The reported sales of the company, which is primarily responsible for its media brands such as Tages-Anzeiger or 20 minutes known TX Group decreased by 1.7 percent to CHF 445.7 million in the first six months. However, it should be noted that the sales of the weighty digital marketplaces Homegate, Ricardo, Tutti.ch and Car For You, all of which were brought into the Swiss Marketplace Group (SMG), are no longer included. In the previous year, these marketplaces together generated revenues of around 55 million.

Organically, there was a 12 percent increase in sales, as the TX Group wrote in a statement on Tuesday. This was due in particular to the very good performance of the job platform JobCloud, the new business of Goldbach in outdoor advertising and the passing on of higher paper prices in the printing business at Tamedia.

The TX Group suffered a significant decline in profitability in the first half of the year. EBIT decreased by 76.2 percent to 3.7 million. And the operating profit before effects of business combinations, which TX management has been focusing on, also fell significantly by 40.4 percent to 28.7 million Swiss francs. The corresponding margin thus decreased to 6.4 percent, compared to 10.6 percent in the same period of the previous year. The TX Group justifies the decrease with the high paper prices, investments in marketing in outdoor advertising as well as high write-offs due to the newly founded Swiss Marketplace Group. In addition, the "Corona emergency aid" of 3.1 million received in 2021 was repaid to the Swiss government.

The bottom line was a small profit of 1.0 million, compared with 21.2 million in the previous year. However, last year's figure still included a one-time positive special effect of 13.3 million Swiss francs from a legal dispute won in Denmark.

Job platforms grow strongly, Tamedia suffers

The job placement platforms JobCloud and Karriere.at within the TX Markets unit performed very well in the first six months. They benefited from the high demand for employees and specialists prevailing in both Switzerland and Austria.

By contrast, the traditional publishing core business with paid media products (Tamedia) did less well. Here, the economic effects of the Corona crisis and the war in Ukraine weighed on business. While sales increased slightly, thanks in particular to higher paper prices passed on to third parties, profitability declined significantly.

And commuter media (20 Minuten) also continued to feel the effects of the Corona crisis in both the advertising and user markets. Here, too, the Ukraine war had an additional negative impact. Sales thus remained virtually unchanged from the previous year.

Advertising Marketing (Goldbach) also experienced headwinds. Profitability declined sharply, while sales increased thanks to the newly marketed outdoor advertising spaces.

No concrete outlook

As usual, TX Group does not provide a concrete outlook for the full year. "Especially in these difficult times, we are devoting our attention to the transformation in journalism and advertising," Pietro Supino, President and Publisher of TX Group, is quoted as saying in the release. (SDA)

Victoria Arnold studied media and communications at the University of Fribourg. Born in Lucerne, she was most recently Senior Communications Manager at Emmi, where she was also interim Head of Group Communications.

"I see it as a meaningful and fulfilling task to design the integrated appearance of the MAZ together with a highly competent team, to take the tailor-made offer to the outside world, and thus to have the greatest possible impact on our customers," says Arnold about the new challenge. She succeeds Nathalie Müller and, in addition to being responsible for the foundation's holistic image, will also be in charge of the administration team.

Fleury: From TeleBärn to MAZ

Claudine Fleury will lead the VJ course and have overall responsibility for video/TV/moving image training and development in the Journalism department. In this role, she will report directly to Director Martina Fehr.

"As a TV professional, Claudine Fleury knows the classic, demanding VJ craft of the Swiss regional journalism scene very well and is familiar with the challenges of the stations," said MAZ Director Fehr. "With her attitude toward quality journalism and enthusiasm for passing on knowledge, she meets the requirement in an ideal way."

The 39-year-old Fleury started her career in 2008 at the regional stations Kanal K and neo1. From 2009, Fleury worked in various roles for the TV station TeleBärn - initially as a video journalist, presenter and producer, and from 2021 as deputy editor-in-chief. At the same time, Fleury worked for Radio 32 in Solothurn from 2016 to 2021. The media expert is also a qualified secondary school teacher.

