Currently, 19 copywriters in Switzerland hold the title "Texter BR" or "Texter BR". But there could soon be more: As every year, copywriters can apply for entry in the Swiss professional register. The current 2008 certification round is now open. Applications must be submitted by April 1. An independent jury of experts will decide on inclusion in the Swiss Professional Register of Copywriters (BRTT) based on the work submitted. Three texts from different areas that are as independent of each other as possible, for example a press release, a poster and a brochure, will be assessed according to strict guidelines. A commentary explaining the task and the procedure must also be submitted for each work, as detailed in a press release.
Both freelance copywriters and copywriters employed by companies and agencies are eligible for certification. The certification results will be announced at the end of May.

Roger Schawinski's new station Radio 1 has announced another new addition: he has signed up Dani Nieth. The current communications consultant and former radio and TV journalist will present the Sunday morning show. He previously worked for Radio Argovia, Tele M1 and RTL/ProSieben Switzerland. Radio 1 will officially start broadcasting on March 17.

 Anyone trying to access the Swiss portal of search engine giant Google between around 9 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday morning was left with a long face: the site was unavailable. The reason for this was a fiber optic cable that had been accidentally severed during construction work in the Zurich region. Customers of various providers were then no longer able to access the Google site, as spokesman Matthias Graf told Werbewoche. However, most of the providers affected reacted quickly and rerouted the data traffic. The repair work on the ominous cable, the cause of the outage, took place on Tuesday afternoon. The fact that the Google site, which is considered to be extremely stable, was down caused quite a stir. "We apologize to the users and our advertising partners for the outage," Graf assured us. "For our advertising customers, the outage did not cause any financial damage, as our cost-per-click model only incurs costs when an ad is actually clicked on." Graf was unable to quantify the extent of the damage incurred by Google itself. However, it seems remarkable that it apparently only takes a digger to bring even the Goliath Google to its knees.

 
In the course of the consultation on the award of radio and television licenses, the Solothurn cantonal council has now also expressed its opinion and is lobbying the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom) for a new license for Radio 32. There are no grounds for no longer awarding the broadcasting license to the local station, which is the only one applying for the relevant area. Radio 32 has been offering a professionally designed and regionally focused program in the Solothurn-Olten coverage area since 1991, the cantonal government stated in its statement on Tuesday. Due to the diversity of programming and the regional public service, the new license is fully supported. For the regions of Aargau and Basel with coverage areas in the canton of Solothurn, the government council leaves it to Bakom to assess the quality of the applicants and the content orientation. The FM license is to be awarded to those broadcasters who best fulfil the performance mandate. The cantonal government makes no recommendation regarding the television licenses for the regions of Aargau-Solothurn, Basel and Bern with broadcasting areas in the districts of Solothurn.

 
Contrary to expectations, the rush for licenses for the public screening of football matches during the 2008 European Championships has so far been limited. There are several possible reasons for the limited demand for the so-called public viewing licenses; a Uefa spokeswoman told 20minuten.ch that it is expected that this will increase as the European Championship draws closer. Suisa, which, like Uefa, sells licenses, also believes that the boom is yet to break out. Uefa has so far granted 50 licenses in Switzerland, while the copyright organization Suisa has been issuing "a maximum of five per day" since mid-January, according to a Suisa spokesperson. Both Uefa and Suisa sell public viewing licenses for the transmission of European Championship matches with a screen diagonal of more than three meters. And both insist that you have to buy a license from them, even though you only need one. The unintentional comedic confusion will probably not be resolved until the end of April by the Federal Arbitration Commission for the Exploitation of Copyrights. If you want to be on the safe side, you should apply for a license from both companies, according to 20minuten.ch.

 The Schaffhausen cantonal government has spoken out in favor of Tele Top in the consultation process for the new TV licenses. The regional broadcaster had applied for the Zurich-North-Eastern Switzerland region and reacted very positively to the government's decision. In a press release issued by the Schaffhausen State Chancellery on Tuesday, it states that TeleZüri is also a good candidate. However, Tele Top is more likely to be considered for the Schaffhausen region, as it is geographically anchored in the Winterthur-Frauenfeld-Schaffhausen area. The government expects Schaffhausen topics not only in the prescribed program window, but also in the main program of the daily news broadcast.
TeleZüri does have a cooperation partner in the event that a license is granted: Schaffhauser Fernsehen would produce the program window for the region. Nevertheless, the Schaffhausen government assumes that TeleZüri will continue to focus on the greater Zurich area. It therefore prefers Tele Top - but would like the broadcaster to seek cooperation with Schaffhausen Television if it is awarded the license.
In a press release, Tele Top expressed its surprise and delight at the government's decision. This was a completely surprising decision that came out of the blue, reacted Tele Top in a press release. Such an attitude was not expected after the years of legal and licensing disputes surrounding Schaffhausen.
They would try to meet the request for cooperation with Schaffhauser Fernsehen. However, Tele Top could not refrain from taking a jab at the potential partner: Tele Top expects from Schaffhauser Nachrichten as the parent company of the potential partner that "the previous politically one-sided statements in cantonal elections and votes (or Federal Council elections) would under no circumstances be given a place in a possible program window of Schaffhauser Fernsehen". The same applies "to weekly broadcasting platforms with a Federal Councillor", which undoubtedly refers to the "Tele Blocher" program, even though Christoph Blocher is now a former Federal Councillor.
There are no problems in Schaffhausen when it comes to radio: Radio Munot and Radio Rasa are applying for the two licenses. The Government Council supports both applications unreservedly.

