Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Roger Köppel confirmed the news at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. Köppel did not want to comment on the reasons for the separation from the long-time employee. 

The online portal further quoted from a statement by Köppel that the weekly newspaper's publisher thanks Gut for his "outstanding achievements" and wishes him all the best for the future. 

Among other things, Gut had hit the headlines in connection with the so-called Zug affair. In June, the Zurich High Court convicted him of multiple counts of defamation against the former Green Party member of the Zug Cantonal Council Jolanda Spiess-Hegglin. Gut was also found guilty of violating personal rights for his reports on a job vacancy at the University of Zurich. (SDA)
 

The perfume is to smell of citrus and herbs and have a light woody note, and will be used in Die Mobiliar's 80 general agencies. The fragrance is intended to add an additional, distinctive and more personal touch to the insurance company's corporate design. In addition, this new brand dimension is intended to contribute to a more positive customer experience.

The room fragrance does not enter the market and can not be purchased by private individuals. 

On Friday, the Federal Council opened the consultation process for a package of ordinances on the Telecommunications Act. Telecommunications service providers are now obliged to protect their customers not only from unfair mass advertising, but also from unfair advertising.

This includes advertising calls from a number not registered in the telephone directory. Anyone who fails to note that a customer does not wish to receive an advertising message according to the note in the telephone directory is also engaging in unfair advertising. Finally, those who use data from such calls fall under the provision.

Various filter offers

In the future, customers should be able to obtain information about the callers from the provider. Providers are also required to offer customers at least two solutions: one that is managed by the provider and only needs to be activated or deactivated by the customer, and one that the customer must manage himself.

These can be two filter offers, for example, as the Federal Council writes in the explanatory report on the consultation. The solution, which is to be managed individually, also allows customers to block calls that may not be allowed to be blocked by providers because they are either noisy or do not fall under the relevant law at all.

Inform customers

Other changes relate to roaming. Parliament had given the Federal Council the option of combating disproportionately high retail rates and setting price caps.

The Federal Council primarily wants to oblige providers to inform customers. Normally, they receive the roaming information in the form of an SMS. If a customer cannot receive such an SMS, the provider must block access to the roaming services until the customer has reactivated it himself.

Set limit

At the latest when reactivating access to roaming services, customers must also be informed of the applicable prices and the place where they can check the applicable rates as well as the rate options available to them for price reductions.

Customers must also have the option of setting a limit on their roaming costs or choosing a corresponding tariff option. These measures are only mandatory if the costs for roaming services are higher than for similar usage in Switzerland.

Billing to the second

It is also planned that the mobile phone providers must bill to the second and kilobyte. The latest figures show that there is still a discrepancy between minutes billed and minutes actually consumed, the report says.

The principle that consumers only pay for the volumes they have actually used should apply to both data and calls. The final amount may be rounded up to the nearest 10 centimes.

Maximum 30 seconds rate

One exception is envisaged: if the Swiss mobile communications providers do not receive the data required for billing from their foreign partner companies to the exact second and kilobyte, they will not be able to charge their customers for the services as accurately. However, the providers must prove this on the basis of the data supplied.

Mobile operators are also allowed to set minimum costs for a call so that they can cover the costs incurred to establish a connection in any case. The minimum costs per call may not exceed the tariff for 30 seconds. This tariff structure corresponds to that of the EU and has proven itself, writes the Federal Council.

Do not hinder third-party providers

Furthermore, mobile network operators must not impede the use of roaming services from third-party providers abroad. If such an offer exists and a customer wants to use it, this must be possible in a simple manner.

In addition, there are new provisions on short numbers, emergency calls, and exceptions to the obligation of network neutrality. Interested parties have until March 25, 2020 to comment on the planned amendments to the ordinance. (SDA)

Stefan Gasser signaled his intention to retire early, according to a press release issued on Friday. The Board of Directors praised Gasser's commitment and social sensitivity in implementing important structural measures on the cost and earnings side, thereby strengthening the company's profitability. It is therefore very much appreciated that Stefan Gasser will continue to be available as Chief Financial Officer in order to make solid preparations for the succession plan.

His successor Beat Rechsteiner has extensive experience in journalism and business management. In addition to his studies in media and communication sciences at the University of Zurich, he has a degree in business administration from the St. Gallen Business School. The long-standing journalist and former editor of the Schaffhausen News returned to Meier + Cie Schaffhausen in 2012. Since then, he has managed several multimedia projects and taken on management responsibility at various levels. Among other things, he manages Schaffhausen Television and is a delegate of the Board of Directors of Lokalinfo in Zurich. He has been a member of the Executive Board since 2015 and Deputy CEO since 2017.

Stefan Wabel, Head of Publishing, has been appointed as Beat Rechsteiner's deputy.

A survey at the beginning of the meeting on November 26, 2019 shows: Members of the SRG Program Commission Bern Fribourg Valais make little to no use of the Regional Journal website on Srf.ch. They only consume SRF via radio and television, say some; the site is too hidden, say others.

