Television Schweizer Fernsehen and Swisscom produce a Tagesschau edition for reception on cell phones. The competition is waiting and the Competition Commission is investigating. For a week now, Swisscom Mobile customers have been able to watch the Tagesschau of Schweizer Fernsehen SF, or Téléjournal of Télévision Suisse Romande TSR, on their cell phones. The prerequisite for this is the possession of a device with UTMS or EDGE reception. The short messages last one minute and forty seconds. During this time, there are four to six news items to watch, plus the latest stock market prices and weather forecasts. Every hour, from seven in the morning until eleven at night, the newsrooms of SF and TSR update the news bulletins. Those who want to be kept up to date on the go pay either one franc per broadcast or nine francs for a monthly subscription with unlimited access. Distribution and production of the short news bulletins are financed by Swisscom Mobile. At the launch, SF editor-in-chief Ueli Haldimann stressed that not a single franc in fees would be used for the new service. Conversely, this also means that those who pay fees are not entitled to use the news for their cell phones without further cost consequences. "SF makes its basic service available to all fee payers at no additional cost," says SF spokesman Urs Durrer. "The 100-second daily news is an additional offer that SF provides to a business partner."
There could also have been several business partners. SF was not in exclusive negotiations with Swisscom Mobile. "Orange was in talks with SF about this," confirms a company spokeswoman. But there was apparently no interest from the competition. "Basically, we consider the time for optimized short versions of TV content or news broadcasts for cell phones to be still early."
Weko storm in a teacup Despite SF's openness in its choice of partner and Orange's deliberate decision not to partner, the Competition Commission Weko is investigating whether the cooperation decision between the largest TV broadcaster and its counterpart in the mobile sector was conducted in a fair manner. According to Rafael Corazza, head of the Weko secretariat, the competition watchdogs want to find out "whether Swisscom Mobile forced its exclusive position as a partner on Swiss television". As a first step, the players are now being questioned.
"This is a completely normal process," says Corazza when asked by Werbewoche. Proceedings would only be initiated if there were indications that there had been conduct relevant under antitrust law. But that is not yet the case. Precautionary measures are not under discussion at the moment. So SF will not be forced to make its cell phone short messages available to another cell phone provider. "The reference to a possible distortion of competition did not come from a competitor who felt disadvantaged, but from the media," he said.
SF and Swisscom Mobile are unanimously "surprised" by the Weko clarification, especially since the exclusive partnership is only for six months. "After that, the service will also be available to other providers," says SF spokesman Durrer.
Only a niche need In the first week since the launch, several thousand customers have already watched the daily news on their cell phones, according to Swisscom spokesman Carsten Roetz. This was apparently too much for the technical infrastructure. According to various media reports, the servers were overloaded, especially on the day after the launch. Instead of the latest world news, only an error message appeared on some cell phone screens. But the vast majority didn't even notice and received the Tagesschau signal.
Only just over one percent of the more than four million Swisscom Mobile customers regularly watch TV on their cell phones. No figures are available from Orange, but there is a meaningful assessment of mobile TV offerings: "This is still a niche need, but it has great potential."
Mobile TV advertising The huge potential should also interest the advertising industry. After all, cell phones offer an attractive feedback channel via SMS or phone calls. But for the time being, these options remain unused. "At the moment, no special advertising slots are planned in the vicinity of the 100-second messages," says Martin Schneider, director of SF advertising marketer Publisuisse. In the next few weeks, however, he will be holding talks with Swisscom Mobile in this regard.
But, Schneider is convinced, mobile TV advertising will certainly become an issue in the foreseeable future. "But until then, a few technical problems will have to be eliminated." Breakdowns like the one on the day in question must not happen again. Otherwise, the audience will stay away not only from the news, but also from the advertising.
Nick Lüthi

