The new Avantgarde Switzerland starts with 15 employees and is led by the managing directors of the Avantgarde Group Martin Schnaack and Vera Böttcher. On the one hand, the team consists of Swiss people who come from the agency and media environment and bring both experience and knowledge of the Swiss market and its consumers. On the other hand, German employees contribute the necessary avant-garde know-how, especially the special expertise in networked, international work. According to Vera Böttcher, one brings an internationality to Switzerland and at the same time guarantees "Swissness", sensitivity and understanding for the special demands of Switzerland. Avantgarde is starting its work in Switzerland with a large international client in the consumer goods sector and is already in talks with Swiss clients.

Just a few weeks ago, Avantgarde opened an office in India, followed by one in France and one in Brazil last year. In addition, the agency has been represented for years in markets such as China, the Middle East and Russia. Founded in Munich in 1985, Avantgarde now employs more than 400 permanent staff at 17 locations worldwide. In addition to its headquarters in Munich, the agency has further offices in Germany in Berlin, Dresden and Cologne, and abroad in Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, London, Moscow, New Delhi, Paris, Beijing, Prague, São Paulo, Shanghai, Vienna and Zurich.

The gold award winners will be announced at the award ceremony on June 27, 2012. The four special BCP prizes will also be awarded then: Together with BCP main sponsor Steinbeis Papier, the jury will award a prize in the "Green Publishing" category. In addition, Laserline is donating the "Print & Innovation" special prize and international communication concepts will be honored with the "International Communication" prize, according to a BCP press release on Monday. In addition, special award partner Corbis will honor the best photo on a corporate publishing medium with the "Cover of the Year" image award   off.

"I am overwhelmed by the quality of the work submitted, it was difficult to select the shortlisted covers," says Thomas Mäder, Group Account Manager Germany at the Corbis picture agency. "Corporate publishing magazines are a creative showcase to the highest degree". In its anniversary year, the corporate publishing competition has not only set a new record for participation and nominees, but the organization of the congress and the award ceremony has also been changed.

BCP Congress on June 27, 2012 in Berlin
To mark its tenth anniversary, the FCP and its media partners Acquisa, Horizont, W&V and Werbewoche are inviting guests to the "Postbahnhof" event location in Berlin. CP experts from the USA, Russia, India, the UK and Norway will be speaking at the industry event of the year entitled "Content & Commerce - selling better with content". Mark Jones from Cedar Communications will talk about Tesco's successful customer magazine. Joe McCambly from The Wonderfactory in New York will reveal the trends in tablet publishing and highlight the potential for innovation.

BCP Award ceremony with Judith Rakers
Following the congress, the coveted BCP Awards will be presented at the BCP Awards Ceremony. "In keeping with the anniversary, the awards will be presented during the festive evening gala with international guests of honor from over 12 countries," says Michael Höflich, Managing Director of Forum Corporate Publishing. The awards ceremony will be opened by Roger Willemsen. In his dinner speech, he will analyze the current trends in media development. TV journalist Judith Rakers will host the awards ceremony in the evening, before the after-show party in the Postbahnhof club closes the BCP 2012.

Registration forms for the congress and award ceremony as well as the complete program are available on the Internet at Bcp-award.com.

Real quotes from the biker scene are shown at the center of the campaign. In combination with action-packed images, the aim is to create a campaign with a high level of credibility, according to a statement from the agency. The print subjects will appear in bike magazines such as Ride, Bike, Freeride, Mountainbike Rider, World of Mountain Biking, Mountain Bike and in themed specials, for example in the NZZ.

Responsible at Weisse Arena Group: Andreas Bärtsch (Executive Board, Marketing and Sales), Tobias Treichler (Marketing and Communications). Responsible at Four. Advertising agency: Björn Brinkmann, Philipp Sträuli (CD), Daniel Gerber (consulting), Claudio Hagmann (DTP). Photography: Gaudenz Danuser. Image processing: Sota.

