The first collective labor agreement (CLA) for private radio stations has been signed. However, the document signed in Yverdon VD on Tuesday only applies to French-speaking Switzerland. According to SDA, the CLA was negotiated by the trade union Impressum and the Union romande des radios régionales (RRR). It applies to journalists, but also to some presenters, as the two social partners announced on Wednesday, and the union and the private radio stations agree that presenters will play an even more important role in future. The CLA defines the profession and training of those presenters who contribute content. Until now, most private radio stations in French-speaking Switzerland have applied the provisions of the current CLA for the French-speaking print sector.
In German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, on the other hand, employees in private radio and private TV are without a CLA, according to Impressum Director Mathieu Fleury. The print sector has also been without a contract since August 2004, after the publishers allowed the old CLA to expire.

 The German media group Axel Springer increased its growth in the first half of 2008 primarily through acquisitions in international business and digital media. In the first six months of the year, the group increased its turnover by 11.1 percent to 1.343 billion euros, Europe's largest newspaper company announced in Berlin on Wednesday. The surplus amounted to 526.2 million euros compared to 88.8 million euros a year ago. The strong increase was partly due to the proceeds from the sale of the stake in the TV group ProSiebenSat.1. Adjusted for special effects, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 7.2 percent to EUR 213.9 million compared to the same period last year.
Springer Group CEO Mathias Döpfner was optimistic about the second half of the year - despite the gloomy economic outlook and a difficult market environment for the media. "Axel Springer is defying the trend," said Döpfner. The media company also confirmed its growth forecast for 2008 as a whole.
The international market and online business are becoming increasingly important for the publishing house, Döpfner continued. Already 22.3 percent of sales are generated abroad. The Group will continue to drive forward the integration of online titles and print offerings.

 During the Olympic Games, HD Suisse is showing daytime sports broadcasts from Beijing without commentary, which Swiss television explains with "logistical and financial reasons" (see ). The lack of commentary now seems to have annoyed some viewers. They let off steam in the SF forum, as reported by Tagesanzeiger.ch and Blick am Abend. Viewer Martin Loepfe, for example, expressed the unflattering words "This is taking the viewers for a ride". SRG says that HD Suisse is deliberately concentrating on prime time for the commentated programs. For technical, personnel and financial reasons, commentaries on the event broadcasts on HD Suisse have been dispensed with. The forum in which the negative comments about HD Suisse were made has now been removed, as reported by the Newsnetz portals. "We have deliberately switched off the forum," SF spokesperson David Affentranger told Tagesanzeiger.ch. "The planned exchange between the forum and the program did not take place. Apparently there was no need." This had nothing to do with the public criticism of HD Suisse. "We have nothing to hide. And criticism reaches us anyway - even without this forum," says Affentranger.

In order to attract a lot of attention for their cannabis initiative, the Young Socialists have reached deep into their underpants past the waistline. "Lieber bekifft figge als bsoffe fahre!" is the slogan with which they want to go into battle for the popular initiative on cannabis legalization. The slogan was launched by the Young Socialists of Baselland during a condom distribution campaign in July. "We also want to use it nationally," Juso President Cédric Wermuth told the free newspaper News. He pointed out the absurdity of cannabis being demonized and alcohol consumption being taken for granted. With this in mind, the Juso president demonstratively smoked a joint on the podium at a delegates' meeting at the end of June when voting on the hemp initiative. Which probably also means that the Juso prefer to politicize stoned rather than drunk.

 The Swiss dating platform Swissflirt.ch has given itself a completely new design with Web 2.0 elements to mark its tenth anniversary. At the same time, the range of services has been expanded. For example, people who want to flirt can now create their own profile with pictures and videos. Cupid's arrows can be used to check the liking of a potential partner, and a "flirt radar" makes the search easier. As before, the platform operator, Puzzle ITC, was responsible for the technical implementation of the relaunch. The design was once again created by the Bernese communications agency Nothing from outer space.

