Keeping Up With the (Swiss) News of Day

The Swiss are avid newspaper readers and there are around 73 dailies in circulation around the country. Although the number of papers has fallen in the past two decades, circulation remains high at 2.65 million.

Maybe so many Swiss read the papers because they have to vote so frequently, a concept that's still hard to grasp for someone coming from a country that is politically almost completely disengaged. Maybe it's because reading the paper is a great way to spend your train or tram commute. The fact that the Swiss average a half-hour a day reading the paper fits nicely with that idea.

In any case,  I've picked up the habit for my commute to class. Thanks to many, many weeks of intensive German classes I can now read 20 Minuten and its lurid afternoon counterpart Blick. (Sad really, how long this has taken me.) I'm not quite up to the level required for Neue Zürcher Zeitung, which seems to be a bit like reading Le Monde in French.  (Speaking of which I would sometimes go with a French paper when we first got here.)

Thankfully, you can keep up with the Swiss news of the day online in English. Swiss Info offers a daily coverage of Swiss and international events, while  World Radio Switzerland streams news and features online in English. I'm a fan of their Expat Life segment.

Swisster offers an online digest of feature stories and blog posts in English across a broad range of topics from business to science to education and more. The Living Guides are a great way to find info that will help you settle in here. Of course I go right to the Food Guide, and I also love the food blog, A Matter of Taste.

The monthly business magazine, Swiss News, has some of its content available online.  The sexier lifestyle publication, Inside Switzerland Magazine, has only limited content available online, but it's worth a look. If you're new to Switzerland, be sure to check out their list of expat organizations. To find out all that's hip and happening (in English or German), you can subscribe to Ron Orp's email.

I'll keep working towards reading NZZ, but in the meantime I'm glad we have so many sources online.