The 37-year-old Frenchman Olivier Père is to become the new Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival. This was decided by the Board of Directors of the Locarno International Film Festival at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday. Père, currently director of the "Quinzaine des réalisateurs" in Cannes, will take up the post after next year's festival. He replaces Frédéric Maire, who will take over as director of the Cinémathèque suisse on November 1, 2009.
Olivier Père was born in Marseille in 1971 and is a French citizen. He studied humanities at the Sorbonne University in Paris. After moving to the Cinémathèque française in 1995, he soon became programme manager and organized numerous tributes and thematic cycles. From 1997, he worked for the cultural magazine "Les Inrockuptibles", for which he regularly writes about cinema, television and DVD. Since 2004, Olivier Père has been director of the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, the independent program section of the Cannes Festival.
"My role as Artistic Director of the Locarno Festival will allow me to dedicate myself to the discovery and promotion of young international auteur films," commented Père on his choice in a festival communiqué. "It will also give me the opportunity to express my admiration for the work of the most important auteurs in film history."
Olivier Père will take up his position on September 1, 2009.
(Image: Festival President Marco Solari presents his new employee to the media on Thursday, Keystone)

According to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), the global newspaper market is on the upswing. Newspaper sales will increase from 186.2 billion dollars to 207.8 billion dollars by 2012, according to WAN President Gavin O'Reilly at the Congress of German Newspaper Publishers in Berlin. "The image of an industry in crisis is misleading," O'Reilly is quoted as saying in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. However, free newspapers could prove to be a threat. In Europe, 23 percent of newspapers are already free. Publishers should take this just as seriously as the Internet or mobile communication.
O'Reilly is convinced that the Internet offers opportunities for newspaper brands in particular, as can be read in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. On the one hand, online users consider print advertising to be twice as credible as internet ads, and on the other hand, the combination with online presence would bring newspaper publishers a 100 percent increase in reach - more than any other combination of two media.

Communication at Hansgrohe is being reorganized: Since September 1, the Zurich agency Flwocube has been entrusted with managing the press office of the large sanitary equipment manufacturer headquartered in the Black Forest. The communications specialists on Grüngasse are now available for all matters relating to the company and the Hansgrohe, Axor and Pharo brands.

Hofer Kommunikation has produced a travel guide for St. Peter's Island together with the Burgergemeinde Bern. The guide combines over 60 pages of texts by various authors on the history, culture, geography, nature, architecture and tourism of the peninsula, according to a press release from the Bern-based agency.
St. Peter's Island has been owned by the Burgergemeinde Bern for almost 500 years. It regularly invests money in the preservation of this cultural asset. The hotel in the former island monastery, which is one of the "Swiss Historic Hotels", was recently renovated. According to the press release, this was also the reason for the new travel guide.
Responsible at Hofer Communication: Daniel Martin (Junior AD), Philippe Oesch (text), Diana Brand (consulting and project management), Mike Niederhauser (photographer). Responsible at the Burgergemeinde Bern: Book Project Commission, Martin Steiner (Head).

Following the failed takeover by Microsoft, Yahoo is apparently considering resuming merger talks with AOL. The new Yahoo board of directors has agreed to a new round of negotiations, the Financial Times reported without naming any sources.
The two IT giants were already talking about combining their offers in the spring. At the time, Yahoo was in acute danger of being taken over: Microsoft offered 40 billion dollars. However, the top management around Yahoo boss Jerry Yang rejected this offer several times. Instead, they explored other options, such as a collaboration with AOL. As a result, Microsoft broke off the negotiations in frustration. This brought Yahoo criticism from various major shareholders.
US investor Carl Icahan was the most vocal critic of the failed deal with Microsoft. He ultimately won three seats for himself and his representatives on the newly elected Yahoo Board of Directors. He wants to use the board to exert pressure on Yahoo boss Jerry Yang, as he is still interested in the deal with Microsoft. He said on television last week that Yahoo had to do something with Microsoft - or Google would kill them both.

