After a stint at Sonntagsblick in 2001/2002, Ralph Grosse-Bley returned to Ringier on January 1, 2009, and took over as head of Blick in July 2009. Since June 1, 2011, he has also been Chairman of the Editors-in-Chief of the Blick Group. Ralph Grosse-Bley is leaving Blick due to differing views on the further development and organization of the Blick Group newsroom, according to a Ringier release Thursday. The separation is taking place on the best of terms, it said. Commenting on Grosse-Bley's departure, Ringier CEO Marc Walder said, "As editor-in-chief, Ralph Grosse-Bley has led Blick back to the core of the brand. He is handing over Switzerland's biggest paid newspaper in very good shape. I thank him for his great commitment."

Andrea Bleicher is taking over as interim head of Blick with immediate effect. Bleicher is a trained bookseller, graduated from the Ringier School of Journalism from 1997 to 1998 and worked as a reporter for Blick until 2000. She then worked as an editor and page-maker for the free newspapers 20 Minuten and Metropol. From 2002, she worked as domestic editor for the Sonntagszeitung. On May 1, 2007, Bleicher took over as head of the news department of Blick. On February 1, 2010, she became head of the news department in the newsroom of the Blick Group, and since fall 2012 she has been deputy editor-in-chief of Blick. Andrea Bleicher is the first woman to head the Blick editorial team.

Rolf Cavalli is taking over as the new Chairman of the Editors-in-Chief of the Blick Group. Cavalli is Editor-in-Chief of Blick.ch as well as Head of all digital channels of the Blick Group and has also been Editor-in-Chief ad interim of Sonntagsblick since November 2012.

Clemens Studer, deputy editor-in-chief of Blick, is taking the change in the editor-in-chief as an opportunity to take on a new challenge, the Ringier release continues. He is leaving Blick after more than twelve years. Studer was first a producer at Blick, then head of news (2002 to 2004), until 2010 page maker - from March 2009 also head of politics - and since October 1, 2010 deputy editor-in-chief Blick in the newsroom.

Ralph Grosse-Bley: Speculation about a change in Blick's editorship-in-chief

At 150, the number of complaints submitted about Swiss radio and television (SRF) broadcasts fell slightly by 21 compared to 2011. Of the complaints dealt with, 27 percent were judged to be more or less justified. This writes the Obudsstelle of SRG German-speaking Switzerland in a communiqué on Thursday.

The 150 complaints are exactly the average of the past eight years since ombudsman Achille Casanova took office. In an interim assessment of his activities as a "linesman" - as the writer Max Frisch once said to the then UBI President Oskar Reck - Casanova does not note any major fluctuations. The number of complaints as well as the motives of the complaints and the corresponding assessments are relatively constant. This great continuity is difficult to explain, since the programs of radio and television change from year to year, as does the political and social discourse, according to the statement. In addition, it has become much easier to make use of the ombudsman's office: Three quarters of complaints are now submitted by e-mail.

It was not legally possible to formally respond to 45 of the 150 submissions. However, 26 of these were forwarded to the responsible SRF departments for a direct response. Of the 113 cases dealt with substantively, 12 (previous year: 14) concerned radio, 96 (previous year: 101) television and 4 both media. One case was directed against SRF's other journalistic offerings.

"Kassensturz" most frequently complained about

Information programs in particular were at the forefront of complaints. In television, "Kassensturz" leads the table with 19 complaints, followed by "Tagesschau" (14) and "10vor10" (11). On the radio, 5 complaints concerned the news and 2 the "Treffpunkt" program.

Almost half of the submissions (49 percent) criticized a program for being inappropriate or politically tendentious. Just under a quarter felt that the offending programs defamed a person, association or company. One-fifth referred to general objections or technical problems. Two percent of the complaints concerned depictions of violence, and one percent claimed that religious feelings had been hurt.

Ombudsman Achille Casanova and his deputy Sylvia Egli von Matt assessed 27 percent of the complaints as "justified or partially justified". This figure is only slightly above the average of 24.5 percent in previous years. 7 of the complaints judged to be justified concerned the "Kassensturz" broadcast of May 9, 2012 on the managed care referendum bill.
 

The developers do not have enough strength to launch the next phase, according to a press release from Profile Publishing. It has not been possible to find a partner to support the project in recent months. Zurich-based Profile Publishing launched Eco Life in August 2008 as a supplement to the NZZ am Sonntag. Its success encouraged the makers to publish a Lohas magazine six times a year, according to the press release. Due to the collapse of the financial markets and the immediate economic downturn, the decision was made at the beginning of 2009 to launch Eco Life anyway, but with a somewhat leaner concept.

In order to operate the magazine in an economically sustainable manner, further development steps would now be required, such as increasing the number of issues to ten to twelve per year, expanding the scope and further optimizing distribution. These would be the prerequisites for being able to implement active reader marketing to build up a subscriber base. According to the press release, Profile Publishing is too small a publishing house to be able to drive this development forward independently. Despite an intensive search in recent months, no partnership could be found to put the magazine on a sustainable long-term footing.

