The European Alliance of News Agencies EANA has awarded this year's "Award for Excellence in News Agency Quality", the "Maxim Minchev" prize, to Austria Presse Agentur for its strategic project "#APA-Playbook Trusted AI". The prize is awarded annually for outstanding achievements by European news agencies.

Launched in spring 2023, the APA Trusted AI project encompasses all the factors and activities a news organization can play in the area of a trusted use of AI, including policies and quality rules, audited and validated data, selection of enabling technologies, mandatory labeling of AI content, transparency, product safety, traceability, technology agnosticism, and a safe space for information processing.

With services in the areas of visual AI (face, logo and object recognition), text AI (content generation, automation and classification) and speech AI (Speech2Text, speaker recognition), APA serves both its traditional media customers and customers from the corporate and institutional sectors with modern AI solutions. For the development and implementation of APA Trusted AI, about ten experts are working in the "APA Taskforce AI". The project is intended to provide "orientation, products and tools so that customers can correctly understand, classify and use AI, generate benefits and are economically successful," according to the project's vision statement.

According to APA CEO Clemens Pig, the goal of the strategic project is to further develop the news agency from a multimedia content supplier to a data- and AI-based production platform. "In a digital interpretation of our basic mission (Trusted Content), we are evolving into a collaborative platform that is closely connected to media production systems (Trusted AI)," Pig explains. "One concrete vision, for example, is to develop an AI media hub as a shared knowledge space among media companies where artificial intelligence can be trained and used based on fact-based and clean information."

The European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) serves the cooperation as well as the exchange of information and experience of European news agencies. Currently, 32 news agencies from all over Europe are members of EANA. The jury, consisting of EANA board members Elmir Huremovic (FENA, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Stefano de Alessandri (ANSA, Italy), Fabrice Fries (AFP, France) and EANA Secretary General Alexandru Giboi, evaluated the submissions according to the main criteria of innovation, applicability, revenue and cost, and reach.

With immediate effect the Weltwoche in addition to the main Swiss edition, there will also be a stand-alone e-paper edition for Germany, as Weltwoche Verlags AG announced on Friday.

Weltwoche Germany is around fifty pages thick and goes online later each Friday afternoon. There is also a constantly updated Germany website with an app.

"No particular political line"

Weltwoche Germany will be a grab bag full of topics, promises editor-in-chief Köppel. "Independent, critical and good-humored." The Germany edition will not follow any particular political line, but will above all "encourage people to think for themselves" and dissect errors from a benevolent outside perspective.

"The qualified cluelessness of the Swiss looking to Germany is our strength." Köppel cites increasing success in the neighboring country to the north as the catalyst for expansion into Germany. Readership figures in Germany have risen steadily in recent years, he says. (SDA)

Since the beginning of September, Tatjana Minzlaff is now responsible for the sales of the news portal Inside IT. She brings over 20 years of sales experience in print and online media at, among others, the Coop Newspaper, TCS Touring and The Philanthropist and also worked for more than ten years in the IT environment as a sales manager and project manager. She got her start in publishing as publisher of the newspaper Online PC.

Minzlaff succeeds Tina Wurmbrand, who has been Inside IT is leaving at her own request. She is looking forward to serving the existing and new customers of Inside IT: "Our podcast, our newsletters, our events and formats such as advertorials or promotions are good ways to raise our own profile or generate leads," says Tatjana Minzlaff.

The Winsider publishing house includes, in addition to Inside IT the online media Medinside and Konsider.

The "Wemf Facts & Figures" app provides up-to-date data on over 800 Swiss newspapers and magazines - including circulation figures, reach, information on readership and place of publication. Each publication has its own dashboard with graphics.

In addition, there are functions such as the presentation mode or a comparison list, with which data from up to five publications can be compared with each other at the click of a button. The comparison graphs thus clearly show the differences in the characteristic values graphically.

With the newly launched app, Wemf wants to enable the advertising and media market to create benchmark comparisons to various print publications free of charge and in a simple way, according to a request by Advertisingweek.ch means. The design of the app and the visualization of the data sets were specially optimized for user-friendly analysis on smartphones.

