Canton of Zurich relies more on the Internet for its official gazette
Since July 1, the Official Gazette of the Canton of Zurich has been published in a completely new format at Amtsblatt.zh.ch. Zurich is the first canton to collaborate closely with the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) on this project and to model its publication on the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB).
The official publications will continue to appear weekly in printed form, and the Official Gazette will - by law - continue to be made available to restaurants free of charge. However, the definitive version is the electronic edition. Although the Official Gazette has been available on the Internet since 1998, the functionality of the online edition has been limited and not very user-friendly until now, as State Secretary Beat Husi told the media on Friday.
First the newspaper was produced and then - as a kind of "waste product", as Husi put it - the newspaper was put online in two PDF documents. The production process has now been reversed. The reports are entered directly on screen by the approximately 1000 reporting offices of cantonal and communal administrative units, courts and notary's offices according to standardized criteria and released for publication. Instead of a line price, a unit price of CHF 30 is charged per report - regardless of whether it comprises two lines or two pages.
Search for message via search engine
The internet edition also has clear advantages for users. For example, a free search function allows specific content to be found quickly and easily. In addition to the newspaper subscription, online subscriptions are also available for CHF 60 per year. Customized offers are automatically sent to the subscriber by e-mail.
The data transmitted from the canton of Zurich is managed by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco). The platform on which economic information from the Schweizerisches Handelsblatt has been published for over 10 years is used. The printed edition of the Official Gazette is produced by the Bern printing center in Biel.
With the new form of production, the total operating costs can be reduced by around 15 percent, as Martin Jurt, Head of Central Services at the State Chancellery, explained. The costs for the changeover amounted to CHF 450,000 and could be amortized within two years.
Also useful for other cantons
Markus Tanner, Head of Publications at Seco, said that the use of the shab-online publication platform is sensible and possible for other cantonal gazettes. Experience with the SOGC has shown that the trade journal is now predominantly read via the Internet. A similar development can also be expected for the Zürcher Amtsblatt.
State Clerk Beat Husi does not rule out the possibility that the printed official gazette will one day disappear completely. However, the purpose of the Official Gazette will remain the same, as already described in the "Law on the Introduction of an Official Gazette" of December 18, 1833: "It should contain everything that requires a legally valid announcement". (sda)
