At this year's rating event on September 18, Clariant took gold in the overall ranking ahead of Swisscom (silver) and Swiss Re (bronze). The Design category was won by Kuoni, followed by Implenia and Geberit. In the Value Reporting category, Swisscom came out on top for the third time in a row, ahead of Credit Suisse and Geberit. The Newcomer of the Year category was introduced for the first time. This was won by Mikron (Value Reporting) and Valiant (Design category).

The 2013 vintage is better than the previous year

The Design Jury recognizes new conceptual approaches in terms of content and form and notes a qualitative broadening of the top. In particular, more and more companies are willing to invest in a good online presence, as Peter Vetter from the Zurich University of the Arts and President of the Design Jury states. There have also been improvements in value reporting, although the criteria for reporting management remuneration, for example, have been tightened. So if you wanted to maintain your rank, you had to improve. This also applies to bronze winner Geberit. "Following last year's criticism by the President of the Value Reporting Jury, Prof. Alexander Wagner, and in the course of implementing the Minder initiative, we have made significantly more effort to meet best practice standards in terms of both quality and scope," explains Roman Sidler, Head Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Geberit.

Where does Switzerland stand in an international comparison?

This year's guest speaker was Jochen Rädeker, professor at the University of Konstanz and founder and head of the Strichpunkt agency in Stuttgart, who has won numerous design awards. He briefly and very entertainingly analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of Swiss annual reports and compared them with seven international reporting trends (see illustration). Not entirely surprisingly, Switzerland's traditional no-frills design continues to perform very well. However, Rädeker also gave the Swiss a good report card in the area of online annual reporting. He identified a strong need for improvement in two areas: on the one hand, storytelling. While the best Anglo-Saxon annual reports come across like magazines, Switzerland is still too strategy- and fact-oriented. And where Rädeker certainly spoke from the hearts of the designers present: Swiss annual reports should be much bolder. This is primarily aimed at corporate communications managers who, due to a lack of courage, probably consign many good ideas to the drawer and not to the desks of the board of directors and CEO.

Andreas Jäggi

The winners at a glance

Design
(print and online)
1st place Kuoni
2nd place Implenia
1st place Geberit

Value Reporting
1st place Swisscom
2nd place Credit Suisse
3rd place Geberit

Overall ranking Annual Reports
1st place Clariant
2nd place Swisscom
3rd place Swiss Re

Pictures of the award ceremony (Article Werbewoche PDF)
 

After a long, exhausting brainstorming session to find out what the initiators against a uniform VAT on the take-away basis want to convey to me in the one-second period on the poster with this boy eating confectionery slices, I have so far only been able to find one explanation (see headline). Eating a "Konfischnitte" at home should become more expensive if you vote yes. In other words, the "Konfi will become more expensive". Up to this point, I was joking. But now, what kind of lunatic has come up with this advertising idea? I last ate a slice of Konfi 50 years ago. Is there still anything like it today? It's all Kelloggs, Kindermilchschnitte or something like that. Oh yes, this spread tradition still exists with Nutella.

Now seriously: why do I find this campaign worth grumbling about? 1. when it comes to voting on the different VAT rates, voters are already faced with a complicated situation. Eating in a restaurant versus take-away. That's the fact.

But now the opponents are coming and telling me that the food in my fridge is getting more expensive. Together with Peter Lesch, we discussed the complexity and found out what the campaign is actually trying to tell us. I don't think anyone is looking, and no one understands this twisted idea. So we thought that if VAT is reduced, then product prices may not go down. On the contrary: we will pay more for the confectionery slice.

I also realize that it is not easy to solve these complicated issues brilliantly. But this solution won't really change the minds of Yes voters. Incidentally, we should also eat a lot less, otherwise we will become just as horribly fat as the majority of Americans.

2. advertising with children. Even the boy eating the confetti slices will not promote the comprehensibility of this campaign as expected. On the contrary. It will no longer trigger a "yes effect" in modern consumers to the same extent as it did in 1950. A superficial look at the poster, which is what around 90 percent of passers-by do, makes the advertisement look like an ad for children's chocolate, Nutella red or Hero jam. The bottom line: I don't think anyone understands the message. And so the result is: a lot of money for little effect.

(Written on Fridays) The upset of the week was the surprising victory at the Goldbach Media Golf Tournament in the Texas Scramble with Andreas Durisch, Peter Lesch and Rolf Staub.

