Mitteldeutsche Zeitung

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
logo
description daily newspaper
publishing company Mediengruppe Mitteldeutsche Zeitung GmbH & Co. KG
First edition April 16, 1946 (as Die Freiheit )
Frequency of publication daily except Sundays
Sold edition 147,832 copies
( IVW 2/2020, Mon-Sat)
Range 0.54 million readers
( MA 2017 II )
Editor-in-chief Hartmut Augustin
executive Director Marco Fehrecke
Web link mz-web.de
Article archive 2001 ff.
MZ press house

The Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (abbreviation MZ ) is a German regional daily newspaper for southern Saxony-Anhalt , which appears in Halle (Saale) with several local editions . The sold circulation is 147,832 copies, a decrease of 59.4 percent since 1998. It is published by the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung media group, which has been part of the Bauer Media Group since 2020 . The Mitteldeutsche Zeitung media group also includes the advertising papers Wochenspiegel and Super Sonntag, the television channel TV Halle , the postal service provider MZZ-Briefdienst and the MZ printing company.

The Mitteldeutsche Zeitung appears almost exclusively as a monopoly newspaper . In its distribution area, which is mainly concentrated in the south of the country, the MZ has no competition from other regional daily newspapers. The circulation area of Magdeburg popular vote is in accordance with the former German Democratic Republic - districts from which the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung separately. The Altmark Zeitung , founded in 1990, is only active in the north of Saxony-Anhalt and, as it does not produce its own cover section , is not even counted as a journalistic unit. At 96 percent, a large part of the total daily newspaper circulation in Saxony-Anhalt is predominantly in a monopoly position.

history

Mitteldeutsche Zeitung - forerunner

The Mitteldeutsche Zeitung appeared in Weißenfels in Saxony-Anhalt as early as the 19th century . (Weißenfelser Geschäfts-Anzeiger.) Independent organ for town and country . It was published until 1895 by the local historian and local politician Bernhard Stadié , owner of the printing and publishing company of the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. The publishing house's steam high- speed press printing plant was located at Klosterstrasse, house no. 29: “Find all kinds of printed matter ... at reasonable prices, the cleanest execution and quickest execution” (newspaper advertisement). The management of the publishing house was taken over by his widow Mathilde Stadié born 1895-97. Wahl, and then their daughters Erna and Grete Stadié, who sold the publishing house in 1904. The newspaper existed until about 1910. It is kept in Halle, University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt (there until about 1910).

freedom

On April 16, 1946 , the now existing newspaper appeared for the first time under the name Freiheit as an organ of the SED in Halle. The later organ of the SED district management of the chemical workers district achieved daily print runs of 533,000 copies.

The newspaper wrote little about the emigration flow at the beginning of the fall of the Berlin Wall . The departure was described as " fueled by the FRG " and "organized human trafficking". A first one-column note on the demonstrations in the GDR was published on October 9, 1989, but the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig had already taken place since September 4. In the message, the protesters were referred to as "youthful craziers". The first major report on the political events was published on October 23 of the same year. The editor -in- chief Hans-Dieter Krüger was dismissed by the SED on November 29, 1989 and Stefan Lehnebach took over his post. On December 28, 1989, a page appeared in the newspaper for the first time, on which parties and civil movements that were not affiliated with the SED could introduce themselves. The circulation on December 31, 1989 was 593,817 copies. On January 15, 1990, the newspaper announced on its front page that it had broken away from the SED / PDS and would now operate as an independent newspaper. The economic viability of this independence (the newspaper received substantial subsidies from VOB Zentrag ) was still unclear at the time, and the newspaper had not yet been dismissed by the SED politically either.

Two days later, the proletarian of all countries, which had always been on the title page, disappeared , unite! From January 23, 1990, the four-page supplement Reformzeitung appeared for three months , in which independent parties and alliances could introduce themselves. In January 1990 the first cooperation talks with investors from the Federal Republic took place. On February 25, 1990, a declaration of intent to collaborate with M. DuMont Schauberg was signed through private contacts . On March 1, 1990, the printing house and the Freiheit publishing house were released from the PDS / SED's assets and founded as state- owned companies . The decision to do this was officially made on June 15, 1990 and was backdated. On March 16, 1990 the paper was published for the last time under this name after 13,476 issues.

The freedom was, unlike most former SED district newspapers , from the auction by the Treuhandanstalt excluded. Süddeutsche Verlag , the Rhein Main publishing group and Axel Springer Verlag were also interested in the newspaper . They were "only succinctly told that Halle had already been awarded to Neven Du-Mont." The contract came about through an intervention by the then Federal Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher at the Treuhand-Anstalt. As records show, he had "pushed" the second largest SED district newspaper, based in his hometown Halle , to his friend and FDP sympathizer Alfred Neven DuMont . The case shows parallels to the sale of the Freie Presse through an intervention by Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl . After the irregularities became public, the Treuhandanstalt increased the purchase price from the original 15 million to 103.5 million DM.

Max Emendörfer was one of the editors of Freedom until 1969 .

