Column Nowadays, the mainstream media are filling us with gossip and simulated politics. The only thing that can help is media ecology. 
He looks at me in the rear-view mirror of his cab, leafing through a magazine on the passenger seat. Quick exchange of glances between the seat and the rear-view mirror. What's wrong? I'm not aware of any wrongdoing. I'm sober, combed (so far) and have enough money for the fare. Now he's holding up the advertising week: "You're the Fahrni!" A cyclist almost pays for this stunning realization with her life. "You advertisers have had better times," I say, irritated. He: "Driving a cab is quieter." After a while: "I have one question: what on earth is a media ecologist?" "Why a media ecologist?"
He hands the magazine to the back. Indeed. Under my portrait it says: "Media ecologist". I see.
Not a bad idea. But what is it? Ecologists demand that humans treat nature with care. Media ecologists, however, want people to treat nature with care.
"That's good," he says, "what next? What does a MediÖko do?" - Well, first of all, he refrains from doing a few things. For example, he ignores printed matter with titles like "nichts.ch", "19 Sekunden" or "vorgestern". He has given away the television.
"Isn't that a bit elitist?" - No, he's just conserving his scarce resources of time and attention. Because humans are a faulty construction. They react to stimuli. If they get too much of it, they first become animals, then children. In terms of media technology and the history of civilization, we have arrived at the Pipiglugluschnarch sequence. Totally infantilized, we no longer know anything about ourselves. Historians will one day write: After the Great Depression came the long phase of flat brain waves. What was once a human being degenerated into a consumer. The only wonder is that consumer hasn't long since become the ultimate swearword, a form of intensification: moron, idiot, consumer.
"But the information! What about the information"?
Where is that in the mainstream media? Media should actually serve the democratic empowerment of citizens, the self-observation of society, public control. Today, they fill us with gossip and simulated politics. Arena? An acute threat to democracy. A media ecologist has time and desire for the world. Of course, he reads the NZZ - some of the more interesting pieces. Also Le Temps. He also takes a quick look at the Tagi or a local paper over coffee in the pub. But he doesn't have to. He doesn't miss much. But he subscribes to various newsletters. BBC World Radio is his base. Radio in general! Certain blogs and websites. He brings interesting people into his home. He podcasts whatever is interesting on Arte or elsewhere. He is enrolled in chat groups. He learns from a blog that Blocher is planning a coup d'état the day after tomorrow at 4.30 p.m. And 56 other quality users have received the explosive news along with him. Where is the democracy conveyed by the media?
That is the crux of the matter. What would happen if the news were in the Bern newspaper today? Exactly. Media ecology can't just call for a gossip boycott - it has to create new media. Advertising-free local media, keenly investigative, in which citizens set the agenda. Public journalism. National weekly newspapers with eight pages and five excellently researched stories. Daily media dedicated only to relevance. Relevance is the lever of the matter: everyone craves enlightenment. Those who write relevant articles are read. We need blog lists and blog filters. New distribution channels. Cross-media. A self-critical debate about quality and publicity. "18 francs 30," says the advertiser at the wheel, "brainstorming is on the house."
> Oliver Fahrni is a freelance journalist and media ecologist.

 The Federal Council wants to provide better protection for the term «Switzerland» and the Swiss cross. To that end, it launched a consultation process on Wednesday regarding the legislative proposal known as «Swissness.» Cases of misuse of designations such as «Swiss Quality» or the Swiss cross are on the rise, the Federal Council wrote on Wednesday. It now intends to establish more precise regulations. Until now, the Swiss cross has not been permitted on goods, but its use is allowed for services. «All companies that have been using the Swiss cross on their products are actually violating the current Coat of Arms Protection Act,» says Felix Addor of the Federal Institute of Intellectual Property. «The law is now to be amended so that Swiss companies can legally use the Swiss cross.» However, the goal is to have clear regulations in place. Only products that truly originate from Switzerland should be allowed to bear the cross. Action against misuse will be taken more consistently once the new law actually goes into effect. The Swiss coat of arms—that is, the Swiss cross within a shield—remains the exclusive property of the Swiss Confederation.
Under the new rules, the Swiss share of a product’s manufacturing costs must be at least 60 percent for the product to be considered of Swiss origin. For various categories of goods, specific requirements are also set forth regarding the connection that must exist between the product and its place of origin. In addition, enforcement will be strengthened: In cases of misuse of the designation «Switzerland» and the Swiss cross within the country, the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property will be able to file criminal charges and participate in the proceedings.

