AZ Medien: Regional petition platform
AZ Medien is launching Petitio.ch, a petition platform for local issues. The goal is to make it easier for citizens to help shape their communities.
The digital platform was designed specifically for local needs. Anyone who wants to promote a specific change in a city or municipality can publicize the cause on petitio.ch and win supporters for it.
With the regional newspaper as a partner of Petitio.ch, the launched concern is given emphasis by ensuring that the petition reaches the municipality with a formal letter once a certain number of supporters has been reached.
Behind Petitio.ch are the newspaper titles of the northwestern Switzerland titles of AZ Medien. The project was developed as part of Google's Digital News Initiative (Digitalnewsinitiative.com). According to the press release, the central question was: How can it be made easier for citizens to participate in local events and effectively voice their concerns? And as a supplementary question: How can a regional newspaper help in a targeted way?
The answer is the petition platform created after several months of collaboration between the editorial team and web developers. Currently, all cities and municipalities in the catchment area of the Northwest Switzerland titles are represented on Petitio.ch, with other municipalities in Switzerland to follow in the coming months through partnerships with additional regional newspapers.
