Munster newspaper

Munster newspaper
description	German daily newspaper
publishing company	Aschendorff publishing house
First edition	1897
Frequency of publication	Monday to Saturday
Sold edition	114,042 copies
(IVW 02/2016)
Editor-in-chief	Norbert Tiemann
Web link	www.muensterschezeitung.de

Münstersche Zeitung , MZ for short , is the title of a regional daily newspaper with a publishing house in Münster . It appears in Münster, Greven and Steinfurt . The Münstersche Zeitung belongs to the Aschendorff publishing house .

history

In 1871 the bookseller Carl Josef Fahle founded the newspaper publisher in Münster to publish the Münsterschen Tageblatt , which was renamed the Münstersche Zeitung in 1897 . It was discontinued in 1944 under pressure from the National Socialists and was only allowed to appear again in 1949.

In 1986 CJ Fahle GmbH was taken over by the Dortmund publishing house Lensing . In 1989 the Emsdettener Volkszeitung was added, which Heinrich Lechte had founded in Münster in 1897. He too was an uncomfortable publisher for the National Socialists: They expropriated him for “insulting the Führer ”. Heinrich Lechte was given back the newspaper publishing rights in 1949. Since 2001 the Münstersche Zeitung has also published issues for Neuenkirchen and Wettringen. These - like the Rheine edition - were discontinued on December 31, 2012.

The former publisher and long-time editor-in-chief of the Münsterschen Zeitung , Claus-Jürgen Spitzer, died in early May 2007. Stefan Bergmann was his successor until the newspaper was taken over by the Westfälische Nachrichten in 2014.

restructuring

In January 2007, the Münstersche Zeitung hit the headlines as part of a restructuring. The publisher Lambert Lensing-Wolff withdrew the production order from the previous local editorial team in Münster and laid off their employees. At the same time, a new editorial team took over local reporting. While the old team was still working according to the classic department principle, the new editorial team has been producing from a so-called news desk since January 21, 2007 .

The incident was sharply criticized by those affected and by the journalists' unions. The lobbyists spoke of “ Manchester capitalism ” and inconsiderate treatment of the employees, some of whom have been long-term employees. Every social conscience has been thrown overboard in the interests of profit. The former editors would now be on the street overnight. The publisher acted purely for economic reasons. With significantly lower salaries and temporary contracts, the new employees are in a much worse position in terms of labor law than the old editorial team, whose employment contracts mostly date from the time when MZ was still subject to collective bargaining agreements.

The publishers justified their approach with the years of strong loss of circulation of the MZ in the core market of Münster. While the surrounding expenditure would hold up well in the market, the Münster edition is going downhill. Internal attempts to make the change had no effect, so they now want to try a new team and a new concept that are also backed up by market studies. At the same time, the shareholders of MZ pointed out that they had created more than 100 new jobs in other publishing areas in Münster in the past year. In the kressreport of February 8, 2007, publisher Lambert Lensing-Wolff said that the quality level of the old editorial team was "so underground" that he would have had to close the newspaper in three to five years without the restructuring.

According to the publisher, solutions have now been found for the 19 affected employees. A smaller number found new jobs in other companies in the media house. For the greater part, an employment and qualification company limited to one year was set up and severance payments in the five to six-digit range were paid. According to the publisher, the separation services totaled a good two million euros.

Numerous subscriptions were canceled in protest against the publisher's measures.

In the second half of 2012, the media company Lensing continued a course described by industry experts with "area consolidation". The competitors Medienhaus Lensing and WAZ-Mediengruppe , together with the Recklinghäuser Zeitung, ceased operations of several editorial offices and offices in the Ruhr area in 2006 and 2007 . As a result, the respective competitor has since had a monopoly in cities such as Gelsenkirchen , Gladbeck , Bottrop or Haltern am See .

Takeover by the Aschendorff group of companies

After the restructuring in 2007, the circulation of the MZ continued to decline, and income from the advertising business also fell. This meant that the smaller MZ could no longer hold its own against the higher- circulation Westfälische Nachrichten (WN). On August 1st, 2014 the MZ-Verlag Lensing and the WN-Verlag Aschendorff announced that the Münstersche Zeitung would be taken over by the Aschendorff-Verlag. The local radio station Antenne Münster , 75 percent of which is owned by the two newspapers, is also affected by the takeover . The Federal Cartel Office approved the takeover. Since November 18, 2014, the local section of the MZ has been supplied by the editorial staff of the Münster newspaper group, which also includes the Westfälische Nachrichten.

Side dishes

Once a month, the newspaper comes with the Moritz supplement  - a magazine for families.

Web links

• Munster newspaper
• Tagesspiegel: Agreement at the MZ , March 30, 2007

Individual evidence

1. ↑ WN / MZ main edition 100 incl. Emsdettener Volkszeitung.
2. ↑ Friederieke Freiburg: " Münstersche Zeitung - publisher puts the whole editorial office cold" , Spiegel Online from January 24, 2007
3. ↑ Press release of the journalists' union of January 25, 2007 ( Memento of the original of January 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ Report on the exchange between the local editorial team on Spiegel Online from January 25, 2007
5. ↑ A city is fighting for its newspaper on Spiegel Online from January 30, 2007
6. ↑ Westfälische Nachrichten wants to take over MZ
7. ↑ spiegel.de: daily newspapers in Münster: Cartel Office allows monopoly - for once