Traveling against the current
Wochenpresse The weekly newspaper celebrates its first quarter of a century with a big anniversary issue.
Wochenpresse The weekly newspaper institution is celebrating its first quarter of a century, including a big anniversary issue. The youth unrest at the beginning of the 1980s gave impetus to numerous projects that have long since become permanent institutions of socio-cultural and political life. Their founding motives are hardly familiar to the next generation. One of these institutions is now celebrating its first quarter of a century: The weekly newspaper - always WoZ. On October 2, 1981, a small group of founders brought out the first issue in the wake of the Zurich riots. "There were a lot of young people back then who wanted to say and write something. This was not possible in the other newspapers, as they were very hostile to the youth movement," says co-founder Marianne Fehr, now editor at Weltwoche, in the current WoZ anniversary issue.
Since then, the self-managed newspaper, which still belongs to its creators today, has had an eventful history. In contrast to other newspapers, which can no longer be clearly located in the political spectrum, the WoZ has always been considered left-wing. It remains to be seen whether Weltwoche will become the antipode of the right under its new owner Roger Köppel.
WoZ as a launch padThe WoZ and its history give rise to their own myths and legends. They are entwined around the impressive group of writers who have helped shape the past 25 years during a brief guest appearance or a period of life as part of the collective. Some of them now hold key positions at various media outlets. "The WoZ is a training center, we train cracks," says editorial director Susan Boos. Unfortunately, transfer fees are not common in this business.
After all, former readers wrote the anniversary issue, which consistently follows the layout of the first issue from 1981 - with 56 pages, one of the thickest WoZ ever. And it has some special features: for the first time in 16 years in a Swiss-German medium, former military commander Efrem Cattelan talks about the background to the P26 secret army in an interview with Roger Monnerat, co-founder, long-time WoZ editor and now a writer.
Res Strehle's interview with SVP National Councillor Christoph Mörgeli, conducted by the ex-WoZ co-founder and current editor-in-chief of Das Magazin, also deserves attention. The SVP mastermind and Weltwoche columnist comes out as an admirer of Niklaus Meienberg, counts Karl Kraus among his role models and settles accounts with the '68 movement.
From today's perspective, things were sometimes strange in the editorial offices of the WoZ. Three WoZ employees from the early days (Marianne Fehr, Adrian Schmid and Alexander Grass) recall in the anniversary WoZ how things used to be. The creators threw themselves into the business with little knowledge of newspaper publishing. Who would have thought that layout designers would be needed for the young newspaper, let alone a proofreader?
Everyday editorial work during the founding phase was characterized by endless discussions of principle. One of these revolved around whether or not the WoZ, as the largest self-governing organization, should purchase computers - a synonym for the surveillance state par excellence in times of German dragnet investigations. Shortening texts was often a problem because certain writers felt that this restricted their freedom of expression.
But the debates were never isolated. For example, the Poch tried to prevent the introduction of computers in parliament at the time. Later on, the "fiche state" broke up. "Many subtle perceptions were correct, even if the fundamental resistance was absurd," says Adrian Schmid, former Vice President of the Swiss Green Party and now in a leading position at the VCS.
In the meantime, the WoZ has weathered some serious crises and is on the upswing thanks to restructuring and cost-cutting measures (see
). But even Switzerland's largest independent left-wing newspaper is tormented by the question of how long the newspaper as such will continue to exist in the face of free content and the boom in electronic communication. "Without a newspaper - it's almost unimaginable," says Susan Boos, adding that there will always be people who are prepared to pay for a medium that explains the world to them.René Worni
Since then, the self-managed newspaper, which still belongs to its creators today, has had an eventful history. In contrast to other newspapers, which can no longer be clearly located in the political spectrum, the WoZ has always been considered left-wing. It remains to be seen whether Weltwoche will become the antipode of the right under its new owner Roger Köppel.
WoZ as a launch padThe WoZ and its history give rise to their own myths and legends. They are entwined around the impressive group of writers who have helped shape the past 25 years during a brief guest appearance or a period of life as part of the collective. Some of them now hold key positions at various media outlets. "The WoZ is a training center, we train cracks," says editorial director Susan Boos. Unfortunately, transfer fees are not common in this business.
After all, former readers wrote the anniversary issue, which consistently follows the layout of the first issue from 1981 - with 56 pages, one of the thickest WoZ ever. And it has some special features: for the first time in 16 years in a Swiss-German medium, former military commander Efrem Cattelan talks about the background to the P26 secret army in an interview with Roger Monnerat, co-founder, long-time WoZ editor and now a writer.
Res Strehle's interview with SVP National Councillor Christoph Mörgeli, conducted by the ex-WoZ co-founder and current editor-in-chief of Das Magazin, also deserves attention. The SVP mastermind and Weltwoche columnist comes out as an admirer of Niklaus Meienberg, counts Karl Kraus among his role models and settles accounts with the '68 movement.
From today's perspective, things were sometimes strange in the editorial offices of the WoZ. Three WoZ employees from the early days (Marianne Fehr, Adrian Schmid and Alexander Grass) recall in the anniversary WoZ how things used to be. The creators threw themselves into the business with little knowledge of newspaper publishing. Who would have thought that layout designers would be needed for the young newspaper, let alone a proofreader?
Everyday editorial work during the founding phase was characterized by endless discussions of principle. One of these revolved around whether or not the WoZ, as the largest self-governing organization, should purchase computers - a synonym for the surveillance state par excellence in times of German dragnet investigations. Shortening texts was often a problem because certain writers felt that this restricted their freedom of expression.
But the debates were never isolated. For example, the Poch tried to prevent the introduction of computers in parliament at the time. Later on, the "fiche state" broke up. "Many subtle perceptions were correct, even if the fundamental resistance was absurd," says Adrian Schmid, former Vice President of the Swiss Green Party and now in a leading position at the VCS.
In the meantime, the WoZ has weathered some serious crises and is on the upswing thanks to restructuring and cost-cutting measures (see
). But even Switzerland's largest independent left-wing newspaper is tormented by the question of how long the newspaper as such will continue to exist in the face of free content and the boom in electronic communication. "Without a newspaper - it's almost unimaginable," says Susan Boos, adding that there will always be people who are prepared to pay for a medium that explains the world to them.René Worni
