" Every spring around this time, the Swiss press carries out an interesting self-assessment, the tallying and comparison of circulation stats. <p> Not sure why it''s such a big sport around here, maybe it has something to do with the fact that no other country has so many newspapers for such a small area as Switzerland (Kümmerly & Frey''s <u>Switzerland 2000/2001</u>). <p> Or maybe because the numbers have a bit more of suspense this year, as everybody wants to know how the barrage of new Gratiszeitungen beginning in 1999 has affected the established papers. <p> In any case, it''s taken seriously. The yearly numbers are produced by an official-sounding company called Werbemedienforschung (Wemf). <p> For us expats, the stats give insight into what publications the Swiss themselves find interesting, and offer a guide to what might be most useful to outsiders. <p> The Tagi, 19 April 2001, p. 71, where this information comes from, charts daily circulation in three categories: Dailies, weeklies, and mags. <p> Among dailies: No. 1 is Blick (309,000) (think, ""National Enquirer"". ''nuff said). <p> No. 2 is Tages-Anzeiger (268,000) (think, ""USA Today"", a bit left-leaning, lots of colors and graphics, easy writing style). <p> After a big gap comes no. 3, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (170,000) (think ""New York Times"", a bit right-leaning, business-oriented, no colors, intellectual style). <p> Then come all the regional papers. <p> Weeklies: No. 1 is SonntagsBlick (336,000). No. 2 is SonntagsZeitung (220,000) (basically, The Tagi on Sunday. I think the publisher is even the same, TAMedia.) <p> Bunched together after that (all in the 40K to 80K range) are Weltwoche, Cash, Finanz und Wirtschaft, and HandelsZeitung. (never followed any of these myself; Cash looks kind of interesting). <p> Mags: No. 1 is K-Tipp (379,000) (never followed this one; I''m interested! Any opinions?) Close second (334,000) is Beobachter (I''d call it close to a Kiplinger''s) No. 3 Schweizer Illustrierte (never followed this one; any opinions out there?) <p> Then there''s Tele (""TvGuide""); Das Beste (the Swiss version of Reader''s Digest, published by Reader''s Digest; good for learning the language); and others. Facts, which you may have seen around, comes in at around No. 13 (101,000), a publication I find interesting. <p> Also listed in the Tagi article are the prior year''s figures, including the change in circulation in %. I''m curious about Puls-tipp, which was a big gainer this year with a 5% increase; Weltwoche tanked at a -8% (reason cited: disconnect between the mag''s Marketing campaign and its editorial style, which was too intellectual for the targeted market.) <p> Any opinions out there on usefulness of these or other Swiss publications, especially from the expat point of view? <p> Yves, April 20, 2001 <p> (news junkie since Roman times, except for a hiatus between 104 A.D. and 214 A.D., which coincidentally corresponds to the average and deepest depths respectively of the Vierwaldstättersee). "

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I will be moving from the US to Basel this summer. Are there any decent Swiss newspapers in English? Is the International Herald Tribune prohibitively expensive?

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