With this year's "LXmas" campaign, the airline is inviting its guests to discover something special in everyday life. Various activities are designed to arouse anticipation for Christmas and reinforce the festive mood.

In addition, there will be fundraising campaigns, charity missions by Swiss employees and other "surprising moments at home and abroad" in the coming weeks until Christmas, which are intended to send a signal of solidarity and appreciation. On the Social media channels Swiss will be running competitions, and Santa Claus and his helping elves will be making a personal appearance on selected flights. The winners of the "LXmas" competition and invited guests can look forward to a "unique Christmas evening" on December 17.

"LXmas" was launched seven years ago. "With LXmas, we want to spread the magic of Christmas and focus on the importance of small gestures," explains Head of Marketing Stefan Vasic. "Christmas reminds us to pause, celebrate community and share special moments. Once again this year, we want to bring the magic of Christmas to life for our guests across national borders."

The Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) has extended Telebielingue's license from 1 January 2025, a spokeswoman for the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Sunday. She confirmed a report by the newspaper Le Temps.

At the beginning of 2024, Media Minister Albert Rösti's department surprisingly awarded the new concession for the Biel area to the television station Canal Alpha. The former local television station Telebielingue of the Gassmann media group lost out. The Gassmann Group lodged an appeal against the decision with the Federal Administrative Court. This decision is still pending.

More money

As of January 1, the share of radio and television fees that Telebielingue receives annually will be increased from the current CHF 3.2 million to CHF 3.7 million, the Bakom spokesperson continued. In general, the amounts for regional television have been adjusted upwards.

The editorial director of Gassmann, Nicoletta Cimmino, explained to Keystone-SDA that Telebielingue and Canal Alpha had agreed a transitional period of one year if the court ruled in favor of the Jura Arc television project. This agreement proposed by the Biel-based group would apply from the date of the Federal Administrative Court's (FAC) decision.

The managing director of Canal Alpha, Marcello del Zio, confirmed this information to the Keystone-SDA news agency. Should the SNB rule in favor of Canal Alpha, the concession would remain in the hands of Telebielingue until the end of the transitional period.

Telebielingue began broadcasting in 1999 and employs around 40 people. The station broadcasts bilingual television programs in German and French. The Gassmann Group also publishes the daily newspapers Journal du Jura and Bieler Tagblatt and the weekly newspaper Biel Bienne and the platform Ajour out. (SDA/swi)

Seraina Rohrer, who holds a doctorate in journalism and film studies, took up her position as Head of the Canton of Zurich's Department of Culture in mid-August 2024, succeeding her predecessor Madeleine Herzog as the canton's representative on the Board of Directors of Schauspielhaus Zürich AG. As a profound expert on the local cultural landscape, Rohrer has developed a Master's program in film for various universities and universities of applied sciences, worked as a curator, lecturer, foundation board member and columnist, was director of the Solothurn Film Festival and headed the Innovation and Society division at the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.

David Schärer will join the Board of Directors on January 1, 2025 as the city's deputy and successor to Urs Spinner. The former "Advertiser of the Year 2021/22" brings over 25 years of experience in the areas of corporate management and development, strategic communication and stakeholder management and, thanks to his previous work in the media office of Theater Basel, also knows what goes on behind the scenes of a theater company. After holding various management positions on both the agency and corporate side (most recently as CMO of Breitling), David Schärer founded his own agency in fall 2024, focusing on campaigning, reputation management and advisory services (Markt-kom.com reported).

For its network coverage in Switzerland, Salt received the highest rating in the annual test conducted by Connect was awarded the "Outstanding" rating for the second time.

The fact that the best reception and permanent accessibility can also have its pitfalls is a real realization for many people today. The current commercial dramatizes precisely this insight - a dedicated mom with the best of intentions inadvertently becomes an accomplice to a minor chaos that can no longer be stopped.

The commercial will be shown nationally on TV, supplemented by various online advertising media.

Responsible at Salt: Max Nunziata (CEO), Jean-Christophe Plasse (Director Product Marketing), Christoph Schwarz (Head of Brand Management & Marketing Communications), Lisa Krähenbühl (Marketing Communication Manager). Responsible at Zimmermann Communications: Christoff Strukamp (Creative Direction), Julia Hofmann (Art Direction), Sophie Güntensperger (Text), Nico Hediger (Photos), Dominik Mätzener (Consulting, overall responsibility). Film production: Tuna Production, Tobias Bergman (Director), Pascal Walder (DoP), Wolfgang Weigl (Edit), Edward Negussie, Misgena Studios (Color Grading), Timo Stump (Head of moving Images), Tufan Tuna, Derya Tuna (Executive Producer). Recording studio: Dubdub Studios. Media: Context.

