According to the press release, the company wants to offer an independent mix of news, sports, digital and entertainment. This is ensured by a team of over 50 journalists, designers, marketing people and developers in Zurich. Until recently, more than 40 of them worked at 20 Minuten Online. Content benefits Watson from an exclusive cooperation with Spiegel Online. The cooperation gives Watson access to the content of almost 300 journalists who publish on Spiegel Online. With a responsive design that adapts to any screen size, Watson also wants to stand out visually from the competition. Native apps are being developed for Apple and Android users. Their launch is planned for the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

According to the statement, Watson's target group is digitally native, affluent, urban, connected - and above all mobile. The offer is free of charge. A paywall is not planned. In the area of advertising, Watson offers new forms of native advertising in addition to banners, which aim to make intelligent use of the possibilities offered by smartphones in particular.

Behind Watson is the Zurich media start-up Fixxpunkt, which was founded in April 2013 by the former editor-in-chief of 20 Minuten Online, Hansi Voigt. Since May 2013, he and a development team of around 15 have been driving forward the technical and content development of the portal and have developed their own CMS from scratch. Since November 2013, AZ Medien and BT Holding - the holding company of publisher Peter Wanner - have held a majority stake in Fixxpunkt.

Image: Watson.ch

 

The editorial teams of Landbote, Zürichsee-Zeitung and Zürcher Unterländer, which cooperate in the newspaper association Zürcher Regionalzeitungen, will work even more closely together in the future. The sports, service and online editorial teams of the three newspapers, which have so far worked decentrally and independently of each other, will be merged organizationally. The same applies to production and proofreading. Editor-in-chief Benjamin Geiger will implement this reorganization with his deputy editors-in-chief, Jakob Bächtold for the Landbote, Cyprian Schnoz for the Zürcher Unterländer, and Michael Kaspar and Martin Steinegger for the Zürichsee-Zeitung. Patrick Gut will be in charge of cantonal reporting.

Cantonal editorial office in Winterthur

According to the press release, most of the staff of the main editorial office will be based in Winterthur. The newly formed cantonal editorial office, which reports on events in the city and canton of Zurich for all Zurich regional newspapers, will also be based there. The Winterthur editorial office will thus continue to comprise around 60 full-time positions. In foreign and domestic reporting, the ZRZ group will work closely with BZ Berner Zeitung. Strong regional editorial teams will report for the Landbote from Winterthur, for the Zürcher Unterländer from Bülach and for the Zürichsee-Zeitung from Stäfa, Horgen and Rapperswil.

The advertising sales of the Landbote as well as the Winterthurer Stadtanzeiger, most of which is already handled by the Verlag Zürcher Regionalzeitungen in Winterthur, will be fully integrated. The editorial office of the Winterthurer Stadtanzeiger will be affiliated with the Verlag Zürcher Regionalzeitungen under the management of Robin Tanner.

Reduction of 25 full-time positions

The new organizational structure of the editorial offices and publishing house will make it possible to consolidate the future of the newspaper association of Landboten, Zürcher Unterländer, Zürichsee-Zeitung - which also includes Zürcher Oberländer as an independent partner - as a strong newspaper voice in the Zurich region and thus strengthen media diversity, Tamedia said in a statement on Wednesday. The reorganization of the ZRZ editorial offices and publishing house will result in the elimination of around 25 full-time positions in Bülach, Stäfa and Winterthur. The publishing and editorial offices at the three locations previously comprised 165 full-time positions. In order to keep the number of redundancies to a minimum, the job cuts are to be made as far as possible through natural fluctuation and early retirement. In addition, the employees affected will be offered vacant positions with other Tamedia media wherever possible. An accompanying social plan will be applied to those affected. All decisions are subject to the legal rights of participation of the affected employees.

The Landbote gets new newspaper architecture

The Landbote will appear with an adapted newspaper architecture from June 2014. The city and region of Winterthur will be moved to the beginning of the newspaper according to their importance. The first bundle will thus cover the city of Winterthur and the region, followed by sports and events. The second bundle will cover the city and canton of Zurich as well as Switzerland, foreign countries, business, culture, service and miscellaneous topics, which will be produced by the main editorial offices in Winterthur and Berne. The new Landbote structure will thus be aligned with that of Zürichsee-Zeitung and Zürcher Unterländer. At the start of the new cooperation with BZ Berner Zeitung, the Zurich regional newspapers will renew their joint layout.

Exactly 50 years ago, the soft drink with the juice of the passion fruit was launched in Switzerland. To mark the occasion, Rivella entrusted Kreienbühl and Vogler with the development of an anniversary motif. With one sip, it is clear which round birthday Passaia is celebrating. The Zurich agency also created an anniversary logo that will be used in 2014. As a small gift, Passaia is distributing 50-year tubes throughout Switzerland.

