We had to be unusually secretive about the following developments. But now, we can finally lift the curtain. First, the big news project is finished. Second, we have opened a second office in Zürich, Switzerland.

1. iA Redesigns a Series of Swiss Newspapers

What it is:
“Newsnetz” is probably Switzerland’s most ambitious online news project to date. It can be thought of as a star-shaped news machine where major Swiss newspapers and a series of local papers join forces. The combined strengths of Tages-Anzeiger, Basler Zeitung, and the Berner Zeitung promise to catapult the Swiss News Network to the number one news domain in terms of reach, traffic, editorial size, and production.

What we did:
Following an extensive preliminary conceptual phase where we delivered a set of initial mock-ups to visually kick-start the project into high gear, iA won a tough final pitch in March to redesign a series of websites for leading Swiss newspapers. Here is a sneak peek of Tages-Anzeiger and BaslerZeitung:

Future:
Newsnetz is the third project produced for Tamedia by iA, and bears the fruits of the preceding projects that were, to a certain degree, testing grounds for Newsnetz. Learn more about the design process (with 30 screen shots).

2. iA Launches Second Office in Zürich

Our small but efficient team of four people will soon be joined by two professional marketing specialists. Beginning July 1st, Cyrill Treptow, a former online marketing manager of Tamedia, and Chris Luescher, Tamedia’s Internet evangelist, will manage iA’s Swiss office. The fact that both members of iA Switzerland are former Tamedia people speaks volumes about the extraordinary relationship we have developed with the Swiss media house in the past year and a half, and solidifies the excellent relationship iA and Tamedia have established.

While Chris and Cyrill will contribute a wealth of media, publishing, marketing, and managerial know-how, iA’s core mission will remain unchanged: iA develops Internet business strategies and creates interfaces that match. iA Zürich is charged with a very Swiss mission: making websites financially successful. On the other hand, iA Tokyo will continue to provide what Japan represents best: creating first-class customer experience through a focus on interactive branding. Visit the web site of iA Switzerland (German-only).

3. iA Continues to Expand Japanese Operations

Our office here in Tokyo is currently involved as a consultant in a Japanese news project, in many ways comparable to the Swiss News Network project. We recently hired new native staff to face this challenge, and our website is being translated bit-by-bit into Japanese. See iA in Japanese

4. iA Book

In the time I have left, I have invested all my energy into writing our upcoming book. The current goal is to finish by early August, resulting in a publication date of around October or November. It breaks my heart to see the iA blog suffering a dry spell, but the good news is our new Swiss Internet business gurus are excellent writers. Expect the revival of the iA Notebook very soon!