David Schnapp is Weltwoche's former technology columnist and chief of service. The change from Poschardt to Schnapp is intended to focus car reporting more strongly on Switzerland, according to a press release.

Previously, the service was only intended for federal councillors and emergency services - and rightly so, as it can be a matter of life and death. However, according to an article in the Sonntagszeitung, some top managers are now also benefiting from the service. This is practical, as mobile phone networks are becoming increasingly congested. Internet surfers are already regularly stuck in data jams at Zurich's main railway station and other neuralgic points. This is partly due to the increasing flood of data. In Swisscom's mobile network alone, the volume of data transferred doubles every seven months. This is mainly due to the flat-rate offers, which could soon be put out of business for this reason. "Natel plus" customers are unlikely to be interested in this. The rest can at least hope that Swisscom's "special customers" will use the service sensibly and not use their preferential right to download videos or watch funny YouTube films.

According to a telephone conversation intercepted by the public prosecutor's office of the city of Trani, Berlusconi also complained about reports critical of the government from other RAI programs. Augusto Minzolini, editor-in-chief of the daily news program TG1 broadcast by RAI 1, and the president of the communications authority Agcom, Giancarlo Innocenzi, had promised their support in the telephone conversations in order to cancel the programs. Minzolini has often been targeted by the opposition because of his TG1's pro-government reporting.
Prosecutors had accidentally intercepted Berlusconi's telephone conversations with Minzolini and Innocenzi while investigating another case, Il Fatto reported. The new scandal threatens to add fuel to the fire of controversy over the control exercised by the prime minister and media owner over the Italian television system. Opposition politician Antonio Di Pietro demanded the resignation of the TG1 editor-in-chief and the president of the communications authority. However, they refused to do so.

Ringier Switzerland has merged the four editorial offices of Blick, Sonntags Blick, Blick am Abend and Blick.ch into one integrated newsroom. The newsroom now also includes Switzerland's most modern web TV studio. The four editors-in-chief Ralph Grosse-Bley (Blick, ad interim), Hannes Britschgi, (SonntagsBlick), (Peter Röthlisberger, Blick am Abend) and Rolf Cavalli (Blick.ch) are in charge. Together with the department heads Andrea Bleicher (News), Hannes Britschgi (Politics), Daniel Meier (Business), Dominik Hug (People), Ilja Kaenzig (Sport) and Roland Grüter (Lifestyle), they head the largest editorial team in Switzerland with around 200 employees.

The project is called Distrinova. Swiss Post wants to use it to streamline the logistics of letter traffic. The greatest potential is seen in the introduction of so-called aisle sorting. Swiss Post spokesman Oliver Flüeler confirmed the tender for a major order on the Swiss television program 10vor10 on Friday evening. With this new high-tech machine, manual sorting by letter carriers will be largely eliminated. A single one of these machines costs several million francs.
Flüeler said in the program that 20 to 60 such machines is the total volume that could theoretically be implemented. However, the decision to purchase has not yet been made, he said, and there will be certainty at the beginning of next year. However, automation means fewer jobs. According to the communications union, the new sorting machine could save every fifth hour worked by letter carriers. If these machines are used across the board, up to 3,400 letter carriers' jobs would be at risk, according to union vice-president Fritz Gurtner.

To mark the launch of the drinks, Schweppes is inviting acting talent to Zurich's main railway station next Monday to act out the 20-second commercial and win a trip to Hollywood. A jury consisting of celebrities such as presenter Linda Gwerder, actress Karin Lanz, Freakish presenter Zoe Torinesi and singer Tanja Dankner will judge the acting performance, creativity, wit and charm of the candidates on site.

The foreign, domestic and business sections and possibly the society pages of the five newspapers will then look the same from the fall. According to the director of Le Nouvelliste, Patrick Chabbey, a merger of part of the sports editorial team is also being considered. In future, the journalists from the different papers will only produce the regional section independently of each other, as Chabbey told the SDA news agency. The aim is not to cut jobs in the editorial offices, but to improve quality. The editorial offices reacted to the announcement with skepticism, as Olivier Hugon, co-president of the editorial meeting of the Nouvelliste, told SDA. His co-president Joachim Faiss added that there were also concerns about quality.
The Journal du Jura from Biel, the Neueburger Express and L'Impartial from La-Chaux-de-Fonds have been working together under the Arc Presse umbrella since 2007. Recently, La Côté from Neuchâtel also joined the group. According to the editor-in-chief of L'Express and L'Impartial, Nicolas Willemin, the five newspapers now want to adopt a joint layout. However, it remains to be seen how the joint pages will be created in future. A joint intranet is being discussed, or a concentration of the editorial offices concerned in one place.
The French Hersant Group is the main shareholder in the publishing houses of L'Express, L'Impartial and also La Côte. According to SDA, the major publishing house is also considering acquiring a stake in the Valais-based company. In French-speaking Switzerland, the Romandie Combi pool also produces articles for several newspapers.

The NZZ Media Group posted a loss of CHF 3.1 million, compared to a profit of CHF 22.2 million in the previous year. The Group remained operationally just profitable: the operating result EBIT amounted to 3.7 million francs, compared to 27 million francs in the previous year. In its press release on Saturday, the NZZ Media Group cited the crisis in the advertising market and costs for restructuring and value adjustments as the reasons. The loss in advertising sales amounted to 46.7 million francs.
The Board of Directors will propose to the General Meeting that no dividend be paid for 2009. The Group expects the current year to be another difficult financial year with stagnating advertising income. Despite acquisitions, the number of employees fell by 5.2 percent last year to 1702 full-time positions. The electronic media affiliated with the Group increased their revenue by 11 percent or CHF 3.9 million. According to the press release, this was due to the new revenues generated by the Central Swiss television station Tele1.

