In contrast to the efforts of many publishers to gain a foothold in the online classifieds market, the Pfäffikon-based agency Welcomedia will be producing a multi-regional job and real estate market from January. Sicht - as the title is called - offers customers the opportunity to advertise nationally at a regional price, according to media documentation. The publication appears every Monday in Blick, reaching a readership of 715,000 people. If desired, the advertisement can also be placed on the Internet. Distribution is handled by Welcomedia's key account management and by licensed, regionally based partner companies. Welcomedia was founded in March 2005 as a publishing and placement agency for the advertising sector.

The first issue of Duden's Big Puzzle Magazine will be published on December 13. The magazine, which will initially be published every two months and was created in cooperation with the Klambt publishing group, offers puzzle types such as Swedish puzzles, number, syllable and word search puzzles as well as Sudokus. In addition, puzzle fans will find various quizzes and general knowledge questions, German and foreign word tests as well as tips from the Duden language advice service in Duden's first magazine. The puzzle magazine has 68 pages and is available at newsstands for 3.50 francs. Roland Kluse and Gabrielle Gassen are the editors-in-chief and the magazine has a circulation of 120,000 copies. With the puzzle booklet, Dudenverlag is building on its existing program in the areas of knowledge and general education, according to the Duden website. These include, for example, the Great Dictionary of General Knowledge, 100,000 Facts - The Great Book of General Knowledge and various crossword puzzle encyclopedias.

The Meggen-based marketing and communications agency is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. It has announced plans to establish further company units in the wake of its growth to date. The establishment of a new PR agency is imminent. The establishment of an independent event agency is also in the planning stage. This growth is in line with the strategy adopted ten years ago of establishing a full-service agency with specialized individual companies. Together with its subsidiaries in Zurich, Basel, Bern and Lausanne, SE Impuls currently has around 30 employees.

The Christmas radio show starts in Zurich on Monday at 5 pm. The net proceeds will go to the Zurich Children's Hospital. The temporary channel will broadcast from December 11 to 25, with the studio bus located on Werdmühleplatz right next to the Singing Christmas Tree. The radio station is trying to fill a gap by reporting on Christmas events such as the Märlitram or the Christkindlimarkt. As organizer Daniel Buchs says in an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger, the costs amount to around 19,000 francs. The costs are mainly covered by sponsors, but the organization is still dependent on donations. 

Christmas with the Bush family, George W. The dog is called Barney, is a black Scottish terrier and is the star of the 9.5-minute film by Barney-Cam on the subject of Christmas in the Bush family's White House. Barney is accompanied by a second dog of the same breed called Miss Beazley and a black cat called Willy.
The inclined and soon extremely bored viewer learns a lot about the Christmas decorations of the White House, which is opened to visitors during the vacation season with its rich decorations. Barney the dog is personally commissioned by President Bush to work on the eighth edition of Barney-Cam. In this one, the dog wants to put on a Christmas show. The show turns out to be a paltry affair, as does the whole movie, despite the presence of top-class supporting actors such as the President, his wife, his Treasury Secretary, the Trade Representative and country musician Dolly Parton.
But despite all this, we learn nothing about Christmas with the Bushes. The suspicion arises that the whole animal fuss with the two dogs wobbling through the White House, complete with black cat, is actually only intended to distract attention from what is at least once a year the focus of attention during the celebration of love and family: The family. You get to see exactly as much of the Bush family as should be shown: not even the tip of a nose. And the viewer turns to something more lively - despite the multimedia and the possibility of downloading the soundtrack, despite the making-of video stills.

Fachpresse Zürich, a subsidiary of Vogel Business Medien, is taking over the Compress Information Group as of January 1, 2007. The company, which is based in Thalwil, employs around 25 people and publishes the specialist IT titles InfoWeek and IT Reseller. In addition, Compress will once again be organizing the specialist conference at Zurich's Orbit-iEX, the Swiss IT trade fair, from next year. The Würzburg-based media company Vogel Business Medien is already heavily involved in IT communication, including with the publications IT-Business, the home entertainment publisher CyPress and the joint venture Vogel Burda Communications, the publisher of the leading German user magazine Chip.
The Compress Information Group will continue to operate as an independent publishing house in the future and consistently expand its existing titles in print and online form, the company announced on Monday. The founder and publisher Michael von Babo is leaving the company. Ursula Bettio, who has been with the Compress Information Group since 1989 and has been responsible for the publishing management of InfoWeek for the past five years, will be the sole managing director as of January 1, 2007.

