Media City council wants a monthly free newspaper for Lucerne households
Following the closure of the "Anzeiger Luzern" at the end of February, the Lucerne City Council now wants to launch a monthly free newspaper for Lucerne households. As a first step, it wants to discuss a monthly production of the "Anzeiger Luzern" with the media company CH Media and draw up a detailed concept, as it announced on Monday.
The media company CH Media ("Luzerner Zeitung" and "Aargauer Zeitung") ceased publication of the newspapers "Anzeiger Luzern" and "Stadtanzeiger Olten" at the end of February. CH Media justified the closure with insufficient profitability. The city of Lucerne expressed its "dismay" in a statement at the time.
The discontinuation of the "Anzeiger" led to reactions from the population, who missed it, writes the city council in a press release on Monday regarding the SP interpellation "Future of the basic media supply". Questions were also raised in urgent political motions about alternatives to the free weekly newspaper distributed to all households.
As part of its response to the petitions, the city council has already stated that it is very concerned about current developments in the media landscape, as it goes on to write. For the city of Lucerne, local reporting on television, radio, print and online media continues to be of great importance.
City council regrets the end of "Anzeiger"
The city council also regrets that the "Anzeiger Luzern" no longer exists. This means the loss of a weekly print channel that served all city households with "important news from the city of Lucerne".
As the City Council considers regular information via a print medium to be important, it has examined various options in recent months.
As things stand today, the City Council is sticking with the production of the "Stadtmagazin". It will continue to be published four times a year. In addition, a print product similar to the "Anzeiger Luzern" with a monthly publication frequency as a platform for associations, businesses, political parties and city information is to be specifically examined.
