Basler Zeitung
Basler Zeitung, or BaZ, is a Swiss German-language regional daily newspaper, published in Basel.
History and profile
Basler Zeitung was created in 1977 through the merger of the Basler Nachrichten and the National-Zeitung. The paper has its headquarters in Basel and the Basel canton.The newspaper is owned by the Basler Zeitung Medien which also publishes the free daily newspaper Baslerstab. The shareholders of Basler Zeitung are Tito Tettamanti and Martin Wagner.
In 1997 Basler Zeitung had a circulation of 115,297 copies. The circulation of the paper was 104,000 copies in 2003. The 2006 circulation of the daily was 98,645 copies.
General information
The weekday edition of Basler Zeitung is published in two bundles, cut in the traditional Swiss newspaper format of 320 × 475 mm: The first bundle is devoted to political events at home and abroad. In addition, there are topics from the economy, culture and the opinion page with letters to the editor. The second part covers regional news from the municipalities of Basel, Riehen and Bettingen, followed by reports from Baselland and Fricktal, and very rarely from Sundgau and Markgräflerland. In addition, sporting events are embedded here. Subscribers also receive the "Magazin" of the Zürcher "Tages-Anzeiger" which are both smaller Swiss journals as a supplement every Saturday. Until the beginning of the 21st century, a "large circulation" appeared each Friday and was distributed free of charge in the canton of Baselland, where the Basler Zeitung was in competition with the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung.On 8 January 2012, the first issue of the Basler Zeitung am Sonntag appeared. It had the same format and layout as the weekday edition, but comprised two extensive rather than four frets. Several editorial positions were created for it. On 24 February 2013, the last issue of the Sunday edition was published; since then, subscribers have received Tamedia's Sonntags Zeitung. In 2014, the Basler Zeitung launched the twice-weekly BaZ Kompakt as an alternative to the daily newspaper. Every Tuesday and Thursday, BaZ Kompakt provides information on important background topics in tabloid format. After only 14 months, however, newsstand sales of BaZ Kompakt were discontinued; since then, the newspaper has still been available by subscription or at the BaZ counter.
Predecessor newspapers
National Newspaper
The first issue of the Swiss National-Zeitung was published in Basel in 1842 in opposition to the Ancien Régime. From 1877, the newspaper called itself only National-Zeitung. In 1945, it acquired a majority stake in the free newspaper Baslerstab.In the German Reich, the National-Zeitung was banned from 1934 to 1945, as were the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Der Bund in Bern. The ban was imposed in response to coverage of the so-called Röhm Putsch.
For a long time, the NZ, like the Basler Nachrichten, was a bourgeois newspaper until the early 1960s, when it broke with the radicals and a socially critical left-liberal trend became apparent in the newspaper. This was particularly evident in the coverage of the Zurich Globus riot: In contrast to almost all other Swiss dailies, the NZ strove for a balanced portrayal of the youth riots, strongly criticized the police beatings ordered by the Zurich authorities, and solicited understanding for the rebelling youth. The events of 1968 not only shaped the view of the NZ articles, but also the political consciousness of some editors. The democratization discussed at the time achieved a restructuring of the editorial office: on 1 May 1970, the National-Zeitung became the first newspaper in Switzerland to receive an editorial statute that guaranteed the editorial board a say, for example, in the hiring, reassignment and dismissal of an editor and in publishing decisions of a journalistic and technical nature. "We don't have an editor-in-chief, and we don't need one," was the motto. However, the democratic structure became increasingly authoritarian.
The newspaper's business performance was unpleasant: in 1974, it suffered a major decline in advertising sales. Compared to the time before the then acute oil crisis, it sold thirty percent fewer ads. The publisher at the time, Hans-Rudolf Hagemann, stated, "The advertisement is the most profitable item we sell," and announced appropriate cost-cutting measures in June 1975. Among others, the following measures were implemented:
- The selling price of a newspaper issue was increased from 70 to 80 centimes.
- From now on, the National-Zeitung cooperated with the Basler Nachrichten for carrier services, the vehicle fleet, forwarding and the production of the stock exchange page.