 
GEMI According to the Goldbach Electronic Media Index (GEMI), e-media once again increased advertising pressure by 8 index points in October. Following the completion of a full review of Internet data by Media Focus, the current index was corrected upwards by over 100 points. The growth in TV is clearly continuing with an increase of 11 index points to 411. Radio is now at 256 points (-2) and cannot keep up with the development of all e-media. These recorded above-average growth of 8 to 394 index points. The market for all media covered by Media Focus rose by 3 to 194 index points. Media Focus has completed its review of data deliveries in the Internet media group in the current year and 2006. Following the revision to date, Internet recorded an indexed increase in advertising pressure of 116 points to 368. It will be interesting to see how this continues. 
  

 A TV series is dividing Italy. And for good reason: because it is not about love, friendship or good and bad times - no, it tells the life of Toto Riina. For those who don't know this man: Toto Riina is the longtime number one of the Italian mafia and was sentenced to several life sentences in 1993. "Il Capo dei Capi", or the boss of bosses, as the series broadcast on Canale 5 is affectionately known, turns the mafioso into a hero, which is very damaging for society, says the anti-mafia prosecutor of Palermo, Antonio Ingroia. And he doesn't seem to be wrong: If you believe his words, an entire school class unanimously named the mafia boss when asked which person on the show they liked the most. And Italy's Minister of Justice, Clemente Mastella, is anything but enthusiastic about the mafia romance on screen. According to SDA, he is calling for the series to be suspended. Berlusconi's media company Mediaset, on the other hand, whose channel broadcasts the carnage, praises the high quality and the care with which the facts are told. And the producer, Pietro Valsecchi, also defends his work: the film was shot with the utmost historical accuracy. The Minister of Justice should be more concerned with trials than with TV series. Hopefully he won't have to deal with many more trials soon if he follows Valsecchi's advice and lets the students continue to celebrate the Capo as a likeable hero.

 
Media Research Wemf's Mach Radar study is designed to help marketing get a better handle on segmented audiences. 
"Consumers are presenting marketing managers with ever greater challenges," write those responsible at AG für Werbemedienforschung (Wemf) right at the start of their new study. Even detailed criteria such as education, income, occupational status and information on consumer behavior are only partially able to provide information on the motives that ultimately lead people to buy a product. "The consumer is increasingly fragmented," they say. This is where the new Mach Radar study aims to remedy the situation and serve as a basis for marketing to better understand consumers. Researchers nowadays assume that consumers are guided primarily by their own values, and that the type of marketing they use must then be based on these values.
The new study integrates the two previous Demoscope studies, Market Radar and Medien Radar, and at the same time links them with the Wemf studies Mach Basic and Mach Consumer. Wemf also publishes the study in cooperation with Demoscope.
The core of the study is the so-called radar psychography or the resulting psychographic space of Switzerland. All respondents take a short five-minute test and answer 26 questions. On the basis of the answers, each person's own value profile is created. These profiles are then used to calculate the aforementioned psychographic space, a three-dimensional space on the axes "progressive - conservative," "external - internal," and "leader - follower.
Users of the study can thus link media and consumption data with psychographic data in a single operation and obtain information about the positioning of products. "This makes Mach Radar particularly interesting for marketing, media and publishing professionals who develop their strategy from this data," writes Wemf.
What does the study do?Mach Radar can be used to determine which target groups have an affinity for which value attitudes in which market segment. The study can also be used to identify other target groups. By linking psychographics with demographics and consumer behavior, the marketing and media target groups can be transferred directly into the analysis, enabling the optimum print media to be determined for the target groups. The positioning of titles and brands can also be reliably determined. The profiles of direct competitors can be determined and those fields can be analyzed where direct predatory competition is taking place. It is also possible to observe cannibalization tendencies of products within one's own brand and to determine the conditions under which, for example, a new launch of a title would be advisable. But Mach Radar can also be used by a publishing house to demonstrate to an advertiser which media are positioned closer to or further away from its product. The study also serves as a tool for title selection or as a media planning tool and also offers a wealth of additional information: Briefing for the agency, knowledge about the readership and their values for the editorial team or well-founded data about the consumers themselves.
How does the study read?The Mach Radar user first analyzes the buyer share of the population (bar chart on the right) as well as per field in percentages. Then he looks at the affinities per field (100 = average). A high index means that the brand is anchored in the field in question. The more pronounced the red color, the higher the share or affinity in the field in question. Like any average value, the center of gravity is only an approximation of reality. (red)

