However, Fridolin Managing Director Maya Ziegler does not like the term "free newspaper". Unfortunately, she regrets, it has a negative, almost cheap connotation: if it's free, it can't be good. Yet Fridolin has a lot of heart and soul. The people of Glarus know and feel this and affectionately call their newspaper "Fridli". Week after week, every Thursday, 29,707 copies of Fridolin land in every letterbox in the canton of Glarus, as well as in postboxes in the upper part of the canton of Schwyz and in the Linth region. Recruits from Glarus can have Fridolin sent to their RS free of charge, and some homesick Glarus residents have even ordered their Fridli to Phuket and the Vatican. However, you have to take out a subscription for this.

The perceived household coverage of Fridolin is far higher than the actual coverage, which is already 100 percent. The paper achieves this in the canton of Glarus because Fridolin contains the Glarus official gazette, which was approved by the cantonal assembly. This means that Fridolin can also be placed in letterboxes that would otherwise reject stray advertising with stop stickers. And even there he seems to be welcome.

The high reach of the paper is a good argument for advertising customers from the region to have relied on the publication for almost 50 years. They have also supported the paper through the 2009 crisis. As a result, Fridolin is able to secure the operation of the associated offset and digital printing plant in difficult times. And that's not all: the crisis year 2009, which shook up many medium-sized companies, was actually the best in the past eight years for Fridolin Druck und Medien, and without any redundancies or early retirements. "We simply all pulled together," says Maya Ziegler with pride.

All for one

Since October last year, Fridolin has had an editorial director who is responsible for the content of the magazine. He is also called Fridolin, or Jakober. Ziegler assures us with a wink that the first name was not a selection criterion, but pure coincidence. In addition to the editorial director, two permanent freelance journalists and a columnist, the now 80-year-old life partner of Fridolin founder Walter Feldmann, work on the newspaper every week. A number of the almost 40,000 inhabitants of Glarus, Glarus North and Glarus South as well as citizens from the neighboring cantons also write for Fridolin. Around 60 percent of the articles are written by the readers themselves. "Every association, every club, every citizen of the canton of Glarus and the neighboring cantons has the right to place a text with a photo in Fridolin," emphasizes Ziegler. Every week, the editorial team and publishing house management have to choose from 90 to 120 submitted texts which will be published. A difficult task, because every article is equally important to the editorial team. Ziegler: "We don't evaluate or weight the submitted articles, we just proofread them. Our aim is to depict the canton with all the opinions to be found there and to encourage people to think and participate. But of course we have to base the size of each issue on the number of advertisements sold. That is why we cannot publish all the articles submitted. The size of Fridolin varies between 32 and 64 pages."

Special knitting pattern

The intensive involvement of the Glarus population is not the only specialty of Fridolin. If you turn to the front page, you first stumble across the obituaries on pages 2 and 3. Maya Ziegler explains: "The deceased have a place of honor with us and don't end up somewhere in the back pages. This is a sign of our appreciation for them and their relatives. We know that this attracts attention and we often get a shake of the head with this approach. But we will keep it that way." Fridolin also doesn't have a summer slump or a summer break: "There is always a reason for advertising and there are always topics that need to be reported on," says Ziegler, "especially in summer. Of course, we have to give our advertising customers new ideas from time to time. But as we are in close and direct contact with them and know their business well, that's not a problem. It's still going on here."

History and stories

October 29 is Fridolin's birthday. On this day in 1965, the successor to the Anzeiger vom Gross- und Kleintal, founded in 1928, appeared on the scene for the first time - and with 15,003 "officially certified copies", it was the newspaper with the highest circulation in the Glarus economic area, financed by advertising and free of charge for all Glarus residents. The idea of publishing Fridolin came from Walter Feldmann the Younger, born in 1930, who managed the operations of Fridolin Druck und Medien until 2009. Feldmann's father, Walter Feldmann Senior, born in 1888, a book printer and typesetter, had founded the Schwanden book printing company in 1924 and launched the Anzeiger four years later. In 1959, at the age of 29, Walter Feldmann Junior took over the printing company at his father's request, added editorial pages to the Anzeiger and christened it Fridolin.

