The Facebook web platform, now the largest social community on the Internet, could soon be doomed by its success: The maintenance costs are exorbitant. As 20 Minuten Online writes on Tuesday, the company is now considering whether users should pay fees in future.
Every day, over 200,000 new users worldwide register on Facebook. The maintenance of server farms, rents and personnel costs are high. According to estimates, Facebook pays over one million dollars a month for electricity alone. In view of the enormous maintenance costs, it is obvious that the operators are thinking about marketing the social community.
In the fall of 2007, Facebook sold 1.6 percent of its shares to Microsoft for 240 million dollars. A further 235 million dollars were poured into its coffers in a financing round this spring. However, various experts are now convinced that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's resources are slowly but surely coming to an end. Speculation was given an additional boost when Facebook CFO Gideon Yu was recently spotted in Dubai. For industry insiders, it is obvious that Facebook is looking for solvent investors.
Specialist blogs are currently speculating on how Facebook could monetize its idea. There is talk of a fee model. Users could be divided into a kind of two-tier system. They would have the choice between a limited free account and a paid premium account, with which the entire Facebook offering would be accessible. Another option would be to sell on user data to third parties. However, this business model is unlikely to pay off in the long term. Members would withdraw from Facebook within a very short time, too much intimate information would be at risk.
At a conference in early November, Zuckerberg explained that growth remains Facebook's primary goal despite the ongoing financial market crisis. He made no mention of dwindling financial resources. And when asked whether his platform needed new money, the 24-year-old answered with a simple "no".

The end of the big German late-night show: Harald Schmidt and Oliver Pocher will end their joint show on ARD in April. The whole thing was a temporary experiment from the outset, producer Fred Kogel told Der Spiegel. "It was good for both of them. But now it's time to go their separate ways," Kogel announced. "Schmidt is not fulfilling his potential as a duo."
The show "Schmidt and Pocher" was launched at the end of October 2007. Kogel told "Der Spiegel" about Schmidt's plans for the future: "We have very clear ideas about where we want to go." In an election year, "people want to see Schmidt at a level that nobody else on German television can deliver". The aim is to "raise the comedy bar again in terms of sophistication and intellect, comparable to the US political comedian Jon Stewart - but Harald Schmidt."
According to a report in the newspaper Bild am Sonntag, Pocher will soon have his own personality show on RTL. He is to be developed as the new face of the Cologne-based broadcaster.
Pocher recently told Bunten that he really wanted to do the show with Schmidt for two years to show that it wasn't a quick fix: "Now I have no pressure. I know that I'll be back with a show next fall," said Pocher. It is important to him that this show can be seen regularly.

With the three-year term of office coming to an end this year, the SRG Audience Council is undergoing a generational change. Due to term limits, no fewer than 7 of the 25 members will be leaving the Council at the end of the year. This is also associated with a significant rejuvenation of the Board.
The resignations particularly affect the Executive Committee, in which five members were replaced. President Othmar Kempf is handing over his office to former Vice President Manfred Pfiffner at the end of the year. Along with Kempf, Rita Leuenberger (Oberwil/BL), Schimun Lemm (Davos), Kathrin Matter (Zofingen) and Hanspeter Stalder (Berikon) are also leaving the committee. Bernadette Lehmann (Wünnewil) and Odile Schuler (Fiesch) will also be leaving the German-speaking committee at the end of the year.
The new composition of the Executive Committee, whose members each lead a working group (WG), is as follows:
Manfred Pfiffner, St. Gallen: President
Franz-Xaver Risi, Lachen: Vice President, Head of AG SF Information
Roberto Colonnello, Rheinfelden: Head of AG Radio DRS 3/Youth
Amira Hafner-Al Jabaji, Grenchen: Head of AG SF Kultur/3sat
Susanne Hasler, Villnachern: Head of AG SF Entertainment
Arthur Oehler, Heiden: Head of AG Radio DRS 1/DRS 2
Simon Zogg, Zurich: Head of AG Sport and AG Multimedia and Education

