Personnel changes in the SRF newsroom

Since the newsroom began its work at the Zurich Leutschenbach location at the end of 2018, Zwygart, Honegger and Mezzasalma have played a key role in shaping it, SRF wrote in a statement on Friday. Silvia Zwygart as editorial director of "Schweiz aktuell," Basil Honegger as head of the domestic editorial department and Roman Mezzasalma as head of the business editorial department. Due to the reorganization in the newsroom, these management functions will no longer exist in this form (Werbewoche.ch reported). At their own request, all three will be taking new professional paths next year.

56-year-old Silvia Zwygart started at SRF in 2002 as an editor on "MittagsMagazin. She then worked for four years as an editor and producer at "Schweiz aktuell. During this time, she was also responsible as a producer for innovative special projects such as "Sahlenweidli," "Traumjob" and "G&G sucht." As deputy editorial director, Silvia Zwygart was part of the founding team of "Einstein" in 2007. A year later, she took over as head of the show. In parallel, she built the first knowledge platform with a small team in 2012 and helped shape the important development and expansion of digitization at SRF.

In the spring of 2014, Silvia Zwygart decided to give up the editorial management of "Einstein" and return to news journalism. First as producer of "10 vor 10", then in the same function for "Arena". She took over as head of "Schweiz aktuell" in 2018, sharpened the journalistic profile of the regional magazine and further developed the live focus strategy of the outside shows.

44-year-old Basil Honegger studied biology at the University of Zurich and earned his doctorate at the Zoological Institute. After completing his doctorate, he began working for SRF in 2006 as an intern for "Menschen Technik Wissenschaft". After an in-house stage and three years at the health magazine "Puls", he moved to "Schweiz aktuell" in 2010, where he worked as editor, producer and topic planner, and since November 2013 also as deputy editorial director. Finally, he took over as editorial director of "Schweiz aktuell" in 2016, before setting up and developing the domestic specialist editorial team in the new newsroom at the end of 2018.

Roman Mezzasalma, 59, studied economics and business administration at the University of Bern and also holds a doctorate. From 1985 to 2001, he held various positions at Radio DRS. First as a presenter at DRS 3, then as an editor in the sports, business and domestic editorial departments, as well as a producer at "Echo der Zeit" and as a correspondent in San Francisco. After a lengthy detour into the private sector, he returned to Radio SRF in 2010 and took over as head of the newsroom.

At the end of 2018, Roman Mezzasalma was appointed head of the TV business desk in the new newsroom and successfully realigned business reporting with the relaunch of "Eco Talk" and the strengthening of the digital business offering. According to SRF, Mezzasalma has now decided to go into business for himself.

Already on Wednesday the change of Reto Gerber to the private sector was communicated (Werbewoche.ch reported).