The Moneyhouse.ch website may continue to publish all current and outdated commercial register data for an unlimited period of time. The Federal Administrative Court has dismissed an appeal by the Federal Data Protection Commissioner, as reported by SDA. Since 1995, all commercial register data has been available free of charge on the Moneyhouse.ch website of the Zug-based company Itonex, including data that is no longer up to date. Last May, the Federal Data Protection Commissioner sent a recommendation to Itonex and demanded that data on connections that no longer existed be deleted.
between individuals and companies, such as the online edition of the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, must be removed after a three-year period. In addition, at the request of individuals or companies, all data relating to them must be deleted immediately.
After Itonex rejected the recommendation, the data protection officer brought an action before the Federal Administrative Court, which has now been dismissed by the judges in Bern. According to the ruling, the private, unlimited dissemination of outdated commercial register data is within the legal purpose. There was no violation of personality rights within the meaning of the Data Protection Act.
According to the court, Itonex was also right to refuse to comply with deletion requests from private individuals or companies. Deleting data would mean that certain entries that were still current could be considered non-existent. This lack of transparency would undermine the purpose of facilitating business transactions. The Federal Data Protection Commissioner is considering taking the matter to the Federal Supreme Court.

The "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria is the figurehead of this year's Magnum campaign. The almond-eyed Hollywood starlet is intended to symbolize the sinfully sensual pleasure of Magnum glacés, according to the press release. She is the perfect embodiment of luxury-loving women who like to indulge in life's little sins. Longoria apparently describes herself as a chocolate lover and ice cream fan. The Unilever brand Magnum is one of the world's best-known ice cream brands and sells around 1 billion products every year.

 A Zurich landlady thought she was in luck for half a day after reading the winning numbers of the Swiss lottery in the Tages-Anzeiger. Unfortunately, her joy did not last long. The numbers that the landlady's husband had guessed were exactly the same as those printed in the Tagi. The six in the lottery would have brought the landlady's family 10 million francs in winnings, as the SF program "Schweiz aktuell" reported on Thursday. But there was a catch: the Tages-Anzeiger had mistakenly published last week's winning numbers a second time.
As usual, the Tages-Anzeiger printed the figures "without guarantee", but nevertheless apologized for the mishap. According to Res Strehle, the deputy editor-in-chief, it was due to a technical glitch: The editorial system had crashed on the day in question, causing a hectic rush in production. The old figures accidentally slipped into the paper, Strehle told "Schweiz aktuell".
Measures have already been taken on Werdstrasse to prevent such mishaps. And the Zurich landlord couple are being offered a free one-year subscription to "Tagis" as a consolation. That doesn't seem much in view of the 10 million francs that the family lost out on. But the supposed millionaires take their fate in their stride: "Life goes on - and perhaps it's better this way," says the landlady calmly.

 
According to the latest bulletin from the Cannes Advertising Festival, the submission deadline for entries in the Film Lions, Press Lions and Outdoor Lions categories has been postponed to March 28, 2008. This means that the submission deadline has been extended by three weeks. The submission deadlines in the other categories remain unchanged (see: ).

The Federal Council has relaxed the so-called ban on health claims and allows certain health claims to be made for foods. This means that advertising "Milk prevents osteoporosis" will no longer be prohibited in Switzerland in future. The change will not apply in full for another four to five years due to the planned transitional periods. In the past, Swiss milk producers had come into conflict with the law because they had used the black and white cow "Lovely" to advertise the preventive effect of milk against the bone disease osteoporosis. Nutritional messages on the topics of "Milk gives strong bones" and "Milk is an essential nutritional factor for healthy development in children and young people" were already possible, as these have been scientifically proven (see
Never change a winning cow
).

