Its content is Swiss-centred, with top priority given to in-depth information on politics, the economy, the arts, science, education, and direct democracy.

SWI swissinfo.ch emerged from the Swiss Radio International (SRI), a business unit of SRG SSR for foreign countries.

The internet was advancing fast, heralding a new era for the producing journalists and the Swiss Radio International (SRI) audience alike.

Only some specific information for Swiss people living abroad would be published in Switzerland's national languages (German, French and Italian).

The plan is also to employ one journalist for each national language and the service would be produced by one of the existing SRG SSR enterprise units.

In the summer of 2007, the Federal Council issued SWI swissinfo.ch with a new charter to provide specific and clearly defined internet-focused news, information, and entertainment services.

[4] Christoph Heri, the editor-in-chief of swissinfo.ch, retired on 31 March 2008 after a 30-year media career, the last six years of which were spent with the SWI swissinfo.ch editorial team.

He was charged with fulfilling the content aspects of the Federal Council charter and with positioning SWI swissinfo.ch as a multilingual news and information platform for both expatriate Swiss and an international audience with an interest in Switzerland.

[5] In October 2018 she was appointed Director of SWI swissinfo.ch and led the business unit in a dual role until summer 2022, Larissa M. Bieler became a member of the SRG Executive Board since July 2022.

[7] In 2023, SWI swissinfo.ch has won a prize in the “science and environment” category of an annual award organised by Swiss magazine Private.