A political tug-of-war is currently underway over the media agreement with the EU, as this is linked to a relaxation of the provisions for foreign advertising windows. However, foreign windows have already benefited since the new RTVA came into force. They have increased by 44 percent from April to September 2007. Regional television lost 11% in the same period, after having previously made slight gains, according to the media magazine Gazette. SRG recorded a slight increase of 3 percent. Martin Schneider from Publisuisse told Gazette that the advertising provisions in the RTVA were a miscalculation. They would not strengthen the regional broadcasters as intended, but rather the foreign broadcasters. Martin Bürki from the Tele News Combi advertising pool, which markets eight regional stations, takes a similar view. He fears that clients would ignore regional TV if the alcohol advertising regulations were to be relaxed. Thanks to the new RTVA, local stations are already allowed to advertise beer and wine, but according to Bürki, this is not yet big business.

 
Ringier Romandie is strengthening its online activities: The publishing house has acquired the entire share package of the company Original S.A. in Romanel, Vaud. The company specializes in the development of websites and owns several online portals such as Tempslibre.ch, Bonresto.ch and Cineromandie.ch. Ringier Romandie hopes that the purchase will enable it to grow its Internet presence in French-speaking Switzerland together with its own Internet portals such as Hebdo.ch, Illustre.ch, Tv8.ch and Edelweissmag.ch. Eric Fankhauser, founder of Original, will remain with the company and will co-decide on the joint strategy with Ringier. The parties have agreed not to disclose the price of the transaction, as Ringier Romandie announced on Friday.

 In the first quarter of next year, Swisscom will be adopting a new, uniform image. This will include a new logo with a moving image element. The previous sub-brands Swisscom Fixnet, Swisscom Mobile and Swisscom Solutions will no longer exist. They will be replaced by Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd with the business divisions Private Customers, Small & Medium Enterprises and Large Enterprises. At the same time, the fixed and mobile network infrastructure as well as the IT platforms will be merged into one business division.
Swisscom's current different corporate identities will be standardized. They are to be made more modern, more colorful and more emotional. At the same time, the logo will also be adapted: The lettering will be modernized and, as a novelty for Switzerland and the industry, provided with a moving element, as the telecommunications group announced.
As most communication services today are controlled via a screen, the new logo is ideally suited to Swisscom. The corporate design was developed together with the London agency Moving Brands and the Swiss typographer Bruno Maag. The moving logo is
here
to see.

 The women's magazine Annabelle will be seventy years old in 2008. As a gift to mark the start of the anniversary year, celebrities have designed the first issue of the coming year. They have turned their hobby into a profession for the magazine, as Annabelle announced. Federal Councillor Hans-Rudolf Merz, for example, has written a short story. Hard-core feminists may not like the content: The protagonist is mistaken for a casino boss in New York, picked up at the airport in Las Vegas by an attractive brunette and finally arrested by a blonde policewoman on horseback. An excerpt: "Sue runs her hands through her breezy hair, tripping hip-swiveling and lasciviously toward her convertible. She pulls me menacingly behind her."
Director Michael Steiner has not written, but staged a fashion series. Inspired by fashion and war photographer Lee Miller, Steiner evokes the 1930s in his images. Manager Heliane Canepa contributes an interview with football coach Bernard Challandes. And actress Stephanie Glaser test drives the new Fiat 500.
Other contributors include cabaret artist Emil Steinegger, author Zoë Jenny, US Vogue boss Anna Wintour and comic artist Mike Van Audenhove. The celebrity issue of Annabelle will be on newsstands from December 19.

 VW Commercial Vehicles has commissioned Vizner Borel with the overall communication of the budget in the course of a multi-stage competitive presentation. The agency prevailed over three other competitors, it announced on Thursday. The decisive factors for the new client were creative, surprising and stringent concepts and the chosen communication strategy. The first works will be on display at the beginning of 2008.

 The Federal Council elections, which went into extra time, set Weltwoche spinning: The final result was not yet known at the time of going to press on Wednesday afternoon. The magazine therefore plans to publish additional reports online on Thursday and Friday. Due to the delayed election, some subscribers will only receive the current issue on Friday instead of Thursday as usual, according to the editorial. The Federal Council election therefore seems to be unpleasant all round for the Weltwoche crew, at least for editor-in-chief and publisher Roger Köppel - in terms of the result and distribution.