Theophil Butz, graphic designer, advertising agency owner, inspirer and, for more than three years now, also a mothballs for Werbewoche readers. Please send any relevant information to [email protected].
 

Adolf Ogi's legendary New Year's speech on January 1, 2000 on Swiss television live from Kandersteg was the subject of much discussion. Who remembers? Today, 14 years later, TV appeals by Federal Councillors no longer make waves. What happened? While the Federal Council has stuck with SRG broadcasters as the primary mouthpiece for video messages, media consumers have turned to other sources. Wouldn't it be time to use the Federal Council's messages for new distribution channels? This is a question that we should all be addressing this fall at budget time. It's not as if nothing has happened in media land since last fall ...

Federal Councillor Leuthard's appeal against the single health insurance fund was viewed 311 times on the SRF web portal, shared twice on Facebook and once on Google+. The article was not shared on social media. No wonder: you won't find the video on the SRF News Facebook page, and it seems that the Federal Council doesn't even have a Facebook page. This is extremely surprising when you consider that over three million of his "flock" use the Facebook channel at least once a month.

The way Mrs. Federal Councillor's video contribution ended up in the quasi-anonymity of the SRF web player is exemplary. In my opinion, both the Federal Council and SRF lack a social media strategy!

There is currently hardly any mention of social media in the SRG guidelines on public service. It states: "Numerous broadcasts can be viewed as delayed streams via the websites of the individual SRG television channels." There is no question that every resident of the country theoretically has the opportunity to access the messages of the Federal Councillors. SRG also takes the technical aspect of its distribution mandate seriously by having, as it writes, "a complex infrastructure". However, the number of just over 300 views after seven days in the above example shows that the strategy of having its own complex infrastructure is increasingly reaching its limits in practice with regard to the public service mandate. An infrastructure that SRG also uses via Publisuisse to sell advertising space for companies. The problem of making it increasingly difficult to reach broad sections of the population - foreign-language immigrants are also part of the "public" - cannot be solved by focusing on its own infrastructure.

The New York Times Innovation Report gets to the heart of the problem with a phenomenon. More and more visits to media news sites are coming from social media streams, search engines or newsletters. The result: homepage visits are declining, while site views remain constant. The classic homepage, especially the navigation, is losing importance. Instead, the social teasing of individual posts is gaining in importance. This refers to posts from news pages, websites or blogs that are posted or tweeted via backlinks in your own social media feed. Responsible for this development are two trends that have been running in parallel for some time and have now suddenly coincided: the social media and mobile boom. All major social media networks are now recording more hits via smartphones and tablets than via desktop devices. As of December 2013, the figure for Facebook in the USA was 68%. On Facebook alone, the number of monthly active users via mobile services has increased from 751 million to over 1 billion. There is no doubt that mobile use is also intensifying the use of social media networks - especially the undisputed king Facebook. This is because use is possible at any time via smartphone app.

Overnight, the Federal Council, the SRG and all advertisers have been given the opportunity to counteract the impending loss of importance of their own homepage and the dormant content therein by posting teasers in the social media news feeds. In order to really take advantage of this opportunity, the use of social media must be immediately incorporated into the overall advertising strategy. In concrete terms, this means that Facebook, for example, as a mass medium with real-time measurable targeting options, belongs in every intermedia comparison. The days of Facebook as an experimental field for junior assistants are over. Facebook for companies now has to be paid for. The change from a free to a paid advertising medium has been taking place in secret over the last few months. Although posts are still delivered free of charge, the opaque Facebook algorithm alone decides who gets to see the video of Mrs. Federal Councillor in their own newsfeed.

There are two payment methods and one free method, which is still open, to securely reach the Facebook newsfeed of certain target groups. Firstly, by advertising your own fan page with paid ads. In this case, you buy a certain number of likes. The price is based on the bidding process. It therefore depends on the demand for a certain target group at a certain point in time. We know this from Google Adwords. The price elasticity is enormous. With a daily budget of 19 francs, there are 17 to 67 likes per day. 75 centimes per click is a guideline for budgeting at the beginning. You can invest a maximum of 19 francs per day. Secondly, by promoting your own posts. Here again, you buy views according to the bidding process. Here, too, there are restrictions per post.