Surfing the Internet can also serve scientific purposes. And even biological ones: The English scientist Julian Bayliss, an employee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, has used Google Earth to discover a 7,000-hectare area in which countless previously unknown animal and plant species live. As reported by the Telegraph newspaper and the Newsnet, Bayliss used Google Earth to search the entire world for forest regions above 1500 meters. He found what he was looking for in northern Mozambique: Mount Mabu, a place previously unknown to science, lies in impassable terrain - wars had previously made access impossible. Until three years ago, only locals knew about this region.
In the fall of this year, Bayliss set off on an expedition. In the forest of Mount Mabu, the group led by Bayliss and expedition leader Jonathan Timberlake found hundreds of different plant and animal species. These included three new butterflies, a plant and a previously unknown species of snake. The scientists suspect that hundreds of species are still awaiting discovery in the area.
"Such discoveries are not only indispensable for science, but also provide an invaluable service to species conservation in times of deforestation and grazing land reclamation," Timberlake told the Wildlifextra.com portal. The two scientists are certain that more green islands will be discovered via Google Earth in the near future.

From 2009, Zollikofer AG in St. Gallen will be the new publishing partner of Aero Revue. After many years of cooperation, the publisher of the aviation trade journal, the Aero-Club of Switzerland, has decided not to renew the publishing contract with Vogt-Schild Medien in Solothurn, which expired at the end of 2008, for strategic reasons.
Over the past 14 years, the Aero Club of Switzerland has maintained an intensive publishing partnership with Vogt-Schild Medien. In addition to the continuous qualitative and quantitative development of Aero Revue, the position in the reader and advertiser market is now to be further expanded over the next few months in collaboration with the new contractual partner from Eastern Switzerland. Two years ago, the aviation title celebrated its 100th anniversary with - according to its own figures - around 50,000 readers.

Bernd Kundrun, head of the German publishing house Gruner+Jahr, has surprisingly resigned his
Board of Directors mandate at parent company Bertelsmann resigned. Bernd Kundrun has surprisingly left the management of the parent company Bertelsmann. As the Group announced in the middle of last week, Kundrun has resigned from his position with immediate effect.
However, the manager will remain the head of Europe's largest magazine publisher. He did not wish to comment on the background to Kundrun's move. According to the news magazine Focus, the manager justified his voluntary departure internally with conflicts of interest. The background to this was a power struggle with the Gütersloh-based parent company and its CEO Hartmut Ostrowski, the magazine reported in its online edition.
In recent weeks, Kundrun had urged Ostrowski in vain not to pass on Gruner+Jahr's profits to Bertelsmann as before in view of the industry crisis, but to use them for his own investments. Kundrun's aim had also been to make jobs at Gruner+Jahr more secure. Following a massive decline in advertising revenue, the publishing house is dissolving the editorial teams of its business magazines Capital, Impulse and Börse Online.

Over 7,000 Bernese have already signed the petition to preserve the daily newspaper Der Bund. In addition, a number of politicians from the left to the right, as well as the Bernese government, are campaigning against a monopoly newspaper in the capital.
Online comments and letters to the editor make it clear that the Swiss Confederation is part of everyday life for many people. Mark Balsiger, owner of a Bernese communications agency and initiator of the "Save the Swiss Confederation" campaign, explains to the Basler Zeitung that it takes several generations for such an "emotional bond" to develop. The Confederation has a tradition stretching back almost 160 years. In addition to Balsiger, SP Councillor of States Simonetta Sommaruga and BDP Councillor of States Werner Luginbühl, media science professor Roger Blum, Züri-West singer Kuno Lauener and various well-known business representatives are also committed to preserving the daily newspaper, which formerly belonged to the NZZ.
However, it is questionable whether the rescue operation will become more than a sympathetic protest movement, writes the Basler Zeitung in its Monday edition. Tamedia spokesman Christopher Wehrli does say that the great esteem in which the Bund is held makes the publisher responsible. However, no other option than the two presented is under discussion. What's more, Tamedia is known for its ruthless decisions and the economic pressure is undisputed. With its 65,000 subscribers, the Bund has been accumulating losses for years.
Nevertheless, the "Save the Bund" committee will examine further steps over the holidays, in particular whether a "third option" will be worked out. Mark Balsiger believes that Tamedia must fear losing many Bund subscribers, especially in the event of a merger with the Berner Zeitung. Although the latter is appreciated in the countryside because it reports more broadly on rural regions, many Bund readers find it too tabloid-like.