Event The Internet scene meets at BarCamps. These are top-class conferences that do not charge admission. Spectators are not welcome at all. Conferences can be quite expensive. If you wanted to take part in special events at Xongress'06, you had to dig deep into your pockets. An admission ticket for three days cost 1770 francs. In return, there was a full program with numerous speakers. It is an open secret that speakers at such conferences often buy their way in through generous sponsorship. Companies buy speaking time at conferences and misuse the gathering for product presentations. Annoyed by the increasing commercialization of many conferences, American programmers started their own conference in 2005. They organized a BarCamp near Los Angeles (see below). There was no illustrious list of invited speakers. Instead, all participants were invited to give a presentation themselves or to actively participate in one. The BarCamp concept spread quickly and was also developed further in Europe and Asia. Within a few months of the launch of the first BarCamp, conferences were being held all over the world. The trend is unbroken.
What was initially described by the media as a "garage meeting of computer geeks" is now regarded as a "high-tech conference" or "collective think tank". In Germany, BarCamps are held practically every month. But students also organized such a meeting in Zurich on the premises of ETH Zurich at the end of October. "With success", as organizer Corsin Carmichel says. Another BarCamp Switzerland is planned for next spring, with blogs as the main theme.
BarCamps are also referred to as "anti-conferences" by the community. Franz Patzig, initiator of BarCamp Cologne and co-organizer of the first one in Shanghai, describes BarCamp as an "ad hoc non-conference" that arose from the need for people to exchange ideas and learn from each other in an open environment.
The idea of an "ad hoc non-conference" or "anti-conference" is not an anarchistic conference model where people simply meet and exchange ideas. The idea is similar to the Open Space philosophy, which originated at Siemens. In the '68 era, there was a desire for more creativity and less hierarchy in communication among the Siemens elite and to encourage managers to be more open. Siemens organized an event where important and controversial topics were offered for discussion at themed stands. The Open Space concept found imitators and showed a completely new effectiveness. BarCamping is similar to the Open Space concept because participants can meet and discuss in an open environment. However, BarCamping differs fundamentally in terms of the process and organization.
While the topics are predetermined in traditional conferences, the community itself designs the program. Collectively and according to interest. The participants meet informally in the rooms organized in advance. Once the participants have gathered, each participant briefly introduces what they have to say. Depending on the participants' interests, a show of hands is used to decide which speakers and topics will be on the program. The content of the sessions is sketched out on slips of paper and written on a board. This gives participants an overview of the topics that will be covered.
However, BarCamps are subject to strict rules. Active participation is mandatory, mere consumption is a serious offense. Franz Patzig: "Pure spectators are not welcome." BarCamps require their participants to be actively willing to produce content, share experiences and make them accessible to the community. This mainly happens through personal weblogs, via youTube or on sharing platforms such as Flickr.com. Findings from discussion groups are often immediately edited in the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia. The meeting is communicated, linked and organized via a wiki set up specifically for this purpose, which is always open to participants and can be edited at any time. Information is exchanged online and content is made available to other participants. Networking is central, because BarCampers see network-based discussions as a form of organization for effectively exchanging knowledge.
While the first BarCamps were sometimes very technically focused on open source applications, weblogs, social networking or Web 2.0, today the influence of these technologies on the future of traditional media and the lives of normal Internet users is also discussed. This is why the participants are not just programmers and developers who belong to the original circle of BarCamp participants. The "anti-conference" trend has now also reached large corporations. At the BarCamp in Cologne, for example, bloggers and startup founders were joined by industry representatives, marketing managers and community managers from major German corporations. The event was also attended by university professors and many eager journalists.
The model has now also reached other sectors. The company Lexthink, for example, has started organizing LawCamps for lawyers. But marketing has also discovered the BarCamp form. At the first MarCamp in California, for example, more than 150 participants met to discuss trends in marketing and advertising.
"There is a spirit of optimism "Franz Patzig,
the organizer of the BarCamps in Shanghai and Cologne. WW: When I attended BarCamp Cologne, there were 40 participants in a seminar room for 10. Why do people do that? Franz Patzig: That's the fascination of BarCamps. They are people with visions. People who want to exchange ideas and network and have exciting things to say. What started as an experiment in California now seems to be working all over the world.
WW: Although BarCamp events are springing up like mushrooms all over the world, the media are still cautious about BarCamps. Patzig: At the moment, BarCamps are still perceived as very experimental. Although we do professional press work in the run-up to the event. The media in German-speaking countries are not yet interested in them. That's a shame. Because something is happening here and nobody notices.
WW: What is happening? Patzig: BarCamps enable people to network more intensively. Contacts and knowledge are exchanged more easily. It's crazy. One example. I learned that a participant was urgently looking for developers for a project. But he couldn't find any. I made contact with a company in Shanghai within ten minutes. The two parties are now investigating how they could work together.
WW: Web 2.0 was the topic in Cologne. Are BarCamps the new web trend seismographs?
Patzig: I think so. Many of the participants are networked worldwide, especially where the music of the future is playing, i.e. in San Francisco and the surrounding area.
WW: BarCamp is basically based on the idea of Web 2.0. Participation is the motto. Spectators are not welcome.
Patzig: Participate and exchange ideas. The spirit of the BarCamps also reflects the current mood on the Internet. Away from the consumer, towards the producer. There is a spirit of optimism. After the bursting of the new economy bubble, things have started to move again. These mega deals from Google are, of course, what is being noticed. But the real changes in work and cooperation are what are ultimately impressive.
WW: What can the new web do? Patzig: Improve the world. The new technologies provide users with powerful tools.no entrance fee, no programAs a BarCamp, an international network is created.
The term "anti-conferences" or "unconferences" is also used here. The concept: no entrance fee, no program, only a guiding theme is fixed. BarCamps are open events whose program and content are determined by the participants. The name is a reference to a series of events initiated by Tim O'Reilly called FooCamp and also refers to the term Foobar. Since the first BarCamp in Palo Alto (California) in August 2005 on the premises of the company Socialtext, BarCamps have been held in over 44 cities in North America, Asia and Europe. The topics at BarCamps are varied, but the main focus is on trends on the Internet. The BarCamp idea now also has spin-offs. HealthCamps, LawCamps or MarCamps (MarketingCamps) are held.
Christian Lüscher