President Andreas Schefer, who has led the regional SRG association since 2009, was unanimously re-elected for a four-year term. 151 members of the SRG Bern Fribourg Valais cooperative and over 20 guests from politics and the media listened to a presentation by Roger de Weck, Director General of SRG, on Switzerland as a media center in the digital age at the Hotel Freienhof in Thun. In his analysis of the media situation in Switzerland, he pointed out that the environment for SRG is becoming increasingly competitive and demanding. This was reported by SRG in a press release on Saturday.

Alluding to the upcoming discussion on fees and the planned changes, de Weck made it clear that SRG would have to do more with fewer financial resources in the future. Taking on new and additional tasks with less money is the first challenge. The second is technical development, which is progressing very rapidly. Everything is being digitized and SRG is rapidly transforming into an IT company. The third challenge cited by the SRG Director General was the huge real estate investments that SRG would have to make. Roger de Weck showed the audience how media usage is changing: The use of television and radio via a specific channel, which is still the "main gateway" for media consumption today, is increasingly being replaced by the "secondary gateway" of the Internet. There are already radio and television programs that have more viewers and listeners on the Internet (via podcast or time-shifted online) than live broadcasts. Increasing competition is also a huge challenge: "Today there are around 300 TV channels," noted de Weck - with global companies such as Time Warner, YouTube, Al Jazeera and Axel Springer getting involved, as well as large public and private media companies in neighboring countries. Roger de Weck: "The turning point is at least as big as the introduction of the printing press in 1450." In this increasingly competitive environment, SRG and its staff are "pushing themselves to the limit". The commitment of SRG employees and their outstanding expertise are an important asset in this environment. "We want to do good journalism and remain true to journalistic principles." For de Weck, it is a privilege to be able to work for SRG: "SRG is Switzerland in miniature."

Two new board members
The statutory business was conducted under the leadership of President Andreas Schefer. In his brief review of the financial year, he expressed his satisfaction with the good use of the services on offer and the cooperative's financial situation. The Annual General Meeting elected Matthias Eggel (Brig-Glis) and Peter Flück (Unterseen) as new members of the Board of Directors. Eggel works as an economist for a large insurance company in Berne and is a councillor in Brig-Glis. Flück is an entrepreneur and a member of the Bernese cantonal parliament. They replace Rose-Marie Wyder-Imhof (Brig) and Ueli Scheidegger (Lohn-Ammannsegg). The existing Board members were re-elected for a new term of office of four years. The meeting confirmed the office of President Andreas Schefer (Bern), who has led the SRG Bern Fribourg Valais since 2009, and elected him for a further four years.

This will continue to be his full-time job. At Tele Bielingue, he can now extend his field of activity to the field of presentation, Tele Bielingue said in a media release on Friday. Raphaël Chabloz was already a member of the Tele Bielingue editorial team from 2000 to 2005 as a video journalist and daily producer.

Raphaël Chabloz has more than ten years of editorial and journalistic experience in bilingual media. He studied history and journalism at the University of Fribourg. His first hobby is writing. He has already published several novellas as well as two educational books for children.
 

Computer programs draw information from databases and statistics and use it to formulate texts. Narrative Science is the name of a start-up from Chicago that specializes in this task. Raffael Schuppisser writes this in Sonntag. The texts themselves are written by algorithms. This is best realized in sports reports and financial analyses. After all, these are texts that contain many figures and can therefore be generated relatively easily according to a uniform pattern.

As Sonntag explains, the writing process of the computer program involves several steps: first, a wealth of data is required, which is then processed by an algorithm so that it can be fitted into predefined text modules. The program must be equipped with a set of rules for this purpose. Further development of the software would allow texts to be generated that meet the information expectations of a specific group of people.

Will most news be written by computers in 20 years' time? Or is the human capacity for critical thinking and creativity a quality that will continue to withstand competition from artificial intelligence in the future? Let's ask a machine.
 

The founding of IG Regionalradio was celebrated on May 5, 1987, and a year later the first non-commercial radio waves were broadcast across Aargau. Radio Alora went on air for six weeks of test operation in 1988. There was great euphoria at the time. It was mainly left-wing alternative and trade union-minded presenters and people close to the regional church who sat in front of the microphone. They saw alternative radio as a political medium.