Thirdly, ask existing fans to activate the "Receive notifications" function. This is an insider tip. Fans who have activated this function for a specific page will then receive notifications as soon as something is posted. In a recently published study by the University of Zurich, coUNDco, Lithium and SAP, among others, 60 percent of all companies surveyed stated that they had set themselves clear social media goals. Social media has therefore found its way into the strategic setting. But where is the will to implement it? This will be reflected in the willingness of advertising managers to invest significantly in social media for 2015. First with Facebook as a mass medium on a par with TV. So that on January 1, President Sommaruga's New Year's address will go beyond the usual distribution framework and her words will also inspire the numerous immigrant residents via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram feed to follow our country's common path. Perhaps, like Adolf Ogi back then, she will come up with something original. Because that's particularly effective on the social web ;)

Beat Hürlimann

You can find out more about social media strategy at Storify.com/beathuerlimann/social-media-strategy.
 

In his article "Making room for something new", Christoph J. Walther recommends that the owners of SDA close the news agency. He justifies this with technical developments and the associated new communication possibilities. This purely technocratic view of the former SDA IT developer clearly falls short of the mark. It fails to recognize that the agency has long since adapted to the new developments and does not define its performance in terms of technical possibilities.

It is undisputed: The media industry is undergoing an irreversible transformation process. No one around the world knows exactly where the journey is heading. People everywhere are looking for solutions on how to transfer successful business models from the analog to the digital era. There doesn't seem to be a silver bullet, and no one has yet found the egg of Columbus.

Journalistic content is under particular pressure because it has always only been able to reach readers so cheaply thanks to advertising revenue. Now that advertising funds are flowing more sparingly, the production of content must become more cost-effective.

And because readership loyalty is declining at the same time, editorial teams are making greater efforts to produce exclusive content without neglecting the basic service. In addition, editorial teams will have to think more carefully in future about which content they play in which channel. In short, everyone will have to do more with less.

It is important to join forces, as was the case at the end of the 19th century when news agencies were founded for this reason. In Switzerland in particular, the national news agency is still solely in the hands of the media. That is why the owners will not consider closing the agency, but will think about how to make even better use of the established structure in the future.

Christoph J. Walther is right that the PR departments of government and business no longer have to go through the news agencies to reach the editorial offices. And he is also right that PR writing must be reworked into news writing. In addition, advertising content must be separated from news content, additional research must be carried out and categorization must be undertaken. First of all, of course, a selection is made as to whether the message is relevant enough to be processed editorially.

Of course, each editorial team can do this independently. In a fairly large proportion of cases, every editorial team will come to the same conclusions. And this is exactly where the agency comes into play. It handles the selection for the basic supply centrally, which would otherwise have to be decentralized. The agency is used to quickly sifting through a large amount of information and preparing it in a customer-oriented way. It can thus relieve the customer editorial teams of a lot of work.

It also handles monitoring, alerting and verification. Today, editorial teams no longer suffer from too little information, but from being inundated with it. In order to work more efficiently, they need independent guidance, and this is what the agency offers.

The importance of the agency as a technical enabler is low today, developer Christoph J. Walter is right. On the other hand, the importance of the agency as a source of high-quality content has increased. Today, the agency is paid for its journalism, not for IT. However, it is also suffering from constantly declining revenues and the mandate to offer equivalent services at the same price in three national languages. The small Swiss market has long ceased to support this.

The entire Swiss media system benefits from the fact that SDA still provides this public service. The supply of newspapers, online portals, radio and television stations with information from Switzerland and abroad, the uninterrupted basic supply of news that enables an exchange across the language regions, is the agency's service today. If the public sector supports them in this and thus helps the media to provide this service more cheaply, this is a promising idea for the future and not a backward-looking demand. It is indirect media promotion that benefits everyone and is important in a directly democratic country.

As mentioned, the transformation process of the media is not an isolated Swiss phenomenon. It can be observed to varying degrees all over the world. No media system has reacted by closing down the news agencies owned by the media. Rather, the systems are strengthening the agencies and giving them new tasks, whether as an exchange and documentation platform or as a supplier of finished products.

If Switzerland were to take a different path, it would be a special case. Not a big, old, sick tree would be felled, as Christoph J. Walther writes, but a healthy tree that can still bear a lot of fruit. Fruit that the editorial offices can obtain and process at low cost. So that their specialties taste good to readers, regardless of the channel.

