Last but not least: Seniors miss obituaries

An episode from the city of Zwingl shows that media not only divide, but can also play a unifying role in social life. Since the end of last November, the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich has been published only weekly. On the one hand, this leads to the somewhat absurd circumstance that a weekly publication bears the name "Tagblatt". On the other hand, there was resistance from the city council, since the paper is an official publication. Now another group of stakeholders is speaking out: the Zurich seniors' group of the Unia trade union passed a resolution at its annual meeting for the attention of the city council and the Tagblatt's majority owner Tamedia. According to the NZZ, the resolution criticizes the fact that information such as death notices and burial dates are no longer published on a daily basis. This could have the consequence that one could no longer pay one's last respects to good acquaintances, because the date would be known too late. The resolution thus confirms the publishing truism that obituaries are an important indicator of the anchoring of a local title. And makes it clear that those citizens most committed to a cause are the ones most affected: Airfield abutters for quiet hours, non-smokers for smoking bans - and seniors for obituaries.