At Melchsee-Frutt in the canton of Obwalden, there is currently no need for posters advertising the reindeer sleigh rides of restaurant owner André Fischer. Fischer's reindeer Cosmos has already done this himself. With his escape shortly before Christmas, the animal has gained mass media attention. Swiss television had reported on Wednesday on the runaway and headlined: "Reindeer run away: Cosmos can't be caught and keeps a whole ski resort on its toes". The reindeer was also present in various newspapers last week. On Zisch.ch it is speculated whether the herd instinct can bring the animal back again. Blick.ch even mentions the dangers to which Cosmos is now exposed: two wolves that would be lurking in the Melchtal. So far, Fischer tells News.ch, no reindeer has ever run away from him.
But despite the dangers for the animal and the temporary loss of his Cosmos, there is a consolation for Fischer: Cosmos is the best thing that could have happened to the ski resort, the Melchsee-Frutt is on everyone's lips, writes the Neue Obwalder Zeitung. Should Cosmos not be captured, he is at least assured of free advertising and higher visitor numbers.

The Jung von Matt/Limmat agency depicts teachers as animals for the family magazine Fritz und Fränzi. The illustrations are intended to show how children and young people see adults in and around school. In various motifs, the ads are intended to illustrate that children see the supposedly likeable gym teacher as a rat, the head teacher as a goat or the music teacher as a donkey, for example.
The magazine aims to understand what makes young people tick, writes the agency. This requirement is also the concept for the new print motifs. Fritz und Fränzi gives both adults and young people tips on how to tackle any differences and conflicts between young and old.
The advertising campaign has been running in family-oriented magazines throughout German-speaking Switzerland since December.
Responsible with Fritz and Fränzi: Dr. Ellen Ringier (President of the Board of Trustees), Thomas Schlickenrieder (Publishing Director). Responsible at Jung von Matt/Limmat: Tom Seinige (Creative Direction), Thomas Ammann (Text), Inken Rohweder (Art Direction), Nora Vögeli (Graphics), Erasmo Palomba, Ilonka Galliard (Art Buying)
Ariane Sonderegger (consulting), André Rösler (illustration).

Balz Bruder will step down from his position as deputy editor-in-chief of the Aargauer Zeitung in mid-February. The AZ announced in its Saturday edition that he is accepting a new professional challenge. Bruder began his career 18 years ago as a local editor at the former Aargauer Tagblatt. Over the past eight years, he has also headed the Aargau cantonal department.

At the Macworld computer trade fair, Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller announced that from April all songs in the iTunes Store will be offered without copy protection. Apple, as the world's largest retailer of digital music, has reached an agreement with three of the four largest record labels - Warner Music, Universal and Sony BMG, writes the NZZ am Sonntag. This makes it possible to relax download copy protection. The fourth label, EMI, has already been offering copy-protection-free music via the Apple Web Shop since 2007.
All ten million songs from Apple's music download store are to be sold without copy protection. According to the Sonntagszeitung, eight million titles are already available for purchase without digital rights management (DRM).

In a six-part series, Migros advertised products with people of small stature. The organization for the disabled, Pro Informis, now feels that they have been misused as a group. In an interview with the Sonntagszeitung, Mark Zumbühl, spokesman for Pro Informis, says that the company is now considering filing a complaint with the Commission for Fairness on the grounds of discrimination. The Association of People of Small stature in Switzerland (VKM) is of the opinion that the publication of the pictures is bad for the image. In the text, the dwarves are portrayed as beings who only work under supervision and are constantly grinning.
According to Hans Schneeberger, editor-in-chief of Migros Magazine, the editorial team was of the opinion that the pictures would spread Christmas spirit. This may have been a wrong decision. A repetition is not an issue.
Whether the case violates a principle of the commission must first be examined, according to the spokesman of the fairness commission Piero Schäfer.

