The Beobachter journalists Martin Müller, Susanne Loacker (text) and Stefan Kubli (photos) described the economic impact of organic farming on farmers in their article "The organic illusion", the SBC reported on Thursday.

Jean-Bernard Menoud received the French-speaking Switzerland prize for his program "Oh la vache!" on French-speaking Swiss television. The program portrays five dairy farmers and uses their examples to explain the problematic situation on the milk market. (SDA)
 

The accusation came from an unexpected source; if a publisher had been present, he would probably have felt a shot in the back. Indeed, for an SRG critic who wants to restrict its public service mandate, this is a devastating statement. How can he justify the proposed online advertising ban for the SRG - and also further SRG restrictions - if the private media providers only offer editorial fare?

One might ask: Are there still publishers in Helvetia? After all, the publishing houses have been transformed into media companies, managed by rapper-splitters, even if the companies are not listed on the stock exchange. But it is also a fact that the five large Swiss media groups now control around 90 percent of the newspaper and magazine market, as well as local radio and television stations. One question arises: Is this still market concentration or is it already oligarchy? And where - locally and regionally - are there other journalistic voices? And do the private media providers guarantee the necessary basis "for the free formation of opinion" - as the Federal Constitution demands of "radio and television" - and as should also be demanded of the print media? In the private media, however, the SRG critics currently hold sway.

Rolf Probala, once a singer-songwriter with a guitar, then an SRG employee, later Head of University Communications at ETH, now a "consultant", recently claimed that SRG could no longer meet "the demands of a public service" on its own. He was referring to "broadcasts that are well made in themselves" but lack "continuity and relevance". Although he did not specify his criticism, he knew a remedy. SRG should massively slim down: only "news and information programs that are important for the formation of political opinion and the cohesion of Switzerland". He wants to outsource the rest, "to publishers as well as small media companies that are founded by institutions specifically for this purpose". Of course, there is another way of reading this: The SRG editorial offices are doing their job well and that is why they are now to be booted out so that companies and other institutions can gain more direct access to the providers of editorial vessels.

Probala's proposal is not far removed from that of Gerhard Schwarz, former NZZ business editor and now director of the business think tank Avenir Suisse. As the "most consistent solution", Schwarz wants to "dispense with a public broadcaster altogether and turn SRG into a private company". And the public service? The state would have to "use an appropriate agency to order everything that it would like to offer the people as a public service from private producers of program content and then give it to the stations free of charge or at a particularly low price." A kind of perpetuum mobile for the publishers and the right-wing bourgeoisie, the publishers would be rid of a competitor and would receive low-cost content, while the right-wing bourgeoisie could defame the content as "state propaganda".

The media are already happy to be served with editorial content at low cost. A Greenpeace representative reported at the conference: In the past, NGOs could have drawn the attention of media professionals to abuses. They would then have investigated further. Today, NGOs have to carry out the research themselves. Interest groups can also exploit the shortage of resources in editorial offices by producing their own programs. The Swiss Drugstore Association is currently looking for a "radio journalist". From spring 2012, the druggists want to broadcast a "weekly health program" on various local radio stations in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland, which they will plan and produce themselves. Not a public service, but a commercial service.

Where do Swiss media companies get the chutzpah to make so much noise about SRG's online presence? (A chicken that only delivers small eggs shouldn't be clucking loudly!) And further: shouldn't there also be a need for print titles organized under public law, financed by licence fees - so that print titles can also "contribute competently to education and cultural development, to the free formation of opinion" (Federal Constitution)?
 

The weekly newspaper is the official publication of the city of Dübendorf and the municipalities of Fällanden, Schwerzenbach and Volketswil and reaches 28,000 readers every week with a circulation of 26,990 copies. In the future, Glattaler AG will be jointly managed by the two media houses. The potential in the Glatttal growth market is to be better exploited and the reach increased, according to a statement from Zürcher Oberland Medien and Zürcher Regionalzeitungen. On a case-by-case basis, cooperation is also conceivable with the weekly Regio.ch, which is published by Zürcher Oberland Medien and has five editions in the districts of Hinwil, Pfäffikon and Uster, as well as with Furttaler, which belongs to the Zurich regional newspapers.

