Le Temps and NZZ will be publishing US cables on Switzerland, from WikiLeaks
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss newspapers Le Temps (registration required) and NZZ will publish, in French and in German starting next week, selected cables from the 5,814 that WikiLeaks collected. The two negotiated an agreement to receive the entire collection and several journalists from the two publications are meeting this weekend to determine which to publish.
The cables cover the period from 1978 to 28 February 2010.
Le Temps explains its decision: “It normally takes several decades for the reality, on which we want to shed some light, to surface.
Swiss National Bank, Bern (head offices in Bern and Zurich)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Walter Meier, deputy economics editor at Zurich daily newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, has been named the new media spokesperson for the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB). The new position, effective January 2011, is part of a planned expansion of the central bank’s communications programme, and comes at a time when the Swiss franc is at an all-time high against the euro.
The SNB earlier this year followed a policy of intervention to keep the franc’s rise in check as investors sought a safe-haven currency during the global economic crisis. In recent weeks the SNB has stepped back, allowing the franc to rise, to the consternation of Swiss industry, for whom a higher franc causes export problems. The central bank issues regular reports about its currency activities, but the Governing Board is traditionally reticent about its policies and its relationship with the government.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The cost of subscribing to a Swiss daily newspaper will rise in 2010, between 1 and 11 percent, to keep in step with increased costs and lower advertising revenues. The rise is even greater in reality in some cases such as the NZZ, when a mid-2009 increase is taken into account, notes ats/TSR. The newspaper’s editor, Markus Spillmann, has written to subscribers saying that “High quality information is an expensive product.”
The traditional income balance has been one-third subscriptions and two-thirds advertising, but with the latter falling dramatically for several months, readers are now being asked to foot a larger share of the bill. Newstand prices are also set to rise.
The rising cost of Swiss papers, according to ats/TSR, includes:
- Le Matin and 24 Heures, CHF379 to CHF389
- Le Temps, 11 percent, from current price of CHF432 for 13 months
- NZZ, from CHF488 to CHF512.
Background, GenevaLunch
Zurich, Switzerland (romandie/ATS, Fre) – NZZ, German-speaking Switzerland’s main serious newspaper, said Wednesay 17 June that it will cut 20-25 jobs among its IT staff as part of plans to merge some of its operations. The cost-cutting measure will not touch the editorial staff. NZZ laid off 24 employees (20 fulltime posts) in late 2008. The newspaper also said it is studying sharp increases in subscription rates and the possibility of charging for some of its online content, notably financial reporting and commentary by its best-known journalists.
NZZ posted a loss for the first quarter of 2009, with advertising down by 30 percent from January to the end of March. Its Internet operations are operating at a loss that is currently CHF3 million, reports ATS. (2007-2008 figures). The Zurich newspaper is the latest media group in Switzerland to announce job cuts, in a string of actions to try to turn around the hard-hit newspaper, magazine and online news business.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal Competition Commission has decided to look more closely at the situation that will be created by a morning newspaper distribution agreement that could leave almost no competition in German-speaking Switzerland and parts of French-speaking Switzerland. The commission concluded after a preliminary review that further study is needed. Tamedia, NZZ and La Poste are seeking to cut costs by joining forces to distribute papers.
In another development linked to the increasingly difficult situation of Swiss media, several hundred journalists took to the streets in Zurich and Bern Tuesday 26 May over editorial staff job cuts announced by Tamedia.
GenevaLunch (GL) editor Ellen Wallace met with Patrick Chappatte two weeks before Christmas at his office near Plainpalais in Geneva, where he was trying to juggle time for friends, family and journalists as the holiday rush began, with editors expecting the usual six cartoons a week.
In these days of dramatic if too often gloomy news, I told him I wanted a glimpse of his daily work life, but mainly his thoughts on his craft as we head into a future that many people worry is too uncertain.
GL carries his cartoons in English and occasionally in French, on Swiss and world affairs.
“The beauty of this job is that you never expect the next thing that turns up!” He becomes quickly animated as he talks about international affairs, for which he clearly has a passion.
“The big irony right now is that super-capitalism is begging for money from the State!”
Patrick Chappatte saves his sharpness and ability to get straight to the point for his cartoons: in person, he is a soft-spoken man with a gentle smile who looks younger than his 41 years. He is the multilingual editorial cartoonist for the International Herald Tribune (in English), Le Temps (in French) and NZZ Sunday edition (in German). And right now he is the author of two newly published books, a collection of his cartoons in English, Partly Cloudy, and another of his French cartoons, Super Contribuable.
Continued from Interview, part 1
. . .
“By then I wanted to quit cartooning here. I wanted to work with American newspapers – I thought they were the best [cartoonists]. And they’re still the best!” The boyish grin returns. “And if you’re going to have a 30s crisis, it’s not bad to do it in New York!”
The three years he spent in New York were a turning point for Chappatte. “I’m much happier now than before I was 30. I feel like I’m freer. It’s really refreshing when this happens – I was treated like a beginner and I loved it. I was starting all over again.”