- The newspaper's circulation was cut by another page.
- The fee budget was cut by ten percent.
- Three editors were laid off, and three picture editors were demoted to secretaries. Further dismissals followed.
"Dr glai Nazi" supplement
"Dr glai Nazi" with the subtitle "D'Kinderbylag vo dr Nazi-Zyttig" was a Wednesday supplement of the National-Zeitung for children. It appeared for the first time in 1926.The name comes from the fact that the National-Zeitung was called "Nazi-Zyttig" in oral usage in Basel. The designation has nothing to do with Nazi in the sense of National Socialist.
Basel Nachrichten, basel News
The Basler Nachrichten was founded in 1844 as the successor to the Avis-Blatt, founded in 1729, under the title Allgemeines Intelligenzblatt der Stadt Basel and was a liberal-conservative daily newspaper. In 1856 they changed their name to Basler Nachrichten aus der Schweiz und für die Schweiz and a year later to Basler Nachrichten. From 1873 to 1902, the paper was in radical hands; the conservative forces of Basel founded the Allgemeine Schweizer Zeitung in its place until they could take over the Basler Nachrichten again. It was close to the banks: for a long time, the private banker Alfred E.Sarasin presided over its board of directors. At the same time, he was also president of the Swiss Bankers Association.Between 1912 and 1924, and between 1944 and 1972, the Basler Nachrichten appeared twice daily, in a morning and an evening edition. As a rule, the former was a news paper, the latter a commentary and opinion paper, with the orientation of the newspaper usually resembling that of the Liberal Party. The paper established itself as one of the leading daily newspapers in German-speaking Switzerland. In 1976, Basler Nachrichten had a circulation of 34,000 copies.
Like the National-Zeitung, the Basler Nachrichten struggled with financial problems. The BN was considered the paper of the Basel Daig and was supported by the business community with seven-figure sums annually. The BN wrote for a minor part of the population that was perceived as elitist and was losing importance because of the strong growth of the city of Basel: most of the new inhabitants did not identify with the way people in Basel are thinking of the BN.
Switzerland's first major newspaper merger
On 16 November 1976, the public learned about Switzerland's first major newspaper merger: the National-Zeitung and the Basler Nachrichten were merged to form the Basler Zeitung as of 31 January 1977. The merger is generally referred to as a "merger", but in economic terms it was a sale: National-Zeitung AG took over the assets and liabilities of Basler Berichtshaus AG, which was then liquidated. The previously competing publishers justified the merger as follows:"This forward-looking decision, reached after thorough negotiations and in mutual agreement, is based on the realization that only a united effort can solve the increasingly difficult economic and technical problems of the press and at the same time offer readers a daily newspaper that meets their high demands of today."
- quoted from Max Jäggi: This is how the "National-Zeitung" went bust.
Nothing of the "in-depth negotiations" leaked to the public: although various events in the past were retroactively interpreted as indications of a merger, the publishers denied such plans until the end. Even some NZ employees only learned of the pending merger from the newspaper. BN employees were informed at a meeting called at short notice. The merger was denounced as an impoverishment of the culture of opinion. Supporters of the BN saw it as a betrayal of liberalism, while sympathizers of the NZ accused the Basel business circles of having gotten rid of a critical, inconvenient newspaper in such a simple way. The two newspapers had also defined themselves by their differences. From now on, the new editorial team, made up of members of both media houses, had to write together for a broader readership in a so-called forum newspaper. A forum newspaper is a newspaper which tries to showcase a broader diversity in opinions.
For the editors of the NZ, the merger greatly diminished the right of co-determination that the editorial staff of the BN did not have. The merger violated the editorial statutes of both newspapers. The publishing house and the board of directors, which was dominated by representatives of the chemical industry and the banks, granted themselves more power. In addition to the loss of more than a hundred jobs, the unions noted, "Once again it becomes clear that freedom of the press in the 'free' market is mere freedom of the publishers." The fight against the restructuring of the NZ editorial staff and the protest against the merger marked the first time in Switzerland that journalists organized themselves on a larger scale into a union, the Swiss Journalists Union. This also involved joining forces with the technical staff.