Responsible at Rivella: Guido Nydegger (Senior Brand Manager Passaia), Mireille Schmutz (Marketing Assistant Passaia). Responsible at Kreienbühl and Vogler advertising agency: Reto Vogler, Oli Kreienbühl, Marco Donada, Fabian Schiltknecht; Lorenz Wahl (image processing). Photography: Nadia Neuhaus.
 

In "Fashion Run - the shopping duel", two candidates fight for victory. The challenge: The competitors have to go shopping together with a budget of 1,000 francs and get dressed from head to toe, have their hair done and make-up applied in three hours. The decision on victory or defeat is made by a three-person jury.

In the TV show "The Gran Plan", three strong-willed grandmothers support young people with everyday problems. Humorous, direct and yet emotional, they give tips and show possible solutions. With a total of around 200 years of life experience, the grandmothers know what really counts in life and show this - sometimes with a wink - in the show. The show is a concept by Armoza Formats (Israel), produced for Tele Züri, Tele M1 and Tele Bärn by the company Golden Eye Media and implemented for the first time in German-speaking Europe. The concept has been sold in over 20 countries worldwide. "Fashion Run - das Shoppingduell" is a concept of the company Golden Eye Media and is also produced by them.

The two new shows will be broadcast in prime time - complementing the three stations' current programming. All existing formats are successful and will be continued, according to a statement. Additional new formats are planned for the second half of the year.

Switch to HD

Tele Züri, Tele M1 and Tele Bärn will switch to HD in the course of 2014. The three channels can be received via the major network operators UPC Cablecom, Swisscom, Quickline and Sunrise, as well as many other cable network operators throughout German-speaking Switzerland. On the web, they are available via web TV (Wilmaa, Zattoo, Teleboy, Blick TV, Swisscom TV Air) and offer their programming in live stream and on-demand on their websites.
 

The primary attribute "dazzling" is visually reflected in the key visual "crystal". The crystal stands for St. Moritz as a symbol of an alpine, golden shimmering unique specimen, in whose fractal structure the much-cited magical light of the Engadine shines. The golden crystal thus combines the brand positioning "dazzling" for St. Moritz with the symbol of victory of all Alpine Ski World Championships, the gold medal. The appearance is characterized by illustrations depicting the four alpine skiing disciplines slalom, downhill, giant slalom and super-G.

Stylistically, these tie in with the almost 120-year-old tradition of tourist-sport poster art in the Engadin and St. Moritz, but transfer it into the 21st century. Based on crystal, ski racers are depicted in fractal abstraction, so that they shimmer in the unique light of the Engadin and the 2017 World Ski Championships. The first implementations can be seen on posters, tarpaulins and flags on site since mid-December 2013.

Responsible for the LOC of the Ski World Championships St. Moritz 2017: Hugo Wetzel (President), Andri Schmellentin (Head of Department Marketing, Communication & Social Events), Michaela Reichel (Head of Marketing). Responsible at Scholz & Friends Switzerland: Tanita Bohny, Michèle Gutmann, Martin Samsel (consulting); Gregor Fitz, Wim Lanz, Lorenzo Müller, Lukas Frei (creation).

 

Britschgi will therefore join the jury after the award ceremony on May 20, 2014 and take over the chairmanship. Britschgi is currently head of the Ringier School of Journalism. For several years, he was producer of the Swiss television program "Kassensturz" and head of "Rundschau", later editor-in-chief of the news magazine Facts and Sonntagsblick as well as program director of Ringier TV. In 1997, he received the Telepreis for his "Rundschau" interviews.

The Board of Trustees would like to thank Fredy Gsteiger, who is stepping down after nine years at his own request, for his commitment to the Zurich Journalism Prize. Gsteiger has not only coordinated and managed the work of the jury in his calm, competent and level-headed manner, but has also played a key role in the further development of the ZJP in recent years, according to a press release. In Britschgi, a competent jury president has been found who is a proven media professional with broad practical knowledge.

In the so-called "housewife test", a person from outside the company or department is used as a test subject to test the suitability of ideas, concepts or products. In the advertising industry, the ingenious ideas of creative people are unleashed on non-creative people - i.e. consultants or receptionists - in order to assess the extent of their ingenuity. Ingenious!

