The SDA editorial team undergoes a complete reorganization
The Swiss Dispatch Agency, which will operate as Keystone-SDA after the merger, is reorganizing itself. The multimedia offering - texts, photos and videos from a single source - is being expanded. The strong regional roots will remain. The reorganization comes into effect on June 4.
As part of the reorganization, Keystone-SDA will join forces in national and international reporting. To this end, it has formed a pool of editors from two departments who will deliver reports from Switzerland and abroad to clients.
Newsdesk directs
In the future, the multimedia newsdesk will be in charge. It is responsible for preparing text, images and video to create a multimedia offering. All three languages - German, French and Italian - will sit together in the control room. Against the backdrop of a sharp drop in staffing levels, SDA has adjusted its structures to ensure sufficient resources to cover Swiss and international news. Reporting on events in Switzerland remains the core task of Keystone-SDA. This applies in particular to national politics, which continues to have a high priority in the news offering.
Keystone-SDA will continue to be able to report in detail on significant international developments, according to the statement. The agency will continue to report on all important events around the globe 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, thanks to the unchanged close cooperation with partner agencies. The foreign desk will not be manned for two hours a day (from 07.00 to 08.30). During this time, however, DPA's reports will automatically reach the customers. During the rest of the time, the desk will take over the task of news selection.
Present in all regions of Switzerland
As part of the reorganization, Keystone-SDA is giving more weight to the regions. The German-speaking regional offices are now organizationally assigned to the Zurich hub. The goal is to give the hubs a multimedia orientation, i.e. to bundle text, images and video here as well. Sport, for its part, is involved in multimedia production.
The offices in Aarau, Basel, Bellinzona, Bern, Chur, Lucerne, St. Gallen and Zurich are assigned to the Zurich hub. The Zurich hub also operates on a multimedia basis. The offices in French-speaking Switzerland - Geneva, Sion, Lausanne and the slightly expanded coverage from Fribourg-Neuchâtel, Biel, Jura/Bernese Jura - are coordinated from the Lausanne hub. Here, too, copywriters, photographers and video journalists are united in a newsroom.
Cooperation with AWP
As part of its reorganization, Keystone-SDA is outsourcing its business reporting to the financial news agency AWP. In return, however, AWP, which also belongs to the Keystone-SDA Group, is expanding its resources. It now employs around 30 experienced journalists at its offices in Zurich, Berne and Geneva. These news items will reach customers in the same channel and format as today. On weekdays, AWP delivers news on micro- and macro-economic topics in the time slot 06:30 to 18:30.
On weekends, Keystone-SDA will continue to include business topics from the Sunday press in the press review. Individual reports, on the other hand, will be fewer. Meeting Breaking News in the evening, at night or on the weekend, they will still be covered. Regional business reports continue to be produced by journalists in the regions. (SDA)