Bernard Maissen, Editor-in-Chief SDA and member of the Federal Media Commission
 

Almost every two days I receive an e-mail with the "ultimate", because "statistically significant" and "empirically substantiated" characteristics of particularly efficient and effective media work. The latest in this inglorious series slipped through my spam filter last Friday and begins like this: "What makes press offices really successful: Proximity to journalists, diverse target groups and a strong focus on image." Actually, the subject line should have read "What PR agencies are really looking for: proximity to potential clients." But okay, who's going to jump right in in our line of work? The banality of the findings of such success factor disclosures, however, subito eliminates even the last doubt that an aggressive acquisition policy is hidden behind such pseudo-service. This also applies to the "survey of almost 300 specialists and executives from German corporate press offices", archetypal in its simplicity, which reached me before the weekend. The study was prepared - also not untypically - by a Mainz business administration professor and a Hamburg PR firm. The third member of this unholy alliance of academy and agency is the DPA subsidiary News aktuell, which is responsible for the distribution and marketing of the joint product.

But let's move on to the ten equally important killer criteria for "press offices with above-average success". Here are the three already mentioned at the beginning:

- "Individual media contacts": New German for "access is king." Of course, public relations work is always a relationship crime. However, instead of increasingly direct access to the editorial offices, colleagues should rather concern themselves with the relevance of their content, because "content is king" also applies primarily to interest-driven information suppliers.

- Broad target group coverage": After the quality of the contact, the quantity. And here again, a classic commonplace. Of course, without coverage there is no response. But far more important than any obscure degree of coverage is the prior, careful identification of the key addressees for the respective content. Freely according to the motto "less (noise) is more (impact) ".

- Concentrating on the image": No way! The functional difference between advertising (sales promotion for the purpose of increasing turnover, vulgo "sales") and public relations (cultivating relationships with the public, vulgo "image") is basic communicative knowledge at high school level. With this "finding", the authors themselves insult the intelligence of young professionals.

I would like to spare you and myself the rest of the golden rules. Except perhaps this one: "PR professionals convince the boardroom and tap into higher budgets. Thanks for this food for thought, I would never have thought of that! No wonder, when you have been earning your bread and butter for a few years in the clueless non-profit sector. Yet our organization desperately needs an upgrade in media monitoring. Apart from clever dashboards and sentiment analyses, there are supposed to be tools for calculating the so-called "ad value equivalent" (AWÄ). In view of the quality and quantity of the coverage of our campaigns, the current AWÄ would probably provide further arguments for the overdue increase in personnel in the communications department. Should that be the case, this column would have been worthwhile after all. At least for me.

Oliver Classen is media spokesman for the Berne Declaration, a development policy organization. He previously worked as a media journalist.
 

Homegate has developed an app that makes handing over a home child's play. The new "Handover" app single-handedly covers all the requirements of a handover protocol. Forms and photos are recorded and stored digitally. Finally, the apartment handover takes place conveniently by electronically signing the handover protocol on the iPad, and the documents are sent directly to the parties as a PDF by email.

The app itself is free, but users pay for the individual protocols, according to a Homegate press release. "Handover" is aimed in particular at SMEs and private individuals with apartment buildings.

The tenant can then pay the bills using the eBanking app, use the SBB app to buy a ticket to the new apartment, use the Post app to redirect the post, use the Uepaa! app to climb peaks in the new area, use the Liquidsketch app to do a puzzle when bored and don't forget Whatsapp - Switzerland is one of the world's mobile elite. The only thing missing is this app: Surviving alone in the big city without a smartphone. (uma)
 

It all started with an idea: At the end of 2012, the creators of Quottom wanted to launch an "honest and independent magazine" for their entire generation, as they told the media at the time. The cultural magazine was to combine life topics with art in a timeless way on a total of 250 pages. In each case, two umbrella topics are addressed photographically, artistically, in words and pictures. In the meantime, the project has become a project of the heart in full swing and the initial crew consisting of Nicolas Walker, Tanja Luchsinger and Ruben Feurer has expanded to a circle of ten. The magazine's editors have now been joined by Yves Sinka, David Khalat and Rebecca Gisler, and many more people have joined for Quottom online, event management and editorial. The magazine itself features well-known names such as Walter Pfeiffer and Yves Netzhammer, alongside as yet undiscovered authors and artists such as Philipp Dornbierer (Yehteh) and journalist and photographer Benjamin Hiller. "We notice very well through the work on Quottom that one is much better networked today and can also reach and inspire the artists directly," Nicolas Walker is pleased to say. He says that wasn't as possible in the past without the Internet. Especially since all the content is printed free of charge. A crowdfunding campaign on Wemakeit.ch made it possible to produce the first issue. Today, in addition to subscriptions, newsstand sales and advertisements, the magazine is financed by a publication party held at each publication. "The last event was attended by over 1,000 people," Walker is still enthusiastic today. Still, he says, they want to make the next event smaller, in a rustic restaurant for about 250 people. "For dinner, there's soup with Wienerli," he says with a grin.

