In Sudan, a well-known female journalist is facing a punishment of 40 lashes for wearing trousers. Lubna Ahmed el Hussein, who regularly writes for the left-wing newspaper El Sahafa and also works for the UN mission in Sudan, said on Sunday in Khartoum that she was sitting in a restaurant at the beginning of July when police officers came in and asked all women wearing pants to come along.
Ten of the twelve women concerned were punished two days later at a police station in the Sudanese capital with ten lashes each for their "indecent" clothing. The others, including herself, were charged under Section 152 of the Sudanese penal code, Hussein said. This paragraph provides for 40 lashes for indecent behavior that "offends public morals".

The organic magazine Verde, designed by the Zurich agencies Paroli and KSB/SJ for Coop, was awarded silver in the Best of Corporate Publishing (BCP) competition in the Consumer (B2C) category. The organic magazine Verde is published by the Coop Cooperative under the direction of Jürg Peritz, Head of Marketing and Procurement at Coop. The Zurich agencies Paroli and KSB/SJ are responsible for the concept and realization. Verde is published three times a year in German, French and Italian with a circulation of over one million copies per issue.

Responsible at the Paroli agency, Zurich: Oliver Suter. Responsible at KSB/SJ, Zurich: Daniel Krieg and Uwe Schlupp (creation), Simone Fennel (AD). Concept, chief editor: Agentur Paroli, Lüchinger Publishing. Realization: Christiane Gothuey. Picture editor: Mel Sinha.

Weber Harbeke Partners realized the launch campaign for Valora Retail's new low-cost product line "ok.-" realized for Valora Retail. This is based on the brand name "ok.-", which is intended to convey the message of the low price quickly, strikingly and comprehensibly in all languages. The campaign was launched in the free newspapers 20 Minuten and Blick am Abend. Naming and packaging were also created by the Zurich agency. Further campaigns are planned for the commuter target group.

Responsible at Valora Holding, Muttenz: Jörg Brun (Head of Valora Retail), Roger Knill (Head of Category Management Food & Beverages). Responsible at Weber Harbeke Partners, Zurich: Max Weber, Thomas Harbeke (CD), Giovanni Pucci, Christina Zvecevac (consulting), Priska Meyer (AD), Sibill Zellweger (graphics), Christian Sidow, Judith Stoletzky (text). Photo: Jonas Kuhn, Zurich.

The Ron Orps Mail tips newsletter now has a new design. The website has also been expanded with numerous features, including more reports and comments from the newsletter. Readers also have their own profile and can communicate directly with each other. The new design is intended to meet international standards with its simplicity and clarity, the company writes in a press release on Monday.
Ron Orps reaches around 48,000 people in Switzerland and abroad every day with recommendations from the concert, art, party, food and shopping sectors, among others. Founded in 2004, the newsletter is published in Zurich, Bern, Basel, St. Gallen, Lucerne and Winterthur, as well as in Vienna, Berlin, Munich and New York. 62% of readers are between 25 and 34 years old.
Landolt Pfister is responsible for the layout and design. The technical implementation was carried out by the internet agency Semantica.

Responsible at Ron Orps: Christian Klinner and Romano Strebel (concept and project management).

Kasimir Meyer receives the first PSO certification according to ISO standard 12647-2 for offset and digital printing in Switzerland. The print shop based in Wohlen offers niche products such as rotary cards in addition to the production of conventional printed matter. The company employs around 80 people and seven trainees.

Werner Widmer and Guy Flüeli (UGRA, St. Gallen), Roger Looser (Project Manager PSO, Kasimir Meyer).

Werner Widmer (UGRA); Patrik Honegger (Operator) and Guy Flüeli (UGRA).

Werner Widmer and Guy Flüeli (UGRA), Martin Bräuer (offset printer, Kasimir Meyer).

Cyrill Heimgartner (co-owner and managing director of Kasimir Meyer).

