Winterhilfe Schweiz will support In Flagranti over the next five years. The aim is to sustainably strengthen the relevance, visibility and impact of Winterhilfe through a well thought-out and targeted communication concept.

The agency in Lys was also commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy to promote sustainable mobility in companies. As part of the "SwissEnergy" programme, In Flagranti will run the specialist office for sustainable mobility in companies together with specialized partner companies from 2025. The aim is to motivate companies and their employees, customers and visitors to make their mobility more sustainable. In addition to In Flagranti, the specialists from Planval Partner in Bern and Brig, the Office for Mobility in Bern and Burgdorf and Mobitrends in Lugano are also on board.

The Further training series is designed to combine "learning and a vacation feeling", according to a press release. The seminars take place on mountain peaks, in mountain lodges or under palm trees in Ticino and combine teaching with network-building activities such as wine tastings, ibex safaris and sledging adventures. The program was designed in collaboration with experts and includes practical training in the areas of marketing strategy, storytelling, social media ads and generative AI.

"With the Savoir Marketing Seminars, we create an atmosphere in which people can concentrate fully on learning and networking without having to sacrifice relaxation and experiences. We transfer theory directly into practice - in places that are just as inspiring as the learning itself," explains Tanja Herrmann, Head of the HWZ degree program and founder of the "Savoir Marketing Seminars".

Each semester, 14 people can take part, which should ensure "individual support and personal feedback". Participants complete each seminar with an HWZ certificate, which guarantees them recognized further training.

With this offer, Savoir Marketing Seminars wants to provide an alternative to online teaching and respond to the growing demand for further training concepts that combine both quality and experience.

The journalists and Swiss Radio and Television SRF accepted the decisions and the penalty orders are legally binding. An SRF media spokeswoman confirmed to the news agency Keystone-SDA a corresponding report by Inside Parade Ground. The public prosecutor's office imposed conditional fines of several thousand francs. Unlike the compensation, these do not have to be paid.

Yousuf defended himself against a Report from "SRF Investigativ"in which two female journalists made allegations of terrorist financing. The public prosecutor's office initially wanted to discontinue the proceedings. However, the Zurich High Court came to the conclusion that the evidence was not necessarily sufficient and upheld an appeal by Yousuf. There was "no clear case of impunity" that would allow the case to be dropped.

SRF stands behind the reporting and bears the costs. No further information could be introduced into the proceedings without jeopardizing the source. SRF has therefore decided not to lodge an objection. However, the article will remain online. "For reasons of transparency, we are considering integrating an additional reference to the conclusion of the proceedings," the media office announced.

Fraud and money laundering

The reputation of the former "crypto prodigy" Yousuf has been deeply tarnished in recent years. By investing in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, he claimed to have become a millionaire as a teenager. However, criminal proceedings are now pending against him in the canton of Bern for commercial fraud and money laundering.

Yousuf came to Switzerland from Kurdistan as a refugee at the age of three and attracted media attention in Switzerland and abroad as the "Crypto Prince". (SDA/swi)

The Mjm.cc agency is now headed by three people. In addition to founder Martin Matt, the new management team now also includes Florence Noelpp and Christoph Marti, according to the agency.

Both new members of the Executive Board have been with Mjm.cc for almost nine years. Noelpp joined the company in January 2016. She was most recently Project Manager Live Communication, but is now COO, according to Mjm.cc. The agency emphasizes her expertise in live communication and event management. "As part of the management team, I would like to further expand Mjm.cc's strengths in the areas of creativity, strategy and implementation. Our clients can rely on innovative solutions and a high level of service," says Noelpp.

Christoph Marti also joined Mjm.cc in January 2016, where he is responsible as Creative Director. Marti himself comments that he is looking forward to "driving the agency forward in his new role with fresh, unconventional ideas. Together, we want to offer our clients solutions that go beyond traditional approaches."

The third member of the team is Martin Matt, who founded the company more than ten years ago. He will continue to be responsible for the strategic direction of the company, writes Mjm.cc.

The Today portals have recorded increasing reach, but have not achieved the necessary sales in the highly competitive online market, CH Media wrote in a press release.

Michael Wanner, CEO of CH Media, is quoted as saying that sales are declining and the company sees no way of operating the portals to cover costs in the foreseeable future. The media company includes, among others Aargauer newspaper, Lucerne Newspaper, St. Galler Tagblatt as well as several radio and TV stations such as TeleZüri.