Thus, the online usage of the Program Commission members does not differ fundamentally from that of the average user. The numbers show: The Regi websites hardly find an audience. But it is also clear to the commission that since the catchment area of the regional journals is limited, the number of clicks is also limited. 

Peter Brandenberger, head of the regional journal Bern Fribourg Valais, also justifies the end of the regional websites on Srf.ch with the lack of hits. A quantitative analysis by SRF had shown that the articles on the regional subpages often reach only a few hundred people. And a qualitative survey of user needs had shown that SRF's audience expects topics of supraregional interest, background information and classifications of major regional events on the web.

Regional news would be accessed on the news portals of the regional newspapers, not on SRF. With its Srf.ch/bern site, Regionaljournal gets too few views per week, especially for the pure news articles. That's not worth the effort, according to Brandenberger.

Reset button instead of Delete button?

Opinions on the online withdrawal from the regions are not black and white within the program commission. One member sees the decision as another cost-cutting measure. Brandenberger disagrees: they want to use the resources differently, for example for podcasts, for more research and for background reports on the online platform. Another member understands that measures have to be taken when user numbers are so low.

The program committee, however, raises the question of whether optimizations could be considered instead of taking the websites offline in spring 2020. Various ideas are mentioned: better advertising of the pages; regional pages, divided according to cantons, as is already done for elections and votes. SRF could also have benefited from the regional program commissions in this decision if it had involved them in the process at an early stage.

More correspondent tasks

In the future, regional topics of interest to the whole of Switzerland will increasingly take place at the top of the Srf.ch homepage. This is an opportunity for the regional journals, says Peter Brandenberger. Their own good stories could thus be placed prominently. The Regis should take on more of a correspondent role on the network. Or in other words: more from the region - less for the region.

Enthusiasm for Black Friday itself continued to increase year-on-year. Findings from the Bazaarvoice network show a 20% increase in the number of shoppers on Black Friday this year and an 18% increase on Cyber Monday.

This means that the number of shoppers worldwide on Black Friday has grown by an astonishing 86% in just five years. Cyber Monday has also increased by 82 percent since 2015 - although both are surpassed by the weekend in between, when the numbers more than doubled - 102 percent on average.

Sophie Light Wilkinson, VP Marketing, EMEA at Bazaarvoice: "We are observing a completely natural - tactical - shopper behavior here. In response to the high demand for deals and bargains on Black Friday, shoppers are spending more time researching. This can only be a good thing for brands and retailers, as it not only extends the buying window, but also the time spent searching for new and alternative products."

On the Sunday before Cyber Monday, the total number of page views by consumers increased the most worldwide (20%). This means that more research is done on this day and highlights the opportunity for brands and retailers to attract potential customers with products and offers at the last minute.

When looking at the medium used, it becomes clear that mobile devices continue to play an important role as a point of purchase. 47% of transactions on Black Friday took place this way, which suggests an increasingly important role for social shopping.

"Sure, it can be tempting to join the race to the bottom. But brands and retailers that recognize changing preferences and offer informative, interactive online and offline experiences will both retain their existing customers and attract new ones," says Sophie Light Wilkinson.

Founded in 1880 in Horgen near Zurich and expanded in 1902 to include the Glarus site, the Horgenglarus furniture factory is the oldest chair and table manufacturer in Switzerland.

The poster series is intended to highlight the company's DNA using typographic quotes. A factory stamp was also created, which is used on all prints. The limited edition can be purchased in the showroom in Glarus or online at Horgenglarus.ch be obtained.

The initiative "Yes to protecting children and young people from tobacco advertising" calls for a complete ban on tobacco advertising that reaches children or young people. In effect, this would ban cigarette advertising on billboards in public spaces. Various health organizations are behind the initiative (Werbewoche.ch reported).

Ball at the Parliament

The Federal Council shares their basic concerns. It welcomes significant restrictions on tobacco advertising to better protect young people from the dangers of tobacco, it wrote in a statement on Friday.

It had already submitted corresponding proposals to parliament in 2015, but these failed. At the second attempt, the Federal Council largely removed the advertising restrictions as demanded by parliament.

However, the Council of States has tightened the rules again. It passed a law in September that provides for additional advertising bans on cigarettes in the press and on the Internet. Sponsorship of international events is also to be banned. In addition, tobacco products are no longer to be sold to minors.

Federal Council exerts pressure

The Federal Council supports these decisions, as it states in the communication. The decisions of the Council of States strengthened the protection of minors and made it possible to ratify the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which entered into force in 2005. This would achieve a long-standing goal of the Federal Council.

In the further parliamentary debate, the Federal Council wants to advocate additional measures for the protection of minors. For example, tobacco advertising should also be banned in cinemas and on posters. The goal is a legislative project that largely corresponds to the concerns of the initiative, writes the Federal Council. With this approach, an indirect counter-proposal would be unnecessary.

Now the Tobacco Products Act is before the National Council. There, the new majorities could come into play: At the first attempt in 2016, the large chamber voted 101 in favor of sending the bill back to the Federal Council, with the SVP and FDP voting almost unanimously. (SDA)