Marcel Zulauf, who already heads the Blick Online editorial team on an interim basis, will now become its definitive head. In July, he succeeded Samuel Reber on an interim basis, who resigned from his post after just a few months (see ). Since then, the online portal has undergone a relaunch.
After training as a structural draughtsman and sound engineer, Zulauf studied media sciences at the University of Fribourg. He then wrote for the Berner Zeitung and the Solothurner Zeitung. He has been working for Blick.ch since January 2004.

The Arosa Humor Festival is taking place for the 16th time from 7 to 16 December 2007. Migros magazine is supporting the festival as a media partner and is encouraging people to laugh along with it - laughter is now possible in advertisements created by the Zurich agency Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett, which can be seen in the magazine. And in January, when the humor festival is shown on Swiss television, you can also laugh along in front of the screen: SF 1 will be showing a "laughing" Migros commercial, also produced by SFLB. 
 
Take a look at
the spot on! 
 
 
 
 
 
Responsible at SFLB:
Dana Wirz (AD); Diana Rossi (text); Martin Spillmann (CD); Pam Hügli, Marco Chini (consulting); Oliver Nanzig (photographer); Nora Fehr (clay figures); Dany Bittel (animation film); Markus Graf.responsible at Migros-Magazin:
Jrene Shirazi (Head of Marketing); Bernt Maulaz (Publishing Director).

German broadcaster Sat.1 is restructuring its management. Sat.1 boss Matthias Alberti, who took over from Roger Schawinski at the beginning of the year, is being promoted to Chairman of the Management Board.
The management team will be strengthened by Torsten Rossmann, who is also a new Managing Director. He is responsible for Information & Magazines, Marketing and Controlling. Rossmann will also remain Managing Director of the news channel N24, which belongs to the ProSiebenSat.1 family.
As Deputy Managing Director of the station, Volker Szezinski will take over responsibility for German fiction as well as licensed programs and co-productions in addition to program planning.
ProSiebenSat.1 CEO Guillaume de Posch says that the restructuring is intended to strengthen the news division. This appears to be a change of course: This year, the station cut back on information and canceled the shows "Sat.1 am Mittag" and "Sat.1 am Abend" (see
). He is also struggling with low ratings. The new management team will probably have to prove itself as a crisis helper. Picture: Torsten Rossmann

 The Liechtenstein Parliament has passed a new tobacco control law to protect nonsmokers. Unless a referendum is called, smoking will be banned in public places starting in July 2008, as reported by the SDA on Thursday. Restaurants and bars will not be allowed to set up separate smoking rooms. Also starting in July, a ban on tobacco advertising will take effect—in the future, tobacco products may not be advertised in either print or electronic media. The tobacco industry will also no longer be allowed to sponsor events.

 
In the current issue, the WOZ printed the reactions to the false SVP leaflet that it had supplied as a "special bundle" a week before the Federal Council elections (see ). Numerous letters to the editor were received - some readers fell for it ("You fooled me! Stunned, I hold the "Swiss" in my hand. With my address on it. My first reaction is: "Suck it up. Suckers, wretched. I immediately want to get on the computer. It's supposed to be a hate letter (...)"). Others praise the campaign to the skies ("Thank you for the walk through the journalistic chamber of horrors!"). It was even a topic in the Federal Parliament. SVP National Councillor Hans Fehr is said to have commented when looking at the newspaper: "It looks like we did it". His conclusion: "Well done, but from the enemy." Whether we will soon be holding a similar product in our hands, but this time from a "friend", remains to be seen. At any rate, the very right-wing website Winkelried.info is certain that a daily newspaper is needed in order to remain in opposition in the long term. Unfortunately, the SVP does not have the necessary 70 to 120 million francs at its disposal. But even if the financing were to succeed, they would still have to have the journalists to fill the newspaper. And this problem is probably even bigger than the problem of money. What wise words from the mouth of Winkelried, who tends to suspect that journalists are socialized in the left-wing milieu.

 Shortly before the web TV show "Blickpunkt" on Blick Online, a commercial can now be seen in which presenter Elena Beltrame advertises a product. In the style of product placement, the advertised object is incorporated into a backstage scene. The 15-second clip is produced by Ringier and accompanied by an advertising space on Blick.ch, for example an advertisement can be seen directly above the streaming window. In this way, the products can be explained in even more detail, according to a Ringier press release. The infotainment program "Blickpunkt" has been running on the tabloid's portal since October 1. According to Ringier, an average of 10,000 viewers watch it every day.