Following a pitch, Loterie Romande has commissioned the Zurich agency Grey with the mandate for the Rento scratch card game. The game offers players the chance to win CHF 4,000 a month - like a pension for the rest of their lives. The campaign is due to start at the beginning of 2007 and will be featured in the traditional media, as detailed in a press release. The product will also be advertised at the point of sale.

The fee splitting in favor of private TV and radio stations is to come into force in the second half of 2007. As reported by the SDA news agency, the coverage areas will go out to consultation this month in accordance with the new Radio and Television Act. The Federal Council will decide in FebruaryThe new fee procedure provides for the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) to submit an application for an overall fee in November. The needs of private broadcasters must also be taken into account. The fee adjustment dossier is also currently with the price watchdog. It is expected to submit a recommendation to the Federal Council in the second half of October. This in turn is expected to decide on the overall fee in February 2007, which will then be collected from April 2007.
SRG also wants to cover additional RTVG costs with higher financial requirements The new fee regulations mean that SRG must expect a reduction in income of CHF 44 million. For this reason, the media company has notified the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) of its financial requirements up to 2010 (see
). This is intended to compensate for the loss of advertising and sponsorship income, higher costs for the transmission of sporting events and inflation. In addition, SRG wants to cover the costs of the new RTVG with its desired fee increase of eight percent. This includes investments in quality improvement, which would be necessary due to digitization, as well as rising costs for film and sports rights and services for the sensory impaired. Income from radio and TV fees currently amounts to around CHF 1.1 billion. Fee payers throughout Switzerland pay the same amount of CHF 450 and 60 centimes per year.

Juliette Wyler has been in charge of communications and marketing at Fumetto, the Lucerne International Comix Festival, since August. The festival is also starting 2007 under new management: Lynn Kost is the new artistic director. The festival will take place from March 24 to April 1, 2007 in Lucerne's Old Town and, according to Kost, will increasingly open up to other art genres.

The mini campaign "Size" by Jung von Matt/Limmat has been nominated for the London International Advertising Awards. It had already won silver at the One Show Awards and bronze in New York (see ). Also in the running for a final award in London is the "Summer Campaign" for SBB. The winners will be announced on November 6.

Transport and traffic site advertising are now included in the "Nielsen Transport Media Advertising Statistics". This is based on a cooperation between Nielsen Media Research and the trade association for out-of-home advertising. The data is collected on the basis of the gross advertising sales reported monthly by members and is available retrospectively from January 2006. According to the first evaluation, advertising investments in transport media amounted to around 33.5 million euros in the first eight months of this year, which corresponds to a share of 6.5 percent. According to Werben und Verkaufen, this advertising group is the third largest within out-of-home media. Werbewoche asked Mediafocus about its plans to measure transit advertising in Switzerland as well. And received the answer: If the market so desired, transit advertising could also be measured. However, the topic had not come up for a long time.

On Friday, Denmark's newspaper landscape was enriched by a problem case: The fifth free newspaper called Nyhedsavisen from the Icelandic publishing house 365 Media Scandinavia entered the oversaturated market. However, the launch of Nyhedsavisen did not go as planned either: Instead of the print run of 500,000 copies, only half was printed - due to a technical problem. As a result, the newspaper, which is distributed at transport hubs and delivered to letterboxes in Denmark's largest cities, did not reach readers, particularly in Copenhagen. According to its creators, Nyhedsavisen is a quality newspaper produced by a team of 100 journalists.
The publishers want to repeat the Icelandic success in Denmark. Rumor has it that a further expansion to Sweden is already planned. Flooded with free newspapers Since the announcement of Nyhedsavisen, the Danish newspaper landscape has changed significantly. The two traditional publishers Berlinske and JP/Politikens Hus have responded by launching their own free newspapers in August (see
). Both publishers were expecting a circulation of 750,000 copies, but the first reader statistics from September show that the free paper with the name has only reached 155,000 readers and the free paper 24Timer only 387,000. Competition is fierce, as Metro International has also been distributing its free paper since 2001 and followed up with a free afternoon edition at the end of August (see
). Denmark also has a free daily newspaper called Urban, published by Berlinske Officin. This makes Denmark, with its 5.3 million inhabitants, the unbeaten world leader when it comes to free newspapers, of which every Danish city dweller can pull three out of their letterbox in the morning.

