The British broadcaster ITN and several publishers, including Penguin, Faber & Faber and Random House, have jointly founded an online book club on YouTube entitled "Beyond Books". This is modeled on TV book shows and is aimed at Internet users interested in literature. The concept is also intended to encourage the younger generation to pick up a book, as the news service Pressetext.ch writes.

Axel Springer Russia is launching a new supplement for the international business magazine Forbes at the end of August. The 98-page supplement "Forbes Woman" is aimed at successful Russian businesswomen and will be published once a quarter. In terms of content, the magazine focuses on a target group-oriented mix of topics such as family and career, leisure planning or beauty and fashion. According to the market research institute TNS Russia, 40 percent of the Russian Forbes readership is female, as stated in a press release on Monday.
Axel Springer Russia has been publishing the Russian edition of the business magazine Forbes in Russia since 2004 and, according to its own information, reaches over 810,000 readers every month with an average circulation of 110,000 copies. The cooperation between Axel Springer and Forbes Inc. was extended until 2020 at the end of 2008.

The fact that language is constantly changing and adapting to the context usually becomes apparent when different generations collide. Many a word that is commonplace for a teenager is a puzzle for a dad or granddad. For example, would you have known that a "jambajaner" is a person who listens to annoying ringtones on their cell phone out loud in public? What about the contaminant "bankster", which is made up of "banker" and "gangster"? Or are you aware that the word "obama" is used synonymously with "innovative" or "new"? Langenscheidt Verlag, together with the youth magazine Spiesser and MySpace, has launched the "Youth Word" initiative to ensure that such word creations are not reserved for insiders in future. This collects new terms from German-speaking countries, with the 200 best being published in the book "HÄ?? Jugendsprache Unplugged 2010", which will be published in October.
From now on Jugendwort.de the shortlist of 30 terms for voting. The 15 terms with the most votes will be presented to a jury in November, which will select both the top five and the actual "Youth Word of the Year 2009". Creative people and word acrobats can also suggest new words for the Youth Word 2010.

Below is the shortlist for the Youth Word of the Year 2009, including translation. So, start learning right away to be as "obama" as possible in the next conversation.

Acne sticks - French fries
AOK Chopper - Rollator
bam, bäm - cool, awesome
Bankster - Bank employee who makes speculative transactions during the financial crisis
buttering - sweating
Crashdummy - complete idiot
Damager - Bank manager
Don Promillo - drunk person
Edelratte - small dog of female celebrities
Ego decoration - make-up, jewelry
dance English ballet - stagger drunk
Folding party - family celebration
Face circus - heavily made-up face
Hail damage - Cellulite
hard work - bumming around, being unemployed
Jambajaner - person who listens to annoying ringtones on their cell phone out loud in public
KnickKnack - Sex
Knee pads - sagging breasts
Coma junkie - constantly drunk teenager
coral - cool
Kukident steamer - excursion boat
suitable for mice - taking extra wishes into account
obama - new, innovative
Pisa victims - school leavers with a lack of general education
Pornflakes - Viagra
Rudelgucken - Public Viewing
Schizo-Clip - Bluetooth ear clip (headset for cell phone)
Snail MOT - visit to the gynecologist
undermatched - very thin
mess up - mess up, screw up

(Image source: jugendwort.de)

The creatives at Ruf Lanz have designed an advertisement for their client Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke (CKW) to mark August 1st. It announces a special campaign: Ten couples from the CKW supply area who wish to have children can order an extra power cut from the electricity supplier on the national holiday. The idea is based on studies that have shown that the birth rate increases noticeably nine months after major power cuts.
CKW will turn off the power at 5 p.m. for a romantic night - and will also bring along a gift basket with delicacies from the region and candles. If there are more than ten registrations, a draw will be held. A full-page advertisement in the Neue Luzerner Zeitung on Saturday, July 18, 2009, announced the event.

Hearing aid manufacturer Phonak has won the international Stevie Award for its Hear the World campaign. The global awareness campaign received the award in the "Communication Team of the Year" category. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of the social and emotional consequences of hearing loss and to educate people about prevention and solutions. The team worked together with rock legend Bryan Adams, who photographed other celebrities. The pictures went on tour last year as part of a traveling exhibition, which was accompanied by hearing tests, interviews, an interactive website and a charity auction.

(Image source: Hear-the-world.com)

For the sixth time, the Austria Presse Agentur (APA) in cooperation with the Bank Austria Unicredit Group announces the journalism award "Writing for CEE". The aim of the prize is to promote journalistic discussion of issues relating to European integration. Journalists from all European countries are invited to submit their contributions (including transcripts of radio, TV and online contributions) published between August 1, 2008 and July 31, 2009 until July 31. The winner will be announced in Vienna in November 2009. Further information is available at Apa.at/cee-award retrievable.