 The Tamedia subsidiary Espace Media Groupe is selling the traditional Bernese printing company Benteli Hallwag to Bieler Farbendruck Weber AG. Production will be concentrated at the Biel site and the Wabern printing site will be closed. At Benteli Hallwag, 56 full-time positions and temporary contracts will be lost. Early retirement is being sought for a further 13 employees, as the two companies announced on Thursday. A social plan is to be drawn up; the trade unions will be invited to take part in the negotiations. The takeover is intended to secure 75 full-time positions, including eight apprenticeships, in the long term.
Farbendruck Weber takes over the printing business of Benteli Hallwag on June 1, 2008. The company resulting from the merger will be called Weber Benteli. The managing director will be the former head of Benteli Hallwag, Martin Brawand. The turnover of the new printing company with around 300 employees is estimated at CHF 90 million.
Benteli Hallwag was formed in 1998 from the printing business of Benteli AG, whose origins date back to 1899, and the printing activities of Hallwag. Through mergers with various regional companies, Benteli Hallwag has been able to expand its position in recent years and is now one of the five largest commercial printers in Switzerland.

 Giuseppe Scaglione's Radio 105 Züri was not mentioned in the Zurich government's statement on radio licenses. In a statement, the Radio 105 founder expressed his surprise at the government council's recommendations. Scaglione believes that the application from Roger Schawinski's Radio 1 is "blatantly flawed". Perhaps the Zurich government has been impressed by the media frenzy that Roger Schawinski has created in recent days, the radio man continues. However, he assumes that the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (Uvek) will prove to be more immune in this respect and make a more objective decision that will take into account the criteria required by law and in the invitation to tender as well as the applications submitted. Scaglione added that the recommendation of the Zurich government did not actually mean anything negative for his company Music First Network. With the station RMC Züri, he has also applied for the smaller Zurich radio area, for which Radio 1 had also submitted an application. The preference given to Radio 1's application in the Zurich-Glarus area further increases RMC Züri's chances of obtaining a license in the smaller Zurich area, concludes Scaglione.

The Bern-based agency Contexta has had a new management team since the beginning of the year. Nadine Borter, previously Partner and Managing Director of the BSW agency, is now Managing Director. The previous Partner and CEO Daniel Hartmann is concentrating on his role as Managing Director of Contexta Holding, but will remain involved in strategy consulting for clients, as the agency announced on Thursday.
Christian-Kumar Meier has joined the management team as Head of Consulting. Meier has held every position at Contexta, from junior consultant to consultant to consulting group manager, most recently as deputy head of consulting. The historian completed his training as a federally certified communications manager in 2005.
Moritz Staehelin has been appointed Creative Director and member of the Executive Board. After graduating from high school, Moritz Staehelin completed an apprenticeship as a chef, trained as a federally certified hotelier and worked as a journalist. He joined Contexta in 2004 as a copywriter/concept developer from Metzgerlehner BSW Zurich.
With the new management structure, Contexta is pursuing the strategy of ensuring that the owner-managed agency can remain as independent as possible in the long term, according to the press release. Even in its anniversary year - Contexta is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year - the agency attaches great importance to independence. Successors who make their way at Contexta should be given the opportunity to become entrepreneurs themselves. "We believe that our partner model allows us to advise clients more closely, more intensively and more effectively than an advertising agency that is listed somewhere in the world and driven by shareholder value," comments Daniel Hartmann on this strategy.
Picture from left to right: Marc Schumacher, Account Planning Director; Daniel Hartmann, Partner; Moritz Staehelin, Creative Director; Nadine Borter, Managing Director, Partner; Bernhard Abegglen, Creative Partner; Christian-Kumar Meier, Client Service Director

 The Goldbach Media Group, which is active in advertising marketing, doubled its profit last year. On balance, the company earned CHF 25.4 million (previous year: CHF 12.6 million). The sale of the subsidiary Radio Z and its associated Radio Ri generated one-off financial income of CHF 12.5 million for the Goldbach Media Group, as detailed in a press release issued on Thursday. The Board of Directors intends to pay a dividend of CHF 0.38 per share for 2007. In addition, due to the sale of Radio Z, a special dividend of 1 franc per share will be paid. However, business was also good in operational terms: operating profit increased by 17.7 percent to CHF 17.8 million. Net sales climbed by 18.8 percent to 237 million francs. With growth of 57.5 percent, the online segment grew disproportionately. The online business accounted for 22.7% of total sales.
The Group expects double-digit growth in sales and operating profit for 2008. Goldbach also wants to grow through acquisitions, it said at the annual media conference in Zurich. The focus is on Eastern European markets in particular. The online segment in particular is expected to grow.
 
