Matthias Luchsinger, Managing Director of Condor Films, has left the company by mutual agreement. Kristian Widmer is taking over his role on the management board. Management board member Björn Hehring is also stepping down from his position. However, he is not leaving the company, as Widmer emphasizes, but will work exclusively for Faro TV as Director of Development and Sales as part of a restructuring process.
Following significant sales growth at the Condor Films Group this year, the cost management targets have not been met, according to a press release issued on Friday. The Condor Films Group will now integrate its subsidiary Faro TV and merge the management in order to create greater synergies between the individual production branches. Condor Pictures will be taken over by Tom Talent Holding. The various measures are intended to optimize the administrative expenses of the Condor divisions, the Zurich-based company added.
Faro TV produces programs such as "Move in", "Joya rennt", "Bauer ledig sucht" and parts of the SF Saturday evening show "Happy Day".

The weather pages of news portals are regularly among the winners in terms of the number of hits. Amnesty International has taken advantage of this fact and is launching a web campaign developed by the Walker advertising agency on the Meteo pages from next week.
From mid-November, users of the weather pages discover the typical "live" images of various ski regions. The idyllic panoramic shots of the Riederalp are abruptly interrupted in the middle of the camera ride by video sequences of an acute human rights violation in Indonesia. The well-known sentence: "It's not happening here. But now." breaks up the disturbing online campaign. A link takes the user to the Amnesty International website and informs them of their options for stopping these intolerable situations, as the agency writes in a press release on Friday.
The idea for the campaign came from Martin Arnold and Nik Hodel, the winners of last year's ADC Young Creatives Award. The two creatives were supported in the production by Condor Films.
Responsible at Amnesty International: Paul Tschurtschenthaler. Responsible at Walker: Nik Hodel (AD), Martin Arnold (text), Patricia Meneghin, Adrian Fluri (consulting), Severin Kipfer (director & editor), Florian Studer (producer), Hendrik Wilhelms (sound design/mixing).

Intersnack has expanded its range of potato chips and developed new packaging as part of a comprehensive relaunch. The Zurich agency Allink.creative designed the new appearance with illustrative elements, variety names and Chio red as the basic color. Four colors are used to indicate the different flavors.
Chio wants to strengthen its market position with the new wasabi flavor and clearly signal the varieties with the new design. The four chip varieties are now on the shelves with a new look. A classic advertising campaign will support the relaunch from calendar week 47.
Responsible at Intersnack Switzerland: Manfred Blatter (Marketing Director). Responsible at Allink.creative: Christoph Schlatter (creative direction/graphics), Manuel Hofer (graphics), David Zangger (image processing), Dieter Wahl (photography). Lithos and technical editing: StreuliCreations.

The three winners of the first Swiss Computer Science Challenges Award were chosen on Thursday as part of the traditional Innovation Day at the Lausanne Polytechnic School (EPFL). The competition was organized by Empa's Technology and Society department. In addition to the award ceremony, the EPFL Innovation Prize was presented at the closing event in the presence of Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard.
First prize in the research competition went to Katharina Reinecke from the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Zurich for her project on the development of culturally adaptable software. In addition, two scientific research scenarios were honored that deal with intelligent computer-based translation systems and with previously unattainable performance increases in IT systems through parallel programming models and system architecture.
A 14-member jury from the field of computer science research, headed by Prof. Lorenz Hilty, selected the winners from 57 proposals. The prize money totaling 30,000 Swiss francs was provided by the Hasler Foundation.

The Zurich agency KSB/SJ has launched two poster subjects for Coop's Pro Montagna label. The focus is on Swiss mountain farmers making statements about their products with the Coop Pro Montagna label. The posters are intended to show that each of the products comes from Swiss mountain regions and has been processed directly on the farmers' farms.
The two opening motifs will appear throughout Switzerland in the Sunday and daily press and in selected magazines. Further motifs will follow on an ongoing basis, the agency said in a press release.
Responsible at Coop: Jürg Peritz (Head of Marketing/Procurement), Lydie Goltdammer (Head of Advertising Realization), Andrea Nägelin (Project Manager). Responsible at KSB/SJ: Flo Wacker (Creative Direction), Adrian Hoenicke (Text), Tino Heuter (Art Direction), Katja Kurzweck (Graphics), Dany Kielholz (Consulting), Nathalie Pasternak (Consulting), Nadia Bachmann, Adriana Stepanov (DTP), Noe Flum Photography (Photo). Image processing: Süsstrunk + Jericke GmbH. Litho: Sturm AG. Media: Coop Media and Initiative Media Western AG.

