SUSANNE WENGER Arrive at the headquarters of the “Unter-Emmentaler” in Huttwil (canton of Berne) and a Schürch Druck & Medien AG employee will take you through the noisy printing room, then up the steep, winding wooden stairs at the back of the building until you reach the editorial office – a small meeting room in which portraits of the paper’s founding family hang on the wall. Established in 1875, “Unter-Emmentaler” has remained in family hands to this day. When recently advertising an editorial job, it described itself as “one of the last remaining independent local newspapers in Switzerland”. Most of the desks are unoccupied on this snowy November afternoon. The journalists are out chasing stories. Six editorial staff work the equivalent of 5.1 full-time employees, with 10 freelancers helping them to publish two editions a week. The paper’s catchment area partially covers the Emmental Valley and the Oberaargau district in the canton of Berne as well as the Lucerne hinterland. Walter Ryser, an experienced local journalist, knows this part of the world like the back of his hand. “Fertile ground” As the company’s media manager, Ryser gives strategic advice to senior management in addition to writing articles for the newspaper. He also runs his own small advertising agency and is involved in cultural and sport associations. Ryser describes the region as rural and conservative. “Traditions are important here,” he says. “The pace of life is sedate, offering a fertile ground for local journal- “People want to know what is happening in their village” When media outlets feel the financial pinch, local newspapers are the first to fold. This has concerning implications for democracy. Yet the “Unter-Emmentaler” is 150 years old and still going strong amid the cuts. ism.” But people from the town of Langenthal also read the “Unter-Emmentaler”. “Langenthal is a world away from Huttwil,” explains Ryser’s colleague Thomas Peter, who is the paper’s chief editor. Such diversity within a small area is typical of Switzerland. “We do a journalistic balancing act,” says Peter. With aplomb, he might add. “None of the big publications bother with local journalism,” says Ryser, with a nod to the developments of the last 20 years. For a long time, Switzerland boasted an intricate media landscape that formed an important part of the federal system. Yet the rise of online media since the turn of the millennium has brought about the demise of business models around the country. Cost cutting and mergers have hit local journalism in particular. Many publications have disappeared At least 70 publications went out of print between 2003 and 2021. Newspapers have been discontinued or integrated into the centralised news desks of large media groups like Zurich-based Tamedia, which also owns publications in French-speaking Switzerland and the canton of Berne. Last autumn, Tamedia announced further significant job cuts and more mergers, the company’s stated aim being to “grow strategically in the digital world” with its stable of major publications. A storm of criticism greeted the announcement in affected regions right across the country – including Emmental-Oberaargau, home of the “Langenthaler Tagblatt”. In recent years, this once independent newspaper has been published as a regional variant of the Tamedia-owned “Berner Zeitung”, which has now swallowed it up entirely. Sharing feedback and thrashing out new topics – an editorial meeting at the “Unter-Emmentaler”. Walter Ryser is sitting at the far end of the table. Photo provided “Traditions are important here” – the “Unter-Emmentaler” has always been produced in Huttwil (canton of Berne). Photo: Keystone Chief editor Thomas Peter. Photo provided Swiss Review / January 2025 / No.1 16 Society
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