The media of Edipresse Suisse and other acquisitions contributed CHF 348.4 million to the increase. The operating result before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose by CHF 79.8 million or 54.8 per cent to CHF 225.6 million, as Tamedia announced on Wednesday. The EBITDA margin rose from 19.6 percent in the previous year to 20.4 percent. The operating result (EBIT) rose by 48.9 percent or CHF 55.4 million and now stands at CHF 168.8 million. The EBIT margin improved slightly from 15.2% in the previous year to 15.3%. At CHF 178.8 million, the 2011 result is 61.4% or CHF 68.0 million higher than the previous year's figure of CHF 110.8 million. In the past twelve months, a total of 21 media and participations were sold as part of the implementation of the renewed corporate strategy. Sales prices totaling CHF 103.0 million were achieved, of which CHF 17.1 million relate to the 2011 financial year. The book profit amounted to CHF 25.6 million, of which CHF 4.9 million was recognized in the income statement in the reporting year.

Visitors are invited to discover the city's design district. For an entire weekend, stores, studios and showrooms located in Kreise 4 and 5 will open their doors and provide insight into the local creative scene and its work. Embedded in a metropolitan, heterogeneous environment with a charm all of its own, a design microcosm has recently emerged in Kreisen 4 and 5. In fact, the quarter has something to offer that neither the inner cities nor the shopping centers know: The cosmopolitanism of the Langstrassenviertel inspires local designers and gives room for new, compelling ideas.

A selection of these ideas will also be published this year in a guidebook in which all the important information about the "Circle 4+5" can be looked up. This year's accompanying publication, it should be revealed, interprets the creative districts of Kreis 4 and 5 as a colorful, lush jungle and guides Kreis runners unerringly to the most exciting stores and studios. These were portrayed for the sixth edition of the Kreis book by Zurich photographers Helve Leal (Kreis 4) and Nelly Rodriguez (Kreis 5).

All stores and studios participating in the project will now be marked with a QR code in addition to being listed in the Kreislauf book. This makes it quick and easy to call up coordinates, information and maps of the surroundings of your favorite store via cell phone.

This year, the Circular Weekend will once again be complemented by a varied supporting program. For the first time in 2012, design creators from another city will be guests: With their own showcase, Basel creatives will be present in the premises of the Architekturforum at Brauerstrasse 16. Product designers Rainer and Tobias Kyburz will show their work together with friends from the Basel design scene. The exhibition will be staged by the young scenographer Martina Ehleiter. The Basel Showcase is made possible and organized by the Initiative Kreativwirtschaft Basel IKB. For the second time, "la belle et les beaux" is presenting the special exhibition et/ou as part of the cycle 4+5 at the Starkart Gallery, this year on the theme of "fortuna". Here, fashion and art are taken out of their usual contexts and placed in a new context of meaning and contemplation. Kunstbulletin and the artist collective "Fool for April" also invite you to the Galerie Perla-Mode on Langstrasse, where art, music and drinks come together on the circulation weekend.

The initiator and organizer of "Kreislauf 4+5" is René Grüninger. The "Kreislauf 4+5" is supported, among others, by the PWG Foundation, the Zürcher Kantonalbank and the Office of Economic and Labor Affairs of the Canton of Zurich, Location Promotion. The media partner of the campaign is the Tages-Anzeiger. In addition, there is close cooperation with VBZ.
 

The World Press Photo of the Year 2011 is by Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda and was produced for The New York Times. The winning image shows Fatima al-Qaws caring for her son Zayed (18) in a mosque serving as a field hospital in Yemen's capital, Sanaa. Zayed is suffering from tear gas after a demonstration against President Ali Abdullah Saleh on October 15, 2011. Aranda's striking image also won first prize in the "People in the News Singles" category.

The international 19-member jury awarded prizes to the best works in 9 categories from 101,254 proposals submitted by 5,247 photographers from 124 countries. "The photo stands for the entire region," said jury member Koyo Kouoh, explaining the award. It stands for Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria - for everything that happened during the Arab Spring, he said. Nevertheless, the picture also shows a private, intimate side in a significant development.

The traveling exhibition with the award-winning works is touring around 100 cities in 45 countries worldwide. Keystone, together with the Leading Partners Canon, Baumann & Cie, Banquiers and the media partners NZZ am Sonntag, Persönlich and Du, is bringing the World Press Photo exhibition to Zurich for the fifth time - as one of the first stops on the worldwide tour.

Guided tours led by Nicole Aeby, Freelance Photography Consultant & Curator, and Lea Truffer, Picture Editor, and fringe events will be offered during the exhibition. Renowned photographers will give lectures: the Dane Jan Grarup on May 8, 2012 and the South African-based American Roger Ballen on May 15. 2012.
 

Barbara Senn previously worked as a project manager at the Baden-based PR agency Ferris Bühler Communications. She studied journalism and organizational communication at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW in Winterthur and worked part-time at 20 Minuten Luzern.

Bernadette Thalmann has many years of experience in journalism and corporate communications. Most recently, she worked for Allianz Suisse in Zurich as Deputy Head of Corporate Communications. She studied journalism, political science and history at the University of Zurich.
 

The law has been in force since the beginning of the month. With the asterisk, someone makes it clear that he or she wishes to be spared advertising calls at home. The Foundation for Consumer Protection SKS has already received around 100 complaints - three quarters of them about unwanted advertising calls, as the SKS explained to the news agency SDA.