Justement is the new intelligent search engine for legal research in Switzerland. It recognizes search intentions and delivers relevant results in a fraction of a second. This is intended to make searching and finding arguments more intuitive, faster and easier.

Justement was launched with a campaign that is almost as clever as the search engine itself. It can currently be seen in legal media - in advertisements, a half-cover of Anwaltsrevue, and in banners.

The campaign was created as a collaboration between Justement, the Orell Füssli publishing house and the creatives Simon Kümin, Patrick Viert and DNA.

Responsible at Justement: Philip Stutz (Founder & Managing Director). Responsible at the Orell Füssli publishing house: Marc Bloch Sommer (Growth Manager); Christian Hillig (Program Manager Legal Media). Creative implementation: Patrick Viert (strategy & concept); Simon Kümin (text & concept); Nicolas Schaltegger and Dominik Sieber, DANN (art direction).

Federal Chancellor Walter Thurnherr, in his capacity as the Federal Council's chief communications officer, will the SwissMediaForum 2022 with a presentation on the difficulty of political communication in Switzerland. At the congress, ETH professor Markus Gross will explore the question of whether the metaverse is the next big thing or just hype.

The chief economist of the Financial Times Martin Wolf will be joining us live from London to talk about the economic climate in the Economic Outlook: War, Inflation, Energy - What's Next?

Ukrainian parliamentarian and former head of communications for Volodimir Selensky, Yevheniia Kravchuk, and Russian journalist for the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe Ekaterina Glikman talk about the war in Ukraine and the role of the media.

In a breakout session, Doris Kleck of CH Media, Lise Bailat of 24heures, Lukas Hässig of Inside Paradeplatz and Rudolf Christen, the former head of communications for Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Ammann, will discuss the topic, chaired by Priscilla Imboden of Republic about indiscretions in the Federal Parliament and how to deal with proximity and distance to the authorities.

In a breakout session, the Young Journalists of Switzerland will address how media companies can promote young journalists. Under the leadership of President Simona Boscardin, Janosch Tröhler, former SRF and View, Samuel Burgener from the Valais Messengern and Malta Fazzari from Ringier Axel Springer Switzerland. The Swiss Media Association VSM is also organizing a breakout session, and its topic is the ancillary copyright: "Fairplay and fairpay - why tech giants need new rules of the game in the Swiss media center".

Judith Wittwer will talk about her experiences as editor-in-chief of the South German Newspaper and their digital transformation. Andrea Masüger will make his first appearance in his new role as Publisher President at the SwissMediaForum.

Innovations and trends from the media and communications industry will be addressed in two blocks: for example, the Rhaeto-Romanic translation service, which will be presented by RTR Director Nicolas Pernet, or the social strategy of 20 minuteswhich Désirée Pomper, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, and Mattia Bütikofer, Head of Social Media, will talk about.

A fixed institution in the SwissMediaForum program is the elephant round with the heads of the big media houses: Felix Graf of NZZ, Gilles Marchand of SRG, Pietro Supino of TX Group, Marc Walder of Ringier and Peter Wanner of CH Media.

Michael Waber, long-time partner of Ast & Fischer, is breaking new ground and founding his own company. Waber Brands supports SMEs in all matters of communication and offers services in strategy, marketing and communication planning.

Studio Thom Pfister develops the brand message, the name, the claim "We strengthen brands", the logo and the visual appearance for the young company with many years of experience.

Responsible at Waber Brands: Michael Waber, Karin Waber. Responsible agency, Studio Thom Pfister: Thom Pfister (Creative Director, Idea/Concept), Ursula Rytz (Consulting), Roland Zenger (Art Director), Juli Martinelli (Graphic Design). Photography and website: Nicolas Stadler.

EHC Biel will soon be starting the new ice hockey season. Even in the Seeland, temperatures are still high in the summer. No wonder that many are still thinking about ice cream on the lake instead of lots of ice on the lake.

To whet the appetite for cooling off with a season ticket, the campaign uses landscape images of a somewhat different kind to heat up the mood of the fan community in Biel and the surrounding area for the upcoming ice season.