The conclusion of the study by market researcher Jupiter Research is surprising: Europeans now spend more time online than reading newspapers and magazines. As the Financial Times Deutschland reports, the advance of new media is increasing overall media consumption. Internet consumption is not at the expense of print media and television. The study surveyed 5,000 people in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. In the past two years, print media consumption has remained constant at three hours per week. However, the time spent online has doubled from two to four hours. Television consumption has also increased. It increased from ten hours a week to twelve hours a week.
And America shows where the path could still lead. Europeans spend significantly less time online than North Americans. A similar study by Jupiter Research showed that Americans now spend 14 hours a week online - the same amount of time they spend watching TV.

Pierre Ruetschi, deputy editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Tribune de Genève, will be promoted to editor-in-chief on October 16. He replaces Dominique von Burg (see ), who in future only wants to work for the local editorial office, as the publishing house Edipresse announced on Monday.Ruetschi began his journalistic career at the Associated Press news agency in Bern after studying politics. In 1984, he began working for the Tribune de Genève in the Switzerland section. At the age of 33, he became deputy editor-in-chief of the paper, but went to Washington in 1995 as a correspondent for the Tribune and for 24 Heures. On his return, he stopped briefly at Edipresse online before returning to work in the editorial office of the Geneva daily. Over the past three years, he has been responsible for various projects. The Tribune de Genève has a circulation of 67,151 copies and a readership of over 175,000, according to a press release.

Five works from the Zurich agency Publicis have been nominated for the London International Advertising Awards. In the "Poster and Outdoor" category, the work "Christmas Socks" for the sportswear brand Odlo and "Muddy Cars" for the car wash Best Car Wash are in the running. The "Horrible Ingredients" campaign for the restaurant guide Gault Millau and the B2B campaign "Mosquito" for the media agency Optimedia are also in the "Print" category. The Wilson campaign entitled "Stuck Ball" is also nominated in the "Design" category. The London International Advertising Awards are taking place for the 21st time this year and will be presented on November 6.

The popularity of Internet diaries - so-called blogs - is growing rapidly. Especially in China, where there are said to be 34 million blogs according to a study by the Chinese Internet Information Center. That is around thirty times as many as four years ago. At the same time, bloggers in China have to contend with strict censorship. When sensitive political topics are addressed, Internet addresses are often blocked or made inaccessible. Or individual sensitive entries are deleted. Internet diaries are under the strict supervision of the government. However, the volume is almost impossible to control and many bloggers have already developed strategies. For example, Li Xinde, who is fighting against corruption, publishes his reports on 50 different websites at the same time. The most popular blog at the moment also comes from China: That of the young Chinese actress and director Xu Junglei. The blog has been clicked on 50 million times within a year and tops the Technorati rankings. And this despite the fact that Xu writes about mundane things such as meeting up with friends, swimming training or computer problems. The website of Beijing's party organ, the People's Daily, also has its own blogs, although these are nowhere near as popular.

Are Barbie and Ken on the brink of extinction? PDA National Councillor Josef Zisyadis has submitted a motion for a ban on advertising aimed at children. He is calling for a ban on all advertising aimed at under-14s, such as toys or children's chocolate. Commercials featuring children or stars from children's programs should also be banned. And: in general, advertising should no longer be broadcast directly before or after children's programs. Such a law is already in force in Sweden, and a similar advertising ban is currently being discussed in the European Parliament. However, as 20minuten.ch reports, Jacqueline Bachmann from the Foundation for Consumer Protection has her doubts about such a measure: children's consumer behavior should be controlled by society. "I wonder whether it is the state's job to protect children from advertising," she told the commuter newspaper.

Video portals are in vogue and users are enthusiastically posting their content in the video communities. Not only are the portals ideal for viral marketing, users of the MyVideo.de platform have now also produced a commercial that will be broadcast this week on ProSieben and Sat.1. The commercial advertises - how could it be otherwise - the video platform, of course. However, it remains to be seen whether the production method of the commercial is a new trend that will bring a breath of fresh air to the advertising industry - as the video portal's media release suggests.