The Zurich radio station Energy has launched a petition, "Energy4ever", calling for a fourth FM frequency for the Zurich-Glarus region. The SP is also campaigning for the preservation of Energy with a postulate in the Zurich Cantonal Council. This was declared urgent by a large majority and referred to the cantonal government.
The fact that Energy was not considered in the awarding of the concession has also caused displeasure among the radio station's listeners, customers and partners, as the station announced in a press release on Friday. A fourth frequency is possible if the political will is there. Otherwise, the radio station will remain on air until the end of 2009 due to the effect of the appeal against the licensing decision.

For three days, a real American police car with a perforated body was driven through Zurich city center. The Publisuisse Group agency Fast Track initiated this campaign for the TV station 3+ to draw attention to the station's crime series. A driver dressed as a policeman drove the rolling advertisement through the city.
The 3+ channel's crime series range from CSI, Criminal Intent and Navy CIS to Crossing Jordan, Bones and Monk.
Responsible at 3+: Dominik Kaiser (overall responsibility, Cindy Muff (Head of Communications. Responsible at Fast Track: Florian Beck (CD), Denis Schwarz (AD), Thomas Berger (AD), Raphael Monsch (AD), Felix Freese (text), Dominique Ospel (consulting), Gloor Maler und Werbetechnik (printing), Neufeld Special Cars.

The former Quer and Happy Day presenter Röbi Koller will host the program Der Club on Swiss television from next year. He will take over from Matthias Aebischer, who will be working for the Tagesschau again in future. Röbi Koller will take up his new role on February 1, 2009.
Röbi Koller's career began at Radio 24, took him to DRS3 and then to Swiss television. At SF1, he hosted the program Quer, among others. Four years ago, he took over the moderation of Züri Littéraire, a panel discussion on literature. He has also been writing for the Beobachter for around six years and conducts interviews on the DRS1 program Persönlich. Last year, he returned to Swiss television with Happy Day and Zart oder Bart.

Once again this year, the jury of The Cup judged works from the ADC Europe, Goldendrum, FIAP Iberio-American and Adfest Asia Pacific competitions. The judges nominated a total of 173 entries in 38 categories. The Walker advertising agency was nominated in three categories for its work. It received the Golden Cup 2008 for the best publication for the Fleurop annual report.
The Cup judges nominated 10 of the agency's works. These included the online campaign Ebay-Attack, the films Channel Hop and Cattlemarket and the weather camera for Amnesty International.

The Munich-based Tay-TV platform Premiere recorded a loss of 89 million euros in the third quarter of 2008. Rupert Murdoch's group, which holds a 25 percent stake in the broadcaster, wants to make German pay-TV a success with Premiere Group CEO Mark Williams.
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the attempt is now seen as the last chance. A planned purchase of the live rights for the German Soccer League, which Premiere wants to acquire, will play an important role in this. Williams is also planning to change the sales model with longer-term subscriptions for new customers, a reduction in the variety of tariffs and a reduction in costs. However, he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that no redundancies are planned.

Daniel Reist is the new Head of Army Communications. The previous Head of Communications, Jean-Luc Piller, was appointed to the Army Control Division by Corps Commander Dominique Andrey at the beginning of December.
The 50-year-old Reist was previously head of information and deputy head of communications for the army. He will perform the new function ad interim until the position is filled, as announced by the DDPS on Friday.

British telecoms giant BT is cutting 10,000 of its 160,000 jobs despite increased profits. As the company announced on Thursday, almost half of the cuts have already been implemented. The cuts will affect 4,000 permanent employees, most of them in the UK. The rest are temporary workers, consultants and suppliers.
The cutbacks at BT come as a surprise, as the group was able to significantly increase its profits in the second quarter. BT earned 400 million pounds (726 million Swiss francs), 18 percent more than in the same period last year. Turnover rose by 4.1 percent to 5.3 billion pounds (9.6 billion Swiss francs).
According to BT CEO Ian Livingston, cost reductions are necessary. While the Group is generating good figures in the wholesale and retail business in the UK, the international division BT Global Services has fallen short of expectations. The news of job cuts at BT adds to the gloomy mood in the UK. The unemployment rate stands at 5.8 percent. This is the highest figure for eleven years. The number of unemployed is approaching the two million mark.
Numerous other companies have announced job cuts in recent days. As reported by SDA, the media group Virgin plans to cut around 2200 jobs by 2012. The telecoms service provider Yell is cutting around 1300 jobs by March 2010.