The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language

daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss

newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major national newspaper with large newspaper circulation, circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative and independent; they are thus "newspapers of record by reputation" and i ...

, and for detailed reports on international affairs.

History and profile

One of the oldest newspapers still published, it originally appeared as ''Zürcher Zeitung'', edited by the Swiss painter and poet

Salomon Gessner Salomon Gessner (1 April 1730 – 2 March 1788) was a Swiss painter, graphic artist, government official, newspaper publisher, and poet, best known in the latter instance for his ''Idylls''. He was a co-founder of the Helvetic Society and the fir ...

, on 12 January 1780. It was renamed in 1821. According to Peter K. Buse and Jürgen C. Doerr, many prestige German language newspapers followed its example because it set "standards through an objective, in-depth treatment of subject matter, eloquent commentary, an extensive section on entertainment, and one on advertising." Aside from the switch from its

blackletter Blackletter (sometimes black letter or black-letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule or Gothic type, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for ...

typeface in 1946, the newspaper has changed little since the 1930s. Only in 2005 did it add color pictures, much later than most mainstream papers. The emphasis is on international news, business, finance, and high culture. Features and lifestyle stories are kept to a minimum. Historically, the newspaper has been politically positioned close to the liberal

Free Democratic Party of Switzerland The Free Democratic Party (, FDP; , PLD), also called Radical Democratic Party (, PRD; , PLR) was a liberal political party in Switzerland. Formerly one of the major parties in Switzerland, on 1 January 2009 it merged with the Liberal Party of ...

since its early period. The paper's official statutes and guidelines declare it to have a "liberal democratic foundation". Accordingly, it has traditionally adopted a free-market liberal and

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

orientation. However, in 2014, Markus Somm (formerly an editor at the

Basler Zeitung ''Basler Zeitung'' (literally: "Basler Newspaper"), or ''BaZ'', is a Switzerland, Swiss German language, German-language regional daily newspaper, published in Basel. History and profile ''Basler Zeitung'' was created in 1977 through the merg ...

), a more pronounced right-wing journalist, was slated to became editor-in-chief, leading to fears of a rightward shift by staff and resulting in internal protest. The internal upheaval eventually lead to Somm not taking on his role. However, the appointment of Eric Gujer as editor-in-chief in 2015 and René Scheu as head of the feature section in 2016, as well as almost half of all contributing editors leaving the newspaper between 2015 and December 2017, marked a noticeable shift to the right, according to critics.

Circulation

The circulation of was 18,100 copies in 1910. It rose to 47,500 copies in 1930 and 66,600 copies in 1950. In 1997, the had a circulation of 162,330 copies. Its circulation was 169,000 copies in 2000. The circulation of the paper was 166,000 copies in 2003. The 2006 circulation of the paper was 146,729 copies. Its circulation was 139,732 copies in 2009. In 2010, the paper had a circulation of 136,894 copies.

Weekend edition

In 2002, the newspaper launched a weekend edition, ''NZZ am Sonntag'' (''NZZ on Sunday''). The weekend edition has its own editorial staff and contains more soft news and lifestyle issues than its weekday counterpart, as do most Swiss weekend newspapers. Its circulation was 121,204 copies in 2006. ''NZZ am Sonntag'' was awarded the European Newspaper of the Year in the category of weekly newspaper by the European Newspapers Congress in 2012.

Editors-in-chief

* 1821 – 1830: Paul Usteri * 1830 – 1849: 10 different editor-in-chiefs * 1849 – 1867: Peter Jakob Felber * 1868 – 1872: Eugen Escher * 1872 – 1876: Hans Weber * 1876 – 1877:

Eugen Huber Eugen Huber (July 31, 1849 – April 23, 1923) was a Swiss jurist and the creator of the Zivilgesetzbuch, Swiss Civil code of 1907. Biography Huber was born in Swiss Canton of Zürich on July 31, 1849. His father was a physician. At the Univer ...

* 1877 – 1878: Gottwalt Niederer * 1878 – 1884: Gustav Vogt * 1885 – 1915: Walter Bissegger * 1915 – 1929: Albert Meyer * 1933 – 1968: Willy Bretscher * 1968 – 1985: Fred Luchsinger * 1985 – 2006: Hugo Bütler * 2006 – 2014: Markus Spillmann * since 2015: Eric Gujer

NZZ Libro

NZZ Libro is the

book publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

part of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). Books have been published since 1927; since 1980, the publishing house has been run as a separate profit centre. Since 2006 the publishing house has operated under the name NZZ Libro. The publishing programme of specialist and non-fiction literature includes, among other things, political, cultural, historical, and economic books, as well as biographies and illustrated books, predominantly with a Swiss reference.

Award

The was a co-recipient of the 1979

Erasmus Prize The Erasmus Prize is an annual prize awarded by the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation to individuals or institutions that have made exceptional contributions to culture, society, or social science in Europe and the rest of the world. I ...

, alongside German newspaper ''

Die Zeit (, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The first edition of was ...

''."Erasmus Prize"
''The Age'' (via Google News). 21 September 1979. Retrieved 23 August 2012. "The 1979 Erasmus Prize for outstanding contribution to European culture was presented jointly yesterday to the Swiss daily newspaper 'Neue Zuercher Zeitung' and the West German weekly 'Die Ziet'."

Notes and references

External links

*
Archives
of ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' (1780–). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Neue Zurcher Zeitung 18th-century establishments in the Old Swiss Confederacy 1780 establishments in Europe Daily newspapers published in Switzerland German-language newspapers published in Switzerland Newspapers published in Zurich Newspapers established in 1780 Swiss news websites Liberal media