Sonntagszeitung and Le Matin Dimanche create national research desk

According to a press release on Thursday, this team is made up of eight to ten journalists from German- and French-speaking Switzerland and aims to research investigative stories across language borders from a Switzerland-wide perspective. The aim is to further improve the journalistic quality of the two titles and achieve real added value for the readership. The Sonntagszeitung and Le Matin Dimanche are thus making targeted investments in investigative journalism. The research desk team is given the opportunity to research a topic for several weeks. The aim is to achieve a significantly higher journalistic substance of the individual stories and a richer factual basis and depth.

The new national department, which builds on the experience of the research desk launched last year at the Sonntagszeitung and came about on the initiative of publisher Pietro Supino, is jointly under the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief of the Sonntagszeitung, Martin Spieler, and the Editor-in-Chief of Le Matin Dimanche, Ariane Dayer. The national research desk, which will start operations in spring 2012, will be headed by Oliver Zihlmann, previously Head of News at Sonntagszeitung. This function will now be assumed by his former deputy Matthias Halbeis.

Awards for investigative journalism

In order to strengthen investigative journalism in Switzerland, the Sonntagszeitung is also launching a new sponsorship award for investigative journalism in cooperation with the Media Training Center Lucerne Maz. Each year, one talented young journalist will be given the opportunity to learn the art of investigative journalism at the new research desk of Sonntagszeitung and Le Matin Dimanche in Bern and to put it into practice. A comparable sponsorship award is offered by Le Matin Dimanche in French-speaking Switzerland.