The game is called "Everyone sues everyone" and could provide material for a telenovela in 250 episodes. But the events are real: the music industry is suing the providers of P2P software and their users, both of whom are not intimidated and are suing the industry in turn. Since St. Nicholas Day, there has been a new variant in the legal tussle: users of the file-sharing software Kazaa are suing its manufacturer Sharman Networks. A Kazaa user caught swapping unlicensed songs, who had already settled with the music industry in court and paid accordingly, accuses the manufacturer of the file-sharing software of misleading and fraudulent business practices. In the class action, she is demanding damages and penalties from Sharman Networks, as well as payment of the costs of the proceedings. Specifically, the lawsuit accuses Sharman Networks, which is officially based on the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, of falsely advertising free downloads for its P2P client. Users were thus misleadingly led to believe that sharing unlicensed content via the software was legal. The company had always known that the actual purpose of the software was an illegal act and had exploited this to enrich itself. In addition, Kazaa had been configured in such a way by the automatic release of the data folder that every user had to commit legal violations. Neither the users had been sufficiently informed about this configuration nor the possible legal implications. The users were therefore forced to make expensive settlements with the music industry.
If the lawsuit is successful and is also approved as a class action, the Kazaa provider is now threatened with massive trouble from its former users. For lawyer Ray Beckerman, who represents numerous clients against the music industry (RIAA), this comes as no surprise. He expects Kazaa to be increasingly drawn into proceedings between the music industry and private individuals as a third party. This is not surprising, as Kazaa plays the role of the instrument of crime in many of the civil suits brought en masse by the music industry. This means that Kazaa is now being held directly liable by yet another party for copyright infringements committed by users.
A file-sharer sued by the RIAA argues with a different approach: the claims brought against him by the music industry were settled with the settlement reached between Sharman Networks and representatives of the film and music industries. Kazaa had agreed with industry on a payment of over 115 million US dollars. Previously, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in the Grokster case that a company that knowingly and purposefully offers means of copyright infringement should also be held liable for infringements committed with them. The settlement between the industry and Kazaa, the argument now goes, thus also covers any claims the industry may have against individuals. Sharman has now also settled with the music publishers.

A lot of advertising money is at stake: According to a newspaper report, media groups in the USA are planning their own online video service. They want to compete with YouTube. The Wall Street Journal reports that the media giants Fox, Viacom, CBS and NBC Universal are involved in the project. The plan is to show their own videos on a new joint website and benefit directly from the advertising revenue. The media groups are thus joining forces in an alliance against Google. The internet giant bought YouTube for 1.3 billion euros in shares (see
). On YouTube, videos are uploaded to the internet by users. In addition to privately produced films, fragments of TV programs are often also placed. TV broadcasters were up in arms about this for a long time, with many of them eventually entering into license agreements with YouTube. According to earlier reports, YouTube is also working on software that will automatically reward creators for the placement of their content with a share of the advertising revenue.

SRG Director General Armin Walpen told the NZZ am Sontnag that he was not very satisfied with the small fee increase of 2.5 percent from January 2007. SRG had requested 6.5 percent. At the moment, however, Walpen cannot say whether this will result in new savings. However, measures would have to be taken. Only after a thorough analysis will it be possible to decide whether and to what extent the program will be affected. It should also be examined whether Radio DRS, for example, could be relocated to Leutschenbach in order to exploit synergies. According to Walpen, there is a fundamental question of greater concentration. In Italian-speaking Switzerland, for example, the editorial offices of radio, TV and online are being merged. Walpen does not want to comment on the planned children's channel and the planned English-language radio program until after the overall assessment.

According to World Magazine Trends published by the International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP), the magazine industry is experiencing an upswing worldwide. The situation of consumer and trade magazines in 60 countries was examined. The most dynamic development can be seen in Eastern Europe, the German trade magazine Werben und Verkaufen summarizes the results. However, the variety of titles is growing almost everywhere in the world. Many publishers are also expanding their online activities in order to tap into new target groups. The organization also sees a great willingness on the reader market to pay for content in the area of specialist information. According to the directory, the world's biggest magazines are Reader's Digest and AARP Magazine. Reader's Digest has a total circulation of around 23 million copies in 60 countries and 21 languages. AARP Magazine, the magazine for members of the American Association of Retired Persons, has a circulation of 22.6 million copies.

The creation of a separate children's and youth channel is generally welcomed by the Audience Council. The different profiles of SF 1 and SF 2 are also viewed favorably. If the children's channel is created, SF 2 could become even more of a sports channel. However, according to SDA, the Audience Council considers the differentiation of SF 2 from the first channel to be insufficient. It would like to see a greater focus on live sporting events. In general, however, the profiling is well advanced in terms of content and form and has been successful overall. The increased focus of SF 1 on information was particularly welcomed. In contrast, the evening pay-TV programs on SF 2 performed poorly, as they do not reflect the channel's image, which is why the Audience Council is calling for their removal. The introduction of a channel tailored to children and young people is welcomed by the Council, but attention should be paid to child-friendly broadcasting times.

Anyone who bought the new Beobachter on Friday had a banned magazine in their hands. On Thursday evening, the Arbon district court banned the distribution of the magazine by post and its sale in newsagents. However, the ban had no effect. The distribution ban marks the preliminary climax in a dispute between the Beobachter and two Thurgau building contractors. Beobachter had already reported on the controversial practices of the construction company on several occasions, and the case is now before the courts for the third time. The building contractors had already stopped the publication of a critical article in court. The latest Beobachter also contains another article about the company, and when the contractors got wind of this, they obtained a super-provisional injunction against the distribution of the magazine.
However, the injunction against distribution was issued so late that the ban could no longer be enforced. The staff at the kiosks knew nothing about it, the magazine was almost in the mailboxes. The Beobachter speaks of censorship and sees the court president Ralph Zanoni on the wrong track, as the SDA writes. It is now unclear whether the ruling will be confirmed. It could take up to three months before a decision is made, as both parties can comment on the allegations beforehand.