SRG repositions Swissinfo and cuts 40 jobs
SRG is reorganizing the Swissinfo internet information platform. In future, Swissinfo will offer foreign audiences background information on Swiss politics, the economy, culture and society in ten languages. and society in ten languages, including Russian from 2013.
The future focus will be primarily international and thus aimed at an international audience interested in Switzerland as well as the Swiss abroad. With its future focus, Swissinfo will gradually reduce 40 of its 126 full-time positions by the end of 2012. The annual costs for the foreign mandate will fall by around nine million francs. SRG writes this in a press release on Presseportal.ch.
For ten years, Swissinfo has been fulfilling the information mandate issued by the Swiss Confederation abroad in nine languages on the Internet, thus supplementing the online offerings of SRG radio and television. The new focus will streamline the offering. The three national language editorial teams in German, French and Italian will be merged into a new national editorial team and reduced in size. A new Russian service will be launched, which still has to be approved by the federal government as the commissioning party. In future, Swissinfo will report in English, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. News will remain an integral part of the service, as will the voting dossiers in German, French and Italian.
The new offer is the basis for the upcoming negotiations with the federal government on Swissinfo's performance mandate for 2013 to 2016. Two thirds of the gradual reduction of 40 out of a total of 126 full-time positions will affect the support functions and one third the editorial offices, particularly in the national languages. There is a
Social plan.
