From 2007, the canton of St. Gallen will ban tobacco advertising on public property and on private property that can be seen from a public place, as well as in and around sports facilities. This was decided by the St. Gallen Cantonal Council on Tuesday. However, due to ongoing contracts, the tobacco industry must be granted a generous transitional period. Tobacco advertising in public buildings of the canton and communes remains prohibited. The cantonal health law was amended accordingly.

After the producer and presenter of the political program "Forums", Pascal Décaillet, announced his departure to the French-speaking Swiss radio station RSR on Monday, the station has appointed a team of three producers to replace him. These are Serge Gumy, Joel Marchetti and Mehmet Gultas. The program will be changed slightly, head of information Patrick Nussbaum told SDA. The "Décaillet affair" is now closed.

The youth station 105 presents itself with a new advertising campaign in the form of print ads and internet banners. With the slogan "Always first with new sound", Radio 105 wants to emphasize its pioneering position as a "discoverer" of new artists and music hits. As the latest example, the station mentions the artist Ne-Yo, whose current single was broadcast as a Swiss premiere on Radio 105 on December 15, 2005 and entered the Swiss charts at number 5 on April 2, 2006. Ne-Yo is also the face on the station's advertising campaign posters. The campaign will continue with other artists in the coming weeks and months.

The second-largest media company in Central Switzerland increased its total turnover slightly to CHF 34 million. In view of the situation in the publishing and printing sectors, the company rates the result as "very satisfactory". In the printing sector, sales and earnings remained at the previous year's level. Although the advertising business of Anzeiger Luzern AG did not experience an upturn, the budgeted turnover and income were exceeded thanks to special supplements and promotional products. The two titles "Luzerner Woche" and "Anzeiger Luzern" were able to consolidate their leading positions. UD Neue Medien, which specializes in catalog and web content management, reported a nearly double-digit percentage increase in sales, according to a press release. The UD Medien Group has ambitious plans for the next two years. The takeover of Sticher Printing will create the most efficient offset printing plant in Central Switzerland. In addition, all five companies of the media group are to be merged into the "Media Center" by mid-2007.

Urs Moser (42) from Solothurn is taking over from Michael Hug as Editor-in-Chief of the Solothurner Tagblatt. Moser has spent the past five years reporting from the Federal Parliament for Blick and has also worked for Sonntagsblick, Berner Zeitung and Solothurner Zeitung. Michael Hug has been Editor-in-Chief of the Berner Zeitung since January 1. Susanne Tschumi (29) is also new to the Solothurner Tagblatt and will report from the region. Tschumi was previously editor at the Langenthaler Tagblatt.

The film "Mittendrin - Die Kantonspolizei Luzern" was awarded the Grand Prix Victoria at the 22nd International Business Film Festival in Vienna on March 30. The 13-minute image film was chosen from 222 films submitted from German-speaking countries around the world to receive the top prize from the expert jury. The film "Mittendrin" was produced in collaboration with the film producer RWB Film Luzern and documents the work of the Lucerne Cantonal Police. In the film, police officers talk about events from their everyday work. The international, German-language competition for audiovisual media from all sectors of the economy is aimed at companies, producers, public bodies, media agencies and TV stations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol. It is organized and held every two years by the Association of the Audiovisual and Film Industry of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.

A teenager between the ages of 16 and 17 in Switzerland has an average of CHF 318 per month at their free disposal. This corresponds to an annual volume of CHF 576 million for this age category. These are the findings of the pocket money study carried out by market research company IHA-GfK on behalf of Cash. The 16 to 17-year-olds spend the most on their leisure activities. On average, young people spend 41.45 francs on going out or going to discos. The second most important expenditure items are clothes and shoes at 34.50 francs, followed by cell phones at 26.05 francs. Monthly expenditure also includes CDs and DVDs at 15.70 francs, concerts and cinema at 14.30 francs and computers and PC accessories at 13.70 francs. It is worth noting that CHF 100 is saved each month. The 16 to 17-year-olds are a particularly interesting segment for the telecommunications and consumer electronics markets. Over 90 percent of young people of this age have a cell phone. Around 70 percent own an MP3 player, a CD player and a stereo system. Almost 60 percent have a PC and around a third even have their own television, video or DVD player and games console. The study was conducted in January 2006. 1018 households with children aged between 6 and 17 in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland were surveyed online.

This week, NYTimes.com will get a facelift that includes a clearer structure, easier navigation and more space for advertising and sponsorships. The site will also be supplemented with embedded video. Those who want to watch it will get 15 seconds of advertising before the New York Times content appears. In addition, the site comes up with new news aggregation: Each time a user visits the site, the news, which comes from different sources, is updated.Wall Street Journal online WSJ.com, on the other hand, has added an RSS feed feature that enables users to select and compile their own sources. Any content available via RSS is thus displayed on the site. The feeds include headlines, teasers and links. With this service, WSJ.com positions itself as a good entry-level news site. The new features on NYTimes.com are free of charge; at WSJ.com they are included in the existing subscription price.

TV station Viva has announced the second season of the successful dance show for summer 2006. Castings for Dance Star 2006 will now also take place in Switzerland from May 1 to 3. The dance format, which first aired in 2005, will again work with choreographer Detlef D Soost. Viva will accompany the candidates of Dance Star 2006 in ten episodes. The winner will receive dance coaching from Detlef D Joost, paving the way for a professional career, according to a statement.

The internal dispute between Pascal Décaillet, producer and presenter of the political program "Forums", and the management of the French-speaking Swiss radio station RSR could not be resolved after all. Décaillet is leaving the station after a month-long conflict in which disagreements between him and RSR Head of Information Patrick Nussbaum were the decisive factor. As reported by SDA, a discussion about Décaillet's professional future led to a dispute between him and Nussbaum. The RSR head of information had demanded changes and adjustments to the discussion program "Forums" and offered a different broadcasting time, which Décaillet rejected.

Spain's new private broadcaster La Sexta has bought the rights to broadcast the 2006 World Cup from Telefonica for around EUR 100 million. The final and the performances of Spain's national team will be broadcast there. La Sexta passed on the remaining matches to pay-TV Canal Plus, which belongs to a consortium with Telefonica and the Sogecable Group. La Sexta is 60 percent owned by Spanish production companies and 40 percent by the Mexican media empire Televisa. The maneuver is part of the new media concentration and shows the sums and energies that television is releasing south of the Pyrenees, writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Spain is considered the most lucrative television market in Europe, with advertising revenues rising again by 11 percent in 2005.

As in the USA, more and more women are using the Internet in Europe. This is shown by the "Mediascope Europe" study by the industry association EIAA (European Interactive Advertising Association). Last year, the proportion of European female Internet users rose to 41%, an increase of 4% compared to the previous year. European women between the ages of 16 and 24 use the Internet the most: 74% of this age group are online. In contrast, the number of women aged 55 and over online is just 15%. If these growth rates continue, there will already be more women than men on the Internet in 2007, according to the findings of the study. Search engines (84 percent) and webmail services (75 percent) are particularly popular with women, followed by travel websites (56 percent). Entertainment offerings are used less frequently by women than by men. Only 38 percent are enthusiastic about music websites, 24 percent about music downloads and 20 percent about Internet radio. Over 3,600 female users across Europe were surveyed as part of the study. The EIAA is the industry association of European online marketers. Its members are AD Europe, Adlink, AOL, Lycos, MSN, Tiscali, T-Online and Yahoo.