From mid-September, the Zurich-based company Das Goldene Ohr will be looking for the best radio spots from Germany, Austria and Switzerland for the 10th time. Entries for the new round of the competition, which has been held in Zurich since 1998, can be submitted this year from September 17 to October 26. The award ceremony will take place on Thursday, November 15 at the Zurich Chamber Orchestra House in Zurich, and from next year the competition area will be extended to cover the whole of Europe. The number of competition entries is increasing year on year, said Managing Director Frank Bienenfeld. "That makes us take responsibility. But it also makes it clear that the tough judging process and independence from advertising time marketers are important criteria for the acceptance of the competition."
19 jurors from all participating countries will decide on the quality of the spots. The Swiss jurors for this year are Heiko Drewanowski (Managing Director, Creative Director, Sevenseas GmbH, Zurich), Simone Fennel (Art Director, Zurich), Matthias Freuler (Executive Creative Director, Wirz Werbung AG, Zurich), Stephanie Hugentobler (President script, Schweizer Texterinnen- und Texterverband, Zurich), Alexander Jaggy (Managing Director Kreation, Jung von Matt/Limmat AG, Zurich), Daniel Kunz (Managing Director, Producer, Cheese & Chocolate Filmproduktion, Zurich), Philipp Skrabal (Creative Director, Publicis Werbeagentur AG, Zurich), Markus Ruf (Managing Director, Creative Director, Ruf Lanz Werbeagentur AG, Zurich), Pius Walker (Managing Director, Creative Director, Walker Werbeagentur, Zurich).

 More and more media are making their online content available free of charge. For a few weeks now, users have been able to access the previously paid-for content of the British weekly newspaper Economist for free. CNN has also abandoned its fee-based strategy and now offers its films free of charge. The renowned New York Times and Wall Street Journal are also considering making their online content free (see and ). According to Focus, the change at these media companies could herald a radical change on the web or even the end of the culture of paying for exclusive content. This is because media are perceived more strongly online if their content is available free of charge. They are linked to, they are mentioned in blogs and they appear in Google news searches. Another reason for abandoning paid content is that readers will migrate to the competition if content costs money.
A study by the Frankfurt-based media consultancy Timelab predicts that paid content has no future in Germany either. According to the study, the main reason for this is that most media lack content that readers cannot find elsewhere on the web for free.

 Almost half a million viewers watched the Street Parade on the local channel TeleZüri on Saturday. The live broadcast of the 16th Street Parade around the Zurich lake basin was watched by around 200,000 people, the station announced in a press release on Monday.46.6 percent of all viewers in the advertising-relevant target group of 15 to 49-year-olds achieved the highest market share on Saturday afternoon at 3.30 pm. On average, viewers watched the broadcast for around 38 minutes, compared with an average viewing time of 28 minutes in the previous year. TeleZüri was thus able to record an increase of 35.4 percent.
 

 German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere unexpectedly announced the departure of its CEO Georg Kofler on Monday. For reasons of "personal life planning", Kofler asked the company's Board of Directors to terminate his contract prematurely at the end of August. As a leading shareholder outside the media industry, Kofler said he wanted to build up a group of companies that would position itself in selected growth markets. It was time for a "change of subject". The company also announced that he had already sold his company shares amounting to 1.25 percent of the share capital last week.

 Swissinfo, the SRG's foreign service, is in dispute with one of its former employees over the swissinfo.org website. The former manager had the website registered in his name and now wants to sell it for a profit following his resignation. As spokesperson Daniel Steiner confirmed to SDA on Monday, SRG has attempted to prevent a possible sale of the domain by means of a super-provisional injunction. A Bernese court rejected this and heard the man. However, he is now not allowed to use the address for his own purposes until the end of the year.
 
The ruling shows that the owner of the domain has voluntarily undertaken to tolerate the free use of the domain name by SRG until the end of his employment relationship at the end of 2007.
 
SRG wants to secure the rights to Swissinfo.org, emphasized Steiner. The priority is to reach an agreement with the owner. If this does not succeed, legal action cannot be ruled out.
Swissinfo.org is not the first website to be the subject of a legal dispute: the address Switzerland.ch, for example, was also secured by a private individual. After a long dispute, the federal government paid her CHF 50,000 for the domain.

 The German Ministry of Economic Affairs has withdrawn the advertising agency Flaskamp from the controversial advertising campaign to promote SMEs and suspended the series of PR events in question for the time being. The ministry had come under criticism because it had apparently offered newspapers the placement of advertisements in return for co-organizing and reporting on political events (see ). According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, a spokesperson for the ministry said on Monday that the concept of the series of events would be reviewed again. He emphasized that the criticized counter-deals were "absolutely inadmissible". They had also never been part of the campaign concept. "There was no mention of these circumstances in the concept on which the tender was based," said the spokesperson.
A co-owner of the PR agency, Jan Flaskamp, told Handelsblatt that the ministry was not to blame: "This was a mistake by our agency and was not coordinated with the Ministry of Economic Affairs." In a conversation with an employee of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger publishing house, both the editorial coverage and the advertisements were addressed. "The Ministry of Economic Affairs knew nothing about this. I can only ask for forgiveness," Flaskamp told the Kölner Stadtanzeiger.