The term is undoubtedly subtly pejorative. In this context, "housewife" means: doesn't know anything about anything, has no background knowledge - but needs to be convinced because she is a consumer. So it's high time to take the term literally for a change. And high time to ask real housewives for their opinion. Jung von Matt/Elbe has taken up the cause and made an extremely efficient tool available to the creative community: Sylvia, Viola and Regine. The three authentic housewives, aged 33, 43 and 52, sit daily on the corner sofa in the "most frequent living room in Germany" (set up in 2004 on the agency's premises) - in front of the web cam. Between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., they comment on, evaluate, criticize or praise the creative work sent to them by e-mail. The ladies pass the time between sending in their work by talking about God and the world.

"If you participate with a possibly unpublished work, bear in mind that the entire Internet is watching," warns "the official organizer of this campaign", Jung von Matt, on the website Hausfrauentest.tv. This does not prevent the three housewives from judging the submitted - mostly well-known - commercials with a refreshing, unencumbered directness. If something is funny, they laugh. If not - and the annoying Snickers commercial with Aretha Franklin has long deserved this - it's the "cheap copy of the commercial before...in the changing room...that was funny". Finally someone has said that the commercial - as good as the idea may be - is not funny. Only a real housewife test can do that.

The project is freely available to everyone for the first two weeks. According to W&V plans to establish the idea as a serious market research tool from March: "From then on, companies, agencies and advertisers can choose from a large number of housewives and have them test their campaign - then in private." Sounds plausible. (hae)

The Swiss television journalists questioned the then Deputy Director and current Director of the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO), Michel Huissoud. When he saw the finished report, he submitted a complaint, as can be seen in the report published by the ombudsman's office on Tuesday. The online portal NZZ.ch reported on this on Wednesday. Huissoud claimed that the report contained serious errors in connection with Insieme. He no longer wanted to appear in the television report, as his statements had been misinterpreted and his comments had added weight to the false statements. In particular, Huissoud, who has headed the SFAO since January 1, pointed out that the damage caused by alleged corruption in the Insieme project had been massively overestimated. The amount of damage was in the region of a few 10,000 francs, but the report spoke of 100 million francs.

Ombudsman Casanova approved the complaint in full. The television report claims, or at least suggests, that corruption is on the rise in the Federal Administration. This impression was reinforced by an incorrect interpretation of figures. The report had not enabled the public to form its own opinion about corruption in the federal administration. (SDA)

Simone Kaiser has been working for Weblaw since 2010. She initially took over the management of the online journal Jusletter and from May 2012 was deputy publishing director of Editions Weblaw, as detailed in a press release. Editions Weblaw stands for printed and digital publications for lawyers. The publishing program includes the online journals Jusletter, the Schweizer Richterzeitung, Jusletter IT - Die Zeitschrift für IT und Recht and the dRSK Digitaler Rechtsprechungs-Kommentar as well as databases (BFonline, Push-Service Entscheide, Sozialhilferecht). In addition, e-books and printed books have been a focus since 2006.

Simone Kaiser studied law at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen/Nuremberg; she was admitted to the bar in Freiburg i.Br. (Germany) in 2011. In December 2013, she also successfully completed her Executive MBA with a focus on general management.
 

Is this one TV commercial or are there two? Is the lime cleaner as strong as claimed? And does its effect also apply to the co-advertised active foam? These were three of the questions that the Second Chamber of the Swiss Fair Trading Commission had to answer at its last meeting in 2013. With reference to the average consumer, half of the complaint was upheld.

Specifically, the case involved a two-part TV commercial for bathroom cleaning products totaling 30 seconds in length; two-thirds of the time was devoted to a limescale cleaner, and the last ten seconds to a so-called active show. A competitor objected to this advertisement twice. On the one hand the lime cleaner did not have at all the claimed effect. Secondly, the smooth transition from one product to another gave the impression that the active foam also had a lime-dissolving effect. Both mislead consumers and are therefore unfair.

False impression, statthy test

The Second Chamber of the Fairness Commission (SLK) gave a differentiated ruling. It did not support the first part of the appeal, but did support the second part. In the opinion of the chamber members and experts, it was clear to the average consumer that the "lime cube test" shown was merely a metaphor for the effect of the product, which in itself was undisputed. This was all the more true since in reality no whole lime cubes had to be removed in the bathroom, but only deposits on surfaces and fittings. The Second Chamber, on the other hand, upheld the appeal insofar as the transition between the advertising for the two cleaners was fluid, both products had the same area of application and no separate statements were made about the effect of the active foam. This gave the impression that the foam cleaner was a product variant with the same effect. In the eyes of the SLK, this was therefore a misleading representation within the meaning of Art. 3 Para. 1 lit. b of the Unfair Competition Act (UWG).

