They are often demeaned by the corresponding technologies, which are supposed to make everyday life easier for users with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), and degraded to good, compliant assistants. This is the conclusion of a recent Report UNESCO, which, among other things, calls on manufacturers not to equip their systems with female voices as standard, but to use a "neutral machine gender" instead.

Female appearance

"The time will come as early as next year. By then, more people will probably be having conversations with their digital voice assistants than with their spouses," says UNESCO. At present, the vast majority of these assistants are designed by the factory to have a female appearance - both in terms of their names and their voices and personalities. The report, which was compiled in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the EQUALS Skills Coalition, aims to take a "critical look" at these practices.

"The world needs to pay much more attention to how, when and whether AI technologies use and spread stereotypical ideas of gender roles," emphasizes Saniye Gülser Corat, Head of Gender Equality at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Often, the use of such devices creates a completely false image of how women should express themselves or respond to requests. "A synthetic female personality has to carry out commands from a higher, usually male, authority," says Corat.

Too few women as developers

However, the fact that Alexa and co. are largely female is also a reflection of the mostly very one-sided composition of the AI development teams responsible for such systems. "These teams need to be more balanced in terms of their gender composition," calls UNESCO. At the moment, women make up only twelve percent of AI developers, and only six percent of software developers. "This problem can only be solved through better-balanced digital education and training programmes," the organization is convinced. (pte)

Went away empty-handed: The Amazon states, which were also interested in the top-level domain (Photo: Pixabay/deltreehd).

How the NZZ Thursday reportsthe online retailer has been in dispute with the Amazon states of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela for seven years over the ending. The Amazon River is called "Amazon" in English.

In 2012, the Amazon group registered interest in the extension and applied for it. The states in question vetoed the application. Icann always advocated a solution in which the two parties to the dispute agreed on conditions of use.

How the NZZ writes, the parties had made proposals to that effect, but had not reached an agreement. The states wanted Amazon to use the ending only in connection with commercial offers such as alexa.amazon or books.amazon. Amazon, on the other hand, was willing to accept restrictions, but did not want the states to have a say.

In the end, however, Amazon's application probably met all the requirements for a top-level domain, and so the application was finally accepted. (hae)

Juan Manuel Fernandez has worked as product manager for the eastern region and Ticino since 2001. From 2003, he took over consulting for agencies and advertising clients in the national market. From 2012, he was responsible as Head of Key Account Management and led a team of 25 employees.

Until a successor has been appointed, Andy Bürki (Head of Advertising Market) is now in charge of APG|SGA's national key account management on an interim basis. 

The social web remains in motion: New platforms appear on the radar (TikTok), old ones disappear almost unnoticed (Google+), and new formats attract the interest of the inherently sluggish masses. And so not only the importance of individual platforms changes, but also their use - almost unnoticed by the user, but very clearly in a year-on-year comparison.

In order to record these movements and derive potential from them, Xeit has conducted an annual study on the use of social media in Switzerland since 2009. Has TikTok already overtaken Snapchat among Swiss young people? How relevant are rating platforms? How good is the acceptance of social ads? Which is the most important business network? And where do the Swiss find out about potential employers? These are the kinds of questions that online marketing deals with every day.

With the survey on social media use in Switzerland, Xeit is now providing the analytical basis for answering these questions for the tenth time. The current edition of the study series "Social Media in Switzerland" is based on a survey panel with 1111 participants.

The most important results at a glance:

• The Frequency of use of social networks continues to grow.
• Every fifth Swiss has a Voice Assistant at home.
• The Swiss increasingly feel stressed from being online all the time.
• Four out of five Swiss read Blogs. At least occasionally.
• Influencer are gaining in importance - across almost all age groups.
• Infotainment with a clear company reference is what users want from company websites.
• Stories are the format of the hour. Most popular among active users: Instagram.
• Social media is gaining ground in the Politics in importance. 40 percent of respondents inform themselves on social media before the elections.
• Social media TV formats have not yet arrived in the mainstream in Switzerland.
• WhatsApp continues to extend its lead as a messenger.
• When making purchasing decisions, two thirds of the Swiss pay attention to Online reviews

Xeit sells the entire study (56 pages, print) for 300 Swiss francs.