Reference to news portal Watson

For readers of the FM1Today, ArgoviaToday, BärnToday, PilatusToday, ZüriToday and 32Today platforms, the end came as a surprise on Tuesday morning: the portal's operations had been suspended with immediate effect, it was announced - and the news portal was conspicuously referred to. Watson.ch which is also owned by CH Media.

Due to the discontinuation of the six regional news platforms, 34 redundancies were announced in the Today editorial offices and in marketing, as the media company also announced. A social plan will apply to the dismissed employees.

A further 22 employees could be offered follow-up solutions at CH Media following consultation with the personnel committee. The consultation process has been completed.

Focus on established brands

According to Michael Wanner, the media company intends to focus its regional digital strategy more strongly on the newspaper, TV and radio brands anchored in the user and advertising market.

The first regional portal was launched in eastern Switzerland in 2015 as FM1Today. This was followed by portals for the regions of Central Switzerland, Aarau, Zurich, Bern and Solothurn.

Most recently, the BärnToday (August 2022) and 32Today (spring 2023) portals were launched. According to CH Media, the portals were considered the start of the "trimedial age", i.e. the joint presence of the three media TV, radio and internet.

The target audience was younger readers who were interested in regional news and entertaining everyday topics. Political topics played a rather minor role.

Trade union warns of "media deserts"

In a statement, the media union Syndicom wrote of another "clear cut in local journalism". It shows once again what a critical state Swiss local journalism is in. CH Media had made the decision prematurely.

Profit-oriented media companies do not seem to be reliable, Syndicom continued. It is also up to politicians to remedy this situation. They must develop new solutions so that no "media deserts" arise in Switzerland. (SDA/swi)

Hasse has decided to leave Tamedia, as the Zurich-based media company announced on Monday. She joined Tamedia in 2022 as Editor-in-Chief Digital, and in 2023 she became a member of the Editor-in-Chief of the Tages-Anzeiger and was responsible for the digital strategy of the multimedia channels of the Tages-Anzeiger.

Geiger was most recently responsible for the Zurich newspaper network. This was launched in 2021 and consists of the three regional newspapers Zurichsee-Zeitung, Zürcher Unterländer and the Winterthur Country Messenger and the Zurich department of the Tages-Anzeiger.

In future, the editorial teams of the regional newspapers will work together with the Zurich section of the Tages-Anzeiger headed by Tagi editor-in-chief Raphaela Birrer. (SDA/swi)

The new ordinance sets out the general principles for inclusive communication in the city. The Biel/Bienne City Chancellery has drawn up two language guidelines to implement the ordinance, as it wrote in a press release.

One guideline regulates the use of plain and simple language for city administration texts, while the other regulates inclusive language use. This provides the city administration with a clear and common guideline.

The city intends to gradually adapt its websites, as was also reported. The original pages will not be replaced, but supplemented with new, easy-to-read versions.

The new ordinance takes into account the expectations of inclusion of non-binary people and the needs of people who have difficulties with reading comprehension, according to the City Chancellery.

The new ordinance replaces the old guidelines from 1993 and takes account of developments in language and society. (SDA/swi

Mentoring is a valuable concept that promotes the personal and professional development of young talents and future leaders by connecting experienced people (mentors) with young talents (mentees).

"Promoting young talent is a key concern for us, which is why we launched the IAA Speed Mentoring Program," says Chantal Landis, Managing Director of the IAA Swiss Chapter.

On Wednesday evening, 24 nominated mentees were able to talk to eight C-level marketers for the first time in order to benefit from their professional experience and career-related knowledge.

Together with her fellow board members Guido Trevisan, CMO of Goldbach, and Ismail Wicki, Senior Manager National Sales at Weischer.Cinema, Landis adapted the IAA UK speed mentoring concept for the Swiss market and invited mentors and mentees from the client, agency and media side to take part.

"Further development and knowledge transfer are both a duty and a passion. Not only do the mentees benefit from the mentors' experience, but the mentors can also benefit from the personal contacts," Trevisan is convinced. Wicki adds: "Mentoring combines experience with potential - a collective responsibility that we as the IAA Swiss Chapter are delighted to create opportunities for."

Committed mentors, enthusiastic mentees

The IAA brings together global leaders from advertising clients, media companies and communication and advertising agencies. "When selecting the mentors and mentees, this tri-party was very important to us," says Landis. The following IAA members were involved as mentors on Wednesday:

Christoph Marty (CEO Goldbach Group), Gregor Eicher (Head of Marketing & Sales Bank Cler), Joséphine Chamoulaud (CEO Smile Insurance), Laura Loos (Senior Director Marketing The Coca-Cola Company), Matthias Kiess (CEO TBWA), Mike Weber (Director Marketing & Sales Wemf), Nathalie Diethelm (CEO Serviceplan Group Switzerland) and Raphael Bratschi (Head of Product Management & Business Development Post Advertising).

