BaZ has calmed down

Press The total reorganization of the Basler Zeitung two years ago was an ambitious project - but not without compromises.
newspaper in a new layout for the first time. The publishing house thus set a
The end of an appearance that has been practically a thing of the past for decades.
had remained unchanged and was considered virtually untouchable. Whoever
Baslerin or Basler BaZ said, thus at the same time closing a silent
Criticism of the print media monopoly situation in the city am
Rheinknie, which has been in operation since the early 1980s following the merger of the
Basler Nachrichten with the National Zeitung.

With the new layout, those responsible around Editor-in-Chief
Ivo Bachmann set ambitious goals and set the bar high.
An outstanding example is the double-page spread "Today" on pages 2
and 3 with the most important daily events. Elaborate infographics,
Diagrams and maps as a continuous info block at the top of the page should be
The news situation of the day at a glance
make. In the meantime, the proliferation of graphics has calmed down and with it
probably also the situation of the beleaguered editors,
which increasingly uses short agency reports, pictures,
quotes and the daily agenda.

The intentions were similarly ambitious in the local/regional area.
and at least twice a day or at least twice a week.
of the week to publish its own regional supplement in tabloid format.
The idea - comparable to the Aargauer Zeitung - was also considered
to produce split issues for the individual districts. "It has become
but it turned out that this would have been too expensive an exercise," says
Ivo Bachmann. A regional magazine for the whole region in tabloid format
then appeared once a week on Tuesdays. Since January, the
tabloid has disappeared and lives on in the regional section of the paper as a
additional page every day. "The situation was not entirely
satisfying," says Bachmann. He needs the image of the half-full and
half-empty glass because "in the end it was not possible to
Regiomagazin deep into the local". The priorities have
Bachmann and his crew therefore took a different approach. They had a
respectable budget, similar to the Neue Luzerner Zeitung. "But
We distribute the funds differently," says Bachmann with a view to the
BaZ's daily culture magazine, thus emphasizing the relevance of the
cultural reporting is weighted higher than in Lucerne.

The first year with the new layout was characterized by some completely new
newspaper sections was also an experimental phase. "In the beginning
we exaggerated here and there and then looked for the best possible and
definitive form." Color has now been taken back and the
Layout has calmed down. Judging by the reactions of the readership
it has proved its worth. "An extreme amount of work" is the verdict from the
Editorial office.

Great ambitions also seem to be a characteristic of the
BaZ managers. The editorial team, which after several rounds of cost-cutting and
ten percent more for around a dozen fewer people,
was not always able to deliver on this. The concept for the
front page, where until the fall before the layout change the topic of the day
was dealt with integrally.

Nevertheless, the BaZ wants to expand its presence in the Basel region, the
city, where most of the paper's readers are at home.
"We came to the conclusion that further work was needed in land reporting.
potential," says Ivo Bachmann. The recent alliance of
Mathis Lüdin, the publisher of the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, with
Peter Wanner and his Aargauer Zeitung newspaper had been responsible for a
shock and corresponding media communiqués. The new
strategic situation is therefore one of the reasons why BaZ will continue to
agglomeration must be more present.

According to the editorial team, there is a little more room for maneuver, but the
to get more of the topic setting back into their own hands. But it
could become more turbulent again if more local stories were to
content accents and perhaps also the editorial resources
postpone.

René Worni