 The planned seventh edition of the Neue Luzerner Zeitung is to be realized by the existing crew of the daily newspaper under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Thomas Bornhauser. However, the editorial team will be expanded accordingly, as Erwin Bachmann, CEO of LZ Medien, told Werbewoche. The paper will not become a national Sunday newspaper, but an extension of the existing newspaper: "We will clearly focus on Central Switzerland," said Bachmann. The design of the seventh edition will be based on that of the parent paper, although longer texts and "weekend material" are also planned. A separate name for the Sunday version, which goes to all Neue Luzerner Zeitung subscribers, is not planned. However, the regionalization that takes place during the week with the Neue Urner Zeitung or the Neue Schwyzer Zeitung, for example, will probably be dispensed with. As the reason for the move to a Sunday edition, the publishing director says: "The fact that we didn't appear on Sunday until now reminds me of Swiss television, which used to not broadcast on Tuesdays. We are losing what is now the most important reading day. The launch of the paper is planned for September, although the exact date has not yet been set.
Bachmann was cautious about possible collaborations with other newspapers: "Collaborations are possible, we will examine them later". However, he sees the cooperation as being limited to the exchange of individual articles. According to Bachmann, "all newspapers that are present on Sunday" could be considered. The Sonntagszeitung recently reported that LZ Medien had been unable to convince the St. Galler Tagblatt - which, like the Luzerner, belongs to the NZZ Group - to cooperate. And a cooperation with the Sonntag newspaper from AZ Medien is controversial within the NZZ Group.
Hoping for the TV license Bachmann's group is currently also applying for a TV license in Central Switzerland. He is competing against AZ Medien, which wants to extend its license for Tele Tell. Until now, LZ Medien has also held a stake in Tele Tell. Bachmann said that the company had submitted its own application now that the opportunity had arisen: "Once the concessions have been distributed, nothing will happen for years".
He is focusing on television because - like many media companies of this size - he wants to operate on "four legs": newspaper, radio, TV, Internet. "We are applying for the license because the media is our business. We can't sell rusks". If LZ Medien is awarded the contract by the Swiss federal government, a separate editorial team will be set up for the television station. It remains to be seen whether this will work in any way with the planned seventh edition.

 The channels of French-speaking Swiss television TSR lost market share in French-speaking Switzerland in 2007. They still achieved an average daily market share of 30.6%. During prime time from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., the share was 36.2 percent. Both figures are around 2 percent below those of the previous year. Television Director Gilles Marchand explained the decline to the media on Monday with the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which captivated the French-speaking Swiss for a month and kept them glued to the TSR channels. The average 24-hour market share in 2006 was 32.3 percent.
However, TSR stations still dominated the French-speaking Swiss market. According to Marchand, the market share in 2007 was roughly the same as in 2003, when federal elections were also held. According to Marchand, the average viewing time of the French-speaking population is declining due to the migration of young people to the Internet. Last year, they spent 163 minutes in front of the television, compared to 170 minutes the year before.
TSR's online offering developed rapidly: The daily number of visitors to Tsr.ch climbed by 27 percent to 78,000.

 As of March 1 this year, Clear Channel Outdoor International Airports and its Swiss subsidiary Clear Channel Outdoor will be responsible for the marketing of outdoor advertising at Budapest International Airport. According to a press release issued on Monday, Clear Channel beat numerous local and international competitors in a selection process. "The consideration of an experienced and professional marketer fits in with Budapest Airport's strategy of only working with the very best partners for the development and growth of the airport business," the airport operator said in a press release. Clear Channel is now establishing a branch in Budapest in order to adequately fulfill the nine-year contract. The majority of the international business is to be managed from Zurich.
Hungary's largest airport recorded 8.6 million passengers last year. It aims to develop into a hub for the whole of Eastern Europe over the next few years.

 Radio station 105 is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Since the start of broadcasting on February 17, 1998, the operator Music First Network has expanded considerably. It is increasingly focusing on digitalization and the possibilities of the Internet. Station manager Giuseppe Scaglione has launched four new web radio stations in the course of the station's ten-year history. In January 2006, Radio Monte Carlo Swiss was added, a radio station aimed at 25 to 45-year-olds. Finally, last year Music First Network launched the interactive web TV station 105TV. In December 2007, Scaglione also received the FM license for a youth radio station in Zurich from the Federal Council. Music First Network intends to start building new studios in Zurich and planning the new youth radio station in the next few weeks, according to a press release. However, a legal dispute over the license is still pending, as the initiator of the unsuccessful DJ radio station has taken the matter to the Federal Administrative Court.

Affichage subsidiary APG and its partners Diesel Swiss and Christinger Partner are very satisfied with the implementation of the first UV poster. The test display at three locations in Zurich has been successfully completed, according to a press release. As part of the test, the idea of using black light technology and special processing of the posters to highlight individual elements was implemented (see ). The customers present at an event were enthusiastic about the implementation, writes APG. Denise Eggenberger, Communication Manager at Diesel Swiss, is quoted as saying: "We were very excited about the effect of the posters in the field. Like various advertising and media agencies present at the event, we are delighted with the success and are already looking forward to the next poster display at APG."

Advico Young & Rubicam developed the "Free Internet" teaser campaign for Sunrise. The campaign, which publicized a new offer from the telecoms company, is now entering the winding-up phase. With the "Free Internet" movement, the agency has attempted to find a very unpromotional way forward for the very promotional message, according to a press release. The offer is now being communicated in the same way as the "Free Internet" movement drew attention to itself: With a cross-media mix. The media used include posters, for example, which are now being supplemented with the promotional message. The guerilla-style TV and radio commercials are also being supplemented with the offer. The Freeinternet.ch website will become the information point for the new offer.