The contracts of the nine employees in the editorial and publishing departments will be transferred unchanged to the new company Glattaler AG as of January 1, 2012. Neither the nine employees of "Glattaler" nor the staff of ZO Medien are expected to suffer any personnel consequences, as the Zürcher Oberländer writes. The parties have agreed not to disclose details of the transfer.
 

Things are changing at Serranetga. These days, the Swiss pioneer in online marketing has undergone a complete rebranding. New website, new logo, new staff. "We decided to add a creation department to our group as well," announces Remo Prinz. A CD as well as an AD have already been hired, as well as a consulting group manager and additional web software developers. An additional 300 m² of office space has been rented for the new department. "So that we are prepared for the next few years and can stay in Kreis 4, where we feel at home." The expansion made sense because Prinz is convinced "that in the online sector, creation, media and technology must increasingly come from a single source, so that we can take advantage of all the opportunities offered by new developments." After three years on the market, you can see where the hare is heading. Many ideas are born out of thinking about what is technically possible in the first place. "Because we at Serranetga know the technical stuff inside out, we also know what new possibilities we can use creatively."

He wants to prove this creativity with a clever marketing gag. All visitors to the new website will sooner or later come across a Serranetga banner when they continue surfing the net on one of the major news sites or in the trade media. A demonstration of competence in the form of a surprising retargeting campaign. The idea is typical of Prinz's style, who, for example, was able to generate more than 4,000 unofficial "votes" in last year's vote for "Advertiser of the Year" with a royal online game.

Remo Prinz literally "grew up with advertising". His father worked from home as a freelance graphic designer in eastern Switzerland. Remo was allowed to watch the typesetting and help glue the pictures. "Even as a child, I was asked for my opinion on ideas and layouts." Later, he "played" in his father's studio at Hollenstein & Prinz on the then brand-new Mac 2. The interest was aroused. Remo Prinz studied journalism in Zurich. Besides university, he worked "as a copywriter and all-rounder" at a dialog marketing agency. He came into even closer contact with "new media" at Jippii. The competition to Jamba dealt with cell phone logos and ringtones. After graduation, Remo Prinz added another area to his knowledge, that of corporate at Swisscom. His current core competency, online, really took off in 2007 at Zattoo. Prinz had to define and sell the advertising environments. "Zattoo was already very advanced with the product. But the monetization strategy had yet to be developed." During this pioneering work around the marketing of Zattoo, Remo Prinz also got to know his current partners Raphael Oppenheim and Martin Widmer.

In 2008, the trio decided to found their own agency. They chose Serranetga as the agency name. The Rhaeto-Romanic word means "zipper" and thus describes the business model: media and creation must be interlocked with each other, "so that the advertising franc is optimized in the online area. The exotic-looking Rhaeto-Romanic also seemed fitting for their role as lateral entrants. They didn't want to be just another agency with "Ad" or "Web". Still in the founding year, a "spectacular coup" succeeded with the acquisition of Facebook. "We were the first to ever book and place ads directly with Facebook in the German-speaking world," Prinz recalls. The first ad was for Swiss International Air Lines. But because the American-organized Facebook had never had a German-language ad before, the text in Paolo Alto was automatically recorded with lowercase letters. The customer showed little joy - and Serranetga subsequently "gave the operators of Facebook the necessary lesson in German".

Because Serranetga, with its services as an "innovation lab," quickly moved into the agency track, Prinz and his partners decided to found a dedicated marketer in addition to their agency for media, technology and creation. So the second company to follow was Stailamedia - which in turn means "star" in Rhaeto-Romanic. The portfolios of various websites are managed here in the form of a star. Today, Stailamedia is "the largest independent online marketer in Switzerland" - without a publishing house in the background. Despite this - or precisely because of it - partnerships are also entered into with large media companies, Ringier for example with Blick and Betty Bossi as well as Bild.de or Weltwoche. Since the end of October, Stailamedia has also been exclusively marketing the websites of TF1 and the French media publisher Figaro Medias as well as Le Monde in Switzerland, bundling the websites in an attractive Romandie pool. Stailamedia is now the market leader in online video advertising with the "Swiss Video Network". And moving image advertising on the Internet "is regarded as the Mercedes of online advertising forms," Remo Prinz is convinced.