In the Tamedia titles Tages-Anzeiger and 20 Minuten, the media company published an apology on Thursday, both online and in print, for its coverage of the Carl Hirschmann case from November 2009 to January 2012. The reason for this is a ruling by the Federal Court. It states that this reporting violated the personality of Carl Hirschmann. In particular, speculative accusations that were not substantiated in court were spread in a way that disregarded the presumption of innocence. The court also criticized the intensity with which the case was reported.

The Federal Court spoke 2017 of "excessive interference" and exposure in the eyes of the average consumer. "This violation of personality cannot be justified by an overriding public interest."  

The Zurich Commercial Court also found that Carl Hirschmann had suffered "serious immaterial harm" because of the reports, according to the short text published by Tamedia, which is also available in a French-language version. 

Hirschmann's PR consultant Sacha Wigdorovits sent out a statement from his client on Thursday. The latter is satisfied "that after Ringier Tamedia has now also apologized to me, thus settling a legal dispute that has lasted for years."  (hae)

Seven people will lose their jobs, as the Ticino-based media company announced in a communiqué on Thursday. In addition, two people are to take early retirement. No information was provided on the function of these employees.

The board of directors has decided to restructure the company, the statement added. The reason for the restructuring is the losses of the past years, according to the press release. For years, the paper had been drawing on its reserves.

A social plan is available to support those affected by the downsizing, according to the statement. An outplacement company has also been called in to help with the job search.

The Syndicom and ATG unions also reported the layoffs. They wrote that they had not been admitted to Thursday's employee information session, citing the internal nature of the event. However, the management had agreed to a meeting with the employee representatives on Friday.

It is the second blow to the Ticino newspaper landscape in a year. In May 2018, the church-affiliated Giornale del Popolo announced its closure. The reason was the bankruptcy of Publicitas. Thirty employees were affected. (SDA)

Cumulative advertising pressure for the first four months of the year amounted to CHF 2,401.2 million gross. This represents a year-on-year increase in annual advertising pressure of 2.2%.

Development of advertising pressure as at April 2019

After the podium places in the sector ranking remained unchanged in the first three months of the year, the construction, industry, furnishings sector overtook the automotive sector in April to take bronze. First place remains unchanged for leisure, gastronomy and tourism. At 60 million gross francs, the sector recorded the highest advertising pressure of the month, with a wafer-thin lead of 0.6 million gross francs over the second-placed service sector. YTD, the energy sector recorded the strongest year-on-year growth in gross advertising pressure (20.8%). This is thanks to solid increases in all four months of the current year.

The largest year-on-year increase was recorded by the passenger car product group (+34.9%), with the vehicle industry increasing its gross advertising pressure by a good 20%. The service sector increased by 18.8%, but is still just behind leisure, gastronomy and tourism in the monthly ranking, as this sector also increased its advertising pressure by 14.8% compared to the same month last year. The personal needs sector (+27.1%), the cleaning sector (+22.7%) and the energy sector (+18.9%) also increased their gross advertising pressure compared to the same month last year.

As in the previous month, the tobacco industry sharply reduced its advertising pressure (-47.4%). The pharma & healthcare sector also reduced its gross advertising pressure in April by 18.4% compared to the previous year. The slight increase in the Political Campaigns product group (+8.8%) could not prevent the Initiatives & Campaigns sector's gross advertising pressure from falling by 15.1%. The Digital & Household sector (-5.6%), including the IT, Hardware & Software (-17.7%) and TV & Home Entertainment (-14.6%) product groups, also saw a year-on-year decrease in gross advertising pressure. The Initiatives & Campaigns sector recorded the most significant decrease in gross advertising pressure YTD with a drop of 12%.

Advertising pressure in the sectors with year-on-year comparison

The top 10 advertisers and most frequently advertised products and services (excluding product range and image advertising) in April

The integration of Search data, Desktop (January 2017) and Mobile (July 2017) into the Media Focus advertising statistics has led to a significant increase in the share of Internet in the media mix. Since January 2018, Search data has also been collected for French-speaking Switzerland (Search share: 85% DE/15% FR).