In response to falling advertising revenues and growing competition from free online media, the two renowned US newspapers Washington Post and Baltimore Sun are looking for synergies. They want to work more closely together in future.
The two papers, whose editorial offices are 65 kilometers apart, announced last week that they would share the local and sports news as well as the photo service in future. The Baltimore Sun belongs to the ailing Tribune media group, one of the largest newspaper publishers in the USA. It filed for bankruptcy protection at the beginning of December.

The question that should concern us today is the following: What are all the other nations actually doing while we celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve here in Christian Europe? What are the North Korean people doing, for example, and how is Kim Jong-il actually doing? If you believe the North Korean state media, the head of state is in excellent health - contrary to the intelligence information that reaches us from the south of the Korean peninsula. On Sunday, it was reported that the president had attended a concert by the state symphony orchestra. The audience cheered when the 66-year-old appeared at the concert. The orchestra had played patriotic works such as "Blue Sky Over My Country". Shortly before this, the state news agency had already reported on a visit by the head of state to the country's armed forces. However, there was no mention of when the visits took place. Kim has been absent from the scene for months and is said to have suffered a stroke in August. At the beginning of September, he did not attend the celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of North Korea, and at the end of October he was absent from the funeral of a high-ranking party friend. According to information from the South Korean secret service NIS, the dictator, who has a heart condition and suffers from diabetes, is said to have suffered a stroke or brain haemorrhage this year.North Korea continues to dismiss the speculation about the 66-year-old's state of health as propaganda. It repeatedly publishes reports and recordings that are supposed to prove the well-being of the communist ruler. However, Western experts doubt that the recordings are really up to date. Pyongyang is even stricter than Bern when it comes to awarding radio and television licenses to independent broadcasters.

Swiss television's debate show has regained ground since its revamp. Over the year as a whole, "Arena" has gained three percent market share compared to the previous year. The average figure is now an impressive 27 percent. Since the relaunch in August, the show has even achieved a market share of 29%.
"We obviously had the right topics, the right participants - and a presenter who didn't waste this good starting position," presenter Reto Brennwald told Sonntag newspaper. Since the redesign, there are usually only three protagonists in the inner ring of the "Arena". As a result, the guests have to argue more, Brennwald continued. "It's no longer enough for them to simply recite their statements." This has led to exciting debates.

Radio Chablais, based in Monthey, is celebrating a major anniversary in 2009. The radio station has been in existence for a quarter of a century. The broadcasting area extends from Monthey via Chateaux-d'Œx to Aigle, reaching around 120,000 people.

With the aim of identifying similarities and differences, the SRG Audience Council carried out a comparative observation between "Tagesschau" in German-speaking Switzerland (SF), "Le Journal" in French-speaking Switzerland (TSR) and "Il Telegiornale" in Ticino (TSI). He found differences primarily in the way they were presented.
As the Council announced on Monday, a working group spent a week observing and comparing the information programs in each of the three language regions according to a common set of criteria. The result: all three daily news programs have an information concept in common, which is correctly based on a classic understanding of news and focuses on the areas of politics and business. Cultural topics and sporting events tend to have a complementary character on all three channels.
In the opinion of the Audience Council, a good to very good information service is offered in all language regions, providing viewers with up-to-date, competent and comprehensible information on the important events of the day. SF and TSR use their greater financial resources to offer viewers visible added value through the greater use of correspondents and more graphics. In general, in the view of the Audience Council, reporting is rightly based on journalistic criteria such as topicality, relevance and information content.
The three Swiss channels present themselves very differently in terms of moderation. While the Romands and the Ticinesi maintain a classic form - the presenter presents sitting down - SF presents standing up, which, according to the Council, brings more liveliness and creates a more relaxed atmosphere overall.
The Audience Council was particularly impressed by the commitment of the correspondents at SF and TSR. In interviews with the studio presenters and in their commentary, they help to put events into context and make them understandable. In this respect, the two channels are also judged to be exemplary in comparison with foreign broadcasters.