Swisscom intends to further expand its fiber-optic network and connect more than 1.5 million additional households and businesses with fiber. In areas that it is expanding on its own, it is changing the design of the network in such a way that competitors no longer have direct access to the network infrastructure. Swisscom is thus changing the existing market structure and presumably limiting the innovation and business opportunities of its competitors, the Weko said in a statement. End customers, for their part, could be restricted in their choice of providers and product diversity as a result.

Based on the information currently available, it appears credible to the Weko that Swisscom is abusing a dominant position with this behavior. The Commission is therefore immediately taking precautionary measures to prohibit the telecoms provider from denying competitors access to end-to-end lines when expanding the fiber-optic network.

According to its own statements, the Weko is now investigating in greater depth the extent to which Swisscom is abusing its dominant position by refusing network access.

Mengis Druck und Verlag MDV and CH Media have agreed on a cooperation. Specifically, the Valais Messenger buy reports, background information and analyses on national and international topics from the central editorial office of CH Media instead of Keystone-SDA as before. The cooperation also includes the national and international part of the online portal Walliserbote.ch. The Messenger will therefore adapt its layout to the CH-Media newspapers, as the media company writes in a statement.

From March the Valais Messenger the association of Switzerland at the weekend belong to. Every Saturday, readers in the Upper Valais region receive the cover section of the Switzerland at the weekend and are thus to benefit from significantly expanded reporting. This is the Switzerland at the weekend with just under one million readers, is by far the biggest weekend publication in Switzerland, according to CH Media.

With a budget for toy Christmas gifts of CHF 397 on average, according to the analysis, planned spending this year is at a higher level than in 2019, with men much more likely to spend: they plan to spend CHF 510 on average, compared to CHF 281 for women.

According to GfK, this spending probably refers not only to pure toys, but also to related areas such as game consoles, cell phones, headphones, bicycles, etc.

Christmas gifts increasingly bought online

Online retail has benefited very strongly from the Covid 19 pandemic, which is also reflected in Christmas sales. According to GfK analysis, Swiss consumers are buying more Christmas gifts for toys online this year than usual. The proportion of those who only shop online has doubled compared to 2019 (2019: 6 percent; 2020: 12 percent). Shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, on the other hand, has become less relevant this year: the proportion of Swiss consumers who store exclusively in stores has fallen from 30 percent to 22 percent.

"Many people are afraid of catching the corona virus and the shopping experience is clouded due to hygiene measures," comments Kurt Meister, market expert at GfK, on this development. "In addition, many consumers learned to appreciate the benefits of online retailing during the lockdown in April and had positive experiences with ordering, delivery and customer service. It is therefore to be expected that online retailing will continue to develop positively."

"Black Friday" gains in importance

This year, "Black Friday" is also under the - positive - influence of the Covid 19 pandemic. The proportion of consumers who purchased toys online in advance rose from 13 percent to 16 percent. In French-speaking Switzerland, the proportion is significantly higher at 21 percent compared to German-speaking Switzerland (14 percent).

Continued heterogeneous picture in terms of timing of purchases

As in the previous year, 56 percent of respondents made their main toy purchases at least one month before Christmas Eve and benefited from recurring annual promotions from retailers. However, it is still 26 percent who have not made any relevant toy purchases two weeks before the gift-giving - and are then also prepared to pay full price.

Men tend to take it easy (28 percent), while a larger proportion of women (22 percent) have already stocked up ahead of time.

At the heart of the restructuring is the appointment of Greg Curchod as the new Business Manager for the Swiss market. He is responsible for BCW's core business in Switzerland as well as for BCW Sports.

Curchod already held a senior position at BCW in Lausanne. He will be supported by Léonie Kelly at the helm of BCW's Zurich office and Tanya Heimlich-Ng Yuen, head of the Lausanne branch. Greg Curchod reports to Scott Wilson, head of BCW's European and African business.

Léonie Kelly has recently joined the company. She joins from Saatchi & Saatchi, where she held a senior position. Tanya Heimlich-Ng Yuen has been with BCW Sports for more than twelve years.