 
Elections 07 The debate on advertising bans and postal market liberalization is freshly launched in the new parliament. 
The private TV association Telesuisse can breathe a sigh of relief: its president Filippo Lombardi is still a member of the newly elected Council of States. The situation is different for the Swiss Advertising Association: its President Carlo Schmid (CVP) no longer stood for election to the small chamber. The SW now no longer has a direct line into parliament. However, SW spokesperson Piero Schäfer does not believe that the position of the advertising industry is in any way threatened by this. "There are a relatively large number of new SVP parliamentarians, and they are most in line with us, at least when it comes to rejecting advertising bans," he says. In this respect, the SW issues might have it a little easier in future. Schäfer also describes the fight against advertising bans as the main political issue from the SW perspective in the future. He refers to the off-roader initiative and the national "Alcohol" and "Nutrition" programs, which would also include advertising bans or restrictions. It is also important to remain vigilant with regard to the EU. Advertising bans are also one of the most important political issues of the future from the point of view of the Swiss Press Association. However, the association's managing director Hanspeter Kellermüller mentions others: the revision of VAT and - more pressing than ever for publishers - the liberalization of the postal market. But how does he see publishers' positions on these issues being represented in the new parliament? Kellermüller is hesitant - with good reason. There are two National Councillors who describe themselves as publishers - Filippo Leutenegger (FDP) and Doris Stump (SP). The SVP National Councillors Hans Fehr and Hans Kaufmann are members of the board of Schweizerzeit Verlags AG, SP National Councillor Hans-Jürg Fehr is a member of the board of Schaffhauser AZ, FDP Councillor of States Rolf Büttiker is on the board of Dietschi AG (Oltner Tagblatt) and CVP Councillor of States Urs Schwaller is on the board of La Liberté newspaper printers. But Hanspeter Kellermüller knows from past discussions about the RTVA and indirect press subsidies that the publishers in parliament do not speak with one voice. Leutenegger and Fehr, for example, have very different media policy positions. "It would therefore be wrong to say that we have our representatives in parliament," says Kellermüller. This cannot be compared with the pharmaceutical or farming lobbies.
The vested interests of the new parliamentarians are still only sporadically known: Doris Stump, SVP National Councillors Wobmann and Gadient, CVP National Councillor Bugnon and FDP Councillor of States Fünfschilling sit on SRG committees, FDP National Councillor Gysin has a connection to Basler Zeitung Medien, FDP National Councillor Theiler and SVP National Councillor Stamm have one to the AZ Media Group and SVP National Councillor Rickli works for Goldbach Media. To name just a few.
Markus Knöpfli

