The Basler Mediengruppe (BMG) and the Zurich commuter newspapers 20 Minuten and Metropol have submitted bids for boxes to the Basler Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB).From both Zurich publishers it was learned that they have requested boxes at bus stops as well as in buses and streetcars, whereby Metropol wants exclusive rights in the vehicles, according to publishing director Urs Zeier. According to project manager Sacha Wigdorovits, 20 Minuten does not want exclusive rights. BMG also does not want exclusive rights and also waives boxes in the vehicles, board delegate Beat Meyer told WerbeWoche. BVB deputy director Georg Vischer said BVB will evaluate the offers and submit a corresponding proposal to the BVB board of directors. In the second half of August, the board of directors, which is made up mainly of members of the city council, will make its decision. Although Basel is not exactly enthusiastic about the new paper flood, BVB is not fundamentally averse to it, said Vischer. In order to learn from the experience in Zurich, a BVB delegation is meeting this week with representatives of Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich (VBZ).
Baselland Transport AG (BLT) is also represented on the BVB Board of Directors. According to Vischer, it will be kept informed about the talks with the commuter newspapers and can also be included in the negotiations at a later date.
SBB has not yet decided when it will issue a call for tenders for pit locations. Actually, the intention was to coordinate this procedure with the respective local transport companies. In Bern, a joint concept is being worked out with the partners of the Bäre-Abi transport association, while in Basel, BVB has jumped the gun. According to SBB spokesman Reto Kormann, however, Metropol and BMG have already registered their interests with SBB in Basel, while Berner Tagblatt Medien and - newly - Metropol have also made representations in Bern. However, Metropol managing director Urs Zeier did not want to comment on a project in Bern (mk).

A logo "that you can draw in the sand" was what Australian agency FHA Image Design wanted to create for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.The idea didn't turn out to be a boomerang, although there is now more than one on the logo. Why? That's on page 20

The Rhine Valley agency Fiechter.Demirci is changing its name affix.In the future, the young AG would like to be seen as a service provider in the field of "management consulting for integrated communication", no longer as a classic advertising and PR agency. "We are strong in image analysis and strategic PR," explains co-owner Oliver Fiechter, "we would like to further expand these areas." Fiechter.Demirci serve clients such as Hilti, SFS Stadler AG, Flexi AG and EPA Ostschweiz. At the moment, the company employs ten people, but aims to grow to thirteen to fifteen employees by the end of the year. (ba)

It Struck Me As the daughter of a zoologist, I overheard conversations about interesting mating rituals from a young age. However, the protagonists in question were always creatures from the animal kingdom whose sexual drive was closely tied to a primal instinct—the urge to reproduce their own species. This motivation, driven solely by the pleasure of sexual union, was never up for debate. It is an instinct that has been adopted almost identically by the Catholic Church and to which even today, the occasional fur- and scale-free believer still clings.
Sex for pure pleasure, without the intention of procreation, has become socially acceptable, at least since the ’68 revolution. After all, it’s got to be fun, right? While compiling these ads, however, slight doubts arose as to whether Homo sapiens, freed from meaning and purpose, might no longer be able to reach climax. It goes without saying that a well-built couple on the verge of making love is a classic eye-catcher. But the fact that such a subject must simultaneously advertise new kitchen furnishings, men’s clothing, and men’s cologne does make me a bit skeptical.
Perhaps the thought of a kitchen installation will awaken sensual feelings of a previously unimagined erotic dimension. Especially since eating food orally is considered a substitute for sexual intercourse, and the kitchen, as the place where it is prepared, is seen as a suitable setting for this. And since the proof is in the pudding, next time I’ll take the new Miele catalog with me to the playground. To be continued. That’s a guarantee from the advertisers. Chandra Kurt
Language Observer

First Half – The Best Moments
Soccer is played on grass and nowhere else.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
The ball is round. If it were square, it would be a cube.
Gyula Lorant
Yeah, what can you say?.
Max Merkel
Everything is connected in some way. If you pull a hair out of your butt, your eye will water.
Dettmar Cramer
Soccer is nonsense. Only this term is adequate to capture the aesthetic, ideological, medical, and intellectual shortcomings of the sport of soccer.
Dirk Schümer
Some people think soccer is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed by that attitude. I can assure you, it's much more important than that!
Bill Shankley
There are people who think this way, and there are people who think that way. That's always the case when a lot of people get together.
Toni Polster
I don't talk much, but when I do speak up, you'll hear what I have to say.
Gerd Müller
The reason was not the cause, but the trigger.
Franz Beckenbauer
Erich Ribbeck (on the tense atmosphere before an international match): This can be a disadvantage or an advantage, both for us and for the opposing team.
Christoph Daum (on the formation of cliques within the team): We have about 27 groups in the roster. We compete under the premise of diversity.
We don't talk enough on the field. That might be due to a lack of communication.
Erich Ribbeck
These days, players have more contact with the press than with the ball.
Gerd Niebaum
I've been a coach for 34 years now, and in that time I've learned that two plus two never equals four.
Leo Beenhakker
Whoever is at the back has the worst of luck.
Helmut Schulte
Resignation is the selfishness of the weak.
Jörg Berger
No drama in the world is as straightforward as a soccer game.
Marcel Reich-Ranicki
I hope the team puts in another solid performance in the second half—that would really cap off a great game! Günter Netzer
The score is 1-1, but it could just as easily be the other way around.
Heribert Fassbender
Beat Gloor www.textcontrol.ch
Column