The app is available free of charge in the App Store and on Google Play available.

The summer party of Visualeyes was attended by numerous heads from the creative industry as well as representatives of agency and. In addition, numerous VisualEyes artists joined the party.

The addition of AI prompters to VisualEyes' service offering marks a milestone, according to a statement Thursday. Since its founding in 2007, the agency has established itself both in and outside of Switzerland, it said. This innovation underscores VisualEyes' commitment to continuously evolving and adapting to developments in the creative industry, it added.

According to its own information, Visualeyes is the first Swiss agency to include AI photography in its offering. For the portfolio the Platform Ai-artists.com created. Despite this, however, Visualeyes remains true to its roots and represents under Visualeyes-artists.com photographers, illustrators and 3D artists. However, the integration of AI services would expand the creative potential and enable customers to realize even more diverse projects.

"We spent several months interviewing different AI promoters until we finally found a startup team that met our quality standards and worked professionally," said Natalija Fallocca-Bajric, founder and CEO of Visualeyes. "We placed special emphasis on our partners having a background in photography or film, or at least a design background, so they would have a thorough understanding of working with ad agencies and producing ads. At a time when the market is flooded with AI promoters, finding reliable partners has been a challenge. Our priority is the quality of results and seamless integration with different media."

Impressions from the Visualeyes summer party. (Pictures: zVg.)

With a huge selection of animated films from around the world, Fantoche will once again transport its viewers into the fascinating world of animated moving images. The spectrum of films ranges from award-winning masterpieces to productions by up-and-coming talents that illuminate the potential of animation art in all its facets.

However, the festival is not only a tribute to established artists:inside, but also a platform for newcomers and enthusiasts. In workshops, lectures and networking opportunities, young filmmakers have the chance to expand their skills and exchange ideas with like-minded people and industry experts.

For the duration of the festival, Maybaum Film is making part of its premises available to the organizers for a young talent workshop in which concepts for 3D animations for films and games will be developed. The workshop will be attended by HSLU students from the field of animation and prospective game design graduates from the ZHDK.

"Our initiative to support up-and-coming Swiss filmmakers in collaboration with the renowned Fantoche Festival underscores our commitment to promoting Swiss animation and film art as an internationally recognized institution," explains Michel Alraun, Co-Founder of Maybaum Film. "The Fantoche Festival is, in my opinion, the ideal place to shape the future of animation and cinematography and to offer talented young filmmakers the opportunity to present themselves on an international stage."

On Friday, interested parties can take part in a free guided tour of Fantoche at 3 pm. The festival will continue until Sunday, September 10, with events in various cinemas and public places in the city of Baden.

Responsible at Fantoche Festival: Lucia Chen (Festival Organization), Ivana Kvesić (Festival Director). Responsible at Maybaum Film: Michel Alraun (Co-Founder).

Current world events are making many people uncomfortable. To find out what the Swiss and Germans think about five particularly hotly debated global issues, the market research companies Link and YouGov conducted representative surveys in both countries.

Worry topics: Climate change more in Switzerland, inflation more in Germany

The Swiss (74 %) and Germans (76 %) are most concerned about geopolitical tensions that could lead to wars or nuclear disasters. In Switzerland, concerns about climate change and its consequences, such as natural disasters, come in second place (72 %). Germans are a little less concerned about this - with 68 %, this topic comes in third place of the five surveyed for Germans. Compared with climate change, people in Germany are even slightly more concerned about insufficient household finances due to rising inflation (73 %). These concerns are shared somewhat less in Switzerland, at 68 percent.

Concern for KI and replacement of the workplace

Artificial intelligence is currently creating many opportunities - but also concerns, as the survey shows. In Switzerland, 62 % of respondents are concerned about the possible replacement of jobs by the use of artificial intelligence. In Germany, slightly fewer people are concerned, at 54 %, but still more than half of respondents.

