Many bloggers today criticize the "Mainstream Media" for being slow, for not doing enough work, and for generally failing their duty to the public. Well, there's one newspaper that should be the envy of every journalist when it comes to research and work - but it's also losing subscribers.

The Economist reports on the Neue Zürcher Zeitung:

The emphasis is on international news (the paper has 40 foreign correspondents), business, finance and high culture. Features and lifestyle stories are kept to a minimum. Snippets of gossip are out of the question: any story must be backed by two separate sources. As Salomon Gessner, printer, poet and friend of Goethe, who founded the NZZ in 1780, put it, the aim is to “catch up with the world”.

If only every newspaper put as much effort into confirming and getting information. If only there were blogs that did a faction of that much work — the biggest complainers aren't exactly paragons of careful research. Why is it, though, that sales are falling sharply for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 225 years old this year? I used to read it when I lived in Zurich but didn't realize the lengths they went to in order to do good journalism. It's a pity that I can't get it at a decent price now.

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