"A contemporary cultural image that endures".

Quottom is also available at newsstands, in addition to cafés, galleries and bookstores. However, the magazine is not backed by a publisher. The makers are unanimous in wanting to remain independent. "We could consider expanding the commercial side with a strong partner in the future," says Yves Sinka, "as long as we don't lose our independence. Sinka is responsible for building up customer relations and is currently working intensively on the magazine's business model. Doing everything himself, however, would involve a lot of effort, especially the acquisition of advertisers. Not all processes and customer relationships are standardized in the same way yet. "It's simply the case that the more people you are in contact with, the more ads you can sell," says Sinka. And preferably, everyone would only join when things are already going great. "But Quottom as a magazine is generally a product that works, you could say, the processes in the editorial area are now running smoothly," he says. However, there is still a lot that can be done in the sales area, he adds. Sinka is nevertheless very satisfied with the performance so far: "We have a circulation of 3000 copies. "Nicolas Walker continues: "With the magazine, we don't just want to offer a platform for artists and authors. We want to make a product that represents a contemporary cultural image, in which current topics and also the unspoken are discussed. But at the same time, the magazine should also last - it shows the attitudes to topics that occupy the people of our time," he says. Therefore the topics are also very broadly selected: While the cover picture with the respective two topics gives merely a first impression, the content develops the entire range. "We have not defined the terms," explains Sinka. Only when reading the book should the reader be able to develop a picture of what is understood today by a term such as fear - viewed from different perspectives and under different influences.

Quottom, the practitioner school

At Quottom, the advertisements come first. They are all to be found right on the first pages. This gives the reader the impression of a magazine without any advertising at all. "We hide the advertising well," quips Yves Sinka. In truth, he says, they simply noticed that these were the most popular pages with advertisers. "We are learning more and more, Quottom is like a school for us," Sinka describes the work for the magazine. After four issues, for example, they now know much more precisely when the right time for publications is. The 10-member team has also now realized that their magazine was a little too big and heavy to read on the go. As a result, Quottom is now published four times a year and is becoming more manageable. "None of us had done a magazine before," Walker says. It was simply a matter of trying and learning something new every day, he says. "Our readers are also interested in knowledge, " Sinka appreciates. They are probably curious, attentive to what is happening in the world, and want to know how young people think, she says. The magazine wants to contradict the accusation that young people are not interested in anything other than going out and drinking themselves into a coma. "We're already world champions at that," Sinka quips, "but we can do other things, too." With the magazine one wants to show, "there are also young people, who put something on the legs". After all, a total of 60 people are involved in the entire Quottom process. "And the young also want to have their say - Quottom is one of the ways to do that," Sinka becomes serious again. Above all, that works at Quottom in a way that people can also feel connected to, Walker adds. This includes, above all, the right processing, without giving rise to the feeling of being "unaffected" - "and that's what we're here for.

Ursina mason

In a nutshell

The comprehensive cultural magazine Quottom is now published four times a year in a new size. The current issue will be on newsstands from October 3, 2014. The subject area: "Home and Madness". Each issue - with a circulation of 3000 copies - deals with two topics, and their intersection. The first three issues revolved around the themes of "Sexuality and Violence," "Chaos and Progress," "Fear and Desire" in the foreground. In each issue, text and artistic work intermingle. Quottom No. 5 will be published in January 2015, Issue 6 in April 2015. For 48 francs you get all 4 issues per year sent to your home. Requests for advertising opportunities to [email protected]