The new SF soap "Tag und Nacht" appears to be off to a difficult start. The last episode was watched by 343,000 viewers, which corresponds to a market share of 22.4 percent. This represents a rapid drop in viewer figures compared to the first two episodes: The opening show was watched by around half a million viewers, but the second episode still attracted 445,000 viewers to the TV.
"Too interchangeable, too little Swissness, and the storyline is too fast for many viewers," criticizes TV soap experienced actor Gilles Tschudi, according to Gratiszeitung News. Beat Schlatter, who has also starred in a TV soap, has a different explanation for the low ratings: "A medical story can't appeal to such a broad age group as a family saga."
SF boss Ingrid Deltenre only partially accepts the criticism and emphasizes to News that the doctors' soap shows what Switzerland is capable of producing: a modern production. However, the sound quality still needs to be improved, she adds without being asked. And there is also still work to be done on the pacing; this criticism comes up frequently, even during the internal tests. The editing speed has already been slowed down, but it is probably still too fast for older viewers.
However, the low ratings do not seem to worry Deltenre too much: "The ratings can drop even more during the launch phase without us having to worry," the TV director told the free newspaper.
The series had already made negative headlines before the start when the main author Katja Früh announced her departure due to insufficient funds.
"Day and Night" is broadcast on Friday evenings at 9 p.m. on SF 1.

It's hard to imagine today, but there was a time when most of the world's population thought the Marlboro Man was the coolest guy ever. Back then, smoking a cigarette still meant freedom. Every puff made you feel closer to your role models in Hollywood. And they were paid handsomely for the advertising impact of their tar-inhaling behavior.
Almost 200 Hollywood stars were on the payroll of tobacco companies such as American Tobacco, Reynolds, Liggett & Myers and others during the "Golden Age" of the dream factory on the West Coast. According to a study published on Thursday, stars such as Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Spencer Tracy were lured with extremely high sums of money. The tobacco companies' documents, which were kept secret for a long time, show that Hollywood's crème de la crème were generously paid advertisers.
According to the study published in the British magazine Tobacco Control, American Tobacco paid a total of 218,750 dollars to stars to advertise the Lucky Strike brand in the 1937/38 season alone - the equivalent of around 3.2 million dollars today.
Today, smokers are being hounded everywhere. Even Clark Gable, and even the Marlboro Man, would no longer be able to smoke in the saloon if the "Initiative against passive smoking" is adopted next Sunday. Won't anyone side with the stars and cowboys?

Two Swiss agencies have made it into Lürzer's archive. From Publicis, both the barbecue season campaign for Migros and the B to B campaign for Xeroprint are archived. In the latter, "copied" advertisements are compared with each other. The document management specialist's solution shows how such results can be achieved more easily and quickly.

Ruf Lanz added the Airport Outlet campaign to the archive. It dramatizes the outlet's move to the countryside - using real farmers who have undergone an astonishing fashion transformation. The campaign was developed by AD Grit Wolany and copywriter Torsten Maas under the direction of CD Markus Ruf. The photography is by Stefan Minder, the image processing by Süsstrunk & Jericke.