Advertising Gene Discovered
From Anna Esposito
Once again, a scientific discovery is dividing humanity into two camps: some have it, others don’t—the advertising gene. Following the decoding of the genetic sequence 3234id79798xy34e, one thing is clear: Those who do not possess these genetic building blocks simply do not perceive the advertising dimension; they are, so to speak, immune to advertising. And that makes everything easier. What was once assumed to be a latent talent in everyone—think reproduction—is now clearly limited to a specific group. Gone are the days of that almost inhuman waste of time at a conference table, where two universes try to connect with phrases like: «This 16th promotional campaign will finally make us a brand.» Or: «What do we need an idea for? We want to see our product.» Now there’s the handy DNA test that prevents mixed genetic groups from advertising together. Some gather around the sacred fire of the concept, buy display cases for their ideas, and feel good. Others feed data into computers, cultivate pure information, and feel good. Anyone who used to have the guts to launch crusades for an idea and win wars of faith should just open a bar or get into the art world.
Trying to create compelling advertising by seeking the numerical status quo outside of advertising and the corresponding brilliant executions within it is a Sisyphean task. Creative strategists who have endured the balancing act between advertisers and non-advertisers—and even turned it into a supreme discipline—would be best off taking their visions to the doctor. Their chances of success have been and remain as rare as spontaneous mutations. Who even wants to invent good advertising? It’s been invented for a long time now—we can all agree on that. Either you have the “advertising gene” built into your customers, or you don’t. Because without that gene, you won’t get a signal at the number mentioned above.

Gossweiler Media AG nevertheless launches Jungfrau-ZeitungThe Competition Commission (Weko) is examining the cooperation between Berner Zeitung (BZ) and Berner Oberland Medien AG in more detail, which will at least delay the realization of the project. The publishing houses Schaer Thun AG and G. Maurer AG, Spiez, want to found Berner Oberland Medien AG (BOM) and publish the Berner Oberland Zeitung (BOZ) from November. Two regional editions (Thuner Tagblatt and Berner Oberländer) with editorially independent local sections are planned. However, thanks to a cooperation agreement, the Berner Zeitung (BZ) is to supply the main section.
This would increase the BZ circulation from the current 134,000 copies to around 17,000 copies. The BZ currently holds a 49 percent stake in Schaer Thun, but would not be directly represented on the BOM Board of Directors (see WW 13/00). Because of the new BOZ, the Oberländische Volksblatt (OV) and the BZ Oberland edition would disappear.
The Competition Commission has now come to the conclusion that BZ "would take over economic control" of the BOM to be founded through the cooperation. In addition, a preliminary examination has shown "that there are indications of the creation of a dominant market position", writes the Competition Commission.
It now wants to examine in more detail by October 10 whether this will also "eliminate, create or strengthen effective competition". Depending on which is the case, it can either prohibit the merger or approve it subject to conditions.
As a result of the Weko decision, the newspapers involved in the BOM merger, Thuner Tagblatt and Berner Oberländer, the OV and the Oberland edition of the BZ, will continue to be published independently at least until spring 2001, said the designated BOM managing director Konrad Maurer.
Will the Weko-No also overturn the BTM strategies?
Albert P. Stäheli, BTM Board Delegate, was unavailable for WerbeWoche. However, the current situation represents a major setback for BTM. Board Chairman Charles von Graffenried had already made it clear that BTM would have to rethink its entire strategy after a Weko-Njet on the Oberland project. BTM had assumed that the cooperation with BOM could also serve as a possible model in the Solothurn or Fribourg areas.
Will the Weko decision also delay the publication of the new Jungfrau Zeitung (JZ) from Gossweiler Media AG (WW 22/00), which after all cooperates with the Echo von Grindelwald, which is currently still one of the OV's head papers? But JZ initiator Urs Gossweiler waves the question away: The JZ will be published as planned on October 6, with the Echo von Grindelwald as one of the three front pages. This decision, which is also confirmed by Echo publishing director André Zbinden, was made at short notice over Whitsun. Gossweiler said that it could not be ruled out that the Echo would also be published in parallel as an OV edition by the end of the year.
Nevertheless, Gossweiler also criticizes the Weko decision because it makes the JZ launch more laborious and more expensive. Gossweiler, otherwise a competitor of BZ, this time takes up the cudgels for his powerful colleague von Graffenried. The planned cooperation between BZ and BOM will leave a gap, which will enable the launch of JZ and thus the emergence of new local competition, he says.
But there is another reason for the pat on the back: Gossweiler has negotiated a deal with von Graffenried, the content of which both are keeping quiet about. However, Gossweiler speaks of "significant concessions" by BTM, which would "improve the general conditions of the JZ" - but only if the BOZ is allowed to appear.
However, if the BOZ does not get the green light, the BTM concessions will also become null and void, which would worsen the chances of the JZ project, if only because there would then be three newspapers in the small Bernese Oberland market - at least in the short term. Because Gossweiler has now put himself under pressure to succeed with his "Whitsun decision", he is keen to ensure that the BOZ is allowed to launch soon.
Markus Knöpfli

