Zurich regional newspapers: Job cuts and reorganization
The Zurich regional newspapers are reorganizing their editorial and publishing departments, resulting in the elimination of 25 positions. They will collaborate with the BZ Berner Zeitung on national and international coverage.
The editorial teams of Landbote, Zürichsee-Zeitung and Zürcher Unterländer, which cooperate in the newspaper association Zürcher Regionalzeitungen, will work even more closely together in the future. The sports, service and online editorial teams of the three newspapers, which have so far worked decentrally and independently of each other, will be merged organizationally. The same applies to production and proofreading. Editor-in-chief Benjamin Geiger will implement this reorganization with his deputy editors-in-chief, Jakob Bächtold for the Landbote, Cyprian Schnoz for the Zürcher Unterländer, and Michael Kaspar and Martin Steinegger for the Zürichsee-Zeitung. Patrick Gut will be in charge of cantonal reporting.
Cantonal editorial office in Winterthur
According to the press release, most of the staff of the main editorial office will be based in Winterthur. The newly formed cantonal editorial office, which reports on events in the city and canton of Zurich for all Zurich regional newspapers, will also be based there. The Winterthur editorial office will thus continue to comprise around 60 full-time positions. In foreign and domestic reporting, the ZRZ group will work closely with BZ Berner Zeitung. Strong regional editorial teams will report for the Landbote from Winterthur, for the Zürcher Unterländer from Bülach and for the Zürichsee-Zeitung from Stäfa, Horgen and Rapperswil.
The advertising sales of the Landbote as well as the Winterthurer Stadtanzeiger, most of which is already handled by the Verlag Zürcher Regionalzeitungen in Winterthur, will be fully integrated. The editorial office of the Winterthurer Stadtanzeiger will be affiliated with the Verlag Zürcher Regionalzeitungen under the management of Robin Tanner.
Reduction of 25 full-time positions
The new organizational structure of the editorial offices and publishing house will make it possible to consolidate the future of the newspaper association of Landboten, Zürcher Unterländer, Zürichsee-Zeitung - which also includes Zürcher Oberländer as an independent partner - as a strong newspaper voice in the Zurich region and thus strengthen media diversity, Tamedia said in a statement on Wednesday. The reorganization of the ZRZ editorial offices and publishing house will result in the elimination of around 25 full-time positions in Bülach, Stäfa and Winterthur. The publishing and editorial offices at the three locations previously comprised 165 full-time positions. In order to keep the number of redundancies to a minimum, the job cuts are to be made as far as possible through natural fluctuation and early retirement. In addition, the employees affected will be offered vacant positions with other Tamedia media wherever possible. An accompanying social plan will be applied to those affected. All decisions are subject to the legal rights of participation of the affected employees.
The Landbote gets new newspaper architecture
The Landbote will appear with an adapted newspaper architecture from June 2014. The city and region of Winterthur will be moved to the beginning of the newspaper according to their importance. The first bundle will thus cover the city of Winterthur and the region, followed by sports and events. The second bundle will cover the city and canton of Zurich as well as Switzerland, foreign countries, business, culture, service and miscellaneous topics, which will be produced by the main editorial offices in Winterthur and Berne. The new Landbote structure will thus be aligned with that of Zürichsee-Zeitung and Zürcher Unterländer. At the start of the new cooperation with BZ Berner Zeitung, the Zurich regional newspapers will renew their joint layout.
