'Laboratory For Local Journalism' Launches In Switzerland

The media outlet launched a three month test phase in the French-speaking Yverdon-les-Bains region. The Yverdon aims to be a“complement” to the existing media offering.

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In concrete terms, the medium will offer its audience three weekly events: local news on Tuesdays, ideas for outings on Thursdays, and a podcast with personalities from the region on Fridays.

A journalist and a community manager will take the project into the field. Their editor-in-chief will be the former editor-in-chief of La Broye Hebdo in Payerne, Danièle Pittet. The trio will be supported by journalist Jean Abbiateci as editorial manager and entrepreneur and publisher Tibère Adler.

Financially, the medium is supported by the Innovation Fund for Multimedia Journalism. A support association is due to be set up shortly to“consolidate the continuation” after the test phase.

Yverdon is the first project of Innomedia, a company set up to develop new journalistic and technological solutions for local media, according to the press release. If the concept works,“the idea is to export this model to other towns”, Olivia Schmidely, journalist and co-founder of the medium, told Keystone-ATS.

This content was published on Jan 7, 2026 Traditional media losing consumer share and revenues in the face of new digital platforms and AI.