[2] It was based on the experiences of the German Die Tageszeitung (Taz) and the Zürich-based monthly student magazine Das Konzept.

Well-known journalists like Niklaus Meienberg or Laure Wyss but also novelists such as Max Frisch and Otto F. Walter regularly wrote for the paper.

Following a reboot in 2003, the newspaper nearly went bankrupt due to increased costs, but a reorganization in 2005, which included changing the whole original editorial board and making the decision to not have a chief editor, ultimately allowed the publication to continue.

[8] WOZ claims to be the only independent national newspaper in German-speaking Switzerland: it doesn't belong to either a political party, association or media company, and aims to deliver critical high-quality journalism.

[10] WOZ was the highest ranked media product in terms of quality of coverage among magazines, weeklys and Sunday newspapers in Switzerland in independent 2018 and 2020 studies.