This has clearly not been successful. Corrections are now needed. But such corrections are not considered necessary in Eastern Switzerland at present. A subscription circulation of around 100,000 copies, around 200,000 readers and a thousand-reader price (TLP) of CHF 66 - these were the targets set by the St. Galler Tagblatt when it launched its seventh edition, "Ostschweiz am Sonntag" (OaS), on March 3, 2013. It was modeled on Zentralschweiz am Sonntag (ZaS), from which it even adopted the identical advertising price (at the time CHF 13,200 for 1/₁ vf). But 18 months after the launch, it is clear that expectations were far too high. The OaS only sold around 60,000 copies and, according to Mach Basic 2014-2, only achieved half the targeted reach with 109,000 readers, which is why the TLP climbed to 115 francs. This made the OaS by far the most expensive Sunday paper. This also had consequences for the Sonntagspool, the combination of OaS, NZZ am Sonntag (NZZaS) and ZaS. Together, the three newspapers should have formed the highest-reach Sunday combination, ahead of SonntagsZeitung (SoZ) and SonntagsBlick. This calculation did not work out either - not only because of the weaker performance of OaS, but also because NZZaS lost many readers.

Three points misjudged

"It's true, we had other objectives and our business plan was too positive," confirms Daniel Ehrat, General Manager of Tagblatt Medien. And: "We underestimated the situation." He names three specific problems: Of the subscribers to the St. Galler Tagblatt (SGT), more than expected would not have wanted a newspaper on Sundays. And very few of those who already had the NZZaS, SoZ or SonntagsBlick wanted to switch. Thirdly, Ehrat cites the early delivery on Sundays, which does not fully cover rural areas. "People who live in remote areas therefore only receive the OaS by post on Monday. But many were not interested in this," he says.

Nevertheless, the overall manager also sees positive elements. The main thing: "The OaS is already break-even in its first year and even generates a small contribution margin." A second aspect: most OaS readers have not been poached from other newspapers, but have been acquired as new Sunday readers. The WEMF readership studies confirm this: Since the launch of the new Sunday edition, NZZaS, SoZ and SonntagsBlick have lost a combined total of just 3,000 readers in the entire OaS circulation area. There has therefore been a market expansion for print. "The fact that we succeeded in doing this in such a competitive and even declining market shows that the launch was the right move," says Ehrat.

Display rate remains the same, subscription price increases

Corrections should actually be made now. For example, the display tariff, which had already been reduced once - just nine months after the launch - by 5%. But this time Ehrat, who had initially considered a reduction of 12% as of October 1, has decided against it. This is because the tariff for the Sunday pool would then also have to be changed during the year. Instead, customers will be presented with "individual solutions tailored to their needs", he says, but leaves open the question of whether the OaS tariff will be reduced in 2015.

It also remains to be seen whether advertisers will appreciate this. After all, the high-priced OaS already suffered a slump in advertising in the first eight months of this year and now only has seven advertising pages per issue (2013: eleven pages). However, Ehrat attributes this decline to the end of the introductory campaign. Surprisingly, another measure will take place immediately: the subscription price for the OaS will be raised as early as October 1, 2014: The single subscription will rise from 128 to 131 francs, the seven-day subscription from 425 to 435 francs. The reason given by the General Manager: "Like all print titles, we also have to compensate for certain advertising losses with subscription fees. " With the higher subscription prices, he now wants to invest further in acquiring new subscribers. "The potential has not yet been exhausted," Ehrat believes. Previously, the main focus was on SGT subscribers, but now the company is primarily targeting people outside the SGT subscription base.

OaS is obviously well received

The OaS itself and its concept will not be changed. "We have a good response," says Editor-in-Chief Philipp Landmark. The OaS will therefore continue to have a strong regional focus, and its size is deliberately limited to 40 pages. "Our readers don't want too much paper," he says. According to Landmark, the OaS editorial team, which started with twelve positions, will also remain "roughly the same size" - despite the many departures in the last twelve months.

More money stays in the house in future

At the end of October, the NZZ Group buys back PubliGroupe's 25% stake in Freie Presse Holding (FPH) for CHF 53 million. The NZZ Group has combined the activities of Tagblatt Medien and LZ Medien in FPH. The buyback has one main advantage: from now on, no major shareholder will draw profit shares and dividends from the NZZ regions, which means that around CHF 6 million more will remain in the Group's coffers each year.

Personnel changes At the end of the year, the NZZ Group intends to return to its own management - after ten years of leasing Publicitas. To this end, NZZ Media Solutions AG was founded in July with around 100 employees. This has resulted in a personnel change at Tagblatt Medien: Urs Bucher, previously Head of Publishing and Marketing, has taken over the management of the print advertising market. The new Head of Publishing and Marketing is Christine Bolt, previously Director of Toggenburg Tourism. In future, however, there will be even closer cooperation with the SGT editorial team. The fact that OaS and SGT are well received by readers is confirmed by the online figures from Net-Metrix-Audit. According to these figures, visits to Tagblatt.ch have been increasing slowly but steadily in recent years. With the OaS launch, traffic increased visibly once again. "We therefore want to further expand the online area," says Ehrat.