 
Street survey Shortly before the launch of the fifth free title News, Werbewoche asked the golden media triangle about free reading habits. 
Almost everyone likes 20 Minuten, Cash daily is unknown, .ch is spurned despite home delivery and is now loved by young women. This is the result of a non-representative Werbewoche street survey of a total of 171 people in the cities of Basel, Bern and Zurich.On December 5, the free daily News, the fifth national free paper in German-speaking Switzerland, will appear in the agglomerations of the golden triangle. Given the abundance of commuter newspapers, one wonders how many and which titles will survive. Not to mention the free newspapers that also exist in Basel, Bern and Zurich. The situation is also difficult to assess because no meaningful reach figures exist yet for .ch and only halfway meaningful ones for Cash daily.
For this reason, Werbewoche wanted to find out before the launch of News, by means of a street survey, how popular the currently existing old and new free titles are. Although not representative (see Methodology), the survey with a total of 171 interviews in Basel, Bern and Zurich should nevertheless tell us something about the current market situation.
What is perhaps most surprising from the results is that Cash daily is not only the least read free title. It is also largely unknown. Many respondents openly admitted that they had never heard of it. Still others knew the Ringier title, but did not know where it was available. In any case, of the 171 respondents, only six men and three women counted themselves as occasional Cash Daily readers - because no one had looked at the business paper two days in a row. The situation is quite different with 20 Minuten: 114 people said they had read the Tamedia paper, 45 of them even on two days in a row. The title is most popular with the young target group, both women and men. But the over-55s also like to get the paper out of the box - if it is still available at all, as some noted.
With 43 mentions, .ch, which is only two months old, achieved a respectable success. But only ten people said they had picked it up on two days in a row, which is actually surprising in view of the home delivery. And no other free title received as many wrinkled noses and snide comments ("I don't know what this title is about") as .ch.
But even when the talk turned to the evening paper today, rolled eyes or contorted corners of the mouth were not uncommon. At least men accompanied their statements about the title with condescending gestures, the older the more frequently. Women, on the other hand, hardly ever expressed disdain. The Ringier title therefore met with far greater interest among the female sex.
Not surprisingly, the various gazettes in the three cities are primarily read by the older public. The daily Baslerstab is an exception - it finds readers in all age groups.
How people will react to another free title is not clear from this survey. However, 32, or just under one-sixth of all respondents, stated that they had not read any free titles on the days surveyed. A good half of them expressed a fundamental disdain for this type of press - for a variety of reasons.
In addition to the non-readers, however, there are also those who read several free titles. In Zurich, 16 people had looked at just one title, 18 at two, 7 at three and 3 at four different free newspapers. One 68-year-old woman even read all five Zurich titles on the two days in question - 20 Minuten and .ch twice each! In Basel, 15 people picked up just one title, 22 read two, 7 consumed three and 2 people four. In Bern, 15 people leafed through just one free paper, 17 were interested in two, 11 read three and 4 read four free papers.
One more result should be mentioned here: If the free titles are read on paper, the e-papers play a subordinate role. Only eight people stated that they read one or more titles on the computer. Five younger men read 20 Minuten online (three of them in addition to print, two online only), and one each read Cash daily (print and online), the Baslerstab and the Berner Bär. And the only woman, a 57-year-old, had read .ch on the Internet.
Markus Knöpfli
Three different marketsOf the three cities in the golden triangle, Basel is the agglomeration with the densest free newspaper market. In addition to 20 Minuten, .ch, heute and Cash daily, the Baslerstab also competes there five times a week for the favor of readers and advertisers. Although Bern has as many as six titles with Berner Bär and Anzeiger Region Bern (ARB), both free papers are "only" distributed twice a week. Zurich has the lowest density of daily free papers, at least since the beginning of the year, when the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich changed its publication frequency to once a week. (mk)
Free newspapers: the survey methodologyThe present street survey is by no means representative. Werbewoche reporter Markus Knöpfli went to frequented squares in Basel, Bern and Zurich on three consecutive mornings (each between 8:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.) and interviewed 57 passers-by each. The selection was random. The kick-off was on Wednesday, November 22, in Bern, near the Federal Palace and in front of the Kurhotel. On Thursday, November 23, it was Zurich's turn in the area of the School of Design, and Basel followed on Friday, November 24, at the Messeplatz. Measured against the real population structures, men came up a bit short overall in this survey. In addition, 14- to 34-year-olds are clearly overrepresented and people aged 55 and over are clearly underrepresented.
The respondents had to be at least 14 years old and able to understand German. Furthermore, they had to live in the city where the survey was currently taking place. The specific question was then: "Have you already read the free title xy today, did you read xy yesterday?" If respondents answered in the affirmative, or both, they were further asked whether they had read the title on paper or online.
It is clear that daily newspapers such as 20 Minuten, .ch, Cash daily and Baslerstab had an advantage in terms of questioning because they could be named twice. In principle, only one mention was possible for the Abendzeitung heute, as well as for the weekly title Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich, which appears on Wednesdays, and for the twice-weekly title Berner Bär, which appears on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the Anzeiger Region Bern (ARB), which appears on Wednesdays and Fridays. The ARB was at a particular disadvantage because the survey was conducted in Bern on its publication day and only in the morning. (mk)
 
