The Biel-based publishing house Gassmann is also feeling the effects of the decline in the advertising market and is cutting 6.4 jobs. The media company is preparing for a very difficult year ahead, Gassmann announced on Monday in the Journal du Jura, which it publishes. In addition to redundancies, people will also be sent into early retirement or positions that become vacant will not be filled. Almost all areas of the company are affected by the cost-cutting measures.

Cablecom has been allowed to remove the private broadcaster U1 TV from its analog cable network. The Federal Administrative Court confirmed the decision made by Bakom at the end of December 2007, stating that the private broadcaster with its program consisting largely of quiz, talk and erotic shows was not entitled to broadcasting as it made no particular contribution to the constitutional mandate, reported the SDA.
The constitutional mandate consists of the dissemination of information on political, economic and social contexts as well as contributions to the development of cultural life. Individual programs of the broadcaster, such as session reporting, were in principle suitable for fulfilling this mandate. However, the judges in Bern ruled that the program as a whole did not meet the requirement. Cablecom had also not discriminated against U1 TV, as the channel had the lowest viewing figures. The channel will continue to be broadcast on Cablecom's digital network. Cablecom needs the space in the analog network for high-definition television, the judges added.
U1 TV had already been taken off the analog network at the beginning of the year after the Federal Administrative Court refused to order precautionary measures. As U1 TV announced last February, 20 people had to leave the station as a result of the shutdown. Ten people were placed with Schweizer Sportfernsehen (SSF). The other ten people were made redundant at the end of April 2008. Psychic Mike Shiva was not among them. The decision of the Federal Administrative Court can still be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.

An illegal advertising campaign with transport trailers next to the highway is costing the operators of an Internet portal dearly. Since spring 2005, the managing director of a company in Wiler had had transport trailers set up at various locations in the canton of St. Gallen in the immediate vicinity of freeways and roads. They bore the address of the Internet portal he operated in large letters. The St. Gallen judiciary sentenced him to a fine of 5,000 Swiss francs for repeatedly displaying street advertising in contravention of the regulations.
The Federal Supreme Court has now dismissed his appeal. He had argued unsuccessfully that other advertising campaigns should also be affected by the ban, such as the "M" from McDonalds or the meadow advertising tolerated by the authorities, writes SDA on Monday. In addition, he had rented the trailers in question to third parties and was therefore not responsible for where they were placed.
According to the Federal Supreme Court, however, it is clear that the majority of the trailers were not redeemed and were set up for advertising purposes. The agreement with the tenants
was irrelevant under criminal law. With his actions, he had deliberately wanted to circumvent the law and simply used trailers instead of the usual partition walls.

Zurich-based advertising agency Codama has created a new website for New Sound Studio. This is intended to convey the "quaint vintage character" of the mixing desk as well as the studio's premises, writes the agency in a press release on Monday. The main focus is on raw, authentic-looking studio photographs, which were set up full-screen as the background of the individual pages. The text boxes with information about the studio offer disappear as soon as the cursor enters the menu area, leaving the view of the studio interior free. Thus, despite current Flash technology, the website does not give the impression of a state-of-the-art sound lab.
The New Sound Studio, which has been producing rock and metal music since the 1980s, is anything but new, contrary to its name. The new acquisition that prompted studio owner and producer Tommy Vetterli to revamp the studio's logo and website is not new either: The analog console is already 30 years old and corresponds to the new trend back to unadulterated, warm sound quality through analog recording technology.

Responsible at New Sound Studio: Tommy Vetterli (studio owner and producer). Responsible at Codama: Christoph Dubach and Marc Rinderknecht (design and programming), Benny Goldstein (logo design / CI), Oliver Nanzig (photography), Nina Treml (text),

Following a major agency evaluation, Helveting has commissioned the BSSM advertising agency for a comprehensive relaunch of its corporate design. The engineering company with headquarters in Hünenberg and offices in Neuenhof and Taverne has core competencies in product development and project management as well as in mechanical, electrical and software engineering. The company employs around 45 people.