Other cases of the Second Chamber

In total, the Second Board dealt with eight appeals; including one against the advertising of milk as a "natural fitness program." According to the complainant, this statement was untrue and misleading, as studies had long since proven that milk consumption made people ill. The complaint was rejected, as was the complaint against a garage based in the municipality of Lamone, just five kilometers outside Lugano, which advertised with the place name Lamone-Lugano. On the other hand, the complaints against the claim "Free calls to all Swiss networks", a violation of the Robinson list of the Swiss Direct Marketing Association (SDV) and an advertisement of an internet agency with the plump, only slightly covered breasts of a woman and the claim "Soignez votre vitrine sur le web", which was defended as humorous, were approved.
 

MetaDesign systematically analyzed the characteristics of the existing Charles Vögele logo. MetaDesign bundled the resulting essence into the new logo short form. The quality of this initial logo lies in its simplicity, conciseness and clear visual connection to the brand. According to the press release, the new logo gives Charles Vögele greater flexibility in the use of its logo, while at the same time maintaining consistency in brand management. Rudolf Peter Scheben, Head of Marketing Charles Vögele: "Meta Design has mastered the challenge of finding a suitable solution for the different needs on a higher level." André Stauffer, Creative Director Meta Design: "Working with the brand in its condensed form, but at the same time thinking and designing it for multiple applications, was a nice challenge and appeal of this task."

The study "The Age of Curation: From Abundance to Discovery" by international management consultancy Bain & Company analyzes the use of digital formats by more than 6,000 consumers in Brazil, China, Germany, France, the UK, India, Russia and the USA and reveals major differences between industrialized countries and emerging markets.

In mature markets such as the USA, the UK, Germany and France, the number of smartphone owners literally exploded in 2013 with an average of 64% compared to 49% in the previous year. Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) increased from 24% to 37%. In the industrialized nations, 39% currently have a tablet PC, compared to 18% in 2012. Emerging markets account for 21% - up from 13% in 2012. Almost 70% of subscribers to online video services in industrialized countries now also consume more videos than three years ago. The situation is similar for subscribers to internet music services: almost 60% spend more time listening to music than three years ago. People who own several devices also watch more videos. In industrialized countries, around 70% of multi-device users consume more videos today than in the past - in contrast to 45% of average users. In the emerging markets, as many as 83% of multi-device users are watching more videos than three years ago. For the average user, this figure is only two thirds.

"Tablet PCs and smartphones are becoming a permanent means of watching movies, playing games and listening to music on the go," says Imeyen Ebong, Partner at Bain & Company and head of the Media, Tech & Telco practice group in the German-speaking region. "These devices represent a quiet revolution in the lives of millions of people who increasingly want to access digital content around the clock and everywhere."

However, the study also reveals major differences between the individual markets and formats. In the UK and the USA, for example, 40 percent of respondents have read at least one e-book in the past year. In Germany, this figure is only 26 percent and in France just 17 percent. In 2013, 76% of consumers in the USA watched online videos. In the UK, the figure was 70 percent, in France 67 percent and in Germany 63 percent. Internet music services such as Spotify, Google Music and Pandora have almost doubled their user numbers since 2012. The USA and France have the highest usage rates in this segment at over 40%. These are significantly lower in the UK at 30% and in Germany at 27%.

In addition to media usage - downloads are now being replaced by streaming - the study also shows how consumers discover new content. More than 85% of respondents in the industrialized countries and almost 70% in the BRIC countries access at least one of the well-known platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Sony to buy or view digital content in all possible formats. The average number of platforms used varies between 2 in Germany and 2.9 in the USA.

In addition, users in all industrialized countries now listen less to reviews from professional sources, preferring instead to trust personal recommendations from their social networks. Less than half still rely on reviews from professionals, while over 50% prefer the advice of other customers. In China and India, two thirds are also willing to provide personal data in exchange for personalized video and music recommendations. In the USA and the UK, this figure is only half, and in Germany and France even less than a third.

In the current study, Bain shows three ways in which traditional media companies continue to play an important role in a market in which online platforms increasingly have direct customer contact:

1. invest in your own content and thus strengthen your influence on production: Publishers of all formats are still in the best position to drive innovation and product development, produce content and develop an audience and make it profitable - even if platforms such as Netflix are already experimenting with their own content.

2. leverage economies of scale to retain access to talent and capital: Media companies still manage to monetize high-quality content with traditional audiences. This puts them in a promising position to develop and offer content that will continue to generate a broad audience in the future - even on digital platforms.

3. drive data analytics to complement the publishing approach: Media producers need to invest in consumer data and more customer data-driven approaches for their marketing, program planning and creative processes if they want to compete with online platforms in the future.

"Today more than ever, successful strategies are driven by quality and original content that stands out in an increasingly cluttered market," says Bain expert Ebong. "But these strategies require analyzing data on consumer behavior. Connecting these two worlds is the biggest challenge, but also the most promising opportunity for today's media companies."