Publicis sets a new cheese trap for EmmentalerFrom Monday, the world's most credible cheese expert will have his own show on all Swiss TV channels: "Alles Käse oder was?" is the name of the spectacle in which a white mouse called Fredy tries to convince viewers of the inimitable quality of the original Emmentaler. With this presentation, developed by the Zurich agency Publicis, the Bern-based variety organization and promoter Emmentaler Switzerland aims to impede or even stop the advance of foreign cheese copies. These have been forcing their way onto the Swiss market since the new Agriculture Act came into force. Furthermore, the TV show is intended to put the brakes on consumption, which traditional advertising has helped to attract, especially among a younger audience. Emmentaler Switzerland invests around three times more money in communication than the Swiss Cheese Union, which was responsible for promoting the original Emmentaler Emmentaler before the new agricultural legislation came into force. page 14

Where can I find an ideal freelancer in hectic times?out of this desperation Denise Eberle has developed a good idea. Her Werbekraft GmbH, newly founded together with Sonia Soutter, places qualified freelancers in the entire field of advertising and communications. Eberle, who as a trained advertising assistant struggled with the problem of freelancer recruitment for six years in an agency, runs the Northwestern Switzerland office in Pratteln. Soutter, who has years of experience as a human resources specialist with a federal certificate, heads the Northeastern Switzerland office of Werbekraft GmbH in Winterthur.
From copywriters and graphic designers to stylists, concept designers, illustrators, translators and art directors, freelancers and customers are brought together in personal meetings or via the Internet. At www.werbekraft.ch, potential customers can enter a requirements profile. Interested freelancers are added to the file in the course of extensive interviews. The two women ensure on the telephone that Freelancer reaches their customers. They can be reached under the numbers 061 823 80 76 or 052 202 01 79. (pan)

100 years of APG: Affichage CEO Christian Kauter on what is feasible in the futureIntegration of electronic media and further development into a content provider - these are the most important innovations with which APG is entering its second century of existence. But according to Affichage CEO Christian Kauter, progress is also to be accelerated abroad.The most important link in the Affichage Group, APG, is entering its second century. What is your vision for the future?
Christian Kauter: We want to be the first to have a poster on the moon. If it gets that far. But let's stay on the ground for now, because groundbreaking things are happening for us here, too. The
The 21st century will be the century of electronic media. The keyword is big screen. By taking this step, we are entering new territory: In the future, we will also offer content and garnish advertising with it. Pipilotti no longer has to go to New York to show her films. In the future, that will also be possible in Zurich, Bern or Basel.
When will the longed-for piece of Times Square or Picadilly Circus become a reality in our country?
Kauter: We're working on the details for a pilot in Zurich's main train station. If everything goes smoothly, we'll be putting a 60 to 80 square meter big screen into operation before the end of the year. After a test phase, we then hope to be able to offer the system on the market.
But Zurich is not New York and Switzerland is not America. Everything is tighter here, and the space available in train stations and squares is limited. What will be different here?
Kauter: In Switzerland, we have six stations with visitor frequencies for which the use of big screens makes sense: Zurich, Bern, Basel, St. Gallen, Lausanne and Geneva. Outside the stations, things are already getting tight. At Zurich's Paradeplatz, for example, there are hardly any opportunities for a Big Screen. This forces us to be innovative and look for our own customized solutions.
What might they look like?
Kauter: A single large screen in the station concourse, for example, does not provide sufficient contact quality. To supplement this, various smaller screens are needed, distributed on the platforms and other busy passages in the railroad area. The goal is: no station user should be able to bypass our new electronic advertising and information system. In a further step, we are even considering equipping public buses in Switzerland with small screens.
The Zürcher Oberländer Verkehrsbetriebe have been using it for some time now. With meager success. What improvements are you planning?
Kauter: The system in the Oberland transport companies is not up to date enough. That has partly to do with the technology: The devices in the buses are fed by cassettes. Nowadays, you have to operate an electronic medium online. We are working on this step.
By turning to electronic media, the Affichage Group is taking on another new challenge: In addition to advertising messages, content is also to be transported in the future. Do you do this yourself or are you looking for partnerships for this?
Kauter: That's where we're currently feeling our way forward. One thing is clear: The content must have a specifically local character. That means we need partners with expertise in the regional and local area.
Local TV stations could become partners of Affichage, for example?
Kauter: I can't rule that out. At this stage, we have to have our sights wide open as far as possible partnerships are concerned.
The Big Screen system is a huge investment and will also be very expensive to operate.
Kauter: We are planning to invest around ten million Swiss francs in Big Screen, an amount that will not be written off quickly. The new product is still relatively expensive today, but that will change when we go into mass production.
The Affichage Group will not only set new accents in public spaces with the Big Screens. In other ways, too, it will continue to cultivate its role as an urban designer. Telephone booths, streetcar and bus shelters, and toilet blocks already exist. What's next?
Kauter: We will continue to focus on street furniture in the future. Others are conceivable, such as waste bins or bike trees, which we could quickly realize. Another possibility, which is already practiced abroad: creating entire kiosks.
Do you want to compete with Kiosk AG?
Kauter: Of course not. If we were to get involved in kiosk construction, it would be in cooperation with Kiosk AG. Our task would be limited to erecting the buildings and to the advertising aspects.
In the future, the company is to grow primarily abroad. The entry into Europlakat has so far mainly cost money. And the liaison with the other big player, Decaux, is blocked by the Competition Commission. When do you want to earn money abroad?
Kauter: Working with Europlakat took a certain amount of time to get going. But now things are going steeply upwards: Sales have increased by 25 percent since the beginning of the year alone, and I expect a further growth spurt in the coming months. With Europlakat, we are number one in various countries in Eastern Europe. With Decaux, we also have a shareholder who, as a globally active company, has a huge amount of know-how. This is essential for our foreign strategy. However, we are blocked until the decision of the Competition Commission, which is due in the fall.
Another growth opportunity could be the combination of billboard and local radio. Your competitor Plakanda has already taken this step with its entry into the Radio One station in western Switzerland. Do you have similar plans?
Kauter: Here in small-scale Switzerland, the situation is quite different. The most important obstacle: The individual local radio stations have only small reception areas. We would have to buy up far too many stations for the whole thing to make sense. Today, media agencies can already put together advertising combinations with posters and radio on request.
Interview: Daniel Schifferle