As a private school in the heart of Zurich, Academic Gateway is one of many in the highly competitive education market. To showcase the private school's differentiating educational concept, Geyst implemented an overall presence that balanced classic as well as modern elements. "Schools today are brands. To be successful, they need coherent communication and a strong presence on all relevant channels," says Matthias Kadlubsky, Creative Director at Geyst.

The agency is responsible for creating the brand personality, corporate wording, logo, website, various social media campaigns and video content for different channels.

The central editorial team: Roman Schenkel, Patrik Müller and Raffael Schuppisser (from left).

The merger of the national editorial teams of St. Galler Tagblatt, Lucerne Newspaper and Aargauer newspaper led to five dismissals, according to CH Media on Wednesday. The affected employees have been informed accordingly. A social plan will be applied.

CH Media is pulling together journalists who deal with national and international content into a central newsroom in Aarau for the summer. CH Media's newspapers and online portals will then be supplied with news, background information, analyses and commentary from a central newsroom.

The editor-in-chief of the central editorial office is Patrik Müller. The deputy editors-in-chief will be the two current heads of the Lucerne Newspaper and the Aargauer newspaper, Roman Schenkel and Raffael Schuppisser.

Anna Wanner and Doris Kleck will remain in charge of the Federal Parliament editorial office in Bern. Andreas Möckli is the new head of the business section. Katja Fischer de Santi and Sabine Kuster will jointly take over the team management of the Society/Life/Science section, Stephan Künzli that of Culture.

Etienne Wuillemin heads the central sports department, Samuel Schumacher becomes head of the foreign department. (SDA)
 

This writes the Handelszeitung in its current issue. The "Win-back Europe" campaign focuses on the four source markets of Germany, Benelux, France and the UK. This is necessary because the number of European overnight stays in Swiss mountain regions has fallen by 43 percent since 2008, says Martin Nydegger, Director of Switzerland Tourism: "The campaign is to start in 2020 and continue for at least two years. Regarding the costs for "Win-back Europe", Nydegger says: "We expect to spend 5.5 million francs over the two years."
 
Nydegger explains in an interview with the Handelszeitungwhy he is calling for CHF 240 million in federal funding for Switzerland Tourism over the next four years: "Since 2015, there has been a high level of inflation abroad, particularly in Asia, and digitalization has become much more demanding and therefore more costly." If federal funding were to be cut, activities would have to be scaled back: "In the event of a reduction compared to the decision taken four years ago, a program such as 'Win-back Europe' would be acutely endangered and we would also have to consider closing branches abroad."
 

The optician store has been one of Boxx's clients since the agency was founded. Over the years, the agency has already had the privilege of designing several appearances for Boday Bulloni. The current poster series "Die Kunst des guten Sehens (the new art of sight)" has now been included in the latest edition of Lürzer's Archive in the retail category, an honor for the agency, which is now based in Bern. As part of the current campaign, signed silkscreen prints were also auctioned off at a vernissage to benefit a non-profit organization. 

Many extrinsic changes can seem rather unpleasant at first. For example, when one is faced with the fact of having to move out of one's home. This is also the case with the Promokant agency, which unexpectedly has to leave its studio on Heinrichstrasse.

This step has prompted the agency to realign itself. A cornerstone for the new strategy was already set at the end of 2018 with the founding of the Kyo agency. The second measure was to make the agency more digital. Data is being uploaded to the cloud, and new infrastructure and software are being used.

The agency has also decided to work only in the co-working space in the future and will move into the Zurich Impact Hub at the beginning of June. Equipped only with a Macbook and a cell phone, the agency will concentrate on the essentials: The support of clients and the further development of the agencies. With its innovative ecosystem flair, the Impact Hub will provide the perfect setting for this.

All the people who are responsible for customer satisfaction still represent the heart and soul of Promokant. In the future, Promokant will no longer simply manage a pool of promoters, but will build communities around brands and products, from which promoters and micro-influencers will be developed. The most committed will make it into the Ambassador programs of the brands. In this way, the agency wants to ensure that every promoter or influencer used by Promokant or Kyo is a true fan of the brand.

This transformation, as well as the combination with Kyo, is another innovation from Promokant with which the agency wants to differentiate itself from other competitors. Customers should thus benefit from the symbiosis of digital and conventional measures.