Its counterpart in French-speaking Switzerland, the Fédération romande des consommateurs FRC, said it had received 108 complaints by Wednesday - 75 percent of which were due to advertising calls. This is not surprising, commented Valérie Muster from the FRC. No concrete figures were yet available from Ticino.
 
Forms on the Internet
Since 1 April, consumer protection organizations have posted forms on the Internet that can be used by those affected to lodge a complaint. The aim of the law is to protect the public against bait-and-switch offers, address book fraud, online scammers and false promises of winnings.
 
According to the FRC, the last quarter of complaints relate almost exclusively to false promises of profit and address book fraud. In order to combat the latter, the law stipulates that offers for an entry in an address book or company register must make it clear in large print that this costs something.
 
Restaurant visits instead of "coffee trips"
On the other hand, the "coffee trips" - alleged free car trips where travelers were offered all kinds of junk at inflated prices - seem to have disappeared. Instead, victims are lured with free invitations to restaurants, among other things. These then follow the pattern of the "coffee trips".
 
According to the FRC, things seem to have quietened down in the case of so-called pyramid schemes and internet fraud. Only a few complaints have been received in these two categories, said Valérie Muster. Since April 1, fraudsters have practically disappeared from the Internet. (sda)
 

According to the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the presentation and depiction in the associated articles criminalized the ethnic group of Sinti and Roma in an inciting manner. The criminal complaint was submitted to the public prosecutor's office in Heidelberg (Germany). The highlighted ethnic labeling of unknown defendants would promote racist stereotypes in the style of National Socialist attributions against the minority. As in those days, the impression of "descent-related criminality" is created and Sinti and Roma are publicly placed under general suspicion. The Central Council is also calling for a halt to the distribution of the issue in Germany. The Austrian journalist Klaus Kamolz and a woman living in the canton of Basel-Landschaft have already filed complaints against Weltwoche. The Federal Commission against Racism (FCR) has also announced that it will look into the report.

In an interview published in Weltwoche on Thursday, the FCR President and former FDP National Councillor from Geneva said that the cover picture does not suggest that only individual Roma are causing problems. The cover picture suggests that all Roma are criminals. The image is completely out of place on the cover of a Swiss magazine.

"I think the article as such is fine," says Brunschwig Graf verbatim. The description of the criminal Roma gangs is not the point that the FCR criticizes in Weltwoche. The Roma are already discriminated against in their countries of origin. At present, little is needed in Switzerland to stir up prejudice against Roma. The FCR will examine where the limits of reporting lie, continued its president. The Commission will then make recommendations.

However, the ECR will not launch an anti-World Week campaign. All comparisons based on blanket judgments and stigmatization are bad. This also applies to the Nazi cudgel that is swung against Weltwoche in Internet forums, said Brunschwig Graf. (SDA)

> Weltwoche accused over Roma cover story

(Image: Keystone)

Because I hadn't been accessing Facebook via the app for a long time, but using the normal web browser on my iPad, I missed out on a lot. My iPhone is set to silent at night, but my iPad is usually not. I realized this when I was alerted at three in the morning by an extremely unpleasant plinggg that one of my Facebook friends had posted something. But it didn't stop at that one post. Far from it! Within minutes, it plingggged and sleep was out of the question. Within half an hour, the lovely guy had posted around twenty photos, links and videos and shared a number of other people's posts. The next night, I took the precaution of setting my iPad to silent. Lo and behold, the next morning there was another similarly long list of his posts. This gave me the idea of typologizing my Facebook friends. Not necessarily according to the time of their posts (which would also be interesting!), but according to the content. I find the result exciting and my friends are probably not that different from other friends.

There are the shy ones, the inconspicuous ones and the withdrawn ones. They post little to nothing, maybe press a Like-it button once in a while, but otherwise keep quiet. Apart from their ten-year-old passport photo, they don't have any pictures on their page.

The frequent posters can be divided into different groups. There are the serious ones. They want to spread their opinions. They post their comments on current problems. Sometimes interesting, but often lengthy.

One subgroup are the conviction posters. Just as you can always guess at the beginning of the week which direction the Weltwoche cover story will take, you know who will respond to which topics and what the tone of the comments will be. Then there are the wafflers. They don't post much, but they love to comment. They are at their best when they can write another comment in response to a counter-comment to their comment.

Another group are the picture fetishists. They will post practically anything. The topic doesn't really matter. The pictures have to be posted. In the rarest of cases, they are their own pictures, but most of the time they are photoshopped. A subgroup are the picture aesthetes. They post their own pictures, usually of high quality. It's a bit like a slide show in the sixties.

The fun-oriented ones are special. They are rarely concerned with their own content, the main thing is that it is funny. In most cases, the humor is of the thigh-slapping type.

The special interest posters are completely different. Only things that have to do with a specific subject area are posted there. Be it rock music from the 80s, football, recipes or bizarre verses. The breadth of the range is small, but the depth of the range is almost unfathomable.

The self-promoters are amusing. Whether it's a long journey, sporting success or participation in prestigious events: You were there and you let the world know.

And then there are the normal people. They post what they think their friends are really interested in.

For example, the agency developed the "Dynamic Attention Sky" for Mobiliar: With this large-area banner, the appropriate format is delivered depending on the size of the monitor and thus the maximum available advertising space is always utilized in addition to the content area.

Serranetga developed the "Fullscreen Video Rectangle" for the EKZ. The highlight of this format: Although a conventional, low-cost rectangle banner is booked, it develops into a full-screen video upon user interaction.