Ringier is discontinuing the free daily newspaper 24 Hodin ("24 Hours") in Prague. The paper will be published for the last time on December 19, as the Swiss media company announced on Monday. The closure is being made for economic reasons. Ringier, like other companies, had to take precautionary measures in order to face up to the economic crisis.
24 Hodin was launched on November 28, 2005 and reaches around 200,000 readers, according to SDA. The paper is in direct competition with the free newspaper Metro from the Swedish Modern Times Group. Ringier continues to be present in the Czech Republic with the Blick edition Blesk, a daily sports newspaper and various weekly magazines.

The Bern-based Internet agency New Impact has been commissioned by Haag Streit to completely overhaul its online presence and the associated websites of its more than 20 subsidiaries. The new website will focus on the relationship with customers, directly addressing key target groups and clearly differentiating itself from the websites of related companies, the internet communications agency wrote in a press release on Monday.
The internationally active company Haag Streit is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. The long-established company from Köniz specializes in the production of precision instruments for ophthalmologists, optometrists and opticians.

ProSieben broadcasts Radio Energy Züri's annual free concert, "Energy Stars For Free", live for the first time. On November 28, Leona Lewis, Gabriella Cilmi, Tiziano Ferro, Laura Pausini and Anastacia, among others, will perform in front of around 13,000 concertgoers in the Hallenstadion. The two-hour television broadcast will be hosted by Viola Tami. Between Christmas and New Year, ProSieben will also show the highlights of this year's edition in a two-hour recording.

The advertising agency Walker is entering politics. As the first Swiss agency in the top 50 of the world's most creative agencies, Walker now has a political consultancy assignment for the first time. Amnesty International, Bernina and the Kein & Aber publishing house have now been joined by the SP as clients of the advertising agency. The Social Democrats are planning a new, uniform and professional image after last year's elections. That is why the SP has now engaged the firm of Pius Walker, advertising man of the year, according to its General Secretary Thomas Christen in an interview with Sonntag. Walker's collaboration with President Levrat and his team is scheduled to last until after the 2011 National Council and Council of States elections.
Walker is ranked 39th in the Gunn Index. With the poster series "It's not happening here, but now" for Amnesty International, the agency won a number of awards, including the 2008 Golden Cup for best publication for the Fleurop annual report. The agency has not yet advised any political parties, says Pius Walker in an interview with Sonntag. What particularly appeals to him about this assignment is the great creative potential.

The SRG's Central Switzerland section has awarded the 2008 Media Prize to a woman for the first time: The Lucerne author, satirist and journalist Gisela Widmer. The award ceremony took place on Saturday at the Grand Casino Lucerne. Laudator Fritz Zaugg, Head of Radio Drama at Swiss Radio DRS, praised Widmer as an independent and eloquent voice, a virtuoso between seriousness and entertainment. Zaugg outlined the 50-year-old's work with audio documents from 25 years of her career. The prize is awarded every five years and is endowed with 8,000 francs.

A campaign image from Switzerland Tourism has won over Germany's advertising experts. At the OBS Awards in Germany, the subject was awarded the prize for best PR image in the Events and Campaigns category. It shows a Swiss ski instructor with a naked upper body in the middle of the mountain world of the Allalin Glacier at an altitude of 3,500 meters above Saas-Fee (VS). Switzerland Tourism used the picture by photographer Claude Stahel for its 2007/2008 winter campaign.
Swiss ski and snowboard schools and their ski instructors were the focus of the Switzerland Tourism winter campaign 2007/2008 to mark their 75th anniversary. Various media - including Bild, Spiegel and Welt - spontaneously picked up on the Switzerland Tourism campaign, according to ST in a press release. The bare-chested ski instructor was the subject of discussion and images in various other European media.
The award ceremony of the OBS industry competition of advertising experts Germany took place on November 11, 2008 in Munich. Over 1500 German and foreign companies submitted their campaigns to the OBS Awards. The best campaign images of the year were selected by an independent jury of experts and a public vote by journalists, press officers and advertising professionals.

Walker was the first Swiss advertising agency to be included in the Gunn Report's Top 50 Club. The circle was founded by the French advertising man Jacques Séguéla and the British Donald Gunn and consists of the 50 most creative advertising agencies worldwide. The results of the most important international creative competitions are used as a benchmark for creative performance. Donald Gunn personally congratulated the advertising agency from Zurich's Niederdorf district by e-mail, writes Walker in a press release.