125 years Willisauer Bote

On Friday, June 15, the "Willisauer Bote" celebrates its birthday with over 400 shareholders, readers and guests from the worlds of politics and business at the company's Annual General Meeting. A 125th anniversary magazine is also published on June 19, which is distributed to all households in the catchment area together with the WB large print run.

With a circulation of 9,151 subscribers and 25,000 readers, the Willisauer Bote is the largest local newspaper in the canton of Lucerne. The foundation stone for the WB's success story was laid by an Aargau native: in 1883, Adolf Kuhn-Breitschmid from Wohlen joined the print shop of Konrad Kneubühler from Willisau as a typesetter. In 1851, Kneubühler published the first newspaper in the Lucerne countryside, the liberal weekly "Der Hinterländer". But Kuhn wanted to be his own boss. In the spring of 1887, he set up his own business and founded the "Buch- und Accidenz-Druckerei Ad. Kuhn". The first issue of the "Willisauer Bote" appeared on May 14, 1887. However, Kuhn had no intention of creating a political newspaper. His aim was solely to create an advertising organ for the trade. This changed with the emergence of competing publications that were clearly pro-Freisinn. The WB then took on the role of the conservative newspaper of the Lucerne hinterland for decades. Josef J. Zihlmann, its editor-in-chief for many years, was primarily responsible for the political opening of the local newspaper in the 1980s. Since 2004, the WB has been published with a split edition for the Lucerne Wiggertal, the Wiggertaler Bote. In addition, the WB has also been available in digital form as an e-paper since April 8, 2011.

The Willisauer Bote is a title of SWS Medien Verlag based in Willisau and is published twice a week (Tuesday, Friday). The Allmedia offer, the news via mobile application and the e-paper are available at all times. A total of 22 people work for the title with different workloads.