Markus Knöpfli
 

Every year, around 1,000 children and adults in Switzerland contract leukemia or other life-threatening diseases of the blood-forming system. Many of them can be helped with a blood stem cell transplant. In order to find suitable donors, however, as many people as possible must register.

The campaign forum therefore created a participatory campaign culminating in the Day of Action, according to a statement Wednesday. The campaign uses online and offline channels at the national and regional level to encourage potential blood stem cell donors to register. The centerpiece of the campaign was the first Day of Action on August 23, 2014.

55 groups in 18 cantons with over 200 volunteers got involved and took to the streets to inform people and promote registration. On the Day of Action, various fire departments, Samaritan associations, patient organizations, medical students and private individuals joined in.

Sensitization with John Twenty in 20 minutes

In order to make as many people as possible aware of the issue in the run-up to the day of action, the gangster hunter John Twenty was engaged. Over the course of five days, he solved a vital case in 20 minutes.

The number of online registrations tripled shortly before and after August 23, the statement said. The online registration page was the third most visited site on the Swiss Transfusion SRC website during this period.
 

For a long time, the clumsy robot struggles in vain for the attention of the busy machine. Then he finds out how it works. And that's a great way to live. (sis)
 

The visuals for the fall campaign were shot in summery Mallorca by Jan Kohlrusch Photography. Samuel Alvarez, Sales Manager of the Hotel Cap Rocat Mallorca, ventured into the cool water as the model. The testimonial campaign was deliberately realized in the style of classic fashion photography. Little text, lots of images.

The inaugural issue will be featured in the newly launched travel edition of L'Officiel Voyage on Wednesday. Roman Sägesser will accompany L'Officiel Voyage as Editor at Large. The L'Officiel Voyage launch event will take place in the evening at the R Selection offices in Zurich.
 

Responsible at R Selection Travel in Style: Roman Sägesser (owner). Responsible at Adam & Adam: Willi Adam (consulting), Verena Buri (graphics/concept). Photography: Jan Kohlrusch. Model: Samuel Alvarez.

With the sale of the shares to the two companies from the region, the sisters of the Pauluswerk hope that the spirit and independence of the Fribourg daily will be preserved. This emerges from a letter from the sister community published in La Liberté on Wednesday.

Three years ago, the sisters announced their intention to withdraw from the newspaper business in the medium term. The reason for this is the ever increasing average age of the sisters and the lack of new blood.

The headquarters of the order in Rome still has to formally give the green light for the sale of shares, as St. Paul Holding announced in a statement on Wednesday. Under the umbrella of the holding, the Sisters of St. Paul have united several companies.

No rescue in the crisis

When the time comes, the Fribourg Cantonal Bank and Groupe E will take over the block of shares in equal shares. To enter the newspaper business, the two companies have founded a holding company called Sofripa.

The publisher of La Liberté, Thierry Mauron, writes in Wednesday's edition that the company's financial situation is healthy. It is not a question of rescuing a daily newspaper in crisis. Editor-in-chief Louis Ruffieux is satisfied that decisions on the future of La Liberté will continue to be made in Fribourg. The newspaper is published in about 40'000 copies daily.

Exclude influence

Dominique Gachoud, director of Groupe E, said on Wednesday when asked that the energy company was not interested in acquiring a communication tool. The motivation for joining La Liberté is to ensure its continued existence. The company expects a certain profit from its investment.

Martial Pasquier, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Paulusdruckerei and La Liberté, also said the two companies ruled out any influence on the content of the newspaper.

Both Groupe E and Fribourg Cantonal Bank are semi-public companies: The Canton of Fribourg holds 100 percent of the bank's files and 78.5 percent of those of Groupe E.

Additional opening planned

The sale of one-third of the shares to the bank and the energy company is only the first step towards a further opening of the shareholder base, according to the St. Paul Holding announcement. The two new shareholders have agreed to take over a second third of the shares together with other partners. These partners can be companies, but also the general public.

Further offers rejected

The French Hersant Group and another company, which has not been named, also expressed interest in the Pauluswerk sisters. This was not Tamedia, which will print La Liberté in Bern from January. Both bids were not considered.