Lars Haue-Pedersen remains Managing Director of BCW Sports, BCW's Lausanne-based global sports agency. He continues to serve on the Executive Board of BCW Switzerland.

Leonie Studer has been working as a video producer at Yoveo since fall 2016 and has been in charge of the entire "Video Production" department since 2018. This includes the in-house production team as well as a fixed pool of freelancers from various video competence areas.

Leonie Studer was responsible for the implementation of numerous video projects for national and international clients from a wide range of industries. These include productions for UBS, Audi, the Hirslanden Group and Zurich Airport. Before joining Yoveo, she completed journalism school at Ringier and most recently worked as a video producer for the youth TV station Joiz.

"With her many years of experience in the video sector and strong customer understanding, Leonie Studer perfectly complements our management team," explains Marco Demont, Partner and Head of Video Consulting at Yoveo. "With this step we focus on sustainability in the management of Yoveo and ensure that the DNA of our company is also represented in the shareholder base," explains Andreas Herren, Partner and Head of Video Technology at Yoveo.

As the Current communication campaign the animation of the content and form was also developed and realized by Swedish motion graphic artist Andreas Wannerstedt. The result is a small, digital work of art that combines Baloise Asset Management's artistic communication presence with a touch of Swiss Christmas tradition.

Shortly before the end of 2020, the situation in the event industry continues to be characterized by much uncertainty. A forecast as to when regular business operations can be resumed cannot be made at present, as Olma Messen St.Gallen write in a statement. Starting at the beginning of March 2020, the entire trade fair program had to be canceled in several steps at the St.Gallen exhibition center. The almost complete shutdown of operations caused a loss of about 80 percent of the budgeted annual turnover.

Exhibition and event program 

Olma Messen St.Gallen went through the Corona pandemic in the summer and fall with the basic attitude that they wanted to learn how to deal with the new situation in parallel to a savings program, it continues. The guiding principle was to continue as far as possible to implement trade fairs and events with the necessary security measures and to develop events with their event partners that are adapted to the situation. The temporary easing of the pandemic in the fall of 2020 made it possible to hold the "Pätch" public fair, which had been created especially for this situation, and a few other events, thereby subjecting the protection concept of Olma Messen St.Gallen to a real test. But at the end of October, almost all further trade fairs and events planned until February fell victim to the renewed trade fair and event ban.

At present, the cooperative has reduced its operating activities to the bare minimum. The further development cannot be estimated at the moment. A decision on the organization of Immo Messe Schweiz and OFFA will be made in January.

Reorganization and strategy of Olma Messen St.Gallen 

The period of operational standstill was used by Olma Messen St.Gallen to push ahead with the reorganization of the company initiated in summer 2020. To this end, the internal processes are being analyzed and reorganized. Olma Messen St.Gallen is to emerge from the crisis with a leaner and more efficient structure that will allow it to adapt quickly and flexibly to the changing needs of the market and customers.

The long-term strategy of Olma Messen St.Gallen is not called into question by the corporate reform and the Corona pandemic. The company is convinced that trade fairs and events will remain important marketing tools in the future, he said. "People have experienced in this crisis year that digital means can maintain important business processes and ensure personal interactions. We have benefited greatly from this as well," explains Director The Director Christine Bolt. "Nevertheless, nothing can replace the direct contact, human closeness and sense of togetherness that characterize trade fairs and events and which we miss so much during the pandemic. We are convinced that once the situation returns to normal, our customers - visitors and exhibitors at trade and public fairs, as well as organizers of all kinds of events - will be happy to come back to us to go about their business, but also to celebrate together."

Well prepared for the new year 2021 

To ensure that Olma Messen St.Gallen is prepared for this moment, strategic initiatives will continue even during the crisis, the company said. The initiatives aim to adapt existing trade fairs to the requirements of the time and to develop new event formats. With the event agency "Volt Events," business customers can be supported in all their activities regardless of location, and complementary digital offerings will be created for trade show visitors. In addition, construction work on the freeway overpass and the new Hall 1 is continuing according to plan. The reduced trade fair and event operations have even resulted in construction work progressing significantly faster than planned.