The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) will soon be making its decisions available in an Internet database. The "decision database" is intended to create more transparency about decisions made by the Federal Office and to comply with the principle of public access to administrative decisions, as reported on Netzwoche.ch. However, not all decisions are to be published on the database, but primarily those made after the revised Radio and Television Act (RTVA) and the revised Telecommunications Act (TCA) came into force on April 1, 2007. Older decisions will only be included in the database if they are still relevant, it continues.

On Monday, Basler Zeitung Medien confirmed a report in the Sonntagszeitung newspaper about the sale of its 25 percent stake in the commuter paper News. BZM is negotiating with Tamedia, but nothing has been decided yet, BZM CEO Beat Meyer told the news agency SDA. However, the sale at the end of June is "a rumor". In the event of a sale, however, "Tamedia would certainly be the addressee". It remains to be seen whether, where and how Tamedia, as 75 percent owner, will then continue News on its own.

Stop losses
News is loss-making, Meyer continued. His company adds two to three million every year. BZM wants to "plug loss holes". The media company had already sold the local radio station Basel 1 in May and also reduced the BaZ editorial team by a fifth in January and put the online editorial team and the free newspaper Baslerstab on the back burner in March.
Eleven months ago, BZM reported Group sales of CHF 281.6 million for the 2007/08 financial year, which corresponded to an increase of 0.6 percent. However, profit fell by 13.6 percent to CHF 7 million. Sales at BaZ and Baslerstab were down. Current figures have not yet been published.

Tamedia will probably continue to run News anyway
According to a media spokesperson for Tamedia, a BZM withdrawal would "not automatically" mean the end for News. The Tagesanzeiger and the Berner Zeitung would then have to rethink the situation. The flexible concept would also allow News to penetrate new regions. In addition, a BZM exit would not only mean a loss of income but also a loss of expenses, for example for distribution. The fact that News is not yet profitable is no surprise only one and a half years after its launch and in the middle of a crisis, the spokesperson continued.

US researchers have investigated the origin, speed and duration of news. According to the study, established media are on average 2.5 hours ahead of bloggers with new information. However, news lasts longer in the blogs, while the media's interest wanes more quickly. The research team led by Jon Kleinberg from Cornell University in NY found that topics remain in the public eye for up to a week before being displaced by new ones. For their analysis, the scientists evaluated 90 million articles and blogs in the three months leading up to the US presidential election in November 2008.

Bad news for the commuter newspaper News. According to a report in the Sonntagszeitung, Basler Zeitung (BaZ), which holds 25 percent of the shares, has terminated its partnership with Tagesanzeiger and Berner Zeitung with effect from the end of June. Matthias Hagemann, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM) group, has not yet officially confirmed the information, but as he recently told Bilanz, the existence of News is "under scrutiny".
The Basler Zeitung is suffering in particular from the sharp drop in advertising in June. As already known, the media company is looking for new cooperation partners. Tamedia, with which it already works, and NZZ are being considered. Hagemann told Sonntagsblick that talks are underway with both Zurich publishers.

Even before the participants in the SF documentary soap "Alpenfestung - Leben im Réduit" have stormed the fortress, the first conflicts are on the horizon. The commander of the 25-strong troop has jumped ship. A new head must therefore now be found for the living history project, in which the participants move into the Fürigen fortress at the end of July and live as they did in the days of the Great War.
However, these are by no means all the problems that Swiss television has to overcome. While "re-enactment" enjoys great popularity in the USA - for example, battles from the American Civil War or even episodes from the Second World War are re-enacted - the concept is controversial here in Switzerland. It is about everyday problems and not about acts of war, assures production manager Bruno Zus of the NZZ am Sonntag. The focus of interest is therefore on whether or not the underpants and uniforms of that time were scratchy, how the food tasted and how a bunker was operated. Historian Jakob Tanner is not quite so unproblematic. He finds the entertainment show questionable and a "trivialization of a highly problematic topic". History professor Jean-François Bergier, President of the expert commission "Switzerland - Second World War", also finds the project "absurd". People today have completely different ideas and fears. Feelings from back then could not be repeated. How the bunker residents survive the three weeks and what emotions they show can be followed on screen from July 27.

Res Strehle, co-editor-in-chief of the Tagesanzeiger, spoke in an interview with the Sonntag CH newspaper about the planned 4-Bund concept, which is to be implemented next September. According to Strehle, the front page should be "generously laid out", look new every day and be designed in such a way "that you would like to hang it on the wall as a poster". The daily commentary will be moved from the first to the second page. However, this will not make the Tagi any less political - on the contrary. The aim is to "gain more weight as a political newspaper".
Instead of short commentaries, the first bundle will increasingly contain "slightly ironic" short surveys and short stories. The opinion column, which is supplied by internal and external writers, will in future be found on the penultimate page of the first bundle. The second bundle will cater to both the typical rural newspaper reader and the urban reader, Strehle continues. The third bundle covers the areas of culture, life and knowledge. The key sections of sport and business form the fourth bundle.

Production relocated from the Confederation to Zurich
It is also now clear that Der Bund will be produced in Zurich in future. However, according to Strehle, the Bernese have the option of regionalizing the front page - as well as most of the other pages.