Karin Stich, Head of Profile Publishing, says: "If we saw a real opportunity, there would be no question as to whether we would continue. However, the upheavals in the media industry, coupled with the economic outlook in some sectors, give us little hope. We want to change the situation while we can still make our own decisions. We are reducing our own publishing program and increasingly offering corporate publishing as well as publishing consulting and management."

Beat Ruff brings with him ten years of experience in public and regulatory affairs, gained in the federal administration as well as in trade associations and large companies. Most recently, he was Head of Government Affairs at SBB. Prior to that, as Public Affairs Delegate, he was in charge of legislative dossiers at the energy association Swisselectric. Between 2005 and 2010, he was a staff member of Energy Switzerland at the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

Beat Ruff will handle mandates at the interface of business, politics and administration at Farner, the agency said in a statement Wednesday.

After the juries have reviewed and evaluated all 465 project entries, the 129 projects that have made it to the top in at least one category have now been selected. Shortlist have been set. Who actually gets to raise the buoys into the Swiss night sky in the end will be decided at the Award Night on March 21, 2013 at the Kongresshaus Zurich. Tickets go on sale today, Wednesday, according to a Best of Swiss web release.

The starting signal for the "Best of Swiss Web 2013" has been given
 

The mandate for the Swiss branch, which C-Factor took over at the beginning of 2013, includes strategic consulting, media relations, editorial work and the development of an integrated communication and dialog platform.

Dominik Hofstetter began his career at OMD on May 1, 2004, and was most recently in charge of building up and anchoring PHD, which was newly founded in January 2012. Manfred Strobl, CEO of Omnicom Media Group, will take over as interim head of the PHD team.

The police in the Norwegian capital won the prize for the best tweet of the year at the Norwegian Social Media Days on Tuesday, according to SDA. The officers keep their Twitter community happy with tweets such as:

"We were informed about a disturbance at night with women screaming. We noticed a party of nurses on site. Will be leaving again soon."

Or the officers report on a motorized wedding party that was travelling at walking pace on the freeway. After one of the vehicles involved broke down, they said: "The driver kneels down on a blanket and starts praying. Not sure if that helps."

The Twitter account of the Oslo Police Operations Center (@oslopolitiops) is extremely popular and has almost 80,000 subscribers. Many tweets are shared and commented on by fans. (uma)

The goal is to make Pierre et Vacances known to the Swiss public and the Swiss travel industry as the leading provider of family vacations in France, and ultimately to increase the market share of guests from Switzerland, the agency wrote in a statement Wednesday. Active media relations will help make consumers and partners in the travel industry aware that Pierre et Vacances offers attractive tourism products and service quality at the highest level. Responsible consultant at Primus Communications is Susanne Schmitt.

The Zurich-based PR agency has already been representing the Center Parcs brand in Switzerland since May 2010. Like Pierre et Vacances and other brands, Center Parcs is part of the Pierre et Vacances Center Parcs Groupe.

Those who followed the advice were amazed. Because at 1:30 p.m. on the dot, they were actually woken up by a loud siren. Streuplan, the BTL agency from Zurich's Sihlquai, made use of a Swiss phenomenon that takes place every year on the first Wednesday in February at exactly 13:30: the national siren test.

Responsible at Bico (Hilding Anders Switzerland): Daniel Sütterlin (Head of Marketing). Responsible at Streuplan: Thomas Back (CD), Stefanie Fink (AD). Media: Mindshare.

The best graduates were Martin Zaugg (Coop) and Sven Ruoss (Tamedia) with a final grade of 5.7. The next CAS Social Media Management at the HWZ starts on February 22, 2013 and still has a few places available. This was announced by the HWZ in a press release on Wednesday.

Over the course of 21 study days, students were enabled to develop and implement a social media strategy for their company from the perspective of integrated communication. The course was aimed in particular at marketing and communication professionals who want to supplement their skills with the latest developments in the field of interactive digital media.

The HWZ's Social Media Management department has signed a cooperation agreement with the technology company Evernote. The business partnership begins with the start of the fifth edition of the CAS Social Media Management certificate course at the HWZ in February 2013. From this year onwards, the HWZ's Social Media Management department will be offering interested individuals a compact knowledge transfer course on specific topics and sectors in addition to the certificate course. For example, the focus course "Social Media for Cities and Municipalities", which will take place over ten days in May/June 2013.

The 20 graduates of the CAS Social Media Management are:

Albert Stephanie, Arter Patricia, Bänzinger Rolf, Baumann Alice, Cioria Graziana, Eser Serkan, Feusi Irene, Iff Kaspar, Lochbihler Marius, Naphegyi Tibor, Neeser Christian, Penta Claudia, Plattner Matthias, Ritter Caroline, Ruckli Simone, Ruoss Sven, Travaglione Vincenzo, Ueberschlag Christina, Wecke Karin, Zaugg Martin.