What can you find in the “Search portal newspaper cuttings”?

The portal includes:

1. All newspaper cuttings that the Swiss Economic Archives (SWA) has collected in electronic format since 2013 on topics and individuals relevant to the Swiss economy.
   This part of the collection comprises more than 317,000 articles (2025). Around 20,000 to 30,000 articles are added each. New newspaper cuttings are available on the portal approximately two months after their publication.
2. Newspaper cuttings from the mid-19^th century to 2012, which the SWA collected in analogue form and retro-digitised. This part of the collection currently comprises more than 2 million newspaper cuttings (2025).
   Our retro-digitisation project has been running since 2016. To date (2025), all newspaper cuttings from before 2012 on individuals, companies, associations and the topics of the silk industry, banking and finance, agriculture and business management have been digitized and are available online. The retro-digitisation of newspaper cuttings on the topics of insurance, transport, exhibitions, international organisations, national economy and social affairs is currently underway.

In the “Search portal newspaper cuttings”, you can search the database using keywords or various filters. 

Physical newspaper cuttings from before 2012 that have not yet been digitised can be ordered and then viewed in the SWA’s special reading room. You can use the SWA Search finding aid for this purpose. 

What is the SWA newspaper cuttings collection?

The SWA newspaper cuttings collection comprises around 2.7 million cuttings from the 1850s to the present day. The collection provides a broad overview of developments in the Swiss economy and the corresponding media discourse. With this unique newspaper cuttings collection, the SWA offers researchers, students and the interested members of the public material for writing and understanding the social and economic history of Switzerland since the mid-19^th century. 

Before databases containing full-text newspapers existed, newspaper cuttings collections were the only way to conduct systematic (media) research. But even today, the newspaper cuttings collection still enables targeted research in a curated database. The SWA collection is the only newspaper cuttings collection for the whole of Switzerland that it publicly accessible and free of charge, naturally in compliance with applicable copyright law. The collection is continuously updated. 

Which newspaper titles have been and are being evaluated?

The SWA has been independently evaluating the Swiss print media landscape since the 1920s. However, the collection dates back to the 19^th century, as the Basel Chamber of Commerce passed on its newspaper cuttings to the SWA when it was founded. It is not possible to say exactly which newspapers were evaluated in which periods. Newspapers were founded and disappeared, political orientations changed, as did the practice and theory of journalistic work. The SWA’s aim has always been to cover the most important newspapers in Switzerland, although titles from French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland are poorly represented. 

Since 2012, the SWA documentation team has been evaluating the following daily and weekly newspapers: Aargauer Zeitung, Agéfi (until 2020), Basler Zeitung, Blick, Der Bund, BZ Basel, Finanz und Wirtschaft, Handelszeitung, Luzerner Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, NZZ am Sonntag (systematically since 2020), St. Galler Tagblatt, Sonntagszeitung (since 2020), Die Südostschweiz, Tages-Anzeiger, Le Temps, Tribune de Genève (systematically since 2021), Die Wochenzeitung und Bilanz. Republik was added in 2018.

The filters in the “Search portal newspaper cuttings” allow you to trace the collection profile to a certain extent. For example, the search filter “Newspaper” allows you to reconstruct to a certain degree which titles were evaluated and how many articles from a newspaper title are included in the collection. With the search filter “Source date”, you can analyse how many articles were collected in specific periods.

How are the newspaper cuttings selected and organised?

Until 2012, the analogue cuttings were filed in analogue document collections (dossiers) on economic topics, companies and organisations (associations and other institutions) as well as individuals. Since then, the articles have been digitally archived and assigned to a digital document collection using keywords. Here, too, the three categories of document collections (economic topics, companies and organisations, individuals) are available. In addition to newspaper cuttings, the analogue and digital document collections contain other publications in analogue and digital form. They can be viewed via SWA Search or ordered for viewing in the special reading room. 

The selection and indexing of articles is carried out intellectually at the SWA, i.e. by the economic documentation staff. They archive articles on topics, companies and individuals for which the SWA already has a document collection. If necessary and in accordance with the SWA’s collection profile, they also set up new document collections. Intellectual indexing is not based on the title or headline of the newspaper articles, but on their content. The SWA’s information specialists work with a list of defined keywords (see “Structure and Thesaurus”). The result is a carefully curated collection of newspaper cuttings that organises the collected articles according to content and offers users guidance in the flood of information.

What should be considered when using the collection?

The SWA newspaper cuttings collection has been professionally compiled by various information specialists and experts since the foundation of SWA over a hundred years ago. However, for an in-depth media analysis, further research is recommended, for example in the Swissdox media database (licensed access). Selected historical newspaper titles (but without indexing) can be found on e-newspaperarchives (free access) or on Impresso Project (free access). Newspaper, television and radio editorial offices also often have their own archives. 

In addition, there are freely available annual analyses of the current Swiss media landscape, which can be helpful in the political, social and journalistic evaluation of press content. For example, the Research Center for the Public Sphere and Society at the University of Zurich has been publishing the “Yearbook on the Quality of Swiss Media” since 2018, and the Swiss Press Council has been publishing the “Yearbook of the Swiss Press Council” since 2008. 

How is the collection structured and indexed?

The document collections on people as well as on companies and organisation are titled with the name. Name changes of companies and other organisations are updated. Companies and organisation are linked with the authority records of the GND (Integrated Authority File).

Until 2004, the document collections on economic topics had historical titles such as, for example, «Gewerbe- und Fabrikinspektionswesen». A revision took place in 2005: the number of document collections was reduced from 3500 to 1200; above all, a strict geographical structure was no longer applied. The newly used titles and terms were assigned based on the «Standard Thesaurus Wirtschaft» STW (Thesaurus for Economics). In order to make the searching more intuitive, some of the terms were adapted (e.g. the use of «AHV» instead of «Gesetzliche Rentenversicherung»).

The STW also provides a hierarchical structure (economics, business administration, etc.), which is well suited for systematic searching. It can be found in the search portal under «Themen systematisch».

The document collections with historical names have been linked to the new STW-based titles of the document collections. In this way, you can use the STW keyword to find a historical document collection. An STW keyword often leads to several historical document collection title terms (e.g. under «Geldpolitik und Währung», the historical document collections «Münz- und Währungswesen», «Notenbank», «Devisengesetzgebung», «Goldklausel» and others can be found).

Since 2020, the terms of the original STW have been in use, instead of the adapted STW terms from 2005. This has, among other things, the advantage that the terminology is updated continuously. For example, the document collection «Geldpolitik und Währung» is currently named only «Geldpolitik».

All previously used terms or titles of the document collections are considered as synonyms during a search.

The document collections are about Switzerland as a rule (GND). The dossiers of national economies are an exception. These are found under «Volkswirtschaft. Land XY».

Important trading partners of Switzerland have a document collection allocated «Wirtschaftsbeziehungen Schweiz – Land XY».

Every canton has a document collection «Volkswirtschaft Kanton XY".

Some thematic document collections are organised by canton (financial policy, public finance, public administration, taxes, tax policy, history).

More information about the geographical subdivision see the PDF (in German).

Technical background and instructions (PDF, in German)

This service was made possible by the generous support of numerous institutions and people. Many thanks!