Strictly speaking, Fridolin is a waste product. Feldmann Junior's aim in printing the magazine was actually to recycle surplus paper. Simply throwing it away went against the grain for the trained typesetter and qualified businessman - so he looked for content with which he could fill the paper. Fridolin was born. Although it was written and typeset in Schwanden for many years, it was printed in St. Gallen at the St. Galler Anzeiger printing works, Nuber. The typeset pages had to be in the print shop by 4 p.m., because the Anzeiger ran through the press there immediately after Fridolin. "With larger volumes, it sometimes happened that not all Fridolin pages were ready by 3 p.m.," recalls 81-year-old Walter Feldmann. "That's why a delivery van driver drove the first eight to ten pages to St. Gallen in advance, and I then brought the two to six pages that were late in my Opel Rekord myself." Loading the Opel with the remaining printing plates was a very hectic process. The lead pages brought in by the typesetters weighed around 25 kilograms each and had to be stowed in the back seat and trunk of the Opel. "Once I put one of the plates on the roof of the car," says Feldmann. "I wanted to put it in the trunk, but I forgot it there and drove off. Shortly before Glarus, I remembered the side. I was terrified - but the heavy lead plate was still where I had put it." Fridolin was printed on time, "a minor miracle" for Feldmann. Otherwise, this would probably have been the first and only time that Fridolin would not have reached its readers on time.

Even today, Fridolin is not printed in Schwanden, as the print shop does not have a web offset press. For 23 years, the newspaper was printed at DZO Druck Oetwil am See, but since its closure, NZZ Print in Schlieren has been printing Fridolin. However, the newspaper is still produced entirely in Schwanden, even though the print data is no longer transmitted to the print shop by Opel Rekord, but now digitally.

Fridolin, the ladies' favorite

Producing a newspaper is one thing. But who distributes it? Feldmann the Younger asked the Schwander Post. In 1965, however, the post office demanded a price for the distribution of Fridolin that was higher than the costs of production, personnel and paper combined. So without further ado, Feldmann founded his own distribution company, the Glarnerland printed matter distribution organization. At the heart of the organization were around ten housewives distributed throughout the canton of Glarus, who earned a few extra francs once a week by delivering letterboxes. They started distributing on Wednesdays at 4 pm and the last Fridolin was in the letterbox on Thursday at 11 am. The deliverers were not paid by the hour, but by the weight of each Fridolin issue: the larger the volume, the higher the wage. Otherwise, the up- and downhill deliverer from Braunwald would have received a significantly higher wage than her colleague from Schwand. Feldmann Junior wanted to prevent this injustice.
As Fridolin has grown over the past 50 years, so has the distribution organization. Today, the distribution company is called Swiss-Mail and employs more than 60 deliverers who not only feed the letterboxes with Fridolin, but also with election propaganda, flyers and advertising leaflets. The remuneration system based on weight has not changed to this day.

Focus on advertisers and readers

To understand Fridolin and why it has worked so well for almost five decades and against the resistance of established daily media - above all the Glarner Nachrichten - you have to immerse yourself a little in the world of the canton of Glarus. The people of Glarus see themselves as one big family; people still say hello to each other on the street. Everyone knows everyone, and if you don't know anyone, you don't really belong here. The social network is well established, every Glarner is involved in several organizations, and it doesn't matter whether your neighbor is also a member. In such an environment, a newspaper that gives everyone the chance to express themselves about everything is tantamount to a piece of home, a piece of family. For the people of Glarus, Fridolin is their newspaper. It is no coincidence that the paper is no longer called "Anzeiger vom Gross- und Kleintal" like its predecessor, but Fridolin - after the cantonal saint Fridolin von Säckingen, who also adorns the canton's coat of arms. The personification is the program. The renaming of Buchdruckerei Schwanden to Fridolin Druck und Medien in 2000 also emphasizes the company's roots in the region.

Fridolin has been the most widely read newspaper in the canton of Glarus since its first publication. It is one of the few free newspapers that is still WEMF-certified. "Even if the accreditation costs money, we will stick to it," says Maya Ziegler. "Because that way we can guarantee our advertising customers that their message will reach where they want it to." In future, Ziegler wants to make Fridolin even more interesting and varied in terms of content and give more weight to the articles produced by the editorial team: "There is a need among our readership for cross-cantonal topics and articles written by trained journalists, be it in politics or sport. We want to upgrade Fridolin in this direction. This is very important to me personally, and we want to have achieved this goal by our anniversary in 2015."

