In a letter dated Monday, Swisscable, the trade association of cable TV companies, draws attention to the fact that folk music can still be received with a normal analog radio in the future, namely via cable. This means that folk music from DRS1 or DRS Musikwelle can already be received today; this will not change when folk music moves from DRS1 to Musikwelle in February 2008 and when Musikwelle can only be received digitally via the airwaves at the end of 2008 following the switch-off of the Beromünster medium-wave transmitter. The announcement relates to the nationwide outrage at the SRG's announcement that folk music will be removed from DRS1 as of February 2008; it was sparked above all by the fact that Musikwelle will only be available in digital form at the end of 2008, practically forcing folk music lovers to buy a digital radio receiver. The fact that Musikwelle will continue to broadcast analog via cable was previously little known.

The editor-in-chief of Bilanz magazine, René Lüchinger, is leaving his post with immediate effect. He is stepping down from his position after four years at his own request and in agreement with the publisher Jean Frey, the Zurich-based publishing house announced. Lüchinger wants to pursue "new challenges" outside the company. Deputy Editor-in-Chief Pierre-André Schmitt and Stefan Barmettler, member of the Editor-in-Chief, will take over as Editor-in-Chief of Bilanz on an interim basis. Both will report directly to Ralph Büchi, CEO of Jean Frey. Büchi was rather muted about Lüchinger's departure: "It is part of everyday life in the media industry that changes occur at the top of an editorial team". An immediate departure is common: "If an editor-in-chief decides to leave a publication, the change should take place as quickly as possible". Lüchinger will continue to oversee the completion of the current issue and say goodbye to the readers.
In June, the publishing group Jean Frey and Handelszeitung, which belongs to Axel Springer and publishes the investor magazine Stocks as well as Bilanz, experienced another change of editor-in-chief: Hansjörg Ryser stepped down from the management of Stocks and was replaced by Urs Aeberli
(see ). The two cases have nothing to do with each other, Büchi told Werbewoche. An amicable solution had also been found with Ryser. He is now head of the finance department at Bilanz.

 Why did the Swiss clothing manufacturer Switcher come up with the idea of designing a newspaper supplement and an information brochure for its 2007 fall and winter collection in the layout of a well-known Swiss free newspaper in the last few weeks? Switcher founder and boss Robin Cornelius is all about credibility. The company from Le Mont in the canton of Vaud is strongly committed to social and ecological issues. "Switcher customers," Cornelius told Cpwissen.de magazine, "not only place high demands on product quality, they also have high social and ecological standards." These can be communicated more credibly via a journalistic medium than via catalogs, says the founder. Based on these considerations, Cornelius converted the catalog into a newspaper. The "finally fashionable free newspaper", as the headline puts it, not only shows the latest collection, it also reports on the company's social commitment in India and tells stories about the people involved in production. The 32-page newspaper "Switcher Friends News" will now be published every six months and will have a print run of 800,000 copies. It is therefore likely to remain the highest-circulation free newspaper in Switzerland for the foreseeable future.

 On October 1, 2007, responsibility for the technical management of Radio Top, a private radio station in Eastern Switzerland, will pass from Uli Kohlbrenner to Thomas Lüscher. Kohlbrenner has held this position for more than seven years. He is now moving to SRG. Lüscher will take over the management of the entire broadcast, studio and IT areas of Radio Top, Top Two and Top Online. He is 44 years old and previously managed the Winterthur base of ALSO IT-Services, among other things. He also set up a small private telecommunications museum.

