Creative artists criticize Berner Zeitung

Since the beginning of April 2006, the Berner Zeitung (BZ) has been published without a traditional departmental division. Ten Kunsthaus directors as well as François Wasserfallen (Office for Culture, Canton of Berne) and Christoph Reichenau (Office for Culture, City of Berne) are now - around three months after the reorganization - calling for the reintroduction of a culture section in the BZ. In a letter to the editor in Saturday's edition, the group describes the status quo as "an appalling disregard for culture". Those interested in culture are now forced to laboriously filter out reports on cultural events from the many other reports. In addition, the dissolution of the culture department weakens culture in the canton of Bern. Following the letter, the two editors-in-chief Markus Eisenhut and Michael Hug defended the new newspaper concept: "We see the dissolution of the traditional sections as an opportunity." They are of the opinion that although the traditional boundaries make it easier for a highly specialized audience to find their way around the paper, they no longer do justice to the increasing interconnectedness of all areas of life. Since April, the redesigned BZ has been reporting on events in Switzerland, abroad, business, culture and miscellaneous topics in the first section. Sport opens the second section, followed by readers' letters, the stock market section and the TV program. The third bundle contains all the news from the region across all departments.