The new website integrates the modernized corporate design of St.Gallen-Lake Constance Tourism, which was realized by the agency Vitamin 2. Separate portals were created for the various stakeholder groups of St.Gallen-Lake Constance Tourism. These are separate websites for guests, for the St.Gallen Convention Bureaufor Media and for Partner. Further portals will be set up in the coming months for stakeholder groups in the trade and sales sector as well as a digital concierge for on-site guest information.

Modern appearance and improved user experience

The new website has also been brought up to date technically and should enable optimal navigation through the wide range of services, information and offers from St.Gallen-Lake Constance Tourism and the region.

The Press Council has lodged a complaint against the Woz dismissed. The latter had accused the newspaper of violating the duty of truth in an article. The alleged sentence from the TV documentary had not actually been used. Moreover, according to the Criminal Code, it neither disparaged anyone nor referred to a specific ethnic group or race.

The Woz had in an article from April 6, 2023 described Ruefer's alleged statement as "racist". The controversial sentence is said to have been uttered in the raw version of a recording for the documentary series "The Pressure Game" on Switzerland's World Cup campaign in Qatar 2022. Other media who had seen the original version confirmed that the sentence was uttered in a similar way.

Only selected journalists had access to the documentary footage. They had to agree not to quote the sentence directly in order to be allowed to see the original film excerpts. The Woz was repeatedly denied access to the original, according to the Press Council.

The self-regulatory body for media ethics issues criticized the conduct of Swiss Radio and Television SRF. This was of little help in finding the truth. SRF had restricted access to information to selected journalists and told them what they could and could not publish.

The Press Council considered it a "restriction of media freedom" if a company or authority grants selected media exclusive access to information while excluding other media.

SRF denied the accusation of racism made by its presenter in April 2023. At no point had he made racist remarks about Xhaka as a person or his origin. In an initial version of the film, a statement had been taken out of context so that it could have been misunderstood. Sascha Ruefer therefore withdrew the entire statement. (SDA/swi)

Republica has been a constant in the Swiss agency world for around 25 years. From the Bernese Matte, CEO and founder Bala Trachsel successfully leads a team of around 40 people that creates differentiating communication for clients such as SC Bern, Bernexpo, Jungfrau Ski Region, Rugenbräu, Honegger, Swiss Heart Foundation and Senevita.

Creative-driven is becoming increasingly important

Building on the experience and success of previous years, Republica has undergone a creative realignment in recent months. "In times when our customers can also create their own texts, images, videos and websites with the help of AI, outstanding ideas are becoming increasingly important. This makes experts with a flair for outstanding creation all the more important," explains Trachsel.

The "Rethinking Republica" project was launched at the beginning of 2024, with the new creative management team playing a key role: Florian Birkner has been on board as Creative Director since March. He manages the creation together with Creative Director and Partner Stefanie Berchtold. Together with Bala Trachsel, the management duo has implemented the change process in recent months and is already reporting various new business wins.

New dual mission

The agency refresh was created under the umbrella of the dual mission "Down to earth. To the stars", which will shape the way the agency thinks and acts in the future. "Republica is an agency with an independently developed culture and valuable in-house expertise that we absolutely wanted to integrate into the change process," explains Florian Birkner. "At the same time, it was important to us to spark a new dynamic and push the energy of a new start. With our Dual Mission, we celebrate both - a sound understanding of the right strategies and messages as well as reaching for the creative stars."

"Down to earth. To the stars." has now found its way into practice. In September, the agency's new consistent image was launched. The new dynamic is particularly evident in the new logo and the completely redesigned website. "Our new look is as challenging as it is energetic and underlines the wide range of topics in which we operate. It was also important for us to set an unmistakable mark both internally and externally," emphasizes Stefanie Berchtold.

According to Republica, the measures are already having an impact: for example, an offer campaign with two TV commercials and broad-based out-of-home advertising with posters for the Jungfrau Ski Region's winter campaign is currently underway. A campaign for the Bern University of Teacher Education was launched in September and a new campaign for the Swiss Heart Foundation is in preparation.

"Dance in Bern" focuses on shared experiences and mutual exchange. For the 15th edition, the Fetival is now making being together an explicit theme and invites visitors to explore its many facets.

Noord has taken up the festival theme with forms that move away from and towards each other in rhythmic movement. In this way, they symbolize the interaction between community and individuality. To announce the festival, Noord developed two poster subjects, a save the date, a physical program booklet and a trailer.