Marcel Rohr becomes new editor-in-chief of the Basler Zeitung

Rohr, now 51, joined the company in 2005 as head of sports. BaZ and is now increasingly active as a page-turner, as Tamedia announced on Wednesday. Previously, Rohr spent twelve years at the View and Sunday View including as head of sports. Rohr began his journalism career in 1988 at the Basel-based free weekly newspaper Double bar - on November 1, almost 30 years ago to the day, he told the Keystone-SDA agency.

"We want to win back readers"

The election of the new editor-in-chief was awaited with interest because Somm has been an irritant in Basel since he took office in 2010. In addition to the initially concealed BaZ-In addition to Christoph Blocher, the editorials of his biographer Somm are also seen as a reason for the slump in BaZ subscriptions.

Rohr wants good journalism without blinkers, which looks closely at both the left and the right: "Ideologies are anathema to me. Two things are taboo for him: being boring or untrustworthy. The former was the BaZ was partly reproached before the Somm-Zeit, when it still saw itself as a forum paper.

You can't please everyone, says Rohr. In any case, he wants to "win back readers" and make an "exciting newspaper. That can be done with "good stories that touch people. And he wants to "verbaslern" the paper: The Basel region is very multifaceted and provides material from many areas of life.

Head of Culture Suter leaves

Also traded as a possible future editor-in-chief was BaZ-Raphael Suter, Head of the Culture Department. However, he is now leaving the paper to head a cultural foundation. Suter had decided, independently of the appointment of the new editor-in-chief, to take a chance outside the industry after almost thirty years of print and radio journalism, the statement continued. Whoever takes over as head of the culture section of the BaZ is still open.

Just three weeks ago, the Competition Commission gave Tamedia the green light for the takeover of the BaZwhich will take over a mantle from Tamedia in the future. Two days ago, Tamedia announced that synergy effects in Basel will cost 16 full positions in publishing, corporate services and editorial services, but not in the editorial department.

Local classification

This coat is to be tailor-made: According to Tamedia, the BaZ-The editorial team will continue to report independently from Basel "on local, regional and cantonal events. It will also "gain national charisma" by "bringing the perspective of both Basel into the Tamedia network" in the future. Conversely, the BaZ "benefit from the joint Tamedia editorial team's coverage of national and international issues." The BaZ will classify jacket texts "from a Basel perspective," the communiqué further promises.

Tamedia publisher Pietro Supino is quoted as saying that he is pleased with the internal solution. They are now jointly examining "possibilities to strengthen Basel as a location". How many people are currently employed at the BaZ-It was not possible to find out who are employed in the editorial department.

BaZ coat from Zurich

Since the beginning of 2018, Tamedia has been operating two supra-regional editorial offices that provide the mantle for various daily newspapers. From Zurich, Swiss-German papers such as the Tages-Anzeiger, the Bernese Confederation or the Berner Zeitung BZ served. In Lausanne, the shell for Tribune de Genève, 24 heures or Le Matin. The Basel Newspaper was formed in 1977 by the merger of the left-liberal National Newspaper with the bourgeois-conservative Basel News emerged. BaZ closed its own newspaper printing plant in 2013 and has since had it printed by Tamedia. It has been present on the Internet in the Newsnet network together with Tamedia for a decade. (SDA)