U.S. magazines and TV stations have undone the gains of feminismBy Thérèse Balduzzi American women are currently being wooed with a plethora of media and marketing offerings that purport to be specifically tailored to the needs of the modern, working woman. Websites, television shows, even entire cable channels are aimed specifically at women. On closer inspection, the offerings turn out to be disappointing.
Oxygen, a cable channel, was recently launched to great media attention. Oxygen Media combines a cable television station and an Internet network into an entertainment and marketing conglomerate aimed at "modern" women. The channel includes sports programming, yoga, a comedy series, an animated film called "X-Chromosome," a talk show with Candice Bergen, and Friday night pajama parties with female celebrities.
The audience learns practical instructions from the twelve-part series "Oprah Goes Online," in which the talk show queen is explained the Internet by a beau named Omar. Financial advice for women is offered by Ka-Ching's "Money, Business & Career" show and webpages with titles like SheCommerce, a "virtual shopping tour that helps women be better consumers."
Oxygen was conceived by Geraldine Laybourne, former president of Disney/ABC Cable Network, and produced with powerful partners including Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Entertainment Group, America Online and TV producers Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach. The budget is $400 million.
Oxygen is the largest new marketing company targeting the female audience. The iVillage.com and Women.com websites follow similar patterns, providing entertainment and advice on career, family, personal relationships, finance and personal care issues.
They come against the backdrop of an astonishing abundance of media products marketed specifically to a female audience: TV series like "Ally McBeal," talk shows like "The View," Hollywood movies like Diane Keaton's new comedy "Hanging Up," and books like the box office hits "The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing" by Melissa Bank and "Bridget Jones's Diary" by Helen Fielding. They are joined by the older women's cable channel Lifetime, the countless daytime talk shows and the numerous women's magazines that present themselves with a new facelift every year.
Pseudofeminist media products
The new media offerings are presented as a response to a long-held desire for special attention to the complicated modern lives of working women and mothers: "We've had to wait a long time for this. Now there's a place where women can not only read about how to make the most of their lives, but also help each other achieve that goal," reads the welcome message from Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of iVillage.com Nancy Evans.
The spot for the website suggests that after a busy day trying to meet professional and family demands, women can finally relax in familiar surroundings where they will be understood.
But the reality is disappointing: The topics on iVillage.com move from astrology, diets, wrinkles, pregnancies, health, to relationships, shopping, travel, work and money. Time management for the chronically overworked woman runs under the title "Find more time for your family." The articles are short and trivial. "Quick solutions to your beauty dilemmas" promises one link. One article offers cooking tips for the (presumably male) football fans in the house.
The only modern aspect of this concept is the fact that a computer section is included in these rip-off topics. But this probably only serves to encourage female visitors to click on one of the brightly colored advertising links for shopping sites as soon as possible. A visit to the Women.com website is nothing more than a virtual walk through the shopping mall.
The new morning television magazine show "The View" on ABC was created by celebrity journalist Barbara Walters. "I had this idea about different women with different points of view, sometimes a little too different," she says in the opening credits. The show presents itself as a coffee klatch of four women, two of whom are politically correct white, one black and one Asian.
Questions of education, cosmetics, fashion and morals are discussed in a relaxed chatty tone. For example, at the beginning, presenter Meredith Vieira tells us that one of her children pretended to be sick so that she wouldn't have to go to school, which is what a mother is supposed to do. During the perfectly staged coffee round, guests such as the health guru Andrew Weil, the current girlfriend of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner or an unknown singer appear again and again.
Even more obviously than on other talk shows, the individual segments turn out to be purely promotional rounds for books, CDs, cosmetics, the latest baby care products.
Special discounts for shopping
on the internet
The sudden interest in the supposed needs of women does not come from charity, but from market research, which shows that the proportion of women among consumers is growing, especially those who shop over the Internet.
Internet shopping is being vigorously promoted in America: Campaigns for websites have recently captured a large share of advertising time and space in magazine and television commercials. Supermarkets and drugstores have recently started offering discounts through loyalty cards, as well as additional discounts that can only be obtained through websites.
Even more annoying is that behind the pseudo-feminist offers are often successful women who would hardly have experienced such professional advancement without the feminist efforts of their foremothers. Even marketing companies obviously guided by the profit motive could come across as more cheeky and honest.
Shopping as a substitute action for stressed women
Since the mid-nineties, numerous feminist achievements have been quietly reversed. Equal pay for women remains a distant goal, with the difference that it is no longer fashionable to talk about it. Affirmative action regulations, the legal measures that were supposed to remedy the discrimination of women and minorities, have been gradually abolished or watered down.
The much-hyped economic recovery has virtually eliminated unemployment, but at the cost of countless Americans having to simultaneously work several of these numerous, newly created jobs in order to survive. As is often the case, this trend disproportionately affects women. At the same time, daycare centers are in short supply and women are all too often left completely in the lurch when it comes to organizing their daily lives.
Hot and topical issues about the hardships women face in combining work and family, being worn out and having too little time for themselves and their families, are hardly given a word's worth in the whole range of women's media.
Feminism's achievements overturned without a sound bite
The magazine landscape reflects this backlash: In the early nineties, numerous women's magazines at least conveyed a light version of feminism. When it came to cosmetics or sex, the focus was on women's well-being.
Meanwhile, the headlines are back to their usual "Ten Sex Tricks That Will Leave Your Husband Begging for More" style. Glamour magazine, which long conveyed a mainstream feminist keynote, until a year and a half ago included the Women in Washington column, which discussed policy decisions affecting the status of women.
Glamour also ran articles on the emergency of after-school programs and affirmative action. Meanwhile, the political column has disappeared and been replaced by an astrological one. Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire have undergone similar transformations. Allure, a Condé Nast magazine launched in 1991, tried to discuss cosmetics and fashion in an intelligent setting, inviting high-profile writers like John Updike. Meanwhile, it, too, is all about makeup and celebrities. The level has dropped, the circulation has risen.
Hollywood feeds the farce
from the successful woman
The farce of pretending to cater to women's interests and problems in order to spur them to buy unnecessary products is not only cynical but also reactionary: the more offers are designed specifically for women, the more the worst stereotypes and prejudices are reproduced: Why does Oprah need twelve lessons to get on the Internet? Why does she have to have a man explain the steps to her and not, for example, a young college student?
The successful TV series "Ally McBeal" and "Sex in the City," which feature young, ambitious women, pretend to be modern by letting their protagonists talk openly about sex. But at the same time, the independent, professional women are only interested in one thing: getting married.
The worst female stereotypes are also reproduced in the films on Lifetime, an entertainment channel for women: The heartless, elderly seductress of young male innocence is still the most refreshing. Most of the time, these are stories about women who have gotten involved with a con man who wants nothing more than to get them out of the world as quickly as possible in order to get their life insurance, sister or best friend. And Hollywood, on the other hand, focuses on fairy tale prince stories and family sentimentality.
The range of magazines and TV shows is ultimately as depressing as it is insulting, leaving women with only two options: run off to a desert island or buy frustration. But that is precisely the intention.

