Evaluation shows: Winterthur newspaper has become significantly more political thanks to Blocher

In principle, the owners are free to determine the party-political course of a newspaper, write the authors of the study. This naturally also applies to Christoph Blocher and his Zeitungshaus AG, which now comprises around 30 local newspapers. However, according to the Association for Media Diversity led by media professor Heinz Bonfadelli, it becomes problematic when the influence of content and party political orientation is concealed and a newspaper that promotes a specific political line is described as politically neutral.

The Winterthur Newspaper - according to the publishers, one of the most important titles in Blocher's newspaper empire - was to be "expanded with local stories without a political background" - _and that "the newspaper was virtually taken over by the SVP" was "stupid stuff", CEO Rolf Bollmann was quoted as saying in the "Landbote" newspaper on August 17, 2017. The analysis now available from the Association for Media Diversity, which relates to the period six months before the takeover and up to December of last year, clearly refutes these statements: the Winterthur Newspaper has become an SVP newspaper.

Expanded political reporting with a clear focus

44 issues from March 2017 to December 2017 and 49 issues in 2018 were analyzed. The most important findings:

• The Winterthur Newspaper became much more political: from March to August 2017, around 92% of editorial articles were apolitical or politically neutral. Between September 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018, only 47% of articles were apolitical or politically neutral.
• The SVP was able to Winterthur Newspaper While it was only mentioned in 4% of articles in the six months before the newspaper was taken over, between September 2017 and December 2018 this figure was 30%, with the SVP reaching a peak of 62% shortly before the city and municipal council elections in Winterthur on March 8, 2018. In December 2018, the SVP's share was 56%.
• This picture is further reinforced if you look at the shares of the middle-class "Alliance for Winterthur" as a whole and also include the political contributions dominated by the Homeowners Association (HEV) and the SME Association: since the takeover, the SVP, FDP, CVP and HEV/KMU have been present in 50 percent of the contributions, while the parties from the center to the left (EVP, Greens, SP and AL) only account for 11 percent. The glp is present in around 3 percent of contributions.
• Thanks to City President Michael Künzle, the CVP is more often in the Winterthur Newspaper present than the FDP.

Clearer direction ahead of the elections

Back in August 2017, the Landbote wrote: "The reporting ahead of the upcoming general elections in March 2018 will show how Bollmann and Blocher envision the new journalism in Winterthur". The present evaluation shows a particularly clear political orientation in February 2018, i.e. precisely before these elections: in this month, not only did the SVP achieve an absolute top score of 62%, but the FDP and CVP also achieved their top scores with 23% each, while the SP, GP and EVP did not receive a single mention.

The fact that the SVP was not mentioned in any of the relevant editorial articles during the 2018 summer recess will hardly bother the party. More important for them is the fact that towards the end of 2018, in parallel with the start of the election campaign ahead of the cantonal elections in spring 2019, their share rose again and reached 56% last December, the second-highest figure ever.

The authors of the study wrote in a press release on Tuesday that a further evaluation of the local newspapers managed by Christoph Blocher currently exceeds their own possibilities. The Winterthur Newspaper was described by its CEO Rolf Bollmann as one of the most important acquisitions at the time of the takeover. It is therefore assumed that the other media of Zeitungshaus AG will also develop in the same direction.