With the participation in a third company, Adwebster, the Group offers a premium advertising network that generates "hundreds of millions of ad impressions" per month. The company implements a so-called Meta-TAG on the websites, which makes all involved networks such as Google visible. In this way, Adwebster optimizes various campaigns from different networks among themselves for the publishers. In technical jargon, this is called "yield management." "In this way, we create a win-win situation between the advertising industry and the websites. The advertising industry receives coverage bundled in target groups at favorable prices, and the websites generate higher revenues," Prinz explains the model.

With these three companies, Remo Prinz and his partners were able to create more than 50 attractive jobs in Zurich in just three years. All three companies are completely self-financed. "Most people thought we were crazy when we started building them up in 2008 in the middle of the economic crisis." Otherwise, his even greater pride and joy are now two one-year-old girls. A little less demanding in his free time, Remo Prinz enjoys evenings playing cards. Every Thursday he meets his buddies, "who for once don't include any advertisers." And why is an Internet pioneer interested in such things? "Jassen is like life. You always have to get the best out of your cards - both offensively and defensively. Sometimes you have to hold back the right card so that the others don't make the match. Or seize the opportunity when you have the decisive card. That's what I find exciting. Whoever gets more out of their cards wins," explains Remo Prinz. And he's on his guard: "There's always a reshuffle." Andreas Panzeri

Children with hearing loss are particularly challenged in their speech development, as the agency writes in a press release. The communication for Phonak's pediatric hearing aid portfolio attempts to take this into account and aims to address parents and specialists with the appropriate sensitivity.

In addition to the launch tools, slice-of-life images were created that use projections to illustrate the importance of good hearing. The measures will appear over the course of October and will be used internationally.

Responsible at Phonak: Ora Bürkli (VP Product Marketing), Marc Menendez (Pediatric Marketing Manager), Sonia Torre (Marketing Communication Manager). Responsible at Wunderman: Markus Gut (overall responsibility), Daniel Bieri (CD) Silke Heinzelmann, Michael Gallmann (AD), Florian Tillmann (text), Nora Angstmann (graphics), Tom Schwarzenbach (graphics and DTP), Rahel Güttler (consulting).

Renzen Communications has designed various new "Christmas Tales" packaging from the classic 100g bar to a praliné box and a treasure chest. One of the highlights is certainly the Advent calendar with a 3D Christmas tree that can be opened and fine chocolate specialties hidden behind the 24 doors, the Aarau-based agency said in a statement.

Responsible at Chocolat Frey, Buchs: Daniel Hunziker. Responsible at Renzen Communications: Achim Kaufmann (AD), Hans Furrer (illustrations), Marc Prell, Beat Wyss (image editing), Frédéric Renzen (consulting).

The Unhate campaign, the first initiative of the recently established foundation of the same name, was presented by Benetton in Paris for the first time on Wednesday. The project includes coordinated initiatives and events that will be launched worldwide on November 16, according to a press release. The central theme is the kiss - a generally recognized symbol of love - between political and religious leaders on a global level. These are symbolic images of reconciliation with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation.

In addition to the FDFA, which never even introduced the Facebook block, the social network is now also accessible again in Doris Leuthard's Uvek, Claudio Frigerio of the Federal Office of Information Technology (FOITT) told the news agency SDA. He confirmed a report by the online platform Blick.ch upon request. At the end of November, the Department of Economic Affairs EVD will also allow Facebook again, according to Frigerio. The FOITT is responsible for the technical blocking of websites.