The Western Swiss publishing house Edipresse is acquiring a 30 percent stake in the Zurich-based niche broadcaster Star-TV, with the aim of accelerating Star-TV’s expansion plans. The French-language programming block will be expanded into a separate channel. According to a press release, Edipresse’s strong international presence will provide a solid foundation for Star-TV’s expansion plans. If the Federal Council approves the transaction, founder and CEO Paul Grau will retain a 50 percent stake in Star-TV. Former advertising executive Walter Bosch is increasing his stake from 10 to 20 percent. The Los Angeles-based film production company Kings Road Entertainment is no longer a shareholder. STAKEHOLDER VALUE. «Hmm… I’m in too when it comes to a pleasure stock with cult(ural) value,» reads the lead to a tempting flyer with which Daniel E. Eggli is seeking shareholders for his Salz & Pfefferland. The flyer was designed by the advertising agency JWT + Hostettler + Fabrikant. For the capital increase, Eggli plans to offer 100 new shares at 5,000 francs each for public sale. After years of building up the business, «it might be worth adding shares of this pioneering company to your main portfolio,» promises Eggli, who currently feels financially secure and announces expansion plans in the prospectus—ranging from cookbooks to the e-commerce market to the trade shows and events sector, where the spicy company already generates 20 percent of its revenue today.
The NZZ is planning, planning, and planning a new supplement. According to *WerbeWoche*, the current *Zürcher Wochenkalender*—which is included with the NZZ on Fridays—is set to be expanded into a national events calendar starting this fall. NZZ Publishing Director Tobias Trevisan neither confirmed nor denied anything, saying only that it is well known that the NZZ has been working on a new events calendar for years.
Pit Stop for City-Kombi. The board of directors of Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich AG, publisher of the Zürich Express (ZE), has ordered a suspension of negotiations until July 15 regarding the City-Kombi project planned in collaboration with free newspapers in Basel and Bern. So far, neither the Basel media group nor Berner-Tagblatt-Medien have been able to present pilot issues of their commuter newspaper projects. In addition, the ZE shareholders NZZ and TA-Media are at odds over whether the partner in Bern should—and is allowed to—be named “Bund” (along with the Anzeiger Region Bern).
Comm in Ahead of Relaunch and Repositioning. The Fédération Romande de Publicité et de Communication (FRP) plans to separate the magazine Comm in from the association. The FRP’s publication is to be commercialized more extensively and made accessible to a broader audience. The FRP will be granted a majority stake in a limited liability company (GmbH) to be established, so that it can have a say in the development of Comm in.
Two new free newspapers for Zurich. A new free newspaper titled *Zürich Ost Anzeiger* has been on the market in the Zurich region for three months; it covers an area from Kloten to Rüti and has a circulation of 58,000 copies. A “Zürich West Anzeiger” is set to launch this fall. The founder of both papers is Peter Leutenegger, a newcomer to the publishing industry.
BELLE EPOQUE IN PARIS. The Plakatraum, located across from the Museum für Gestaltung at Limmatstrasse 57 in Zurich, is exhibiting posters from Paris on the eve of the 20th century. The posters from this Belle Époque reflect a society that celebrated consumption, technological progress, and the happiness of the masses as its highest ideals. Above all, they depict women as objects of desire—an image that found its way into advertising and was used for every conceivable purpose. The exhibition runs from June 20 to September 15.
GENEVA BANS TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL ADVERTISING. According to a decision by the Grand Council, tobacco and alcohol may no longer be advertised on billboards in the canton of Geneva. The ban is limited to beverages containing more than 15 percent alcohol. Billboard companies have two years to prepare for the change. Swiss Advertising (SW) criticized the decision in a press release. SW Communications Director Piero Schäfer told WerbeWoche that the ban was a «hypocritical affair»: Domestic wine production was exempted from the 15 percent rule.
Ringier Acquires Internet Company in Western Switzerland. The media group Ringier is acquiring 100 percent of the internet company Fastnet, based in St-Sulpice, Vaud. Fastnet offers internet access, web hosting, and e-commerce solutions. Fastnet already collaborates with Webdo.ch, the internet platform of Ringier Romandie.