Games After Sony put the Playstation 2 in a pink case, TBWA Zurich is now advertising the Barbie look. It has been announced for some time, but now it is officially on sale: the Playstation 2 in fashionable pink. Just in time for the Christmas season, Sony Playstation is launching a Limited Edition Pink in the stores. The new color is of course aimed primarily at female video gamers. Female gamers will be pleased because their console now matches their outfit and make-up table. Two target groups in their sightsThe advertising agency TBWA Zurich also made this the theme of its campaign for Sony. TBWA Zurich was commissioned to create an ad with two different messages specifically for the Swiss market. On the one hand, the young female target group that buys the pink PS2 itself is to be addressed. Secondly, the Barbie PS2 is also to be positioned with parents, grandparents and other potential gift suppliers.
The result is a simple yet convincing campaign: pink traces of paint from a spray can on a Persian carpet show that the kids have had to make their own Pink PS2 up to now or will do so. The two claims "Do it yourself? You can give it to yourself" or "Make this wish come true. Before it's too late".
Together with the singer Pink, who is under contract to Sony BMG, Sony developed a limited edition of pink-colored devices with exclusive audio and video recordings. According to international studies, the proportion of young women among gamers has risen from 20 to 25 percent in the past two years. The entire games industry is hoping that the female sex will be willing to buy. Not only is the PS2 available in pink, but also Sony's mobile console PSP or the PSP competitor Nintendo DS with two screens.
Christian Lüscher

Gastronomy The Basel restaurant scene has been buzzing for several months now. The creators of the successful titles "Tessin geht aus!" and "Zürich geht aus!" have chosen Basel as the latest destination for their culinary forays. Since late summer, editor-in-chief Wolfram Meister and his team of authors have been researching, eating, evaluating and writing for the first issue of the 2007 annual edition "Basel geht aus! The "oven-fresh" and "succulently spiced" first edition with 150 recommended restaurants from the Basel tri-border region is now available in bookshops and kiosks. The advertising comes from the Reinhold kitchen.