LZ Medien Holding weathered the crisis year 2009 better. Thanks to strategic expansions, sales rose by 1.2 percent to 159.1 million francs. Profit increased by 6.1 million francs to 8.3 million francs. At the same time, however, operating profit EBIT fell by 35 percent to CHF 8.6 million. Investments in securities and the sale of an investment led to a financial result of CHF 2.5 million. In 2008, this had been clearly in the red. Newspaper advertising revenues fell by 14.7 percent, while Group-wide advertising revenues were down 4.6 percent. The dividend per share is to be increased to CHF 85.
St. Galler Tagblatt AG also suffered losses in sales and profits, but remained in the black. Compared to 2008, profit plummeted by 73 percent to CHF 2 million. The Tagblatt media sold almost a quarter fewer advertising pages. The flagship St. Galler Tagblatt also suffered as a result.
Former Swisscom CEO Jens Alder, entrepreneur Carolina Müller-Möhl and internet specialist Joachim Schoss are to be elected to the Board of Directors of the NZZ Group at the Annual General Meeting on April 17. Susanne Bernasconi-Aeppli and Oliver Burger will leave the Board of Directors.

Four 20-second TV commercials by Danish star director Jonas Arnby are being shown in Switzerland and Austria. The commercials show people who feel so comfortable in their own skin that they allow themselves to be carried away into spontaneous catwalks. On one occasion it is an attractive man in his forties who performs a little tap dance while crossing the street café, on another occasion three young women surprise viewers with a show act on the baggage conveyor belt at an airport, an office worker amazes his colleagues with a spectacular voguing-style performance and a girl expresses her self-confidence by dancing on a public bus. From the beginning of next week, all four TV commercials, including a bonus film, will be available on the Charles Vögele Group website. The song "I love your style" was composed especially for the new Charles Vögele commercials by Malcolm Pardon and Fredric Rinman, or Deadmono. The music of the two Swedes has already won awards at many international festivals, including the Swedish Grammy Awards.
Fashion and celebrity photographer Esther Haase was recruited for the print campaign, who conjures up a carefree, spontaneous and cosmopolitan mood in unconventional snapshots. The hand raised in the Victory sign by the multicultural models, sometimes demonstratively, sometimes casually, but always very confidently, serves to make the fashion brand instantly recognizable.
The umbrella brand campaign will be carried out cross-media in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia and Poland. This will be accompanied by the launch of five exclusive eaux de cologne with seductive fragrances from April. Pubclicis has also developed and implemented a completely new corporate website for Charles Vögele.
Responsible at Charles Vögele: André Maeder (CEO), Daniel Bärlocher (Vice President Group Communications), Patrizia Vetter (Creative Director), Elisabeth Hassa (Group Communications). Responsible at Publicis: Bruno Biondi, Sabrina Elsaesser (consulting), Vivi Chiosi, Nina Hofstetter, Swen Morath, Devika Hasler (art), Jan Krohn , Felix Freese, Claude Catsky (text), Derya Derdiyok (TV production), Sacha Moser (creative director). Image editing: Fabio Clerici, Jonas Hartmann. Responsible at Publicis Modem: Melanie Gut, Mohamed Klotz, Marcel Vogt, Mirjam Vonarburg, Pascal Urscheler. Responsible at Solid & Hallerfilm: Rudi Haller (producer), Jonas Arnby (director), Philippe Kress (cinematographer), Jacob Schulsinger (editor).

The spot focuses on a new brand focus: Coca-Cola as the ideal companion for family and friend gatherings, as celebrated all over the world around shared meals. The 25-second spot will be shown on all high-reach TV stations in Switzerland from March 15.
Responsible at McCann Erickson Zurich: Stephen Dickel (Account Executive, Consulting), Annika Seidel (Account Director, Consulting), Denise Frech (Art Director, Creation), Silke Wartenberg (Copy Writer, Creation). Responsible at Coca-Cola Switzerland: Christoph Reitmeir (Junior Brand Activation Manager), Flavio Calligaris-Maibach (Managing Director Switzerland).
To the spot

The current deputy editor-in-chief Pierre Veya will succeed Jean-Jacques Roth. Veya will take up his post on May 1, according to a press release issued on Friday. He began his journalistic career at the newspaper L'Impartial after graduating from the business school in Delsberg. He began as a correspondent for the canton of Jura and was then responsible for the cantonal section. He then moved to L'Hebdo magazine, where he headed the business section for six years. In 1997, he was appointed deputy editor-in-chief of the business paper Agefi, where he finally took over as editor-in-chief from 2001 to 2004. A year later, he became deputy editor-in-chief at Le Temps, where he actively contributed to the development of the daily's new business and financial pages. Pierre Veya was awarded the Alstom Prize in 2006.
His predecessor Jean-Jacques Roth had held this position since 2002. His future task will be to implement the publishing strategy defined for Le Temps for the coming years, particularly for digital information media.

This means that the number of nominations has reached a new record this time. As BBC News reports, there were 205 nominations last year. The organization received thousands of nominations, according to Geir Lundestad, Director of the Nobel Institute. Some were nominated by individuals, others by between ten and 100 different people. The Institute does not publish an official list of nominees. However, some nominees repeatedly announce themselves that they have been chosen. According to Pressetext.ch, the Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and the Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo, for example, have been nominated. The Italian version of Wired magazine campaigned for the Internet to be nominated, arguing that the web promotes dialog, debate and consensus. This is also supported by the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi and the founder of the "One Laptop per Child" project.
It is still unclear who would actually receive the Nobel Peace Prize if the Internet wins. What is certain, however, is that the winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize will finally be announced on October 8. And after US President Barack Obama recently received the prize, the Internet can only be given the best chances.