 With regard to DAB digital radio, the SRG is not keeping its promise that this technology will make it possible to offer a wider range of programs. This is what the NZZ am Sonntag writes in its current issue. At present, only eleven stations can be received in German-speaking Switzerland, all from the SRG family of stations. Private stations will only be given a chance on a second DAB platform: in July, the federal government appointed eight new licensees. The NZZ am Sonntag also complains that the sound quality of DAB transmission in Switzerland is not convincing. With a data rate of just 128 kilobits per second in most cases, the quality of the Swiss DAB offering is among the worst in international comparison. "To achieve anything approaching CD quality, a data rate of at least 192 kilobits per second is required," Matthias Rose, press spokesman for the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) in Erlangen, told the NZZ am Sonntag.
According to Bernhard Bürki, press spokesman for the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom), 128 kilobits per second is more than enough for a voice program, but this data rate can be tight for classical music. On its DAB information page on the Internet, Bakom also takes the view that "192 to 256 kbit/s are necessary for a stereo music program in sufficient quality". However, the federal government has not issued a corresponding regulation in the so-called SRG license.
There will be more broadcasters in Switzerland when the eight private licensees selected in July are expected to go on air in autumn 2008. The federal government could then set a minimum data rate for the first time. According to Bakom spokesperson Bürki, it has not yet been decided how high this will be.

 SRG boss Armin Walpen received some criticism for his decision to remove the broadcasting of Formula 1 races from the program as of 2008 for financial reasons. At best, he would be prepared to broadcast Formula 1 races again if considerable additional income could be generated. "If the financial conditions change, this decision can be discussed again," Walpen said in an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag. According to him, sponsors would be one option; however, additional funds would have to be raised.
The SRG decision to remove folk music programs from the DRS 1 program is also controversial. "We don't want to take anything away from anyone, on the contrary," he said. The range of folk music on the music wave should be expanded in terms of quality and quantity.
Walpen had already expressed this view the previous day in an interview with the Bernese daily newspaper Der Bund. On Monday, representatives of the SRG will explain the popular music decision to the Transport and Telecommunications Committee of the National Council, as Walpen told Der Bund.

 The agency association BSW Leading Swiss Agencies supports the consumer organizations' call for more protection against unsolicited telephone advertising and formally distances itself from any abuse by dubious providers. Association President Bodin is quoted in a press release as saying: "If subscribers who do not wish to receive telephone advertising continue to be harassed, this is more than offensive". For the association, it is clear that if there is an asterisk next to the number in the telephone directory, this number may not be used for advertising calls. The same applies to suppressed calls: telemarketers must identify themselves. BSW Leading Swiss Agencies therefore welcomes the Consumer Forum's initiative to tighten the laws. Of course, telephone advertising as part of a campaign can certainly be a sensible and desirable measure for establishing contact between providers and consumers, it continues. However, this requires respect for clear rules. These include, of course, that the subscriber must agree to the call. If the customer requests the call, for example in the case of reply cards for competitions, it should also be permitted for new business.

 Hubert Keller is to become editor-in-chief of the two weekly newspapers Woche Plus and Lenzburger Bezirksanzeiger, which are published by AZ Medien. He will take office "in the course of the fall", according to the Aargauer Zeitung. Keller replaces Christina Sedens, who is moving to Filippo Leutenegger's magazine Neue Ideen. Keller has worked in the Baden section of the Aargauer Zeitung in recent years.

 When it comes to brand awareness, it is primarily the parents who play a role for children. As the current basic study "Brands as fixed stars in the children's universe" by IP Deutschland shows, children learn how to deal with brands primarily from their own parents. 48 children aged between six and 13 were surveyed - the result: the juniors primarily engage with brands for two reasons: firstly, children have the expectation that brands can fulfill certain needs; secondly, they are interested in gaining the knowledge and experiences that are obviously relevant for adults.
According to Pressetext.ch, the functions of brands for children change depending on their age and stage of development. While the main focus at a very early age is on demonstrating belonging, the need for differentiation becomes increasingly important as children get older. At first, children attach importance to clearly showing that they already "belong" and are allowed to go to school by choosing certain brands for their school bags, for example. The older they get, the stronger the need to distance themselves individually from others and focus on their own preferences.