Newspapers In the following interview, Urs Gossweiler, CEO of Gossweiler Media in Brienz, explains why he has given up on finding partners for his micro-newspaper concept and plans to produce the Jungfrau Zeitung on his own going forward. WW: You’re now producing the Jungfrau Zeitung on your own after numerous failed attempts to implement the concept with partners outside the Jungfrau region. Why? Urs Gossweiler: Those were more than just attempts. For three years, right up until recently, that was my sole focus. My job was to make the concept appealing to other publishers. And that clearly failed. WW: Why doesn’t anyone want the micro-newspaper? Gossweiler: We weren’t willing to compromise in any way. We clearly believed that the same concept and design would work everywhere, just with different content. Other collaborations work that way. Everyone gets to tinker with the design and the type area a bit, and then they usually just print the same SDA news reports. We take the exact opposite approach. We were under the illusion that the most important thing for a publisher is editorial control. But in many cases—since many of them are also printers—the content isn’t really that important to them. We underestimated that. Besides, if you come from a mountainous region of Switzerland, you might not exactly be considered the brightest spark in the media hub of Zurich. WW: You’re considered one of the rare “enfants terribles” in the industry. Your concept has sparked a string of controversies. Gossweiler: But that’s not exactly a badge of honor for Gossweiler being innovative. WW: I’m not buying your modesty.  Why, to put it another way, didn’t you loosen the reins a bit so that a publisher could operate with their own style? Gossweiler: We would never have presume to dictate, for example, the look of the Mittelland Zeitung. For Peter Wanner, it was about tapping into additional local markets. He felt he could achieve that with local tabloid editions. That’s perfectly fine. But I believe the micro-newspaper concept has no future for a regional newspaper. WW: So you fundamentally doubt the idea of a micro-newspaper? Gossweiler: Regionalizing a regional daily newspaper—as Wanner did with the tabloids, or as the Tages-Anzeiger did with its “sixth section,” or as the Südostschweiz did with interchangeable pages—that model doesn’t work. The Berner-Zeitung had already implemented local splits when it was founded in 1978 and has the greatest expertise and the most sophisticated split system in this area. Nevertheless, the BZ has lost a good 40 percent of its advertising revenue from 2000 to the present. So that can’t be the future. With our concept, we’ve always radically challenged the business model of the regional daily newspaper. Micro-newspapers are, so to speak, a safety net so that publishers can remain publishers in the future as well. Perhaps we shouldn’t have emphasized that so pointedly all the time. WW: Let’s get more specific: You were in talks with Tamedia in 2004. What didn’t work out there? Gossweiler: It’s a shame Pietro Supino didn’t become chairman of Tamedia’s board of directors two years earlier. He had recognized the potential of the micro-newspaper for the Tagi. Ultimately, CEO Martin Kall made the decision—he liked the concept, but, by his own admission, prefers to buy newspapers rather than start new ones. WW: Then you also negotiated with the NZZ to launch five micro-newspapers in Thurgau. Shortly before signing, the NZZ pulled out. Gossweiler: The NZZ didn’t want to enter a market without displacing an existing player. That existing player—namely, the majority stake in the Neue Luzerner Zeitung—it had purchased shortly before for 170 million. WW: Why the NLZ? Wasn’t this about Thurgau? Gossweiler: No. Western Thurgau would have been just the test market. The point there was to show Tamedia that it was possible to challenge its hold on Thurgau. WW: At half the price Tamedia paid for the Thurgauer Zeitung? Gossweiler: No, for less. I’d estimate around 15 million. That would have given us a model that could have worked just as well in other places. WW: What exactly was planned outside of Thurgau? Gossweiler: It would have made sense for Central Switzerland to follow the Thurgau test with 16 micro-newspapers. WW: True to the vision of covering all of Switzerland with a network of micro-newspapers. Gossweiler: Of course—otherwise the concept wouldn’t make any sense. We were never interested in just five micro-newspapers in Thurgau. When the NZZ realized that Lucerne might no longer need the Tagblatt or the NLZ, they pulled out. That’s my interpretation. WW: Early on, there was also an attempt—involving majority shareholder Daniel Brunner—to turn the Zuger Presse into a micro-newspaper. Gossweiler: That was back in the late ’90s. Dani Brunner had invested significantly in our company. But unfortunately, he never transformed the Zuger Presse into a micro-newspaper according to our principles. In hindsight, bringing us into the Zuger Presse was counterproductive. WW: I’ve heard that you recently made one last attempt at a partnership—specifically with Andreas Zehnder, the son of the “free newspaper king” in Wil. What went wrong there? Gossweiler: Andreas Zehnder has over 20 free publications that, based on their circulation area, might at first glance appear to be micro-newspapers. We quickly struck up a conversation at the publishers’ conference in St. Moritz. The good thing about Zehnder was that he didn’t take as long as the NZZ did to make up his mind.WW: Why wasn’t Zehnder interested?Gossweiler: Family businesses operate by their own rules. I know what I’m talking about, and of course I respect his decision. WW: Does this mean you’re completely abandoning the concept, or will there eventually be a “micro-newspaper light” version that a publisher could more easily adapt to their own needs—which, by the way, would help cover your development costs? Gossweiler: That would be the only reason, because our development costs are not insignificant. When you consider how few people we have to produce our product lineup, it’s world-class. That comes at a price. Until now, we wanted to secure this by having several media companies join this platform, which didn’t work out. But in the meantime, we’ve found a solution that allows us to do it on our own. Until now, we’ve always left the Jungfrau microcosm—as a tourist hotspot with global appeal—out of our concept. WW: So you’re refocusing on your core regional strengths. Gossweiler: We didn’t include our region in the concept because it’s not replicable. There’s no Jungfrau region in Olten, Kreuzlingen, or the Säuliamt. There’s certainly room for criticism regarding our tourism here, but we have a globally recognized brand. We can fully capitalize on that. In the long term, that may be even more exciting than being a software supplier for regional media companies in Switzerland. A private-equity firm could come from Frankfurt or Honolulu, but Gossweiler will stay right where it is. Interview: René Worni

