Free newspaper for Burgdorf will not be realized

The Burgdorfer Blätterwald will not be getting a new addition in the form of a free newspaper. The project planned by retired Burgdorf doctor Res Zbinden and Markus Grimm, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Burgdorfer Anzeiger AG, to add the free newspaper to the Anzeiger has failed. On the one hand, the newspaper initiators had not raised enough money, and on the other hand, according to the publication law and gazette ordinance, a gazette may not contain any editorial articles, writes the Berner Zeitung. In order to realize the newspaper after all, 150,000 francs would have to be raised instead of the 37,500 francs donated by sympathizers so far. The Berner Zeitung quotes Ernst Zürcher, deputy head of the cantonal Office for Municipalities and Regional Planning (AGR), for whom a newspaper must be "politically and denominationally neutral". Readers must be able to easily recognize "that they are holding an advertisement in their hands". Conversely, according to Zürcher, it is possible to enclose an advertisement with a newspaper. Zbinden, on the other hand, wants to continue looking for ways to launch the newspaper at some point.