In effect, the departmental block had been in place since fall 2009, when department secretaries general jointly recommended the block. Despite an appeal to personal responsibility, Facebook, one of the most visited websites, previously clogged federal lines. Only in exceptional cases was access unblocked. The secretaries general have now moved away from this recommendation, leaving the decision to each individual department. Many federal agencies now use social media themselves for communication. Instead of blocking access, employees should be made aware of the possibilities and risks of the platform.

To this end, the Federal Personnel Office, together with the Federal Chancellery and the Confederation's IT strategy body, formulated a guideline on the opportunities and risks of social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are "even more public than a streetcar or a regulars' table," it says. Therefore, officials should not disclose secret or internal information.

Questions from other users - journalists, for example - should be referred by federal employees to their communications office. Private use should also be kept to a minimum, he added. The volume of data generated by Facebook use is no longer a problem, Frigerio said. The infrastructure is constantly being reviewed and is powerful enough today, he said. (SDA)
 

"With the option of obtaining MacEntur from the cloud, we are expanding the area of application for our customers and helping to save costs," said Roger Wernli, Head of Innovation and Business Development at Previon, in a press release. "We have recognized that smaller publishers, PR and communication offices and editorial offices also work with agency reports these days. With MacEntur, we are offering one of our media solutions for the first time to customers who want to operate little or no IT infrastructure themselves."

Medium-sized and larger publishing houses should also be able to benefit from the cloud solution. "The path of an agency report through the IT infrastructure of a media company is long and complex. Especially in the event of malfunctions, it is time-consuming for the customer to narrow down the cause and find the right contact person to solve the problem," says Wernli. With MacEntur's centralized architecture in the cloud, several architectural components can be removed from this process, thereby increasing the reliability of communication. The message lands directly on the editor's desktop. Furthermore, the message database now allows articles to be grouped by topic, even on historical databases.

Previon is currently in active discussions with Swiss partners about the widespread use of cloud offerings. They are interested in feedback from customers of different sizes, says Roger Wernli. "Our customers have very heterogeneous system landscapes and individual requirements. That's why we are just as interested in pilot projects with small regional publishers as we are in increasing efficiency in large, national editorial offices."
 

The music streaming service can be used on computers, cell phones and other end devices, as detailed in a press release. The songs are available on-demand and can therefore be listened to directly, without waiting and without buffering. Users can compile playlists and share the music with their friends via Facebook integration. In addition, Spotify users can import MP3s that they already own with just one click, creating a comprehensive music experience.

Spotify was founded in 2008 by Swedes Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. Their aim was to offer a practical, simple and legal alternative to music piracy. Today, Spotify generates considerable revenue for rights holders, the press release continues. Since the service was launched three years ago, Spotify has already transferred more than 100 million euros to record labels and music publishers, who in turn pass this on to the artists, composers and authors they represent.

License agreement with Suisa

10 million registered users in ten markets in Europe and the USA use Spotify. More than two million of them have chosen one of the paid services that Spotify offers. Spotify launches today in Switzerland and Belgium. The service is now represented in twelve countries. Over 15 percent of users have an "Unlimited" or "Premium" account and thus pay for the music and additional services. Spotify has signed a license agreement with Suisa and agreements with all four major record labels as well as with Merlin and a whole range of independent labels. Spotify's exclusive launch partner in Switzerland is Bose. Spotify will launch innovative campaigns together with Bose in the coming weeks and months.

> More information
 

With this step, Axel Springer's TV program guide division is strengthening its focus on the major media brands Hörzu, TV Digital and Funk Uhr, the publisher wrote in a press release on Wednesday. The sale is not associated with any job losses. The sale was subject to approval by the Federal Cartel Office.
 

The package of tasks also includes media activities for the Carpe Diem brand, as the agency writes in a press release. Oscar Ferrer, Head of Marketing, explains his decision: "Ultimately, we were won over by the overall package offered by Aegis Media Group Switzerland with its specialist disciplines of electronic media and digital. The Group's interdisciplinary approach, with everything from a single source and under one roof, was the deciding factor for us."