Gong (magazine)

gong
description	German program guide
publishing company	Gong Verlag GmbH, Ismaning
First edition	October 10, 1948
Frequency of publication	weekly
Sold edition	180,832 copies
( IVW 2/2020)
Widespread edition	182,163 copies
( IVW 2/2020)
Editor-in-chief	Christian Hellmann
Web link	www.gong.de
ZDB	2200046-X

Gong is a weekly German television magazine . It first appeared in 1948 as a radio program magazine and is published by Gong Verlag GmbH, which belongs to the Funke media group , formerly the WAZ media group. In addition to editorial contributions, program overviews from television and radio stations are published in the gong . The magazine has been awarding the Golden Gong television award since 1979 .

history

Title page of the first edition (1948)

The magazine was founded on October 10, 1948 as a pure radio magazine (subtitle: "Das Funk-Magazin"). The first gong had 20 pages and cost 25 pfennigs . The inspiration for the name was the chime of the gong , which sounded on the radio every full hour. The first editorial office worked in Nuremberg at the time; the magazine was published by Sebaldus Verlag in Nuremberg under the American registration number US-E-112. The first cover picture showed Hans Moser (1880–1964) with a double guitar . Gong was the first to print Conan Doyle's The Hound of Baskerville . The self-promotion read: "The new Funk-Magazin offers you and your family members, in addition to selected novels, rich, clearly structured broadcast programs, dignified entertainment, stimulating instruction, delicious jokes and completely new, highly interesting competitions with prices of up to DM 1,000".

The Catholic Church held a 24 percent stake in Sebaldus Verlag with its 200 individual shareholders and Prelate Balthasar Moeckel as managing director and general director . Moeckel expanded. He took over publications such as the Radio World and the Illustrated Funkwelt , which he incorporated into the gong. In August 1997, DBAG, Deutsche Beteiligungs AG, the Alpha investor group and the Stuttgart auditor Erwin Kiefer took over Sebaldus Verlag. Since December 1, 2000 the gong has belonged to the WAZ media group, now Funke media group .

The first television program was printed in 1953. In 1979 the print run was 1,204,800 copies.

The most famous editor-in-chief of Gong was Helmut Markwort (editor-in-chief of Focus magazine until September 2010 ). He worked from 1970 to 1991. The other former editors-in-chief of the magazine were Conrad Schmitt (1948–1963), Wilhelm Mogge (1963), Theo Reubel-Ciani (1964–1970), Bob Borrink (1991–1995), Dirk Altemann (1995 ), Rainer Stiller (1995–2001), Katrin Kaiser (2001–2002) and Carsten Pfefferkorn (2002–2014). Christian Hellmann has been running the gong since August 2014 .

The gong has undergone extensive innovations and modernizations in recent years. Except for the cover and the imprint, it is identical to the magazine Bild + Funk . It has a daily docu-planner which, in its own section, informs readers about the best knowledge, travel and nature programs according to the editors' opinion. In addition, Gong was the first weekly program guide to abolish the separation between pay-TV and free-to-air channels in autumn 2013 and, in addition to Sky (which is listed in many magazines in the segment), also included other, high-quality pay channels such as National Geographic in its program listing.

From 2004 to 2006 Gong presented a gospel award on German television together with the television work of the Protestant and Catholic Churches and the Christian aid organization World Vision Germany . After three years this price was discontinued.

In 2008 the German Press Council reprimanded the magazine for violating the press code . In several reports on medical topics, she had named a preparation that had no unique selling point. The press council rated this as surreptitious advertising. In 2010 there was another reprimand by the German Press Council because of section 7 of the press code. In a recipe for a Christmas menu, the magazine had mentioned product names several times that would not have been required for the recipe as such.

today

Outside of the program, in the front and back editorial sections of the magazine, the focus of reporting today is on the topics of knowledge, travel, media, cinema, health, consumers. In its selection of programs and its reporting, the gong is aimed today at viewers who, in addition to feature films and series, have a strong interest in documentaries, reports and useful magazine programs.

In a special section (Name: Our Time ) the magazine summarizes special, benefit-oriented articles from the areas of health, travel, cuisine and psychology / family.

With almost 55 stations and twelve pages per program day, the gong offers one of the most extensive program sections of any weekly program magazine. The seven largest German channels (from Das Erste to VOX ) are shown on two double pages per day. This means that the reader can find the daily program on a complete double page and the complete evening program for these channels on another. Special-interest and regional channels, all third-party programs as well as children's and youth channels are also shown. In addition, having Gong since 2013 in addition to Sky added more pay TV channel in its listing. The gong evaluates all the films broadcast and tests them for family suitability.

In the middle of the booklet there is a removable radio newspaper with a detailed overview of the daily radio program . The gong also has a big puzzle part .

The Internet television program service Klack.de has belonged to Gong-Verlag since the beginning of 2010 .

Circulation statistics

In the fourth quarter of 2014, the average monthly circulation according to IVW was 240,705 copies. That is 5.09 percent (12,904 issues) less than in the same quarter of the previous year. The number of subscribers fell within one year by 6.48 percent to 162,871 subscribers. Currently, 67.67 percent of readers subscribe to the magazine.

Number of issues distributed monthly

Number of subscriptions sold each month

Web links

• Internet presence

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information from the Gong editors, June 2014
2. ↑ Article: "Betr.: Auf Wiedersehen", in: Gong No. 33/2014, page 3; published on August 15, 2014
3. ↑ Information from the Gong editors, June 2014
4. ↑ Gospel music wants to give impulses for life: Final of the largest German competition on December 16 in Munich. epd Landesdienst Bayern, December 4, 2006, archived from the original on July 14, 2010 ; Retrieved July 14, 2010 . 
5. ↑ A stirring message: "Gospel are like prayers". Medienmagazin pro , archived from the original on July 14, 2010 ; Retrieved July 14, 2010 . 
6. ↑ Gospel Award: three finalists from Berlin nominated. Archived from the original on July 14, 2010 ; Retrieved July 14, 2010 . 
7. ^ "Songs from Heaven and Earth": Competition for young Christian performers and bands. Jesus.ch, archived from the original on July 14, 2010 ; Retrieved July 14, 2010 . 
8. ↑ The Gospel Award goes into the third round. 2006, archived from the original on July 8, 2010 ; Retrieved July 8, 2010 . 
9. ↑ Communication from the German Press Council of March 14, 2008
10. ^ Announcement of the German Press Council of March 5, 2010
11. ↑ Information from the Gong editors, June 2014
12. ↑ Information from the Gong editors, June 2014