The campaign is visible in the greater Biel-Seeland area on numerous classic and digital channels until the start of the season.

Responsible at EHC Biel: Daniel Villard (CEO), Thomas Burkhardt (Marketing Director). Responsible agency: In flagrante delicto. Photographer: Stephan Weber. Image processing: In flagrante delicto.

The Top News team will be strengthened by Remo Kaufmann and Florian Künzler. Kaufmann previously worked as a PRoduzenz and presenter at Radio 24, while Künzler is a long-time news presenter at Radio Oberland in Garmisch, Germany.

Robin Fritschi and Thomas Riner at Top Talk

In the Top Talk format, Robin Fritschi and Thomas Riner discuss a current political topic from the Top broadcast area every Monday and Wednesday after Top News.

Marc Arnold moderates Top Events

As host of Top Events, Marc Arnold reports every week on an event in the Top broadcast area and presents other upcoming events of the current week. Arnold has been working as a video journalist at Tele Top since 2021.

Top Klartext with Philippe Pfiffner and Karin El Mais

Top Managing Director Philippe Pfiffner and Editor-in-Chief Karin El Mais get to the heart of a guest on a current topic from the region every Wednesday in the Top Klartext program.

Jasmin Barbiero presents Top Musig

For more than eight years, Jasmin Barbiero has been responsible for "Top Morge" on Radio Top. Now she brings the radio to TV every Thursday with Top Musig.

Top high 3 with Sarah Zollinger and Stefano Bollmann

The trimedial format Top hoch 3 is getting a new presenter in Sarah Zollinger. She replaces Stéphanie Brändle, who moved to SRF in the summer. Zollinger started as a video journalist at Tele Top in the spring of 2022 and won out over her competitors in a casting.

Many exciting projects have already landed in the mailbox of Best of Swiss Apps - but many more are still in the pipeline, writes the sponsors in a statement. Therefore, it was decided to extend the submission deadline by seven days again this year. The definitive deadline thus ends on Monday, September 5, 2022 at midnight.

The award ceremony will take place at a festive gala on November 2, 2022 at the Aura in Zurich.

Manor wants to significantly increase the number of applications for apprenticeships in order to secure the next generation of employees. As a first step, Bühler&Bühler conducted interviews with the target group and gathered insights. At the age of 15, very few people know where they want to go on their career journey. Their interests fluctuate as frequently as their daily state of mind.

The campaign takes a positive approach to this rollercoaster of youthful emotions. The lively videos under the title "Special everyday - like you." how everyday working life at Manor meets the need for variety. Featuring real apprentices from different departments. The young people can be seen in the Manor working worlds, depicted somewhat exaggerated in their daily work.

"Special everyday - like you" has been running exclusively on social media for a few weeks - and according to the agency, it has been a great success: The view rate on YouTube is well above average at 43 percent. On TikTok, 40,000 people were reached - partly because the videos were not primarily perceived as advertising. In addition, the campaign already generated 2,200 clicks on the Careers Site. The campaign was aimed at awareness, not traffic. Facebook and Instagram topped TikTok's reach by quite a bit. Here, the campaign recorded almost 84,500 users.

Responsible at Manor: Sherin Keller (Head Employer Branding & Strategic Recruiting), Renate Wunderlin (Head Youngstar Development). Responsible at Bühler&Bühler: Stephanie Geiger (Creative Director), Ronda Miller (Junior Consultant), Jan Gross (Text & New Media Producer, Consultant), Mario Strbac (Digital Content Manager). Implementation films: Look film.

With the GKB Sackgeld app, children can manage their Sackgeld themselves and set savings goals. Always with the security that not much can go wrong financially because the parents keep control in the background. In addition to the account, card and app, the offer also includes attractive Kids Deals in the form of discounts and benefits.

For the launch of the banking package, the Rob Nicolas agency designed a moving image campaign and implemented all content for the advertising channels and the landing page.

Responsible at Graubündner Kantonalbank: Petra Caviezel and Robin Keller (co-project management), Janina Giger (online). Responsible at Rob Nicolas: Rahel Egli (overall responsibility), Giancarlo Derungs (consulting, project management), Christian Ritz (lead content), Daniel Gassner (content production), Nayara Pally (content creation), Robin Gassner (digital advertising).