 

 On December 1, Daniel Allemann will join the Basel-based free newspaper Baslerstab as Head of Marketing and Deputy Publishing Director. This was announced by Basler Zeitung Medien on Wednesday. Allemann, 39, has spent the last six years as Head of Marketing and Deputy Publishing Director at TR7 AG, which belongs to Axel Springer Switzerland and publishes the TV Star.

 The dispute over folk music on the radio that broke out in the summer has now also had an impact on the awarding of the new SRG license. The Federal Council is showing an open ear for fans of these sounds. With the new license, it is responding to public criticism and obliging the SRG to broadcast folk music on the FM radio network. According to Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger, the SRG must also provide the essential parts of the program on FM. "This includes folk music," the Media Minister told the media in Bern on Wednesday. It is unacceptable for the SRG to outsource an important part of culture to digital radio. This technology is still not very widespread, Leuenberger explained.
Last August, Swiss Radio DRS announced that folk music would only be broadcast on DRS Musikwelle from February 2008, which sparked fierce criticism. DRS then decided to postpone the shift.

 
Internet Plebstv gives amateur journalists a platform. So far, the enthusiasm has been limited. 
When the Zunfthaus zur Zimmerleuten in Zurich burned down on November 15, Manuela W. happened to be there. The high school student took photos of the firefighting work with her cell phone. A short time later, her photos were published on the website of a free newspaper. Many other eyewitnesses followed Manuela's example and sent their pictures to local newsrooms. However, the snapshots were not published, much to the regret of the self-proclaimed amateur reporters. However, there is another way for them to capture such events in sound and image for a wider audience - it's called Plebstv (www.plebstv.com). The internet portal is intended for citizen journalists. Users can upload reports to the platform in the form of texts, photo galleries and videos. Unlike on conventional video platforms such as YouTube, the contributions are linked on a map. Flags mark the news on the news atlas. According to its own description, Plebstv aims to democratize reporting and develop into the largest infotainment portal in the world.
Slow startWhile the creators of Plebstv want to revolutionize journalism, Internet users are still very passive towards the new platform. To date, several hundred people have added their profile, but only 300 amateur journalists have written articles since the launch in September. The site is predominantly filled with professional material from the Reuters news agency; user-generated content remains rare. Only occasionally do users see a shaky cell phone video or a short photo series.
In order to increase the quality and number of contributions, Plebstv has been remunerating home video producers since the beginning of November. The portal pays one euro per video contribution, which must be at least 30 seconds long. Texts or a commented picture series are also rewarded. If a user can convince others to upload content to the site, Plebs pays 25 cents for each confirmed contact. Despite this remuneration system, the portal still lacks citizen reporters. Even the bloggers, amateur journalists in their purest form, are very reticent about the news forum. Only a few people in the blogosphere read about the project. Enthusiasm for the portal is limited.
Although only a few amateur journalists have come together on Plebstv, the initiators are firmly convinced of the idea of such a platform. Not because YouTube-like services are currently booming, but because the local news offering serves an unoccupied niche.
 