 The Swiss Red Cross (SRC) is launching a cross-media fundraising campaign on 15 September, which is being realized by the GGK agency. It aims to show first-hand what the aid organization does with the donations. At the beginning of September, two SRC employees will travel to Mali, where many aid projects are currently being carried out. Every morning, footage of the situation will be taken on site and the SRC employees will report on how the Red Cross is combating misery there. This footage is then transmitted to Switzerland by satellite, where it is processed into a commercial and shown on e-boards in train stations and on the internet in the afternoon. In the evening, the commercials are shown on Swiss television. These clips, which are produced daily, are supported by full-page advertisements. At the end of this eight-day reportage, a summarizing spot will be shown on the Postcanal - a flyer with a payment slip will of course be available.
The campaign aims to make people aware that there is need and misery every day. Donation barometers show that donations are massively higher than normal during acute disasters. The Red Cross, on the other hand, helps to alleviate suffering every day, which the campaign aims to convey.
The SRC is accompanying a mailing with an advertising campaign for the first time. It is not expected that donors will react negatively to this, SRC advertising manager Martin Grossenbacher told Werbewoche: "The SRC is jumping on the bandwagon relatively late. Numerous aid organizations have been advertising very actively for years, so the acceptance is there today." In addition to its advertising function, the campaign also fulfills a second task: it can make transparent how the Red Cross helps on the ground, Grossenbacher continued.
The concept for the cross-media campaign comes from GGK, with whom the SRC has been working for two years. It is a further development of a campaign platform that also comes from GGK. However, the aid organization does not send an expensive camera team to Mali; the SRC employees take the shots for the commercials with a digital camera; in Switzerland, the material is built into a prefabricated framework.

 Out-of-home advertiser APG has announced a number of innovations for the first half of 2008. As previously announced, the new F24 large format will be introduced. By the end of the year, almost 500 of the current 850 or so large formats will be converted to F24 and new sites will also be developed. In a first stage, around 800 to 1,000 locations are planned by January 1, 2008, according to APG. Pricing for the 2008 offer was based for the last time on the previous Poster Study Switzerland. The prices of the F12 and F200 poster formats will increase by an average of 2.5 percent. The out-of-home advertiser cites the steadily rising cost level in the Swiss out-of-home advertising market as the reason for this. In addition, findings from the new SPR+ basic poster research have already been implemented. The network offering has been slightly reduced in favor of an expanded single space contingent, according to the statement.
In the APG Poster Performance Index PPI service tool, which measures the qualitative advertising impact of individual campaigns, the SPR+ values are also shown for the first time alongside the previous performance values. In addition - based on the SPR+ findings - a new target area category was created with the so-called APG Mobility areas: geographically connected agglomeration communities that exhibit intensive, homogeneous mobility behavior among the population. A mobility area begins immediately adjacent to a core city and extends into the settlement areas of the relevant catchment area. It is characterized by strong commuter flows with mixed traffic.
All the new features and key points are summarized in the Poster News 2008-1 overview, which can be downloaded as a pdf file from Apg.ch/publications. The updated edition of the APG Billboards: Destinations, Offers and Prices 2008-1 pocket booklet is also available immediately as a pdf file or printed version.

 The motto of the Bern Marketing Day on November 13, 2007 is "How to defeat Goliath - or 10 commandments to achieve great things with few resources". Football referee Urs Meier will speak on the commandment "You should only dance to your own tune", Swiss Post CEO Ulrich Gygi will talk about himself and how he wants to remain David at heart, even if he is Goliath, and DJ Bobo will explain why you shouldn't bake small rolls. Other speakers include Markus Ryffel, Günter Netzer and Gabriela Manser. The conference will be accompanied by Harley Krohmer, Head of the Institute for Corporate Management at the University of Bern, and TV journalist Röbi Koller. The 11th Bern Marketing Day will take place at the Allegro Grand Casino Bern and will offer two additional networking platforms for the first time: Special VIP tables for six people and an after-event party for marketeers at the Du Théatre. The program and registration can be found on the Bmt.ch website.