As the new Chief Product Officer of RMS, Stephanie Leue will become a member of the extended Executive Board of RMS as of January 1, 2025. Her predecessor Marco Rüegger has decided to leave the company, according to the press release.

Leue has 16 years of experience in digital product management and has been Group Product Manager in the Ringier Group's Innovation & AI team since May 2024. Previously, she was Chief Product Officer at Doodle. Other positions include leadership roles at Eurospace, Contentful, Spreadshirt and PayPal in Germany. Stephanie Leue holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Hamburg and an MBA from Quadriga University Berlin.

Marco Rüegger assumed the role of Chief Product Officer when RMS was founded at the end of 2023 and became a member of the Executive Board. He had previously served as Chief Product Officer and member of the Executive Board of the Blick Group, having already headed the division on an interim basis since August 2022. After two intensive and challenging years, Marco Rüegger has decided to step down in order to pursue his career outside of RMS.

Central RMS areas are merged

Following Marco Rüegger's departure from the RMS Executive Board, all digital responsibilities will be bundled at this level. In future, Chief Digital Officer Sandro Inguscio will be responsible for Product & Tech at Executive Board level in addition to his previous responsibilities for Digital & Distribution.

Inguscio's management team will in future consist of his previous Direct Reports Daniel Egli (Coordination), Laura Crimmons (Growth Management), Christian Bischoff, previously Head of Digital and new in the role of Head of Newsroom Product from May 2025, and Flavio Razzino, previously Head of News at the Blick Group and also new in the role of Head of Digital from May. From the Product & Technology division, Stephanie Leue as Chief Product Officer and Michael Jaggi as Chief Technology Officer will report directly to Sandro Inguscio.

According to RMS CEO Ladina Heimgartner, merging the divisions will enable "even closer integration of digital content strategy, technology development and platform management, allowing innovations to be implemented faster and more stringently". By breaking down these silos, RMS can "become more efficient and better", Heimgartner continued.

Only one in three Swiss companies (34%) say they are well or very well prepared for the introduction of AI applications. Nevertheless, this is slightly more than last year, when the proportion was 24%. The latest figures come from the "AI Readiness Index" from network equipment provider Cisco. It surveyed a total of 7,985 IT managers in 30 markets whose organizations have at least 500 employees, as detailed in a press release. The Swiss figures are based on the responses of around 300 respondents.

In the survey, Cisco classifies companies into four categories: "Pacesetters", "Chasers", "Followers" and "Laggards". The view reduced to the highest readiness level is disappointing for Switzerland: just 8% (1 percentage point more than last year) consider themselves fully prepared to use AI productively, as Cisco summarizes.

A country comparison also shows that local companies can still make up ground: With the 34% mentioned at the beginning, Switzerland is in the middle of the European field, writes Cisco.

Switzerland is strong in AI strategy and AI talent

"Swiss companies are gaining ground in AI, which is important news," Christopher Tighe, Head of Switzerland at Cisco, is quoted as saying in the press release. "However, Swiss companies are not yet where they need to be to leverage the potential of AI. Especially in the area of IT infrastructure, there is a need to catch up in order to make data centers fit for AI requirements. The good news is that Switzerland is globally competitive when it comes to AI talent, and we need to take advantage of this."

In fact, 72% of respondents rated their company in the top two performance levels in terms of AI strategy. This puts them on a par with British companies and only just behind German (77 percent) and American (79 percent) companies, according to Cisco. In terms of AI talent, 52% of respondents in Switzerland see their company in the top two performance levels. This is the best rating in Europe, Cisco praises.

In terms of infrastructure, however, only 35% of the Swiss companies surveyed consider themselves to be well or very well prepared for AI. According to Cisco, this is slightly better than the European average (33%), but is topped by US companies, for example, with 56%.

Cisco describes the findings on AI culture as "expandable": 26% of Swiss companies consider themselves to be in the top two readiness levels. By comparison, the figures for the UK and Germany are 40 and 41 percent respectively, and in the USA they are as high as 47 percent.

60 percent do not see expectations fulfilled

Just over half (51%) of respondents said that management was putting pressure on them to introduce AI quickly. Investors also put pressure on 37 percent of respondents, while middle management played a role for 33 percent.

In terms of investment, the Cisco survey shows that almost half (48%) of companies in Germany invest between 10% and 30% of their IT budget in AI projects. 5 percent of respondents are currently allocating as much as 40 percent of their budget to AI; and 29 percent stated that they intend to do so in the next five years.

