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Die Weltwoche

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Die Weltwoche
TypeMagazine
Owner(s)Weltwoche Verlag AG
EditorRoger Köppel, publisher and editor-in-chief since November 2006
Founded1933; 91 years ago (1933)
Political alignmentClassical liberalism, conservatism
LanguageGerman
HeadquartersZürich
Circulation45,519 (2019) [1]
ISSN0043-2660
Websitewww.weltwoche.ch

Die Weltwoche (German for "The World Week") is a Swiss weekly magazine based in Zürich. Founded in 1933, it has been privately owned by Roger Köppel since 2006.

The magazine's regular columnists include the former president of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland, Peter Bodenmann, as well as Christoph Mörgeli MP, a leading figure of the right wing Swiss People's Party, and cultural and social commentator Alexander, Count von Schönburg-Glauchau.

The magazine's editorial stance under Köppel is considered to range between economic liberalism and conservatism – regularly along the lines of the Swiss People's Party, as critics allege.[2][3]

History

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Founded in 1933[4] as a weekly newspaper in the mold of French weeklies, it started off somewhat sympathetic to the Nazi government of Germany, but soon joined the other Swiss media in vigorously opposing it.

During the 1980s, the newspaper was led by Rudolf Bächtold and Jürg Ramspeck and owned by Jean Frey Verlag. Weltwoche remained a fixture of the intellectual environment in Switzerland, publishing articles, columns and interviews on a wide range of topics, including politics, the economy, culture and science, generally from a center-left perspective. In 1987, Jean Frey Verlag was bought up by notorious entrepreneur and fraudster Werner Rey. After the collapse of Rey's holdings in 1991, the publisher was sold to Curti Medien Holding AG, which in 1996 passed to Basler Zeitung. The last editor in chief before the takeover by Köppel was Fredy Gsteiger (1997 to 2001), under whom the newspaper pursued a general political position of center-left liberalism.

Köppel became editor-in-chief in 2001, launching a complete redesign, replacing the broadsheet by a magazine format. Jean Frey AG was now bought by conservative-right investor Tito Tettamanti. Köppel replaced most of the editors and re-positioned the magazine as neoliberal and right-wing conservative. In 2003, the new Weltwoche began to openly support Christoph Blocher and his Swiss People's Party. This resulted in a decline in sales, and Köppel was replaced by Simon Heusser, in 2005 followed by Jürg Wildberger.

In 2006, the Weltwoche was detached from Jean Frey AG,[5] now published under its own label Weltwoche Verlag AG. The magazine was bought by Köppel, who now also returned as editor-in-chief, resulting in a renewed exodus of much of the editors. Since 2006, the paper has been run by Köppel directly and has acquired a thoroughly right-wing conservative focus.

In 2015, the editor-in-chief and owner Roger Köppel joined the strong right-wing Swiss People's Party. Shortly after, he was elected for Councillor of the Swiss Parliament and now stands in for the interest of the Swiss People's Party also in Parliament.

Profile and positions

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Already distinguishing itself somewhat from the generally liberal, right-conservative, or center-left Swiss media by its general right-wing orientation, the magazine is now especially noted for its interviews with controversial public figures and for the diversity of opinion represented in its pages, with a dominant right-wing view however. For instance, virtually alone among Swiss publications, Die Weltwoche in 2003 and 2004 printed lengthy articles mainly arguing for the 2003 invasion of Iraq or the reelection of George W. Bush to the U.S. presidency. The accession of Switzerland to the European Union is rejected by the editorial staff, as was Swiss acceptance of the Schengen Agreement.[6] The Weltwoche also represents the view that welfare and other state-administered assistance programs are inherently flawed.

Since 2006, Die Weltwoche has repeatedly actively created controversy and scandal. The magazine is somewhat anti-statist and against an expansion of the welfare state. It also rejects state-subsidized nurseries and childcare.[7][8]

In keeping with its neo-conservative and anti-mainstream positions, the Weltwoche does not accept the scientific evidence for global warming and has denounced recent "alarmism" surrounding environmental issues.[9] Internationally – outside of Europe – the Weltwoche often represents pro-American and pro-Israeli positions.

On 12 January 2006, Die Weltwoche was the first German-speaking publication to reprint some of the controversial cartoons of Muhammad originally published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

On 12 May 2010, the main title of the weekly edition of the Weltwoche was: "Must Islam be Banned?" ("Muss der Islam verboten werden?"), the article stating that Muslim religion is incompatible with the Swiss constitution.[10] The front cover of the Weltwoche of 5 April 2012 published a photograph of a Roma child pointing a gun at a camera under the headline "The Roma are coming". The controversy sparked by this choice of illustration was reported internationally.[11]

On 26 June 2012, Die Weltwoche published an article which lamented the spread of the Irish gene pool and falsely claimed that the Irish Government requires pre-marital DNA testing in an effort to halt supposed widespread incest amongst the Irish who, it was further claimed, have rat-like anatomic features. The article was translated into English and caused controversy in the Irish media.[12][13]

Circulation

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In 1997, Die Weltwoche had a circulation of 91,142 copies.[14] Between July 2004 and June 2005 the circulation of the magazine was 80,436 copies.[15] It was 82,849 copies between July 2005 and June 2006 and 85,772 copies between July 2006 and June 2007.[15] Its total circulation in 2006 was also 82,849 copies.[16] It became 85,096 copies between July 2007 and June 2008,[15] dropping to 45,519 copies in 2019.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Tarife April 2019 [dead link]
  2. ^ "In der Heimat wie im Ausland sorgt freilich vor allem die publizistische Unterstützung der 'Weltwoche' für die rechtsliberale Schweizer Volkspartei (SVP) unter ihrem Chef Christoph Blocher regelmäßig für Aufregung." / "At home as well as abroad the Weltwoche often creates controversy, above all else, for its support of the right-wing, economically-liberal Swiss People's Party under the leadership of Christoph Blocher." Der Standard, 5 March 2008 [1]
  3. ^ "'Weltwoche' stürzte unter Köppel ab" Archived 10 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine NZZ am Sonntag, 21 July 2006
  4. ^ "European News Resources". NYU Libraries. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  5. ^ Eli M. Noam (15 April 2015). Who Owns the World's Media?: Media Concentration and Ownership Around the World. Oxford University Press. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-19-998723-8. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  6. ^ "Fehler 404 - Weltwoche Online". Weltwoche. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  7. ^ "Fehler 404 - Weltwoche Online". Weltwoche. Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  8. ^ "Fehler 404 - Weltwoche Online". Weltwoche. Archived from the original on 1 January 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  9. ^ "Fehler 404 - Weltwoche Online". Weltwoche. Archived from the original on 3 August 2008. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  10. ^ "Muss der Islam verboten werden?". Weltwoche. 12 May 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  11. ^ "Die Weltwoche sparks anger over 'racist' Roma story". BBC News. 12 April 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  12. ^ Von Antje Joel. "Irland? Vergessen Sie es!". Weltwoche. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  13. ^ "Rabbit Teeth? German Journal Writes Scathing Article on The Irish!". RSVP Magazine. Archived from the original on 18 April 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  14. ^ Sibylle Hardmeier (1999). "Political Poll Reporting in Swiss Print Media". International Journal of Public Opinion Research. 11 (3). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  15. ^ a b c "New circulation figures from July 2007 to June 2008". Adnative. 1 October 2008. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  16. ^ "Swiss newspaper market in flux" (PDF). Swiss Review. 5: 9. October 2007. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
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