 The men's magazine Short List will soon be entering the UK magazine market with a completely new strategy for its segment. Instead of a lot of naked skin and a clear pin-up character like its competitors from GQ, Esquire and the like, Short List deliberately wants to be correct and decent. "We don't want to embarrass our readers," emphasizes lead investor Mike Soutar. Naked facts and swearing are consistently avoided in the magazine, which is aimed at career-oriented men between twenty and forty, and the distribution concept is also unconventional: similar to the successful commuter newspapers in this country, the well-behaved men's magazine is to be distributed publicly. As the New York Times reports, the new magazine is based on the success of the French magazine Sport, which, as a commuter paper, has captured large parts of the French and English advertising market in just three years and whose circulation will soon reach millions.
It is highly doubtful whether the break with the men's magazine tradition is the right step to achieve success in the badly declining market segment.
For advertisers, the decisive factor will be whether the magazine's content can make up for the wasted impact of the cover, the New York Times continues. Experience shows that the quality of the cover determines the success of a glossy magazine by thirty to forty percent. Soutar does not yet want to reveal what will make the cover of Short List shine. And nobody is interested in what's inside.

 The marketing battle and media ecstasy for the 30th anniversary of Elvis' death are on the horizon. Robert Redford's 70th birthday and the 60th Independence Day will be nothing more than sideshows. Because only one person can be the King, a superhuman combination of rhythm, money and libido. He also has a decisive marketing advantage over Redford: he's dead. Most likely... The fact that the memory of the truck driver with the swinging hips loves to discharge itself in scurrilities is not only due to "Love Me Tender" and "In The Ghetto", but also to the innocent charm of a Southern underclassman who, coupled with insane wealth, contributed to the most wonderful King drama in pop culture. A look at the TV program proves that the bizarre value of the Elvis commemoration can be relied upon: Not only is the King's wedding cake recreated, his clothes analyzed and the youngest Elvis fan sought, but theologians, "sexperts" and chefs are also allowed to put forward their theories about the cult of the last man to wear white. There is sure to be a liver or sweat stain or two in the shape of the King's face. It is also no surprise that a Hannes Rossacher documentary (Elvis-O-Rama, Thursday, ORF and Arte) makes up the majority of domestic Elvis remembrance. Even if the constant boiling up on the occasion of various anniversaries, deaths and birthdays sometimes seems forced and uninspired - institutional remembrance is part of the media retro society. Remembering oneself is much more strenuous.

 The German Ministry of Economic Affairs has apparently offered newspapers the placement of advertisements in return for co-organizing and reporting on political events. This involves advertisements worth between 30,000 and 40,000 euros as part of the "Dialogtour, Impulse für Wachstum" campaign. Economics Minister Michael Glos immediately distanced himself from such a possible practice in Bild am Sonntag. The Kölner Stadtanzeiger also stated that, according to the ministry, 140,000 euros had already been spent on the campaign. The responsible PR agency gave the newspapers precise specifications regarding the scope of reporting on the events and the moderation by the editor-in-chief. According to SDA, a ministry spokesperson said there was "no influence on the reporting". He was not aware of any "counter-financing" being offered.

 It is not a name that people in this country would be familiar with, yet some of his TV inventions have also established themselves here in adapted versions. For example, the quiz shows "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune", which have many fans throughout Europe. Merv Griffin died on Sunday at the age of 82 as a result of cancer. It's one of those beautiful American dishwasher stories: Griffin first tried his luck as a singer at a radio station, where he warbled for a pittance. Then he invented the two quiz shows that changed his life and became the most successful programs in the history of television. As part of his "Merv Griffin Show", the entertainer interviewed 25,000 guests over a period of 23 years. He won 17 Emmys and was nominated 32 times for the prestigious television award, as reported by SDA. In 1986, Griffin sold the rights to his programs to Columbia Pictures and became Hollywood's richest entertainer overnight. In recent years, he has devoted most of his time to setting up foundations, including for young musicians and abused children.

 
Good news for JWT: from January next year, the agency group will take over Nokia's global budget, estimated at 150 million euros. JWT came out on top in a pitch against the international networks DDB and Grey.
According to Horizont.net, the communications service provider Nokia had already appointed Wieden + Kennedy as the global creative lead agency for its core mobile phone division at the beginning of July. With the new agency constellation, Nokia hopes, among other things, to achieve an internationally coordinated and thus more efficient organization of its global marketing activities. JWT's marketing specialists will support the creative agencies in the implementation and localization of worldwide communication measures. As a global strategic partner, JWT will also manage local marketing activities in over 80 markets.

 After being targeted by the German antitrust authorities, the two TV marketers IP and Seven One are now calling for more transparency in the TV business and are proposing new models. As the head of IP Deutschland, Martin Krapf, confirmed in a report by Horizont.net, they want to fundamentally change the market system. In future, customers will be able to determine whether their media agency acts as a trustee or a broker. Broker rates are higher, but pool discounts can be used in this deal. Trustees, on the other hand, act on behalf of the client and pass on discounts on a one-to-one basis; they are cheaper, but their clients cannot benefit from pool advantages. SevenOne is making the same point, and the ProSiebenSat1 Executive Board is also open to new solutions. With this offensive, the TV marketers are reacting to the German Cartel Office's suspicion of illegal agreements (see
searched). The companies now want to promote their new model, as radical changes are only possible through consensus.