Zurich-based Schacke & Partner Financial Services provides individual investment advice for the most discerning clients. To meet these demands in terms of advertising, Metzgerlehner Worldwide has created a headline campaign with a pinstripe look that plays with the contrast between pointed headlines and a serious "banker layout", according to a press release. The advertisement in the Bilanz issue "The 300 richest" marks the start of a headline campaign. Further subjects are to follow in other selected national and international titles next year.

Journalist and correspondent Peter Sennhauser has initiated a short series on the blog Medienlese that asks what distinguishes blogging from journalism. In his second essay, he focuses on the topic of publicity. And this is where he identifies the difference between professionals from the information industry and the majority of bloggers: "In their knowledge of the nature and experience of dealing with 'the public'". This is because - according to a common misunderstanding - it does not confer power, but rather transfers little-known facts, knowledge, but also personal opinions and interpretations into a very unstable aggregate state that can no longer be controlled. Media people know this and that their gatekeeper function also entails responsibility. As a result of the softening of decision-making - what is and is not left to the public - through the internet and mainstream media, everything that happens is increasingly becoming public because someone is blogging about it. Sennhauser therefore argues for responsible use of the public sphere as a resource, so as not to level the ground for rampant mistrust and increasing regulatory efforts. Read and comment here: .

After around two and a half years, the criminal proceedings against Ringier TV, producer of the "Gesundheit Sprechstunde" program, have been concluded. The broadcaster must pay a fine of CHF 5,000 and hand over part of the unlawfully obtained income. The amount is not known. Ringier TV accepts the decision as the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom) has dropped some of the charges, as reported by the news agency SDA.Bakom had opened administrative supervisory proceedings against the health program at the end of May 2004. At that time, the Federal Office expressed the suspicion that the program violated the financing regulations of the RTVA (see
Of the original charges, only two violations remain. One is the one relating to the Swiss Medical Association (FMH), which was named as a sponsor although it only passed on sponsorship money from third parties to Ringier. According to Bakom, the direct donors should have been named as sponsors. The sponsorship regulations were also violated in connection with the Lung League. However, according to Ringier's press release, Bakom showed a certain degree of understanding that the program was "surreptitious advertising" for the non-profit institution celebrating its 100th anniversary. The accusation of surreptitious advertising for medicines was dropped.