September 15, 2008 is the deadline for applications for the 11th German-language radio spot award "Das Goldene Ohr" under this year's motto "Ears see more than eyes". Anyone who has been actively involved in the creation of radio commercials or other audio advertising media in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and South Tyrol and whose contributions have been broadcast or otherwise distributed in one of these countries in the past twelve months (October 1, 2007 to October 10, 2008) can take part in the competition, which will be judged by an 18-member jury, according to a press release. The closing date for entries is October 10, 2008, online or by post to Goldene Ohr GmbH. The call for entries and registration forms will be available at Goldenesohr.com from September 1. The award ceremony will take place on October 31, 2008 in Zurich's Limmat Hall, with bronze, silver and golden ears being awarded.

On August 21, 2008, a warm-up event will kick off the second ADC Young Creatives Award, the young talent competition of ADC Switzerland. The informative event will be opened by Urs Schrepfer, Creative Director at TBWA Switzerland and ADC Board Member. Of particular interest to visitors should be the appearance of Nik Hodel and Martin Arnold. As one of two winning teams, they will talk about their experiences at the young talent competition in Cannes. The warm-up event will take place at Condor Films at Kreuzstrasse 2 in Zurich. Interested parties can register at Adc.ch/nachwuchs. The competition is open to anyone born after June 28, 1980.

 In July 2008, Swiss Television achieved an average market share of 32.5 percent for the whole day, the same figure as in the same month last year. The audience was more interested than in the previous year in the summer programs on the main evening (plus one percentage point) and late evening (plus 1.2 percentage points), SF announced on Tuesday. In contrast, the early evening program attracted fewer viewers (minus 1.1 percentage points). The reason given by SF was the lack of sporting events such as the America's Cup compared to July 2007. From January to July 2008, the average figure was 34.6 percent, putting Swiss Television 1.1 percentage points above the 2007 annual average. The use of the Sf.tv portal continues to increase. With a total of 187,000 visits per day, the increase in July 2008 compared to the same month last year was around 22%. The biggest increase was recorded by the "Tagesschau" platform - the number of visits rose to 30,200 visits per day, an increase of 26 percent.

Karin Schuler joined In Flagranti on August 1, 2008. The marketing communications planner moved from Puma Switzerland, where she was first marketing assistant and then PR manager for Switzerland. At the 27-strong agency in Lys, she is working on the agency side for the first time and is responsible for clients including Postfinance and 1to1 Energy.

Unikat has won two pharmaceutical budgets at the same time: On the one hand, the Küsnacht agency won a competitive presentation for a budget from Roche Pharma (Switzerland). According to a press release, the first work will already be used in August. On the other hand, Unikat won the launch campaign of another pharmaceutical company's product in a competitive presentation. The agency did not yet want to reveal which company was involved. This work will follow towards the end of 2008.

 From November 1, the TV channels Sat.1 and Kabel eins will change the broadcast format of commercials to 16:9. They are thus adapting to viewers' viewing habits: in 2007, the consumer electronics industry sold almost exclusively flat screens in widescreen format. Around half of all Swiss television households now have a flat screen, according to a press release. Nothing will change for customers of the marketer Publicitas Cinecom until October 31: until this date, TV commercials can still be delivered in 4:3 format. For campaigns to be placed between October and November 2008, both formats should be delivered immediately to ensure a smooth changeover. On request, Sat.1 and Kabel eins will offer a conversion from 16:9 to 4:3 letterbox until the end of October. From November 1, 2008, spots will be broadcast exclusively in 16:9 format.

 The advertisers from Lowe, part of the Draftfcb/Lowe Group, are letting Graubünden water flow through the lowlands. As part of the current Valser campaign, they have created a mega poster to cover a building site in Stein, Aargau. The 18-metre-long cover at a Coop store shows the "production line" of Valser water, which is over 1000 meters deep. Lowe came up with a headline for the longline: "Here in our factory, in the Vals mountains, nature has built a production line over 1000 meters deep, with which it guides water through the Bündner slate and enriches it with calcium and magnesium. This process takes 25 years. The time it takes to make water as good and highly mineralized as Valser is." The mega poster will be displayed at Coop in Stein until at least the end of the year:
Jacqueline Schlüssel (Project Coordinator), Joëlle Vock (Brand Manager). Responsible at Draftfcb/Lowe Group: Nicolas Vontobel (CD), Sebastian Hugelshofer (AD), Dominique Wegmann (Text), Rolf Jeger, Gabrielle Lommel (Consulting).