Fridolin is also available online, but only as a downloadable PDF of the print version. Publishing director Ziegler admits that this is a weak point in the overall appearance of the free newspaper. But despite Fridolin Druck und Medien's pronounced innovative spirit, online and multimedia are not among the company's core competencies. It is clear that a printing company relies on paper first and foremost. In addition, Fridolin is predominantly read by an older audience aged 45 and over. An independent online presence has therefore not been particularly missed to date. Nevertheless, the future is sure to come. And Ziegler is currently looking for a competent partner to bring Fridolin into the world of zeros and ones.

Anne-Friederike Heinrich

IN BRIEF

Fridolin Druck und Medien, Walter Feldmann AG is founded in 1924 as the Schwanden book printing company. The first print shop is located in a small terraced house in the center of Schwanden. In 1928, founder Walter Feldmann Senior, born in 1888, buys a high-speed press and prints the first Anzeiger vom Gross- und Kleintal with a print run of 5000 copies. In 1958, Feldmann Senior hands over the print shop to his son, who starts publishing Fridolin in 1965. In 1971, the print shop moves to its current premises at Hauptstrasse 2 at the entrance to Schwanden, and in 1973 Feldmann transforms the company into a public limited company. The typesetting department has been working with typesetting since 1982. Between 2002 and 2008, a multimedia department was set up, although this no longer exists today, and in 2009 the prepress department switched to CTP. From 1994 to 2002, the third Walter Feldmann is on board as Managing Director, then his brother Jürg Martin Feldmann takes over the helm until the end of 2008. In 2009, Walter Feldmann the elder retires from the business and Maya Ziegler joins as Publishing Director. In July 2011, she took over responsibility for the print shop and publishing house, while the youngest Walter Feldmann became co-owner of the company and delegate of the Board of Directors. The company employs 45 full and part-time staff.
www.fridolin.ch

Like many other sports, motorsport has also discovered social networks. You can read a lot of news on Twitter every day, especially about the two most popular categories, Formula 1 and Moto GP. I myself am a big Moto GP fan, which is why I follow a number of racing drivers and teams on their Twitter accounts. As everywhere in life, not everyone makes full use of the opportunities here. It's understandable that Fernando Alonso is too old for Twitter at the age of 30, but you'd expect a Generation Y member like Sebastian Vettel to have a lot of followers. Far from it. His digital behavior is that of a GDR civil servant.

Of the top drivers, only Hamilton @LewisHamilton and Button @JensonButton (first prize for the best profile picture) are in a racing car with the blue bird. The ranking of the "most influential" drivers is headed by - you'd never guess it - Rubens Barrichello @rubarrichello. With 1.1 million followers and 11,000 tweets, he's almost a superstar. At least on Twitter. Evil tongues would now say that he finally has the time for it (given his frequent absences).

With the teams, it's just like in real life. With 129,000 followers, Ferrari @InsideFerrari is in a class of its own. The complete absence of Mr. Schumacher (but there is a fan page @F1_Schumacher that calls him an "ex-Formula 1 driver" - social media is obviously still lagging behind reality) and Mr. Rossi proves that legends hardly have any time for Twitter. Accumulated 16 world championship titles and not a single tweet. Maybe that's why... But in Moto GP Alex Briggs @Alex_ Briggs, one of Rossi's mechanics, is the 5th "most influential". He also shares a lot of the insider news. A kind of digital biographer. And of course, the new big talent, Jorge Lorenzo (born in '87). With 230,000 followers, he is the future, on and off the racetrack. Incidentally, he is one of the few (this also applies to companies) who has understood that social media are networked. His Twitter page says "follow me!". With links to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. Bravo! Sure, you could argue that the gentlemen would be better off doing their job than posting online about delayed flights or summer jobs. But then they would be neglecting a very important element of their brand value: proximity to the fans. If you know how to use social media as a motorsport fan, you have the feeling of being much closer to the drivers, as you can take part in their daily routine and contact them personally, tell them what you think of them. Sometimes you can even join in the discussion. You can see that this is the case from the re-tweets and replies from the pilots. The highly praised dialog is increasingly taking place. Thanks to social media, fans never run out of information about their passions, not even during the winter break. It never gets boring. I believe that this is just the beginning. Drivers, teams and other players will no longer be able to avoid using these tools professionally in the future. Drivers will be able to express their opinions even more directly and thus bypass the filter of the media. Teams will shift their side activities and use social media for both branding and merchandising. Last but not least, the racetracks will use Foursquare check-ins and other integrations on site and online to ensure that visitors can have the 360-degree experience 365 days a year. Manuel P. Nappo, Head of Studies CAS Social Media Management HWZ.
 