At the same time, it is noticeable that the projects currently underway are by no means only triggering leaps of joy: Over 60 percent of respondents report that their AI initiatives have so far not brought any significant progress or results in the automation, optimization and support of processes, Cisco summarizes. Expectations have therefore not been met. (René Jaun/yzu/swi)

This article first appeared in Netzwoche.

SBB received the Rail Tourism Award from the European Travel Commission ETC and Eurail for its successful implementation. The continuation contrasts a well-organized cruise with adventurous Interrail travel and is intended to encourage travellers to explore Europe in an environmentally conscious way.

In the current commercial, two old friends go on a cruise. When a cat thwarts their vacation plans, the two react calmly and switch to the comfortable train.

SBB worked with the Swedish agency Sweet to implement the campaign. It has been running since Wednesday and will continue until December 17, 2024 in various offline and online media.

Just in time for the 25th anniversary of the renowned Bern-based advertising agency and with retroactive effect from January 1, 2024, the two long-standing co-managing directors, Client Service Director Corinne Hert and Creative Director Jeff Gerber, are acquiring 100 percent of the shares in the Bern-based LSA agency Komet by means of a management buyout.

"It was time and the logical next step for the agency as well as for our personal development," says Corinne Hert. Jeff Gerber adds: "Komet has a solid foundation and has been able to provide communications support for many exciting brands, services and products. But we will not stand still and are looking forward to opening the next chapter in the agency's 25-year success story."

After SMG, in which the TX Group holds a 30.75 percent stake, has not paid a dividend since it was founded in 2021, a special distribution totaling 230 million Swiss francs has now been decided. According to a press release issued on Friday, the TX Group will receive CHF 71 million of this amount. This sum will flow into the Group's free cash flow.

TX Group now intends to extend the range of the free cash flow after dividends to minority interests etc. on which its own distribution is based to between 30 and 50 percent. This means that a dividend of CHF 4.00 per share will "definitely" be proposed from the funds available for the current and the following two financial years.

The group under the umbrella company TX Group comprises four independent companies. In addition to SMG, these are Goldbach, 20 Minuten and Tamedia. (SDA/swi)

The ban risks "pushing young people into darker corners of the internet where there are no community guidelines and safety rules (...)", a Tiktok spokesperson said.

Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta criticized legislation that had been pushed through in a "rush" and without taking into account "what the industry is already doing to consider age-appropriate experiences and the voices of young people". The company also demanded to be allowed to view the planned regulations in detail in order to be able to offer a "technically feasible" solution for age verification that "does not unduly burden parents and young people".

A spokesperson for the online service Snapchat said that the company was "seriously concerned" about the new law. Many questions about how exactly the new regulation should work remained unanswered.

UN Children's Fund Unicef also warns

Katie Maskiell from the UN children's charity Unicef Australia also warned that children and young people would be forced into "hidden and unregulated online spaces" if they no longer had access to Tiktok, Facebook and the like. The ban would also mean that they would no longer have access to "areas of the online world that are fundamental to their wellbeing", Maskiell added.

With the social media ban for children and young people under the age of 16, Australia has one of the world's strictest regulations for online services such as Tiktok, Instagram and Facebook. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had described social media as a "platform for peer pressure, a driving force for anxiety, a tool for scammers and a tool for online predators". He wants Australia's young people to get away from their cell phone screens and do sports instead.

In future, operators must take "reasonable steps" to ensure that under-16s cannot set up their own accounts with them. They face fines of up to the equivalent of around 31 million euros if they do not comply with the new regulations. The draft law actually contains hardly any details on how compliance is to be enforced. The exact regulations are still to be worked out and the law is not expected to come into force for at least a year. (SDA/swi)

The Tamedia management has promised a layoff freeze until September 30, 2026, Impressum announced on Thursday. Impressum sees this as a success "in these difficult times for journalism", as the professional association writes.

In total, Tamedia, which belongs to the TX Group, cut 55 full-time positions. Many voluntary departures, early retirements and reductions in workload meant that the number of redundancies could be reduced. This amounts to 9 redundancies in editorial offices in German-speaking Switzerland and 8 in French-speaking Switzerland, i.e. 17.

Together with the job cuts, Tamedia also announced a strategic realignment at the end of August. In future, the media company intends to focus on its four strongest brands online Tages-Anzeiger, BZ Bernese Newspaper, Basel Newspaper and 24 Heures concentrate.

The Confederation and the Tribune de Genève are to retain their own online presences. However, titles with a smaller reach are to be integrated into the four major platforms. This affects the Zurich regional newspapers, for example The Land messenger, Zürcher Unterländer and Zurichsee-Zeitung. (SDA/swi)