"W.", the film about outgoing US President George W. Bush, was co-financed by former Jobs.ch operator Thomas Sterchi. It will be available on DVD in the Sonntagsblick on January 18. The Oliver Stone film did not make it to cinemas in Switzerland.
40-year-old Thomas Sterchi, who became rich through the sale of Jobs.ch, has invested a good five million dollars in Oliver Stone's latest film. The investment should have been the big kick-off for his production company Millbrook Pictures. "I'm very happy with the movie. It really sheds light on a lot of things," Sterchi told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper last October and spoke of a real opportunity to earn money with the film by the successful Hollywood director ("JFK", "Nixon", "Platoon", "Natural Born Killers", "Born on the 4th of July"). Apparently, the project with a total budget of 30 million francs and a very tight schedule would not even have been feasible without the financial injection from Switzerland. But now the film hasn't even made it to cinemas here.
"It fell through because of our schedule. We really wanted to bring the film to the big screen during Bush's last week in office," Karl Spoerri, director of the Zurich Film Festival and co-owner of Sterchi's production company Millbrook Pictures, told the Berner Zeitung. However, the cinemas would not have had space until March. However, the response to "W." was also rather modest in the USA. Amidst all the euphoria surrounding the newly elected President Barack Obama, American audiences were not very interested in the outgoing occupant of the White House. The reviews were also rather moderate. So now the Stone film will only flicker across domestic screens. On the one hand via DVD - the film will be included in the 40th anniversary edition of Sonntagsblick on January 18 - and on the other hand the documentary will be shown on January 23 on Pro Sieben.

The entry deadline for the Best of Swiss Web Award has been extended by one week from January 12 to January 19. The theme of this year's competition is "Women wired in web", with a special category exclusively for "female projects". The Best of Swiss Web Awards for the best web projects will be presented at the Kongresshaus Zurich on April 2, 2009.
Best of Swiss Web is a Swiss award for Internet and mobile projects. For almost ten years, the Best of Swiss Web Association - made up of the industry association Simsa (Swiss Interactive Media & Software Association), the trade magazine Netzwoche and around 80 jury members - has been promoting the Swiss e-business, internet and mobile industry with this award.

The Sonntagszeitung has decided to outsource all its direct marketing activities to the agency Four. The agency, which was only founded in mid-2008, is now responsible for a comprehensive package of measures. The aim of the campaigns is to generate new subscribers.
In addition to the Sonntagszeitung, the Zurich agency Four. counts Orange, Credit Suisse, WWF and the Swiss Travel Club among its clients.

The Zurich agency Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett has a new, important client. With immediate effect, it will be advertising for Sunrise's residential customers. Sunrise has commissioned the advertising agency to develop a completely new image. The first works should be on display by the end of the month.

The agency KSB/SJ has won the Hirslanden private hospital group for its client portfolio in a pitch. At the end of last year, Hirslanden chose KSB/SJ as its new communications agency with overall responsibility. Its remit now includes all communications for the head office and all Hirslanden clinics. The Hirslanden private clinic group consists of 13 private clinics and over 100 competence centers and specialized institutes.
The first works will be on display from spring 2009.

Since Monday, French state television has stopped broadcasting advertisements from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.. The first stage of the controversial initiative has come into force. However, concrete solutions for financing the reform are still uncertain. The government has guaranteed 450 million euros annually for the advertising losses. This sum is to be raised through additional levies on private broadcasters as well as landline, mobile and online providers. However, additional taxation would not be able to raise the entire sum, writes the NZZ on Friday. In addition, the advertising ban is to be extended to the whole day from 2012, which would mean a loss of revenue of 800 million euros - plus an estimated 400 million euros for the three hours of daily broadcasting time instead of advertising.
However, the government's ingenuity to finance these 1.2 billion euros is being challenged even further. This is because the French information press is now also calling on the state to increase its subsidies. French Culture Minister Christine Albanel was presented with a "Green Paper", a guide to overcoming the press crisis. French daily newspapers already receive millions in subsidies. These are to be increased. The state should also place more advertisements in order to partially compensate for the declining advertising market. The French President is expected to make a decision on this at the end of January.

At the end of 2008, the global music industry association Ifpi operated six Swiss web radio stations for the first time. The dispute over how much internet radio stations have to pay for copyrights continues. The new copyright law does take into account the new technical requirements of global reception and program transmission. However, many details - especially the amount of the fees - are still unclear, Philippe Perreaux, board member of the Swiss Internet Radio Interest Group (ISI), told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. The three companies demanding a copyright contribution from web radio stations are the Swiss companies Suisa and Swissperform as well as the worldwide Ifpi. Suisa and Ifpi are demanding an amount of around CHF 3,400 per year per station.
Perreaux sees excessive copyright fees as the end of the pioneering work of web radio. Although some internet radio stations have thousands of listeners, they hardly earn any money, he explains in an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger. Negotiations have so far been difficult, but Suisa and Swissperform have given assurances that they will wait for a mutually acceptable solution before pursuing debt collection. However, webradios that have already signed an IFPI contract will continue to operate. Ifpi Switzerland is looking for a solution with the others, but if no agreement is reached, they will be sued, says Ifpi Managing Director Peter Vosseler.