Due to Christmas business: the December Literature Club is canceled The traditional Christmas edition of the Swiss Television Literature Club is canceled this year. The reason: the sponsor, the major bookstore Orell Füssli, in whose premises the program has been recorded since April, is unable to free up a date for the show in its hectic Christmas calendar.  
For the first time in the history of the Literaturclub, the traditional Christmas edition of the Literaturclub has been dropped from the program. As expected, the NZZ am Sonntag was furious at the news of this sad premiere, and it's not just Orel Füssli who gets his comeuppance: "It's one thing that the book department store apparently considers the importance of the program for the Christmas business, which is otherwise considered crucial in the book trade, to be rather low. But the other is that, following this decision, the program managers at SF 1 have decided not to record the show in the studio or at another location but, as press spokesman Durrer says, simply to produce one more literature club next year.
 
This brings author Manfred Papst to the general debate on the effects of media sponsorship. He who pays, commands, he summarizes dryly. Which is quite a different matter for mass phenomena such as sport than for culture, which is less profitable. The NZZ am Sonntag also comes to an already familiar conclusion: "Once again it becomes clear how important culture really is on Swiss television: it remains a maneuvering mass."

As a contribution to accident prevention on the ski slopes, Condor Films created the Top 10 training program for Suva. As an additional kick, the program includes a new edition of the classic "Alles fahrt Schi", newly recorded by the fun punk band QL.  
It's a harsh reality: 32 percent of all sports accidents occur during snow sports. To reduce the frequency and severity of injuries, Suva is intervening with Top 10. The training program is available on DVD and online and contains ten individual and partner exercises as well as two clips on endurance and stretching.
 
As a special motivational injection, the DVD includes the music video for the fun punk version of "Alles fahrt Schi" by the Swiss band QL. The song is available in online shops, distributed by Sony BMG. According to a Condor Films press release, the clip will be shown on Viva from next week.

Companies can benefit greatly from their sponsorship activities. As soon as payments to associations or cultural venues are considered business expenses, they are appropriately reimbursed by the tax office.  
However, the sponsorship must be based almost exclusively on an economic basis and must be regarded as consideration for the advertising obligation assumed by the sponsored party: Payments that are not appropriate or if the advertising medium is not suitable, for example because no broad public advertising impact is achieved, do not fall under operating expenses. This is reported by Pressetext.com.
 
It is also recommended that the sponsor and sponsored party set out their mutual obligations in a contract. This allows the sponsor to legally enforce the promised advertising services in case of doubt. Payments to political parties, membership fees or donations are generally excluded under certain conditions. Agreed advertising measures must always be recognizable. With regard to events, mentions in program booklets and advertisements or posters are also considered appropriate.

The leading Swiss architects' portal launched the Swiss-architects.com magazine, a sophisticated and editorially supervised architecture newsletter for the Swiss specialist public.  
The magazine is sent out free of charge every Thursday. In addition to news from the world of architecture and event tips, the new e-magazine also offers longer articles, interviews and opinions on current topics, according to the corresponding press release.
 
Editorial responsibility lies with architecture journalist Inge Beckel, long-time editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Tec21, and Axel Simon, the well-known architecture critic for the Tages-Anzeiger and Weltwoche. The Swiss-architects.com magazine does not see itself as a competitor to the established print media in the architecture sector, but rather seeks to collaborate with them.
 
The new online magazine offers advertisers a highly interesting readership (institutional and private clients, architects, engineers, architecture enthusiasts) as well as numerous placement opportunities and forms of advertising. The first issue of the online magazine has already been sent to over 8,000 people.
 
Swiss-architects.com is one of ten country platforms of world-architects.com with more than 360,000 visitors per month.

In September of this year, Keystone launched a tender to find a partner for the redesign of its image database. The Zurich design agency Nose came out on top in the end.  
In its press release on Friday, Keystone expressed its conviction that it had found the right partner for the complex task in Nose Design Intelligence. The design agency has exactly the experience and references that Keystone was looking for. The agency had previously dressed Alinghi's sailors and revamped Charles Vögele's corporate website. Nose's own website was awarded a very good rating in the current issue of Hochparterre. The fully revised Keystone image database is due to go live in spring 2007.

If you want to be inspired by the great old school of book and printing art for a change from the digital image worlds of everyday life, travel to Frauenfeld this weekend. The 8th Book and Hand Press Fair is taking place there.  
In times of restless digital innovation, especially in the graphic and printing sector, the underlying craftsmanship is forgotten. Nevertheless, the aesthetics and appearance of traditional techniques such as stencilling, stamping or good old-fashioned letterpress printing remain popular. In Frauenfeld, many small press and book manufacturing companies from Switzerland and abroad will be exhibiting their products in the ironworks, some of them also demonstrating the old crafts. The Typorama Bischofszell even has a Linotype typesetting machine in operation. This year's guest of honor is the printing store of the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. The fair opens daily at 11 am and closes at 6.30 pm, except on Sunday at 4 pm. Certainly a visually inspiring event.

