The number of newspaper titles in Switzerland has fallen by almost a quarter in the past 20 years, according to a government study, which found that newspaper sales have remained constant over the same period.

Mergers and closures are blamed for the dramatic drop in the number of newspapers from 266 in 1980 to 201 in 1999.

The Federal Office for Statistics said more and more papers had also teamed up to produce shared editorial pages, leading to less diversity in the marketplace.

The shrinking number of titles was blamed on stiff competition between newspapers and increased print-runs. Between 1980 and 1999 the average print-run increased from fewer than 14,000 copies to more than 19,000.

The statistics office said the changes mainly affected the daily press and were most pronounced in German-speaking Switzerland, where the number of papers with shared editorials had increased by 25 per cent.

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