List of newspapers in Switzerland

The number of newspapers in Switzerland was 406 before World War I. It reduced to 257 in 1995 and 197 in 2010.^[1] Prior to the 18th century, the Swiss press market was small, being limited to the elites who were literate, though development varied by region and language. The authorities of the Cantons of Switzerland also censored the press, which mostly prevented newspapers from reporting many aspects of local and confederal news. Due to the influence of the Enlightenment this began to change in the 1730s. The Helvetic Republic proclaimed national freedom of the press, but soon after censorship by the government increased again. The Tagsatzung made efforts to unify cantonal censorship practices through several decrees relating to the press and foreigners, which renewed efforts to get freedom of the press. This was achieved during the restoration period, after which a politically active press became present in all the linguistic regions of the country. Most papers then served to politically propagandize, even when operating as a loss.^[2] Press later became commercial, first in Francophone Switzerland in the 1870s, followed by German-speaking Switzerland in the 1890s; Italian-speaking Switzerland only did the same towards the end of the 20th century.^[2]

Switzerland has a high rate of newspaper reading, even with the creation of electronic media.^[2] The Francophone press market was, for several generations, dominated by Edipresse (Lausanne, which owned most of the dailies) and Ringier (Zurich, owned most of the magazines), but new competition arrived in the 21st century. Edipresse's Swiss operations were in 2009 bought out by Tamedia (Zurich; now TX Group).^[1] The country was ranked 9th in the yearly Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders in 2024.^[3]