The iPhone 4 is currently available with 16 or 32 gigabytes. In addition, the next generation of the Apple cell phone will be available in October. According to Businessinsider.com, this is very likely. Specifically, Apple plans to start selling the iPhone 5 on October 7 and begin pre-orders on September 30.
 

Jacqueline Perregaux is a federally certified PR consultant and studied history and English at the University of Basel. She worked as a journalist for various local and regional newspapers. After graduating, she headed the copywriting department of a communications agency and was subsequently responsible for the international employee magazine and media relations for cultural sponsorship projects at a major Swiss bank. Before joining Int/Ext Communications, Jacqueline Perregaux worked for several years as a senior consultant in a Zurich PR agency. She is also an examination expert for Integrated Communications at the Swiss Federal Diploma Examinations for Marketing Specialists. At Int/Ext Communications, she will now work in the finance/insurance, telecom and healthcare sectors.

Before Michael Felber took up his position at Int/Ext Communications in May, he headed corporate and marketing communications for several years at the medium-sized software companies Whitestein Technologies and Expersoft Systems in Zurich. At Int/Ext Communications, he will now work in strategic consulting as well as in the conception, planning and implementation of complex communications measures, especially in the area of new media. After completing his studies in business administration with a focus on media and communications management at the University of St. Gallen, Michael Felber already worked as a junior consultant at Int/Ext Communications. This was followed by several years in California, where he worked in product management and sales for the Red Herring event and publishing group.

Jasmin Fürstenberger, who had been a consultant with int/ext Communications since 2006, left the company at the end of June 2011 to take up a new challenge with the Canton of Basel-Stadt.
 

Following the successful launch of the Smart Ads offering in the commercial advertising sector by Publimedia, Publicitas Publiconnect and its technology partner Kooaba - the provider of image recognition technologies - are expanding the offering of interactive advertisements under the name "Smart Ads Classified" for customers from the job and real estate sectors. This offer is intended to give print advertisements from the job and real estate sector a new, additional dimension, as Publicitas writes in a press release on Wednesday. Users will be able to respond to the advertisement and receive additional information directly via their smartphone, regardless of time and place. The classic print advertisement is supplemented by a job or company video, for example, or a virtual tour of the property is made possible.
 

At Contactless.ch the user learns more about the function of the product through the examples of the two characters. In addition to an appealing design, the agency said in a statement that the website was designed with user-friendliness in mind. In this way, the advertising agency is linking to the actual product - the "MasterCard Pay Pass" credit card - which is also convincing due to its simple handling.

Responsible at Viseca Card Services / Aduno: Tanja Adis (Communication Manager Online Media), Roger Zuberbühler (Campaign Manager), Stefano Gentilini (Head Web Development), Emanuele Firmani (Web Developer), Mauro Tangari (Web Developer). Responsible at Werbekanzlei DWK, Zurich: Patrick Varga (Consulting & Strategy), Turan Oeznalci (Creative Director), Nadine Hendriks (Art Director).
 

Christian Woelk, currently Art Director Communication Design & New Media at Akris Prêt-à-Porter in St.Gallen, is moving to Schalter & Walter as a partner and Managing Director. The qualified communications, graphic and screen designer will take on project management tasks at Schalter & Walter, as will management members Caroline Noser, Myriam Brunner and Nicolás Durán. Woelk, who also works as a lecturer and module leader for "Visual Communication" in the "Web Project Manager" (WPM) training course at SAWI in Dübendorf and has previously worked in agencies, is an ideal addition to the team, particularly in the areas of web and visual communication, according to a statement from the agency. At the same time as this new addition, Myriam Brunner will be taking maternity leave. She will return to the design desk at the beginning of 2012.

