Since the beginning of this week, up to 13 SRG radio stations can also be received in digital quality in the canton of Graubünden. DRS 1, DRS 2, DRS 3, DRS 4 News, DRS Musikwelle, DRS Virus, La Première, Rete Uno, Radio Rumantsch, Radio Swiss Classic, Radio Swiss Jazz, Radio Swiss Pop and World Radio Switzerland (WRS) are broadcast in the DAB+ standard. In the Italian-speaking part of the canton, the Ticino program range is broadcast: Rete Uno, Rete Due, Rete Tre, DRS Musikwelle, World Radio Switzerland, Option Musique, Radio Rumantsch, Radio Swiss Classic, Radio Swiss Jazz and Radio Swiss Pop.
DAB+ is a further development of the DAB standard. This makes it possible to transmit programs on the same frequency in even better quality, the SRG announced. Receivers are available from as little as CHF 100.

The Zurich-based agency GGK has created an anniversary logo and a campaign featuring print ads and a TV commercial to mark the Swiss Red Cross’s 25th anniversary. The campaign aims to show how the Red Cross emergency hotline helps everyone involved enjoy a safer and more carefree daily life. However, the goal is to raise awareness of this comprehensive service and the security it provides not only among older, sick, or disabled people, but also among their children, grandchildren, caregivers, and support staff. The campaign will be featured in October.
» Watch the commercial
Responsible at the Swiss Red Cross: Judith Arpagaus and Mario Wüthrich.
Responsible at GGK: Hermann Strittmatter (Project Manager), Bruno Züttel (Art Director), Simon Günthard (Consultant). Film Production: Allmedia Productions, Urs Wäckerli. Cinematography: Filip Zumbrunn.

The Lausanne newspaper 24 heures is scrapping its four different regional sections and reverting to its previous layout with just one regional section covering the entire canton of Vaud. The split regional reporting had not been crowned with the expected success, 24 heures editor-in-chief Thierry Meyer told SDA on Friday, explaining the changes to his daily newspaper. Readers expect information on the entire canton and not regionally fragmented news.
In addition, 24 heures and the Tribune de Genève have each launched a new Saturday extra with cultural and leisure topics at the same time. 24 heures offers the additional services in an extra bundle, while the Tribune is expanding the Saturday bundle and wants to "make Saturdays more dynamic", as the paper writes. In addition to other reports, the "Genève Rue" section is also being introduced, in which the people of Geneva are told short stories about their streets.
The changes at the two newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland follow those at Le Matin. All three papers belong to the Edipresse media house. In August, Edipresse announced the elimination of 50 jobs. It intends to save CHF 20 million in 2009 and 2010.

In an interview with the Sonntag newspaper, SF director Ingrid Deltenre said that if Swiss television does not get more money, the staff reduction scenario will sooner or later become reality. "The calculation is very simple," said Deltenre on the financial and personnel situation, "if we do without programs, we need fewer staff." Further expansion of the program is currently not an issue. "We need to focus our resources more than ever."
The reason for this outlook is the fact that SF will be in the red in 2008.
SF budgeted a loss of CHF 3 million for 2008, but this could probably be reduced to CHF 2 million through cost-cutting measures, as Deltenre said. Deltenre described SF's ability to raise funds as unsatisfactory, with clear criticism of Bakom.
According to Deltenre, Swiss television has never been able to benefit in real terms from fee increases since 2000, and there has never been an inflation adjustment. In addition, the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom) has formulated new advertising and sponsorship guidelines which, contrary to the international trend, are much more restrictive, and SF cannot commercialize the Internet sector.
Changing media use influences television
When asked whether SF will look much different in five years than it does today, Deltenre said: "Media usage will change drastically once again. The on-demand share will increase. Set-top boxes will be integrated into TVs and TV sets will be easier to operate." Overall, many of the functionalities that are currently available via the Internet will be transferred to television use.
Deltenre said she did not know whether she would still be in office in another five years after almost five years as Director of Swiss Television, probably not. "I've been in office for almost five years now and I wonder whether it wouldn't be in the interests of the company if there was a change at some point." But nothing is planned. "It will take another two years or so to see if everything really works." Then she can confidently say that everything is well on track.
(Photo: Keystone)

Markus Kaufmann, Member of the Executive Board and Partner at CR Kommunikation, is leaving the 29-strong agency at the end of November. Kaufmann joined CR Kommunikation in 2005 as a senior consultant. He looked after clients in the IT/telecom, retail, energy and public administration sectors. According to a press release on Friday, he is leaving the company to take on a new challenge.
Before joining CR Kommunikation, Kaufmann worked as a PR editor and Head of Marketing Communications in the travel and sporting goods industry. From 1998 to 2005, the sociology graduate held the position of Head of Corporate Communications at Netcetera.