At a time when newspapers are dying out, the print industry is increasingly looking for alternative business models to ensure its own survival in the future. The Chicago start-up company The Printed Blog recently had to painfully acknowledge that not all of the ideas and experiments put forward in this regard have brought the desired success. "We are trying to create the first printed daily newspaper that consists exclusively of blog entries and other user-generated content," Joshua Karp, founder and publisher of The Printed Blog, had declared full of confidence in January at the launch of the innovative project, according to Pressetext. Now, however, Karp has had to officially admit the failure of his ambitious experiment. The project initiator cites economic reasons as the main reason, which would have made it impossible to continue the blog newspaper.
"It is with great sadness that I have to announce that the Printed Blog must cease publication due to the lack of external investment funds," Karp writes in a blog entry on the project homepage. Despite significant personal investment and the additional use of six to seven credit cards, he was unable to raise the minimum amount of funds for the next stage of development. "Ultimately, the financial reality left us with no choice but to immediately suspend publication indefinitely," Karp explains. He was therefore unable to achieve his goal of creating a completely new form of news print product. "However, I am optimistic about the future and believe that the next few years will bring journalism one of the most exciting times ever. The industry is on the cusp of fundamental change," emphasizes Karp.

"Brüno" is already the third film by British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen. With his latest work, the 37-year-old wants to build on the success of his previous film "Borat" - which is why the production studio Universal has spared neither expense nor effort and launched a marketing campaign to turn the hype surrounding Cohen into a ringing box office. From a scandalous appearance at the MTV Movie Awards, when Cohen let himself be roped down onto the face of US rapper Eminem with his backside almost bare, to a nude portrait on the cover of US men's magazine GQ, all possibilities have been exhausted. Only the coming weeks will show whether Universal's commitment in this regard was ultimately worthwhile. However, as the Los Angeles Times reported according to Pressetext, experts assume that the film about the gay Austrian fashion journalist will earn over 30 million dollars on its first weekend in cinemas in the USA and Canada. This would mean that "Brüno" has already surpassed its predecessor "Borat" - which earned 26.5 million dollars in the same period and an estimated total of 250 million dollars worldwide.

Bernhard Thurnheer's withdrawal from television continues: with immediate effect, he will no longer commentate on Swiss national football team matches, as can be read in the NZZ am Sonntag. Head of Sport Urs Leutert is to decide in August who will commentate on the national team games in place of Thurnheer.
He wants to give up presenting the program "Sportpanorama" in two or three years. Swiss television is looking for a successor. Benissimo" is set to end in 2011 with its 100th show.
Thurnheer turned 60 on Saturday. In a year's time, on July 11, 2010, the World Cup final will take place in South Africa. Thurnheer will be commentating on it on his 61st birthday. If Switzerland makes it through to this match, he will be accompanying the national team once again.

The Foundation for Consumer Protection (SKS) is making serious accusations against Billag. According to a report in the current edition of the Sonntagszeitung newspaper, SKS director Sara Stalder said that the collection agency for television and radio fees was "scaremongering and intimidation". The criticism was prompted by a recent circular from Billag to households that pay radio but not television fees. The letter points out that since last September, households equipped with a cell phone or computer for television reception via the Internet have also had to pay TV fees. However, the condition is that the owner must have registered with an Internet TV company.
Stalder is quoted in the Sonntagszeitung as saying that people are being "duped" by the complicated letter. Consumers with little technical knowledge could get the impression that they are now liable to pay a fee even without registering with an Internet TV operator. Billag rejects the accusations. The letter was written in an understandable way.

Orange CEO Andreas Wetter believes that the liberalization of the Swiss telecoms market has at least partially failed. Nevertheless, the head of the telecoms group would agree to a monopoly on fiber optics by industry leader Swisscom. Wetter made this statement in an interview with the Basler Zeitung newspaper on Friday, according to SDA.
Nevertheless, the alternative providers should not be disadvantaged in terms of time, Wetter qualified. They should all be able to connect their services to the fiber optic network at the same time. Wetter justifies his criticism of the liberalization of the telecoms market with the few remaining market participants and Swisscom's 70% share. Wetter also criticizes the dual role of the federal government, which owns a majority stake in Swisscom and regulates the telecoms market at the same time.
According to Wetter, Orange, Sunrise and Cablecom must join forces in order to stand up to the former monopolist. In his opinion, consolidation is unavoidable. The outgoing Orange boss, who will take over as Chairman of the Board of Directors at the beginning of August, can also imagine partnerships in sales, marketing, purchasing and distribution.