Die Wochenzeitung WOZ

''WOZ Die Wochenzeitung'', (commonly abbreviated as ''WOZ'' or ''Wochenzeitung''), is a Swiss, German-language weekly newspaper, published in Zürich (Switzerland).

History

''Die WochenZeitung'' (WoZ) first appeared on 1 October 1981. It was based on the experiences of the German ''Die Tageszeitung'' (Taz) and the Zürich-based monthly student magazine ''Das Konzept''. Its creation was influenced by events of the Swiss alternative political movement in the first phase of the youth movement of the 1980s. Well-known journalists like Niklaus Meienberg or Laure Wyss but also novelists such as Max Frisch and Otto F. Walter regularly wrote for the paper. In 1987 ''WOZ'' started using Gender-neutral language.

Since 1995, the ''WOZ'' as well as the ''TAZ'' add a German-language edition of the ''Le Monde diplomatique'' as a supplement to the newspaper. Most of the articles of the monthly German ''Le Monde diplomatique'' are translations from articles originally written for the French edition.

Since the beginning, all employees have been remunerated according to the principle of equality: A uniform wage of currently 5400 Swiss Francs is being paid. The low proportion of advertisements granted the newspaper a certain independence, but the newspaper was periodically under-funded. Following a reboot in 2003, the newspaper ended in near bankruptcy due to increased costs, but a reorganization in 2005, which included changing the whole original editorial board and the decision to not have a chief editor, ultimately allowed the publication to continue. In recent years the readership has been growing steadily and the paper has achieved financial stability and raised wages.

Organization and Profile

The cooperative belongs to all employees who are employed by at least half time. The equity of the ''WOZ'' consists of one-time membership fees of current and former cooperative members. The editorial meeting is responsible for newspaper content. Decisions of greater consequence are decided by the plenary of the cooperative members. Many staff officials are in one or more working groups or commissions within the company. The company has over fifty employees and an annual turnover of around five million Swiss Francs. Since 1984 ''WOZ'' has been supported by the ''ProWOZ'' society, whose members more than double the subscription bases.

''WOZ'' claims to be the only independent national newspaper in German-speaking Switzerland: it doesn't belong to either a political party, association or media company, and aims to deliver critical high-quality journalism. In addition to its thirty editors, it also has a broad network of freelance journalists. According to the readership study MACH Basic, ''WOZ'' reaches 101,000 regular readers with a daily circulation of 17,103 copies (WEMF 2017). ''WOZ'' was the highest ranked media product in terms of quality of coverage among magazines, weeklys and Sunday newspapers in Switzerland in independent 2018 and 2020 studies.

See also

* Rotpunktverlag

Literature

* Carmen Berchtold, Jürg Fischer, Constantin Seibt (texts) and Gertrud Vogler (photography): ''Das Buch Monster: 100 Fälle aus der Praxis der Familie Monster''. WoZ, Zürich 1997, .
*Stefan Howald: ''Links und bündig. Eine alternative Mediengeschichte.'' Rotpunktverlag, Zürich 2018. .

References

External links

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ProWoZ

{{Authority control

1981 establishments in Switzerland
Cooperatives in Switzerland
German-language newspapers published in Switzerland
Newspapers published in Zürich
Media cooperatives
Newspapers established in 1981
Socialist newspapers
Weekly newspapers published in Switzerland