UNUSED SPACE. In addition to the same old product information on fruit juices and other Tetra Pak packages, you can now place ads with Tetra Medien in print runs of millions. Advertising on the back of a package is also possible. For more information about Tetra, call 032 685 04 75.
SWITZERLAND’S POOR SHOWING AT THE ADCE AWARDS. On Pentecost Saturday, 278 entries—selected by the member associations of the Art Directors Club of Europe (ADCE)—competed for the Best of European Design and Advertising Awards 2000. The jury nominated 37 entries. Six of them won gold, and one—the British TV commercial “Surfer” by Abbott Mead Vickers for Guinness—won the Grand Prix. There were few awards for Switzerland. Although Switzerland held the record with 50 entries and accounted for one-third of the submissions in both the Print and Poster categories, it managed to secure only one nomination (for the landmine campaign by McCann-Erickson, Geneva). Jury member Uwe Schlupp, Art Director at Publicis in Zurich, attributed this to the strict criteria applied by other countries. Switzerland had better luck in other categories: Guye & Partner was nominated for an SSR mailing, and Studio Achermann for its annual reports for Migros and Bon Appétit.
Editorial

The only certainty is nothingness
Hardly a week goes by without some advertising festival hosting an awards show and luring the industry with its glamour. To secure the top spot in creative rankings, agencies invest an enormous amount of time and money. These festivals thrive on the narcissism of advertisers. When it comes to having their creative expertise validated by awards, no effort seems too great for many advertisers. Their self-absorption is attracting more and more organizers who want to make money in the competition market with increasingly specialized offerings. Major agencies easily spend several hundred thousand francs a year just to participate in these self-indulgent spectacles …
Setting aside this award inflation, the International Advertising Festival (IAF) is presenting itself this year as the
For the 47th time, a sure bet in the chaotic sea of creative competitions. From June 19 to 24, Cannes will once again be the undisputed center of the advertising world. The creative festival on the Côte d’Azur is the most important event in the communications industry, and the Cannes Lions are the most coveted advertising awards of all.
This year, local communications professionals are heading to the South of France with more confidence than ever: With 399 entries, the number of Swiss submissions has reached a new record. In the Press & Poster category, participation rose by 68 percent to
255 entries, and in the film category, that number even doubled to 120. These figures are put into perspective when one considers that ADC Switzerland honored just ten groundbreaking entries this year and awarded only one silver in the film category (for the Eschenmoser commercial by Wirz). The ADC of Europe applied even stricter selection criteria: Of the
Of the 278 entries submitted by its member associations, six were awarded gold and one received the Grand Prix. So it will be interesting to see how the international juries will decide. After all, as Press & Poster jury member Frank Bodin puts it in the interview on page 49, «the only thing that’s certain in Cannes is that nothing is certain.».
Samuel Helbling

The new FN editor-in-chief Marcel Waeber is gearing up for a (newspaper) battle near MurtenBy Christophe Büchi The Freiburger Nachrichten is being hard pressed by the Berner Zeitung. In this situation, there is only one thing for the German-language daily newspaper of the canton of Fribourg: become even more professional. With a new editor-in-chief, the Fribourgers want to put a stop to the Bernese "tank general" and media boss von Graffenried.
"D Friburgera", as the Freiburger Nachrichten (FN) is affectionately called by its readers, has a new boss. The
58-year-old Marcel Waeber replaces the previous editor-in-chief Walter Buchs, who is stepping down. Waeber is tailor-made for the new job: as a native of German-speaking Fribourg who served for years at the Tages-Anzeiger, he brings with him a one-hundred-percent Fribourg "pedigree", but has also been around the world. As an aviation specialist, he is not afraid of crash landings, and as a mountaineer, he is used to tightrope walks: good prerequisites for the new job.
The seasoned service editor, like other year-olds, was forced into early "voluntary" retirement by TA-Media in the spirit of the youth cult (initiated by Roger de Weck from Fribourg). Of course, this was done the Tagi way, with honeyed bread instead of a whip: the conditions were simply so good that one couldn't say no. But the early retiree had no desire to go into retirement. On April 30, he had his last day at Tagi, and on May 1, his first day at the Fribourg News - and this on Labor Day, for many Swiss a day without work.