The least productive discipline in German-Swiss journalism is called «FAM-bashing»—the practice of disparaging Frank A. Meyer, who has been a salaried employee at the Ringier Group for 36 years. This genre, which is cultivated exclusively in the “Million-Zürich” region, is characterized by a journalist using random tidbits of information to launch into speculation about Meyer and the Ringier Group—a practice in which terms such as “chief ideologist,” “puppet master,” or “door-opener” have long been absent, nor the moral mouthpiece—and certainly not the remark that the tabloid no longer practices the inflammatory journalism of the ’80s and the first half of the ’90s and is therefore no longer “the cash cow” it once was.
However one may assess FAM’s journalistic track record, the stories written against him are clearly worse. A new low in these useless tirades was recently published by *Die Weltwoche*. Editor Andreas Kunz attempted to convince readers that Meyer had caused the Ringier Group damages amounting to around 300 million francs, while making no mention whatsoever of any potential profits generated. In his book on Ringier, however, Karl Lüönd quotes a Ringier executive: «Over the years, the benefits have clearly outweighed the costs.» The fact is that Ringier has grown steadily in recent years (2007 revenue: approximately 1.46 billion francs) and has mostly remained in the black (2007: annual profit after taxes: approximately 102 million). The Ringier Group is therefore faring better than Weltwoche Verlags AG.
Amateur psychologists may interpret this bashing of FAM as envy, but Kunz wants to belittle Meyer because he disapproves of his basic political orientation. His accusation: Meyer lacks «an extremely important journalistic asset: a connection to the people.» Now, we could maliciously ask in return: Is it being close to the people when a publisher/editor-in-chief stands out for having good connections with a down-to-earth billionaire—and even follows that billionaire’s political agenda week after week?
But let’s set that aside for now and take a look at how the term «closeness to the people» is used in the Swiss print media. The word has been used exactly 156 times in the past twelve months, primarily in articles about foreign politicians. When the term does appear in Swiss political journalism, it is mostly in connection with the SVP—and in quite revealing contexts. For example, Kurt W. Zimmermann, media columnist for *Die Weltwoche* and golf columnist for *SonntagsZeitung*, writes about the golf tournament for members of the Swiss Federal Parliament: In attendance were four SVP men, one SVP woman, and one FDP man. «Not even three percent» of the elected representatives, Zimmermann notes with consternation. This is surprisingly low, he says, given that «golf is now on its way to becoming a national sport in Switzerland as well.» Really? As evidence, Zimmermann points out: «Significantly more than three percent of entrepreneurs, top executives, senior civil servants, and federal judges play golf.» It’s no wonder, he says, «that SVP men dominate parliamentary golf. After all, of all the parties, the SVP is the one that listens most closely to the people.»
And Zimmermann takes that as a compliment. As a media columnist, he gives the impression that journalistic success is measured solely by readership figures. And consequently, he suggests that publications he finds left-leaning and objectionable are teetering on the brink of collapse. The Tages-Anzeiger: Readers had «fled en masse» because of a «nonsensical frenzy in socialist circles.» The Beobachter: The editorial staff no longer sought to discuss issues but rather to lecture: «Climate catastrophe, nuclear power plants, and crime» had become «heavy-handed, perennial topics.» And the Schweizer Illustrierte presented itself as a «magazine of profound seriousness.» Consequently, these publications were punished with a loss of readers. Zimmermann failed to mention his favorite publication, *Weltwoche*, which, in percentage terms, lost nearly as many readers.

After trying his hand as a chef, salesman, diplomat and farmer, David Ogilvy started a completely new career at the age of 38: as an advertiser. More precisely, as an advertising copywriter. On September 23, 1948, he founded the agency Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather in New York and over the years created numerous texts, slogans and headlines that have since become classics. These include his probably most famous headline for Rolls-Royce "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock".
60 years after the company was founded, over 15,000 employees in 120 countries celebrated the anniversary with a worldwide virtual party.
Another sentence, "Courage to innovate. Change is our elixir of life. Stagnation is our death knell", gives an idea of why David Ogilvy was so successful from the very beginning and why Ogilvy is still successful as a global agency network today.

The Swiss Printing Industry Association VSD will be holding the Publishing Forum for the third time on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at the Kongresshaus Biel. The specialist congress, which will focus on colour management, standardization and automation, will this time be complemented by a topic-specific exhibition. Between the individual lecture blocks, manufacturers and suppliers will give product presentations on how production processes can be better planned and controlled.
The event also aims to demonstrate the potential that lies dormant in "error prevention" and how optimal workflows and interfaces can strengthen production reliability. The complete conference program can be viewed on the VSD website.

Just under a week ago, the journalists, technicians and administrative staff at Tele Bärn demanded better working conditions from their employer and the immediate start of negotiations. Now the Comedia trade union has issued a communiqué declaring its solidarity with the workforce.
As the owner of Tele Bärn, the Zurich-based media group Tamedia is keeping its word to the workforce, writes Comedia. After the takeover of Espace Media Groupe at the beginning of 2008, the Espace boss promised: "Same house, same rules". Now this promise, namely the increase in wages to Tele Züri level, must be kept without ifs and buts.
The Tele Bärn workforce is disadvantaged in several respects: Wages are too low, working time regulations are inadequate and further training measures are inadequate.
Specifically, Comedia writes:
"Compared to Tamedia stations in the Zurich area, salaries are up to 800 francs lower, and starting salaries in Berne will be 4600 francs per month from 2009. This disadvantageous position cannot be justified and must be corrected by rapid adjustments.
Employees in Bern are also disadvantaged in terms of working time regulations. It is rightly demanded that on-call duties be counted towards working hours and that night, Sunday and public holiday work can be compensated with a time allowance of 25 percent.
Improvements in further training are also urgently needed. Ongoing professional development must take place during working hours, and at least five paid working days must be granted every two years for individual training."
The union concludes with the comment that Tele Bärn will collect more than CHF 2.2 million in public fee money after the new license and that the parent company is doing well and posting record profits.