In both countries, "new epidemics/pandemics of infectious diseases" cause the least concern among the five topics queried: 50 % in Switzerland and 52 % in Germany.

For the Survey by YouGov and the YouGov Group company Link Marketing Services, 1,049 people in Switzerland were surveyed from August 11 to 17, 2023, and 2,074 people in Germany from August 11 to 15, 2023, based on YouGov Surveys. The results are weighted and representative of the respective populations aged 18 and over.

In the virtual environment visitors will get to know Sanitas in an unprecedented and interactive dimension. The "Experience Space" presents topics such as health insurance, health, and health promotion in a playful, interactive, and accessible form.

Alva, Sanitas' long-time digital health assistant, welcomes interested people to the Metaverse and offers them guidance. The space includes a media area where the current edition of the Sanitas Health Forecast, including the Swiss pain landscape, is displayed as a 3-D book. In addition, visitors can listen to the latest Sanitas Health Forecast podcast, find out about Sanitas' digital offerings, and experience digitization live - for example, through an animated tree that symbolizes how much paper is saved each week through digital communication in the Sanitas portal.

In the nutrition area, there is a game based on the oversized Swiss food pyramid. On the upper floor, avatars demonstrate fitness exercises that can be easily imitated. And in the outdoor area you can relax: surrounded by waterfalls, it's easy to get away from stressful everyday life - slow down and take a deep breath.

"For the construction of this metaverse, we placed special emphasis on creating a consistent brand experience for Sanitas that is both futuristic in appearance but also in harmony with nature," says Christian Aichhorn, managing partner of Kuble.

The Design was created on the Spatial.io platform in an avant-garde and future-oriented styleSanitas' branding is adapted to the new channel and the new interaction possibilities. The Space is accessible via VR glasses, desktops or mobile apps. It currently serves as a platform for users to gain experience in virtual reality and familiarize themselves with the underlying technology. In the future, events or consulting sessions could also take place here.

Swiss Post spokeswoman Silvana Grellmann told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Thursday that the company was stepping up its cost-cutting efforts in view of inflation and clouded consumer sentiment. The savings program was first reported by the View reports.

Cuts are reportedly planned in finance, human resources, communications and information/technology, as well as on the staff of Post CEO Roberto Cirillo.

Figure mentioned by Blick "purely speculative".

In view of the scale of the cost-cutting project, Swiss Post assumes that employees will also be affected, Grellmann wrote. However, she did not want to confirm information from the Viewaccording to which around 300 people are likely to lose their jobs. This figure is "purely speculative". It would be unreliable to give concrete figures at this stage.

According to the spokeswoman, Swiss Post wants to tackle not only personnel costs but also material costs, such as the cost of systems. The concrete measures will be worked out by the end of the year. They will be implemented in 2024, so they will take effect by 2025 at the latest.

If consultation is necessary, employees will be able to express their views on the cost-cutting measures next January, Grellmann said. Any negative effects of job cuts will be cushioned by a social plan.

Profit down

According to Grellmann, the purchase of a forest in eastern Germany for CO2 compensation is not called into question by the savings program: She wrote that she was convinced that climate protection could not wait until tomorrow. According to media reports, the costs for the forest purchase amount to more than 70 million francs.

Swiss Post's profit more than halved in the first half of 2023 compared with the same period of the previous year. It still amounted to 118 million francs - 141 million francs less than in the previous year. Even before the latest announcements, an efficiency program had been initiated in the logistics services area and office space was bundled. (SDA)

The approximately 60-minute documentary was shown to the public for the first time on Wednesday. 200 invited guests came to the exclusive preview at the Swisscom Blue Cinema Corso in Zurich and were able to see the first screening of "Yanick Brecher - FCZ Fieber" - in the presence of the responsible agencies Saatchi & Saatchi Zurich and Prodigious as well as Yanick Brecher himself.

What started out as a request for a social media post evolved over time into an exciting film project. Over 300 hours of footage were edited, set to music and optimized to create 60 minutes of pure football passion. In the process, Brecher's emotional rollercoaster is revealed during a time when the team managed to become Swiss champions in an unparalleled battle.