The jury of this year's 19th Eurobest competition in London had to evaluate 4988 entries - 922 of which made it onto the shortlist. With a total of 43 shortlist places, Switzerland is well in the running, albeit far behind Germany (227 shortlist places), France (130), Sweden (108), the UK (96) and Belgium (77). In the individual categories, the Swiss shortlist places are distributed as follows: 4 for "TV/Cinema", 14 for "Print", 18 in the "Outdoor" category, 6 for the "Direct" category, which is new this year, and one in the "Interactive" category, which is also new. Only in the "Radio" category did no entry make it onto the shortlist.
The advertising agency most successfully represented on this year's Eurobest shortlist is Publicis. It achieved 13 places, followed by Walker with 9 and Advico Young & Rubicam with 7. The agency at the airport has 4 entries, Ruf Lanz has 3 and Lowe and SFLB have each secured 2 shortlist places. The agencies Jung von Matt, Lang Gysi Knoll and Wirz achieved one shortlist place.
The winners of this year's Eurobest and the title "Agency of the Year" will be announced on December 7:

On January 15, Martin Oschmolz will take up the position of new national key account manager at the Tages-Anzeiger. The 29-year-old completed his apprenticeship in the publishing industry and has remained loyal to the print media in various functions ever since. He has also trained as a marketing planner and has worked as an area sales manager for Weltwoche for the past two years. 

While Mr. and Mrs. Swiss are considering whether to serve salmon for the festive meal just before Christmas, Greenpeace is wading in with a campaign. On Tuesday, eight Greenpeace divers confronted passers-by at Paradeplatz and in Bahnhofstrasse with video footage of the world's overfished oceans. Sitting on chairs, the activists - dressed in outfits à la Steve Zissou from the Wes Anderson film "The Life Aquatic" - showed footage of caught tuna and huge quantities of bycatch on laptops. The environmentalists also distributed a flyer providing information about the threat to individual species and what consumers can do: Consume less fish, local fish and sustainably and fairly produced fish. "We want to make people think before they go Christmas shopping," says Yves Zenger, press spokesman for Greenpeace Switzerland.

Employees at the commercial-free Lucerne youth radio station 3fach are currently waiting for their wages to be paid. The station has money worries and in order to be able to pay the current bills, the presenters have to take a back seat for the time being. However, they remain loyal to the station. None of the employees have resigned due to the current situation. The hourly-paid presenters have not been paid since August, and the four permanent employees have also had to be patient since October, reports the Neue Luzerner Zeitung. According to deputy managing director Esther Unternährer, the employees will be compensated in January when the money arrives from the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom). For 2007, Bakom is transferring 145,807 Swiss francs to Radio 3fach. 80 percent should reach the station's account in January. If the budget is adhered to, the remaining 20 percent will follow at the beginning of 2008. In addition to the Lucerne youth station, Bakom supports a further six advertising-free radio stations with a total of CHF 1.6 million from the SRG fee splitting.
In order to receive the contributions, broadcasters must keep exact records. This is because the Bakom contribution may not exceed 50 percent of the total budget. If the requirements are not met, some money may have to be refunded.
Already short of money in the pastThis year's situation was partly due to the poor results of the Funk am See festival, which 3fach co-financed. However, this is not the first time that Radio 3fach has been plagued by financial worries. Two years ago, the local radio stations in Central Switzerland cut their contributions to the station, which in return had waived advertising and sponsorship (see
). To raise money, the station currently runs a members' club. It has almost 500 members, all of whom pay at least 33 francs per year. It also works with station sponsorship, which, unlike advertising spots, is permitted. At the moment, 30 percent of the programs are sponsored by a company.