Despite the optimistic outlook and figures in line with analysts' expectations, Goldbach shares initially came under pressure on Thursday. By the afternoon, the shares were down 4.1 percent at CHF 47. In market circles, the falls were attributed to corrections following the strong share price performance in recent days. 

 The media company Ringier, which holds a majority stake in Energy Zurich, considers the Zurich government's recommendation regarding the radio licenses to be "absolutely incomprehensible". The cantonal government has backed Radio1 and Radio Zürisee, leaving the choice between Radio 24 and Energy Zurich to the Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (Uvek). Marc Görtz, Head of Electronic Media at Ringier Switzerland, says: "With its leading position among younger radio listeners, Energy Zurich already contributes a great deal to the diversity of offerings and opinions in the Zurich broadcasting area and guarantees continuity and professionalism for the future. According to a press release, Radio Energy fully meets all the conditions in its license application and clearly differentiates itself from its competitors. Unfortunately, the government council's recommendation does not take these circumstances into account.

 In its statement on the license applications, the Zurich cantonal government is in favour of awarding the license to Tele Top and thus rejects Tele Züri. Tamedia also receives no clear support when it comes to radio: the government wants Radio 1 and Radio Zürisee to be awarded the license. For the third "major" radio license in the Zurich-Glarus region, it leaves it up to the federal government to choose between Radio 24 or Energy Zurich. The fifth application for the Zurich-Glarus licensing area, submitted by Gisueppe Scaglione for Radio 105 Züri, was not even mentioned by the government in its communication. The government announced on Thursday that the focus of the considerations had been on diversity of opinion and media. In the case of TV, both applicants could meet the licensing requirements and the performance mandate. The government council sees potential in Tele Top's broadcasting concept for a second strong regional television station alongside Tele Züri. According to the government, an expansion of Tele Top to the urban areas of Zurich would "contribute to journalistic diversity in Switzerland's largest city and at the same time continue to serve the entire metropolitan region with the current offering".
For the government council, supporting Tele Top is not a rejection of Tele Züri's quality programming. However, the position of the Tamedia channel in the media market is considered to be strong enough to survive economically even without a license.
According to the government council, Radio 1's program differs most clearly from the other applicants for FM licences and appeals to a different target group. Radio Zürisee also pursues an independent offering and complements Radio 1 in a meaningful way. Whether the third radio license for the large Zurich-Glarus area should be awarded to Radio 24 or Energy Zurich is left to the discretion of the cantonal government
the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC). "The two regional broadcasters are very similar in their mainstream programming," the Zurich government says verbatim. The government did not propose a station for the smaller Zurich concession area. Züri Live, Radio Monte Carlo RMC and Radio Alpenrosen are in the running. A license is to be awarded for area 24. "The government recommends to Bakom that those stations that do not receive a license for the large area could still apply for the smaller one at a later date," explained government spokeswoman Susanne Sorg-Keller.
However, the Federal Office of Communications has no ear for this request: "That's not possible. The deadline for applications has expired; broadcasters can no longer apply for a different area," said Bakom spokesman Bernhard Bürki at the request of Werbewoche.

 Without much media fanfare, the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) has awarded the radio license for the broadcasting of new digital radio stations in German-speaking Switzerland. It goes to Swissmediacast, an association of private digital radio providers and the SRG. This will allow them to use frequencies for digital radio broadcasting in the new Dab+ standard in German-speaking Switzerland, as reported by SDA on Thursday. The new technical standard enables the broadcasting of up to 18 radio stations in CD quality.bakom requires Swissmediacast to broadcast on its network, in addition to two SRG stations, the eight private radio stations that received a broadcasting license last summer. These are Radiolab, Radio for Youngsters, Swiss Mountain Holiday Radio, Soundcity, Radio Eviva, Radio.ch, Radiojay and Djradio Deluxe. The remaining stations can be chosen by the company itself.
Within a year, at least the conurbations of Zurich, Bern and Basel must be covered, and by the end of February 2011, 80 percent of households in German-speaking Switzerland must be able to receive the digital program range. Reception requires a Dab+ radio set or a Dab set that is "upgradeable", as Bakom spokesperson Alfons explained to SDA on request. Newer Dab devices are generally capable of this, while older ones are not.