Berner Zeitung now without classic departmental division

For the first time, the Berner Zeitung appeared on Tuesday without the traditional division into sections. The Berner Zeitung reports "on the world outside the Espace Mittelland" in the newspaper's mantle and now features articles from the previous Switzerland, Foreign Affairs, Business, Culture and Miscellaneous sections under the title "Heute". Similar to the NZZ, the first section will now be rounded off with an overview page called "15 Minuten" covering all federal topics. The second bundle opens with sport, followed by letters to the editor, the stock market section and the TV program. The third section is devoted entirely to regional news, with all reports from the region across all departments. As the Berner Zeitung writes, the inside section of this bundle will contain the local pages of the respective core area and a refined range of material from neighboring regions. The fourth section will continue to be reserved for special pages on society and consumption "People" and an expanded "Ausserhaus" section. The new editor-in-chief Michael Hug told SDA that the Berner Zeitung wants to move away from the role of daily chronicler by abolishing the sections. The plan is to focus more selectively on specific topics and present a more "magazine-like" appearance. This is not least to counter the competition from the Internet and electronic media.
The individual editorial departments will be abolished within the editorial team. The new "Heute" department will be headed by Bernhard Giger, the former head of the city department and member of the editorial board. The changeover is intended to lay the foundation for increased cooperation with the other media of the Espace Media Groupe, and the efficiency gains are to be invested in improving quality.