WOZ Die Wochenzeitung


WoZ Die Wochenzeitung,, is a Swiss, German-language weekly newspaper, published in Zürich.

History

WochenZeitung was founded on 1 October 1981. It was based on the experiences of the German Die Tageszeitung and the monthly student bulletin Das Konzept.
In the beginning employees were remunerated according to the principle of unique salary. Since 1984, WoZ has been financially supported by Pro WoZ, a booster association. Early in 1995, the former editors of WoZ and Taz became joint editors of the German-language edition of Le Monde diplomatique which was offered as a supplement of the newspaper. Its content was influenced by events of the Swiss alternative political movement in the first phase of the youth movement of the 1980s.
The low proportion of advertisements granted a certain independence, but the newspaper was periodically under-funded. Despite a financial 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.
WoZ claims to be the only independent national newspaper in German-speaking Switzerland: it doesn't belong to either a political party or association or media company, and attempts to deliver critical, unique, 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.

Organization

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 four million Swiss Francs. WoZ is supported by the ProWoZ society, whose estimated 800 members more than double the subscription bases.

Literature