Life is complicated. Who doesn't know the situation where you would like to get legal advice, but you shy away from the effort? Ylex, with its simple legal access at clearly defined price packages, offers a solution for all these people, democratizing the legal system by giving everyone access to justice. Legal advice is available online, by phone or in person during a visit to one of the current four walk-in stores in Bern, Winterthur, St. Gallen and Zurich.

To raise awareness of Ylex and its services, Grip has developed a campaign that focuses on the most common conflict issues. The first campaign spots tackle three emotional topics related to employment, landlord-tenant and divorce law. The spots go into the middle of each person's emotional outburst and nonverbally express their outrage over their incident. Their thoughts are faded in textually and brought to the point in the most succinct form.

The spots will be flanked by a typography campaign that will be distributed via social ads, YouTube pre-rolls or displays. "Each message is limited to one word. A single word that, through its dramaturgical animation, translates the legal tension it serves not only textually but also scenically," explains Daniel Schranz, CD at Grip.

Responsible for Ylex: Ioannis Martinis (Head of Communication & Marketing Ylex AG), Daniel Siegrist (Board of Directors Ylex AG). Responsible for Grip: Daniel Schranz (CD), Sandro Nicotera, Florian Steiner (concept/art direction), Claudio Lier, Malou Eigenmann (consulting), Beat Reck (text), Simone Nucci (typo-animation). Film production: Addictive Films, Stephan Christen. Media: Konnex; Cecile Bulant.

Anyone who thinks of invasive neophytes or a Japanese remedy when they hear the four letters is not entirely wrong, but should familiarize themselves with the meaning of the acronym of the same name as soon as possible. KuZu, or customer satisfaction as it is written out, is currently being surveyed everywhere, but unfortunately it is usually treated like invasive neophytes in the industry. Why is that?

There are parallels between the plant and the state of customer satisfaction in the industry. Let's start with the plant: Kuzu, Latin Pueraria lobata, is a climbing plant native to Japan similar to our native vetch, but much more vigorous. In the U.S., it was also originally used as a means to combat soil erosion, which makes another analogy to customer satisfaction obvious, because if it erodes, business erodes. Therefore, it is better to measure than to believe.

Why KuZu has a healing effect

Anyone who takes customer satisfaction seriously in product design, marketing and sales must first and foremost focus on the wishes and needs of their customers. Ideally, a focus on customers is directly integrated into the corporate philosophy; in practice, however, it is often more of a tenacious effort to break away from one's own navel-gazing.

Back to the Kuzu plant. It is so invasive that it is now also called "Mile-a-Minute". It grows at a rate of one meter per day and overgrows everything in its path. The KuZu measurements also progress quickly, but after that it's usually over. Maybe a customer experience or customer centricity manager is hired here and there after a customer survey, but rarely more. The leaves, roots and beans of the Kuzu plant contain medicinal substances or can be used as energy food.

Both would also be in the acronym KuZu and would be just as healing for companies. True customer-centricity requires that the customer is always at the center of decisions that have to do with the performance of a service or the provision of products. If you can do that, you increase customer satisfaction, and that can work wonders. So what CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) is to business economists, CCS (Customer Centricity Score) should be to marketers. The former is the key figure that describes the contribution margin that a customer realizes for a company during his entire existence as a customer, minus acquisition, retention, and recovery costs. The second describes what motivates them to be a customer in the first place.

In successful companies, KuZu is not an isolated measurement of marketing, but a basic strategic attitude that flows through the entire company. That's why anyone who really wants to be customer-centric measures KuZu both from the inside (how customer-friendly we are) and from the outside (how customer-friendly we are perceived to be). So next time, please take part and don't click away, hang up or throw away when you, as a customer or employee, are asked about your satisfaction. Maybe they will stop the erosion of their business.

* Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He has been eavesdropping on the industry for over 30 years, discovering words and terms for us that can either be used for small talk, pomposity, excitement, playing Scrabble, or just because.