Sandra Vogler, previously Head of Marketing at ASGA Pensionskasse St.Gallen, joined the two agency units PR & Consulting and Branding & Communications as a project manager at the beginning of August. She is also switching from the corporate to the agency side. The qualified marketing planner, who originally comes from the travel industry, brings with her experience from various activities and sectors. In recent years, she was responsible for the communication and positioning of the ASGA pension fund in St.Gallen as Head of Marketing. She will assume responsibility for projects in the Alea Iacta PR & Consulting and Alea Iacta Branding & Communications units as project manager and support the partners Iwan Köppel and Christoph Ottiger.
 

Most recently, André Krause was CFO and member of the Executive Board at Telefonica Germany. He has many years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Sunrise writes this in a press release on Presseportal.ch. Krause succeeds Daniel Pindur. Pindur had held the post of CFO on an interim basis after Christian Hütwohl left the company at his own request last April.

As Head of Finance at Sunrise, Krause will be responsible for Accounting & Tax, Billing, Collection & Investigations, Controlling, Facility Management, Treasury & Investor Relations and the Value Creation Program Office. He will report directly to CEO Oliver Steil. He is expected to create the financial conditions for the successful implementation of the company's strategy, which includes investments in infrastructure amounting to FRanken 1 billion in the coming years.

André Krause was significantly involved in the LTE auction in Germany and thus brings great experience in the field of acquisition and integration of companies, Sunrise added. Krause gained his strategic experience in the telecommunications industry from 2004 to 2006 as Vice President Strategy & Consulting at Telefonica O2 Germany. Prior to that, the 41-year-old business economist worked for the international management consultancy McKinsey, where he was in charge of various telecommunications, IT and Internet projects on a mandate basis.
 

Various subjects show artfully crafted porcelain figurines of powerfully built foresters, road builders and metal workers who are first unharmed and then injured. Both figures are marked with a price tag. Surprisingly, the price of the broken figure is much higher. This dramatizes the fact that accidents cause enormous costs - costs that could be avoided with effective prevention.

The subjects are now on display. The microsite Gerechtepraemien.ch and placed various online banners.

Responsible at Suva: Daniela Bassi (Head of Communications and Marketing), Urs Schaad (Head of Marketing Communications), Jasmin Bucheli (SuvaRisk Communications), Kurt Heussi (Head of SuvaRisk). Responsible at Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett: Sebastian Krayer (AD), Reto Vogler (text), Dan Strasser, Patrick Suter (CD), Martin Spillmann (ECD), Pam Hügli, Charlotte Gut, Simone Ammann (consulting), Anna Colby (art buying). Porcelain figurines: Illusion Ltd.
 

With Hostpoint's web store, which is available in three versions, both online trading newcomers and e-commerce professionals such as professional mail order companies and agencies will find the right version for their needs. For example, over 100 design templates are available, which the professional can completely replace with their own design if desired. Depending on the variant, the online store can also be managed in four languages and billed in up to 100 currencies. The online store is already prepared for payment processing with a connection to service providers such as PayPal, SaferPay and others.

The appearance includes logo, brochures, website, spot adaptation, give-aways, sales booth and T-shirts. A cross-media appearance will be seen as a continuation in the coming weeks and months.

Responsible at CMN Fonesolutions: Jonny Kremer (Chairman), Michael Kremer (CEO). Responsible at Rau Communication: Oliver Rau (overall responsibility), Richard Rau (creative direction), Andreas Konrad (art direction) Oliver Hänsli (graphics).
 

It was "the coolest thing I've ever done" to be able to pay a visit to the yellow family, the 25-year-old told the US industry magazine Entertainment Weekly, according to SDA. The singer makes a stop in the Simpsons town of Springfield in the episode "Lisa Goes Gaga" and helps the residents and the crushed Lisa to gain a stronger sense of self-esteem. "Lisa Goes Gaga" will be broadcast on US television in spring 2012 as part of the 23rd season. Viewers can also look forward to a kiss between Gaga and the Simpsons' mother Marge.
Haven't we had this before? - Madonna kisses Britney Spears and Christina Aguliera. Lady Gaga commented on her performance and the kiss: "I play a little bitch. So the apple doesn't fall far from my artistic tree".