströer," the Weko wrote. In addition, there is a certain competitive pressure on billboard advertisers from other advertising media (TV advertising, print media).
Negligence in many Swiss municipalities
The Weko is now singling out some Swiss municipalities as real obstacles to competition in this area: According to a survey of 200 municipalities, some of the larger municipalities restrict competition for billboard sites, for example by not issuing a call for tenders. In these cases, the poster sites are simply leased to the previous outdoor advertising partner.
In addition, the tendering regulations are sometimes circumvented, Patrik Ducrey of the Weko explained on request. Other municipalities, on the other hand, conclude so-called consortium contracts that include all potential providers in an overall concept. "This weakens competition," writes the Weko, which, according to Ducrey, can do nothing legally against such behavior. However, last year the Weko wrote to the municipalities asking them to put leases out to tender.
Despite the positive decision, the fronts remain hard (WW 18/01): Affichage continues to deny JCDecaux a seat on the Board of Directors. Markus Knöpfli

Bern has a new advertising agency. Agency 01 on Steigerhubelstrasse is shifting its focus to print, TV and radio advertisingand wants to distinguish itself primarily through overarching communications solutions. "We offer creative services combined with a strong consulting background. For this, the Bern location is ideal from our point of view," says Marianne Weibel, who most recently worked as advertising manager at the Zurich advertising agency Jung von Matt/Limmat. Together with Urs Bänninger, previously a copywriter and concept developer at Lang Gysi Knoll, she realized her long-held wish to set up her own agency. In the start-up phase, the company plans to work with freelancers on a project-by-project basis. According to the agency owners, growth is the goal. Therefore, employees from the areas of creation and administration are to be hired soon. The medium-term goal is a team of eight. "When it comes to clients, I can't mention any names yet, but we are still in the running for a pitch. Further presentations and acquisitions are underway," says Weibel. (dz)