Will the puff
probably be enough?
Waeber has a job waiting for him at the FN. The only daily newspaper in the German-speaking part of the canton has a reach of 53 percent in its catchment area - the Sense district (around Tafers and Düdingen), the See district (Murten) and part of the city of Fribourg. But with a circulation of only 16900 copies, it is at the lower limit of what is vital for a daily newspaper.
Although it obtains its national and international pages from the Solothurner Zeitung, it can concentrate entirely on local and regional reporting. This has allowed it to operate profitably in recent years and to serve its shareholders a regular dividend - and a good meal, including drinks. Still, the newspaper operates in a shaky zone where the air is very thin. No wonder that in the beautiful Fribourg region, the question is repeatedly asked how long it will be before the "Friburgera" runs out of steam.
In addition, the Fribourg region has long since ceased to be a fenced-in little garden. "Make us üsserm Ländli, i de Not äs Wändli", says the Senslerlied: but the Wändli no longer exists. So the flower beds in the garden of the FN have been flattened more and more in the last years by a bear from the neighborhood. The Bernese newspaper BZ, which is the subject of this article, has for some time had its own editorial office in Fribourg, which produces up to three pages a day.
The FC benefits from the socio-economic development. For example, the reformed Murtenbiet is historically strongly linked to Bern. In addition, German-speaking Fribourg is increasingly growing together with the Bern region - a development that will be accelerated by the construction of the A1 freeway via Murten and Payerne.
The Bernese simply get up earlier
Of course, the Berner Zeitung has a different tiger in the tank than the FN. For example, the BZ is already with the subscribers in Murten early in the morning, while the FN only arrives with the mail. Also, the BZ is naturally much more comprehensive than the FN.
How can the small David of Fribourg hold its own against the Goliath of Bern? For editor-in-chief Marcel Waeber, there is only one thing to do: "We have to become even more professional. Among other things, this means that the newspaper should become more reader-friendly: "For a long time, we were very text-heavy. I want at least 25 percent pictures." But above all: regional reporting must become even denser, and this first in the lake district. It is not for nothing that the FN now has its own editorial office in Murten.
Will the Battle of Murten be repeated?
In fact, the battle between FN and BZ will probably be decided in Murten and region. The Fribourgers, who once defeated the Burgundian Duke Charles the Bold here together with the Bernese, are not yet giving up the new Battle of Murten against the troops of the Bernese "tank general" von Graffenried. Certainly, a first skirmish last year went in favor of the FC: The Bernese snatched up the twice-weekly Murtenbieter, which the FN would also have liked. But the Fribourgers console themselves with the motto: "Nous avons perdu une bataille, non pas la guerre."
"Prove that we can
Price are worth"
Waeber and publishing director Paul Stritt are convinced that the FN can not only hold its own in its catchment area, but even grow somewhat. On Thursday, "d Friburgera" already appears in a large circulation, reaching a total of 56,000 readers. The former CVP paper has also changed in recent years into a politically and denominationally open and ecumenical forum newspaper, which increases its sales chances. And perhaps the Fribourgers can even graze a bit in the nearby Bernese border area. It's not for nothing that the FN has a section called "Bernese Neighborhood" - tit for tat!
But with a circulation of 16900 copies and 38000 readers, isn't the paper simply too small, even with a little growth? Marcel Waeber to WerbeWoche: "Circulation is not everything. I am convinced that we have a future. But of course we have to prove that we are worth our price." Waeber's two predecessors in the FN editor-in-chief chair were career changers: Waeber is the first "dyed in the wool journalist" - a sign of the times!
Unequal sistersThe bilingual canton of Fribourg is in the fortunate position of having two daily newspapers: La Liberté for the French part of the canton and the Freiburger Nachrichten for German Fribourg. Both are printed at the Paulus printing plant in Fribourg, which is run by nuns. The editorial offices are on the same floor. But there is a little subtlety there, because the legal status of the two sister newspapers is not the same. While La Liberté is owned directly by Paulus-Verlag, the FN is published by a joint-stock company that used to represent mainly the German-Fribourg CVP circles and now represents a broad spectrum of German-Fribourg. In the case of the FN, Paulus-Verlag is thus only a client and printer.