The financial crisis has left its mark even on companies that were recently considered to be in excellent health. Internet giant Google is now also reporting problems. As the commuter newspaper News reports in its Friday edition, the company has lost almost 20 percent of its value in the last week alone. A year ago, the share value was still over 700 dollars; now it has fallen to 338 dollars.
The new sales strategy of Google subsidiary YouTube may soon bring in new funding. As was announced on Thursday, music tracks can be purchased there in future. A button will now be displayed next to the music videos, which can be used to directly purchase the respective song as an MP3 in collaboration with Amazon and Apple.

From the beginning of next year, the street magazine Surprise will have to withdraw from Swiss railroad stations. SBB will no longer grant the vendors a license. The monthly magazine fears major financial losses as a result.
Every fourth magazine is sold in train stations, Surprise stated in a press release on Friday. The magazine has relied on its presence in major railroad stations since it was founded eleven years ago. Surprise sees itself as an integration project for socially disadvantaged people. Around 70 percent of the 300 or so regular sellers are on social welfare. Half of the sales price goes to the sellers.
The decision is a "catastrophe" for sales staff. These people, who have little chance of finding a job in public transport, feel closely connected to the stations. A relocation would be "very difficult from a human point of view".
According to Surprise, the fact that SBB justifies the decision with its "Customer-friendly stations" project implies that the street magazine is detrimental to the appearance of the stations. However, the rising readership figures contradict this. In addition, the magazine has become a permanent fixture in the concourses of Basel, Bern and Zurich railroad stations.
In a communiqué on Friday, SBB confirmed that it had terminated all promotional contracts at the end of the year. Customers had complained about the sales and distribution campaigns in the stations. However, talks with the organizations concerned have not yet been concluded. Surprise, however, replied that SBB had not responded to any attempts at talks. The magazine is published in German-speaking Switzerland with a circulation of 30,000 copies and reaches 123,000 readers.

The Swiss Association for Continuing Education SVEB is holding its first conference on the latest trends in online marketing on October 28. With practical information, it is aimed at members of management, marketing and IT managers of educational institutions.
At the conference for education providers, Urs Hammer from SVEB will present the possibilities of continuing education portals, while Admazing CEO Simon M.D. Morton will discuss a sample plan for an educational institute.
In other presentations, Federas Managing Director Stefan Kuchelmeister will talk about student, parent and teacher portals and Daniel Herzog from Lernwerkstatt Olten will provide tips for successful newsletters.

Writer Kurt Tucholsky's theory that satire should be allowed to do anything does not have many supporters after Titanic's latest campaign in Turkey. The magazine's announced competition to see who most resembles the Islamic prophet Mohammed is currently causing outrage.
The competition is to take place as part of the Frankfurt Book Fair, whose guest country is Turkey. Titanic has even invited Turkish President Abdullah Gül to take part in the current issue.
Titanic magazine repeatedly pushes the boundaries of satire to such an extent that outrage and legal disputes are inevitable. Thirty issues have been banned so far.
The magazine has made headlines in various media countless times. In May, after the Friztl incest drama in Amstetten, Austria, they ran the headline: "The terrible face of incest: The Keller family. Soon on a big tour of Austria". Eight years ago, a deliberately amateurish attempt to bribe the venue for the 2006 World Cup led to an appeal in the Bild newspaper for readers to express their outrage via a telephone number of the Titanic editorial team. The satirical magazine then used the ensuing telephone insults as "traitors to the fatherland" and "polluters" for a real-life satire on CD.

The annual Herzberg Conference organized by the Association for Quality in Journalism is dedicated to traumatic experiences this year. Under the title "Reporting on suffering - suffering after the report: When journalists have traumatic experiences", Gregor Sonderegger (SF, terrorist attack in Beslan), Oswald Iten (NZZ, prison in Indonesia), Christoph Feurstein (ORF, execution of Billy Jones) and others will report on how they deal with terrible experiences. The conference, which is taking place for the 10th time this year, will be held on November 4 in the sports studio of Swiss television. The registration deadline is October 31.

In Graubünden, London cab drivers are currently being trained as tourist ambassadors. Back home, they will be able to promote vacations in the various tourist regions of the mountain canton to their passengers and provide information about them, as the umbrella organization Graubünden Ferien announced on Friday.
Ten such "ambassadors" will be driving through the streets of London with Graubünden motifs from the week after next. The motifs can be seen on a further 60 cabs for 8 weeks.
The campaign is part of a Graubünden advertising offensive in the UK, the total cost of which amounts to over one million francs.