Plebstv media spokeswoman Sandrine Haas says: "We all know exactly what is happening in Afghanistan. But we often know too little about events in the immediate vicinity." Journalism professor Jay Rosen from New York sees a lack of information in local reporting: "Large newspapers cannot provide the hyperlocal journalism that readers demand. They want to know what's going on in their neighborhood."
In order to further develop the website, the creators of Plebstv want to open up the platform to advertisers. Sandrine Haas does not yet want to say anything specific about the form in which advertising can be placed in future. "We are testing various concepts. None are ready to go yet." The team is currently working on community building. The creators are aiming for a 40,000-strong community by the middle of next year. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland. If things go well, they want to expand to Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries.
In order to reach the target number of citizen journalists, the Plebstv team is out and about on the streets of major German-speaking cities. Potential members are also being mobilized at Zurich main station, for example. Street castings will be held until mid-December. Anyone who takes part will be interviewed by a team on internet-related topics and filmed in the process. The Plebstv community will later select the best contribution.
However, young people in Zurich are reluctant to engage with the portal. It can take hours to find participants willing to provide information. Sandrine Haas, however, is determined: "We are completely convinced of our idea."
Christian Lüscher
Ambitious, but only in the beta phaseAbout the founders of Plebstv
almost nothing is known. Sandrine Haas: "The creative minds behind the project want to remain unknown." The company is based in the British Virgin Islands (USA). However, the internet platform is being realized by the Swiss company Starnet Media, based in Thalwil. Plebstv is currently still in a beta phase. A more advanced version is due to be launched in the first quarter of 2008. For example, IP address recognition will enable local access. The portal automatically recognizes the user's location and loads the corresponding map with the news. (lü)

 The shortlist for the Eurobest Awards was announced on Wednesday. The Swiss agencies were shortlisted a total of 47 times. The jury shortlisted a total of 1059 entries. Ten nominations went to Ruf Lanz, nine each to Jung von Matt/Limmat and Advico Young & Rubicam. The Walker advertising agency made it onto the shortlist six times and Publicis Zurich five times. McCann Erickson and Fisch.Meier.Direkt each received two nominations. One shortlist place each goes to Wunderman Y&R, DraftFCB/Lowe, Saatchi & Saatchi Simko and Euro RSCG Zurich. The Eurobest Awards will be presented on Friday.

 The Federal Council has granted SRG a new license. It includes authorization to offer high-definition television (HD TV) and gives the SRG more programming and advertising opportunities on the SF info repeat channel. The new SRG license, which was approved by the federal government on Wednesday, comes into force on January 1, 2008 and replaces the 1992 license. It is valid for a period of ten years.
SRG has now been granted the right to offer high-definition television. The first channel in HD quality will be available to viewers from next Monday, with broadcasts in all four national languages.
More advertising opportunities on SF info SRG will also have more programming and advertising opportunities on the SF info repeat channel. This move was criticized in advance by private broadcasters.
SRG can also broadcast updated TV programs via the Internet. SRG's activities on the internet are also controversial. The concession now also limits the scope for action on the internet. The Federal Council decided that information on the internet must be directly related to television or radio broadcasts in terms of time and subject matter.
The government also states that SRG's public service should continue to be based primarily on full-service radio and television programming. The concession now stipulates four quality criteria for SRG's programming: Credibility, sense of responsibility, relevance and journalistic professionalism.
SRG regional companies no longer on the Board of DirectorsThe concession now stipulates that in future no persons may sit on the SRG Board of Directors who already hold a management function in the SRG ownership - regional companies, member companies, public councils.
In this way, the Federal Council wants to prevent the particular interests of individual regions from being too strongly represented on SRG's highest national management body. Until now, the Chairmen of the Board of Directors of the SRG regional companies have automatically been members of the SRG Board of Directors; this is to be avoided in future.
According to a press release, SRG was "surprised" to learn of the new provision on the composition of the Board of Directors. It will carefully analyze its content and scope and discuss it with the supervisory authority.