Because so much is different this year, the company's end-of-year festive congratulations also come in a new form. The apprentices of Olma Messen St.Gallen, whose training has been significantly affected by the Corona crisis, have produced a video on their own initiative and thus say thank you to all supporters of the company on behalf of the entire team.

In a broad voting process, the industry magazine "Schweizer Journalist" determined which media professionals had done exceptional work in 2020. The trio of journalists Fiona Endres, Nicole Vögele and Anielle Peterhans wins the main prize by a large margin in this year's "Journalist of the Year" election. The jury agrees that Crypto-Leaks is one of the biggest investigations of recent years. Together with colleagues from the Second German Television ZDF and the Washington Post, they revealed the background of one of the biggest intelligence stories in recent Swiss history.

The category titles also all went to women, with one exception:

• Editor-in-Chief of the Year: Nicole Meier, Keystone-SDA
• Reporter of the Year: Sarah Serafini, Watson
• Sports Journalist of the Year: Mämä Sykora, Twelve
• Research Journalist of the Year: Adrienne Fiechter, Republic
• Social Journalist of the Year: Barbara Bleisch, "Sternstunde Philosophie" SRF
• Political Journalist of the Year: Nathalie Christen, SRF
• Business Journalist of the Year: Olivia Kühni, Republic
• Columnist of the Year: Nina Kunz, The magazine
• Cultural Journalist of the Year: Simone Meier, Watson
• Newcomer of the year: Ronja Beck, Republic

The report published by the editors of the Swiss journalist goes to Tamedia's research desk. The meticulous chronology of the first lockdown, published in book form, reads like a thriller.

The editors have chosen the following as "Local Heroes": Sophie Reinhardt (The Covenant), Matieu Klee (SRF Regionaljournal Basel), Simon Jacoby (Tsüry.ch), Denise Erni (Southeast Switzerland), Simon Mathis (Lucerne Newspaper), Isabel Zumofen (Canal 9) and Lillo Alaimo (Il Caffè).

Specifically, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) accuses the world's largest Internet network of advertising the protection of private data while secretly using the information to identify takeover targets. The regulators are basing their complaint on the proceedings of the US consumer protection agency FTC, which accuses Facebook of using its market power and user information.

This is intended to prepare Facebook for acquisitions like those of Whatsapp and Instagram in the past. According to experts, the process could ultimately also result in the spin-off of acquisitions.

"There is a connection, to what the FTC is saying, but they are looking at competition," ACCC Chairman said at a press conference. "We're looking at the consumer." A Facebook spokesman said the company clearly communicates what information is collected and how it is used.

Just earlier this month, Australia had pushed ahead with plans for Facebook and Google to share advertising revenue with media outlets. (SDA)

Snow, sports, sunshine and the Bern Symphony Orchestra BSO are in the leading roles. With combined forces they open the "Winter Symphony - Made in Bern" for skiers, snowboarders, freestylers, sledders and all other ice princesses and snow kings.

The composition of Bernese tourism and culture can be seen on TV and other channels since November 30. A cleverly orchestrated online campaign is designed to simultaneously pick up on the basic tonality and varies it with media-appropriate snippets for the various target groups.

The 39-year-old Küng, who was unanimously elected by the board of directors, succeeds Peter Engler, as Lenzerheide Bergbahnen communicated on Wednesday. Engler, who is also an FDP politician, had resigned in October because he stood for election as Davos mayor and apparently expected to be successful.

However, the 58-year-old was not elected head of government in Davos and had to make do with second place. Engler is leaving the company as planned after eight years. With Thomas Küng taking up his post, an orderly handover has been ensured, the mountain railroads wrote. (SDA)

Kaufmann is accompanying and supporting the internal audit on behalf of the SRG Board of Directors, the SRG media office announced on Wednesday. In addition, two external bodies are investigating allegations of bullying and sexual harassment within RTS. (SDA)