Futurezone

futurezone.at
	News ticker
languages	German
operator	Kurier newspaper publisher and printing company
On-line	1999 (currently active)
https://futurezone.at/

The Futurezone (formerly also: futureZone , abbreviation: fuZo ) is an Austrian internet portal for news from the fields of computers, information technology , telecommunications and network politics . It was founded in 1999 by the Austrian public broadcaster as part of its online offering. The journalistic reports of this technology editorial team soon developed into the most respected Austrian website in this area, which also attracted many visitors from German-speaking countries. Since this portal was operated without advertising and was financed by income from the GIS fees , the Austrian daily newspapers viewed the Futurezone as unfair competition to their online offers. In June 2010, the National Council passed a new ORF law that forced the state broadcaster to sell the Futurezone. The daily newspaper Kurier acquired the trademark rights in September 2010 and has been operating the portal at the new address futurezone.at with a new editorial team since October 1, 2010 .

history

The Futurezone was launched as a joint project by Siemens Austria and ORF in 1999 as part of the New Economy boom . Initially it was intended as a technology section on the ORF Online website, which was then the most popular news website in the country. The Futurezone soon received its own subdomain and could be reached at futurezone.orf.at . The Futurezone also differed in design from the rest of the ORF's online offering, which made the site recognizable as an independent editorial team. The Futurezone editorial team was given a largely free hand to report on topics in the Internet, technology, mobile communications and new media and to research independently. In addition to in-house journalists, external experts such as the Upper Austrian internet expert Erich Möchel were also recruited as employees .

In addition to classic topics such as tests of new software and hardware, the Futurezone soon also devoted itself to sociopolitical topics from the technology sector and reported critically on data protection on the Internet, net neutrality , online advertising , copyrights , and the influence of corporations on the development of the Internet. The Futurezone developed into an Austrian counterpart to similar sites from Germany, such as heise online or Telepolis . Futurezone editor Möchel was also a co-founder of the Big Brother Awards , a negative award for a lack of data protection and abuse on the Internet. After a lot of media coverage in Austria, this prize was awarded in Germany from 2000 and in Switzerland from 2004. 2006 Günter Hack became editor-in-chief of Futurezone; he headed the editorial department until the forced sale in 2010.

Forced sale

In June 2010 it was surprisingly public that the draft of the then new ORF law also contained a passage about the technology portal Futurezone. This law was passed on June 17, 2010 in the Austrian National Council with the votes of the two governing parties SPÖ and ÖVP as well as the opposition FPÖ . The Greens and the BZÖ voted against this . This new law forbade the ORF to cross-finance online offers through the income from the legally prescribed broadcasting fees. In particular, ORF was ordered to discontinue the Futurezone portal or to sell it to a private provider. The Green MP Dieter Brosz said:

“A news site that deals with network politics, data protection and civil rights. It is considered an institution in German-speaking countries and the ORF's most attractive and best offer online. You are passing a law today exactly where this offer, which is internationally recognized, will be eliminated. On October 1st, the Futurezone will be history, it will no longer exist, it will be turned off. "

- Dieter Brosz : Ö1, June 17, 2010

Only after the law was passed did it become public that this decision had been preceded by massive lobbying by Austrian telecommunications providers and daily newspapers, represented by the VÖZ . They saw the ORF's online offers as unfair competition to their own Internet offers. In 2009 ORF Online was the most visited website in Austria after google.at . In particular, Der Standard saw competition for its technology section called “Web Standard” in the Future Zone and had campaigned for the change in the law. A petition from loyal visitors to the Futurezone was unsuccessful. A jury around the artist group monochrom awarded the State Secretary for Media Josef Ostermayer the “Scheiß Internet” -Wolfgang Lorenz Memorial Prize in protest and described the sale of the Futurezone as a “ pawn ” in the political haggling around the new ORF law.

After several providers had applied to buy the Futurezone, the ORF decided in September 2010 to sell its online technology portal to the daily newspaper Kurier . This acquired the trademark rights and has continued operations with a new editorial team since October 1, 2010 under the futurezone.at domain . Gerald Reischl was editor-in-chief from the relaunch until December 2015 . In February 2011, the courier gave the new Futurezone a relaunch, including a new design of the site. Claudia Zettel became editor-in-chief in January 2016 .

The former Futurezone editor Erich Möchel distanced himself from the new Futurezone and continues to write for ORF. Since November 2010 he has published his articles on the website of the ORF youth radio station FM4 .

Lack of independence from the courier and domestic political influence

On February 3, 2017, an article that massively criticized Interior Minister Sobotka was taken offline under pressure from Kurier editor-in-chief Helmut Brandstätter and only put back online after strong criticism on Netzpolitik.org. This is explosive inasmuch as the Futurezone is independent according to its own imprint and is therefore not subject to the editor's statute of the courier. The editor-in-chief of Futurezone publicly distanced herself from the intervention.