Several regional newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland join forces
The regional newspapers *La Liberté* from Fribourg, *L'Express/L'Impartial* from the canton of Neuchâtel, the Valais newspaper *Le Nouvelliste*, and the Vaud regional paper *La Côte* are introducing joint sections for domestic news, international news, and business.
However, all partners retain their layout. The content is to be supplied by an editorial team from Fribourg. The journalists will be under the responsibility of La Liberté newspaper. The joint editorial team will be launched in the first quarter of 2016, the Saint-Paul group (publisher of La Liberté) and the ESH Médias group (publisher of the other titles) wrote in a joint statement on Tuesday. The collaboration increases the editorial resources dedicated to these topics. The joint pages reach about 400'000 readers in French-speaking Switzerland. In an initial reaction, the professional association Imprint expressed its "perplexity" about the merger. It was regrettable that in the course of this concentration, the diversity of the press in French-speaking Switzerland would decrease, it said in a media release. (SDA)