"I still get goosebumps when I watch the film and the emotions come rushing back," said Yanick Brecher. "The fact that football is more than just a game over 90 minutes is something I experienced firsthand during this championship season. Saatchi & Saatchi and Prodigious Zurich have impressively documented a piece of Swiss football history."

This documentary about the player, his family and Swiss football will be shown at the official premiere on Sunday at Kaufleuten Zurich. In addition, there will be twelve broadcasts on Blue Zoom over two weeks starting on Thursday. From Monday, the documentary will also be available on Vimeo.

Responsible Yanick Brecher: Patrick Farinato (Manager). Responsible at Saatchi & Saatchi: Holger Schicke (Overall Responsibility/Agency Lead), Rémy Steinmann (Art Director), Sascha Djabbari (Senior Account Director), Isabel Bürki (Junior Account Manager), Joel Laager (Junior Account Manager), Noam Dal Bosco (Graphic). Responsible at Prodigious: Susan Baumgartner (overall responsibility), Stefan Rüegg (Producer & Head of Studio), Matteo Attanasio (DOP), Patrick Richner (Editing) with support from Brauereisound, Sony, Visuals Switzerland. MoreFlorian Weitzel (Film Director), Abbie Ramakrishnan (Executive Producer).

PostFinance also has a range of products for home ownership and real estate and accompanies customers through to the right mortgage. After all, anyone who wants to buy their own house or apartment in Switzerland faces many challenges. They also need specialist knowledge, patience and nerves of steel. Because buying real estate is like interest rates: emotions run high and low.

Wunderman Thompson started right here and was able to convince in the pitch. Now there is a foretaste of the new mortgage campaign. The focus of this campaign round is on the first and most difficult steps at the very beginning. The message: PostFinance has attractive mortgage solutions for a wide range of specific needs and accompanies its customers all the way to their goal. That's quite normal.

Media-appropriate headlines are designed to pick up the interested audience in different life situations. For example, trendsetters in the agglomeration, commuters filling up with gas, families in the swimming pool, or seekers on Tinder. And because buying real estate is not always that easy, a bit of humor should not be missing.

The aim of the campaign is to increase PostFinance's presumption of competence in the area of residential property and real estate. First-time buyers and redeemers are to be addressed. Further implementations and new measures are planned in the course of the fall.

Responsible at PostFinance: Marco Chini (Head of Marketing Campaigning Financing & Bancassurance), Anna Tschaggelar, Gloria Mihaljevic (Campaign and Communications Manager). Responsible at Wunderman Thompson: Franziska Saxer, Kira Vaterlaus, Sandro Tschuor (project management), Marika Magnuszewska, Julia Staub, Michael Lüthy, Felicia Aepli, Samuel Wicki (creation), Kathrina Seiler (production). Vhe responsible at Havas Media (offline media): Georges Bérard (Client Service Director), Claudia Gantenbein (Account Manager). Responsible at Webrepublic (online media): Selina Hauser (Project Manager), Vanessa Pinter (Account Manager), Julia Forster (Programmatic), Céline Marechal (Social Media), Larissa Kobler, Nicola Muri (SEA).

As a community marketplace for services of all kinds, the Zurich-based startup KnowS.com wants to make both those who want to offer their skills profitably and those who are looking for services happy.

The current campaign makes precisely this feeling of happiness the center of communication. For this purpose, the responsible agency Mona and Mateo turns a skydancer into an advertising medium. The double message to the target group: "Rejoice: we need what you can do" and "Rejoice: We can do what you need".

For the target group, the color-intensive campaign has been dancing on posters and social media throughout Switzerland since August 21.

Responsible at KnowS: Ramin Schams. Responsible with Mona and Mateo: Boris Stoll, Nicola Peter, Luc Sohm, Hannah Mey, Tabea Ott, Joëlle Frutiger, Mona Fluri, Mateo Sacchetti. Production: Patrice Gerber, Dominic Zimmermann.