What do federal councillors, kindergarten teachers and publishing experts have in common? shortlist
From Andreas Panzeri
They like to go on the most sociable school trip possible in the summer. On the Friday before Whitsun, active and passive members of the Association of Swiss Publishing Professionals (SAAM) as well as former and long-since graduates of the SAAM's specialist course met for the traditional boat trip on Lake Zurich. "It's almost a shame about this beautiful trip, though, because no one looks at the scenery. It's just scrounging and scrounging," said board member Ueli Custer against a bright blue sky as the boat set off at 6.30 pm. "The meeting probably only takes place on the boat so that nobody can leave in French," joked the self-employed publishing specialist.
As it turned out, with the sunset on the lake becoming ever deeper red, nobody wanted to leave the ship, which was equipped with wine and delicious snacks for at least one Atlantic crossing, prematurely. In the end, the chartered MS Säntis felt like a yacht after only 46 of over 150 invited publishing professionals came to the party. "The date so close to Whitsun probably didn't suit many of them," orated Urs Arnet from Target Publishing AG. The fact that even SAAM President Riccarda Mecklenburg from AZ Fachverlagen AG, Aarau, did not show up for her association's school trip and was on vacation instead had to be explained by the fact that the date for this boat trip was set before she was elected as the new president.
And so 46 people were allowed to share the wine out of 150. No - joking aside. Despite everything, it remained a very decent group, as Brigitte Schatzmann from Glückspost, who is used to much larger cruise ships from her reader trips, said.
"This boat trip is very popular as a job fair. You can hear who is unhappy or where new doors are opening," talked shop Thomas Sterchi from Job-Index. He enjoyed the trip on the foredeck together with Bruno Bötschi from Salz & Pfeffer. However, the latter could neither laugh nor grumble about the wine because he had to have a wisdom tooth extracted an hour before departure.
Heinz Krebs was in high spirits because he was once again able to feel like the lion in the basket on the boat without his competitors from 20 Minuten and Metropol. After the second grappa, the publishing director of the Zürich Express almost slipped out that his readers would soon be enjoying such bar drinks in Zurich too...but let's not go there.
Jean-Claude Bruhin from Cinecom is still only a trial member of the association. "As an electronic person, I'm completely wrong for the print people," he steadfastly tried to avoid paying the membership fee. In the end, however, the MS Säntis cruised under the now magically shining moon for so long that Bruhin had to admit defeat. He will now receive a subscription to the Media Trend Journal - his second - as a membership gift, just like the new SAAM members Francesca Canazza (SonntagsZeitung), Raphael Jud (St. Galler Tagblatt), Oliver Zuckschwerdt (Pegasus), Alois Ospelt (Liechtensteiner Vaterland), Jacqueline Friedrichs (NZZ) and Rolf Veraguth (Publicitas Biel), who celebrated their successful completion of the last SAAM course on the school trip.
Andreas Panzeri cruised for almost five hours on Lake Zurich last Friday together with Ueli Custer (left) and 45 other members of the Association of Swiss Publishing Professionals who are not afraid of spring jams.

Those who usually enjoy themselves at the parties of the communications industry will be located at the most diverse events of the scene. However, the editorial team decides who will definitely make it onto the coveted shortlist. Do you actually already have something to report? Then you seize times fast to the listener (01 296 97 98) or mailen you to [email protected]. Online, you can find event tips at www.werbewoche.ch