Sefik Dautbegovic accepted the "Writing for CEE" journalism prize in Vienna on Thursday evening. He won the prize, which is awarded annually by Austria Presse and Bank Austria Creditanstalt and is endowed with 5,000 euros, for his article "Mein Land - Auf welchem Weg nach Europa".  
The text, which was awarded a prize by a seven-member jury and performed by actor Fritz von Friedel at the award ceremony, deals in a subtly ironic way with the search for a path from the Bosnian capital Sarajevo to Europe, towards European integration. In doing so, he does not shy away from taking sideswipes at Bosnian politicians:
"There are more Audis in Bosnia than kilometers of highway." The text appeared in the Bosnian daily newspaper Oslobodjenje and was selected from 60 contributions from twelve countries.  
The award ceremony also commemorated the tragic and highly controversial murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in Moscow on October 7, as reported by SDA on Friday.

For the 53rd time, designers and entrepreneurs from all over the world are invited to submit their products to the global competition. Interested parties can register for the Red Dot Award until January 19.  
The Red Dot Design Award is one of the most traditional and renowned design competitions in the world. A Red Dot award is regarded as an effective means for companies and designers to communicate outstanding design achievements effectively. The international jury, which is made up of renowned designers and design experts, is not least responsible for the success of the Red Dot. Each year, the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen selects a new jury constellation in order to ensure the greatest possible objectivity in the selection of the winning products.
 
The award ceremony will take place on June 25 of next year at the Aalto Theater in Essen. The Red Dot Design Museum will be showing the winning products in a special exhibition from June 26 to July 23, 2007, after which the award-winning products will be exhibited for at least one year in the Red Dot Design Museum at the Zollverein UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to a press release from the Design Zentrum.

From December 6 to 12, the Cola Red Santas will be touring shopping centers throughout the country, telling Advent and Christmas stories and delighting customers young and old with presents.  
Why is Santa Claus dressed in red? Because 75 years ago the Swedish-American illustrator Haddeeon Dundblom was commissioned by Coca-Cola to draw him that way for an advertising campaign. He used a retired Coca-Cola driver as a model, and today the figure is the epitome of Santa Claus and is known all over the world.
 
Coca-Cola's chubby-cheeked, bearded Santas are currently gearing up for the new season in Switzerland too, despite the mild temperatures and autumnal colors. They are ready for their annual presence in supermarkets, where this year they are giving away fluffy, soft winter blankets to good customers who buy certain quantities of the drink, as reported by SDA.
 
The campaigns are accompanied by online competitions and scratch-off promotions. More information and exact dates can be found at MyCokemusic.ch and Coca-cola.ch respectively.

Thanks to the Caribbean curse: The profits of the Walt Disney media group jumped in the fourth quarter. The California-based company increased its net income by almost a third overall.  
In addition to the box office hit "Pirates of the Caribbean 2," other successful films such as "Cars" also ensured that Disney's profits doubled in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005/2006 - the Group closed its financial year on September 30. In addition, the company recorded above-average ratings and advertising revenues for its ABC television channel, ESPN sports channel and other cable television channels. Walt Disney also benefited from the solid performance of its theme parks, according to SDA.
 
The Group thus increased its profit for the year by an impressive 33 percent to 3.4 billion US dollars. Annual sales rose by seven percent to 34.3 billion US dollars. The result is all the more remarkable given that Disney has not done particularly well in recent years, with the studios, for example, reporting a loss of 313 million US dollars last year. "Disney had a spectacular year," said group CEO Bob Inger in reference to the record profits and sales. Inger had taken over the leadership of the media giant just over a year ago.

The move will bring together nine locations with 1700 workplaces. The new location was celebrated with an opening party on Friday.  
With 30,000 square meters of gross floor space, Business Park Köniz is now the largest Swisscom site in the Bern area, even larger than the headquarters in Worblaufen. The Liebefeld site is home to key account management and the mobile communications division. At this location, current means of communication can be tested in real use, as SDA writes. The building infrastructure has already been prepared for the introduction of voice-over-WLAN. The six-storey, environmentally friendly building cost around CHF 100 million.

Over one hundred founding members joined together in Brussels to form a Europe-wide network for communication managers from companies, associations and political institutions.  
On the evening of November 8, the participants of the first meeting signed the founding charter for the European Association of Communication Directors. The network aims to represent the interests of the profession throughout the continent. Dr. Herbert Heitmann, Head of Global Communications at SAP, was elected President. The most important goals of the association are the development of pan-European quality standards, stronger networking and the promotion of qualifications within the profession. Transnational communication is described as a management discipline of growing importance, especially in view of the constant expansion of the European Union. The network is politically independent and supports its members with practical services and informative media, as the SDA announced on Friday.