Swiss are avid readers of newspapers

Reading a newspaper is a daily ritual for almost every Swiss Keystone

Nine out of ten people in Switzerland read a daily newspaper, according to the latest circulation figures. The German speaking Swiss are the most avid readers.

The circulation figures – compiled by the media research company, WEMF – are the first to be calculated using a common European standard and therefore cannot be compared with previous figures.

They show that, despite the plethora of news available through broadcast media and the Internet, the Swiss remain overwhelmingly attached to newspapers.

Nearly 97 per cent of German-speaking Swiss read at least one daily paper. The figures are slightly lower in the French (93 per cent) and Italian speaking (91 per cent) regions, but are still impressive.

The Swiss are also enamoured with magazines. Again 97 per cent of German speaking Swiss read at least one. The figures for French and Italian speakers are 91 and 80 per cent respectively.

The adoption of the European standard in measuring newspaper and magazine circulation reflects the increasing importance of advertising, which provides vital income for most publications.

Advertisers demand transparent circulation figures, and increasingly want to know which sections of a newspaper or magazine are mostly widely read.

The circulation study reveals widely differing preferences among Switzerland’s linguistic regions.

The French and Italian speakers, for example, are far more interested in articles about education, compared to their German-speaking compatriots. By contrast, a quarter of German speakers say they find politics interesting, compared with just 10 per cent in the French and Italian regions.

swissinfo with agencies