The makers of Alora finally applied for one of the two free licenses that the federal government had put out to tender for Aargau. As there was only one frequency, it had to be split: Radio Argovia received the frequency, and the Alora radio makers went on air four hours a week under the Aargau regional radio station.

Kanal K broadcasts in Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian - a total of 30 foreign languages can be heard on the station every week. Immigrants report on their home countries. During the war in Yugoslavia, refugees from all groups involved reported from their home countries on the same station. The multilingualism is also supported by the Aargau Board of Trustees and contributions from broadcasting fees. Last but not least, however, Kanal K lives from membership fees and patrons. It also supports the "stage-on-air" employment program, which gives around 20 unemployed people the opportunity to work in radio for six months.
 
From political to youth radio
Today, 250 freelance broadcasters make up the Kanal K program. Only seven people are permanently employed (350 full-time equivalents). Kanal K also trains trainees, who often make the leap to Radio Argovia, Radio 32 or Tele M1. The AZ Media Group rewards this with an annual training contribution. The relationship with alternative radio is now relaxed.

From its political beginnings, the Aargau alternative radio station has largely transformed itself into a youth and music radio station. Only songs that are no more than two years old are played. Regional and Swiss music make up a fifth of the program.

Music was also the focus of the anniversary party. On Saturday, Urban Junior and (K)nights of Trash and My Heart Belongs To Cecilia Winter played at Kiff in Aargau. Naturally, Radio Kanal K set up a studio on site and reported live. (sda)
 

However, she will continue to present the program "SF Börse". This was confirmed to Sonntag by SRF spokesperson Martin Reichlin. The television editor is resigning for personal reasons.

Martina Fehr has managed the radio station since 2008 and, after 15 years at Radio Grischa, is taking on a new challenge in project management at Südostschweiz Medien, according to a press release issued on Friday. Thomas Schifferle earned his first spurs almost 20 years ago at Radio Ri (formerly Radio Gonzen) as an editor and presenter. He later managed the local radio station for two and a half years as program director and head of entertainment before moving to Radio DRS Regionaljournal Ostschweiz. After three years, he was entrusted with its management. In 2009, Thomas Schifferle moved to Zurich, where he was entrusted with the editorial management of "Leben und Leute" and tasks in the editorial offices of "10 vor 10" and "Puls" at Radio DRS. The change in program management at Radio Grischa and Radio Engiadina offered Thomas Schifferle the opportunity to take on a management position at a radio station near his home in Grabs, according to the press release.

New sports management

There is also a change in the Head of Sport. Ursin Caderas is leaving the Graubünden local broadcaster in May after more than ten years to take up a Master's degree in International Journalism at City University in London. The new Head of Sport will be 23-year-old Julia Viglino from Davos.

Mankell lives in Africa for six months at a time and runs the Teatro Avenida in Mozambique's capital Maputo. The black continent has fascinated him for the past twenty years, and he will talk about his many exciting experiences at the Rigiblick Theater.

The current subject was constructed from dozens of books in the shape of the continent and photographed. The agency also produced a short stop-motion film of the subject. The campaign also generated a lot of enthusiasm among Mankell fans on Facebook.

Responsible at Theater Rigiblick: Daniel Rohr (theater manager), Brigitta Stahel (deputy theater manager). Responsible at Draftfcb/Lowe Group: Dennis Lück (ECD), Frédéric Nogier (AD), Tizian Walti (Text).

Despite his serious illness, Jürg Siegrist still led the SWA until a few days ago, according to an obituary signed by SWA President Roger Harlacher and Siegrist's associates Adelaide Culiersi, Gabriela Gehriger and Esther Widmer, which appeared in the Basler Zeitung on May 4. "In the 10 years of his work, he worked tirelessly to make the Swiss Advertising Clients Association a recognized institution in the advertising and media industry," it continued. "He never acted with harshness or big words, but with persistence, kindness, patience, profound expertise, reliability and unconditional sincerity. He earned the esteem of all who dealt with him beyond the country's borders." Siegrist was also a member of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Advertisers.

The abdication will take place on Monday, May 7 at 3 p.m. in the Bruder Klaus Church, Bruderholzallee 140 in Basel. (mk)