Mitteldeutsche Zeitung

On March 17, 1990, the newspaper appeared for the first time as the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung with a circulation of 593,000 copies. On April 2, 1990, prices for the newspaper rose. Instead of the previous 15 pfennigs per sheet, the price was now 40 pfennigs. From April 4, 1990, the picture was regularly printed in the print shop of the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung until the contract was terminated on June 1, 1990. On April 20, the tele-prisma , a television supplement, was enclosed for the first time . Eleven days later, the two state-owned companies merged to form Mitteldeutsche Druck- und Verlagshaus GmbH, and the notarial certification took place on June 11, 1990. On May 28, the newspaper was created electronically for the first time using a Cicero typesetting system. On June 1, 1990, the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung had a circulation of 543,400 copies. From June 22nd, the Neue Presse-Express , published by ENP-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, was printed in the Mitteldeutsche Druck- und Verlagshaus.

After the monetary, economic and social union on July 1st, the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung cost 0.40  DM in individual sales. On November 5th the picture was started again to print. The Wochenspiegel appeared for the first time on December 13, 1990 , printed on the machines of the Mitteldeutsche Druck- und Verlagshaus. On December 20, 1990, the company officially went from the assets of the Treuhand to the M. DuMont Schauberg publishing group . The purchase contract was concluded retrospectively as of July 1st.

At the end of the year, the print jobs for Hallesche Tageblatt , Neues Deutschland and Junge Welt were also canceled by their clients. On December 31, the Liberty Bookbindery in Plant II was closed. On April 30, 1991, the issue and thus the printing of the Neue Presse-Express was discontinued.

The price of the MZ rose to DM 0.50 per copy on July 1st. Since the Deutsche Post had canceled the distribution of the newspaper at the end of the year, self-distribution began. On July 1st, Quedlinburg became the first test town . On July 15, 1991, construction of the new printing center began. In January 1992 the circulation was 452,348 copies. According to the publisher, this can be traced back to the “ card parts ” of the Post, which were cleared through the company's own sales. On March 1, 1992, the Magdeburg Bild edition was printed for the last time in the Mitteldeutsche Druck- und Verlagshaus, and the day after that, printing for Bild Dresden began . On April 1, 1992 the company health insurance fund was founded. On September 23, 1992, the first print product from the new printing house was published.

In January 1993 the price of the individual MZ rose to DM 0.60, the Mitteldeutsche Express followed suit and cost DM 0.60 from May 17.

January 15, 1993 was the last issue of the Halle image edition, which was produced in the Central German printing and publishing house. The printing of the other issues had already been canceled by Bild. On October 1, 1993, the MZ price rose again by DM 0.10. On November 15, 1993 an agreement was reached between management and the works council. Wages were raised to 85 percent of the existing wage level in western Germany. At the same time, working hours fell from 40 to 38 hours plus one hour of work with waived wages. On December 20, 1993, the company health insurance fund moved to the ground floor of the main building.

On January 17, 1994, the six high-pressure rotary presses from 1959 were switched off and printing was now carried out exclusively on offset systems .

From April 1, 1994, the MZ cost DM 0.80. On October 20, 1994, Stefan Lehnebach's activity as editor-in-chief of the MZ ended. His successor was Bertram von Hobe.

The Mitteldeutsche Express was discontinued on March 30, 1995 due to insufficient circulation. On May 5, 1995, the works council and management decided to reduce working hours to 35 hours. On December 30, 1995, Heinz Verfürth succeeded Bertram von Hobe as editor-in-chief. On April 1, 1996, the unit price for the MZ rose to DM 0.90. The full texts of the print editions of the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung have been freely accessible on the Internet since April 1, 1994.

The subsidiary MZZ-Briefdienst GmbH was founded in 2000. The MZZ letter service operates as a private postal service provider, as has been possible since the postal liberalization in 1998. With it, letters and postcards can be delivered via a partner network in almost all of the new federal states.

In January 2010, the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung began a cooperation with the regional online advertising portal Kalaydo .

On June 1, 2010, Hartmut Augustin, previously head of department at Berliner Zeitung , became editor-in-chief. Until 2014 he was part of a dual leadership with Hans-Jürgen Greye.

The Mitteldeutsche Zeitung obtained its national content from April 2010 onwards from the DuMont editorial community and has obtained it from the editorial network Germany since October 2018 .

On January 15, 2020, the DuMont media group announced the sale of the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung media group to the Bauer Media Group , which also owns the second major daily newspaper from Saxony-Anhalt, the Volksstimme . On February 13, 2020 the Federal Cartel Office approved the sale.

Edition

The Mitteldeutsche Zeitung is one of the German daily newspapers with the greatest loss of circulation in recent years. The circulation sold has fallen by an average of 3.8% per year over the past 10 years. Last year it decreased by 5.9%. It is currently 147,832 copies. The share of subscriptions in the circulation sold is 89.7 percent.

Development of the number of copies sold

Editors-in-chief

Editors-in-chief of Freedom (incomplete):

Period Surname
1946-1948 Peter Florin
1948-1950 Erich Behnke
1950-1955 Horst Sindermann
1955-1956 Rudolf Singer
1956-1957 Fritz Waasner
1958-1963 Rudolf Singer
1963-1967 Günther Bobach
1967-1989 Hans-Dieter Kruger
1989-1994 Stefan Lehnebach

Local editions

On-line

MZ-Web.de is the "digital offer" of the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. The website is technically responsible for the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung GmbH & Co. KG media group in Halle / Saale. The website may a. advertised on the social media platforms Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and YouTube . You can subscribe to RSS feeds and newsletters . A mobile version is available at "mobil.mz-web.de".

The MZ's online offer also includes the following portals:

  • azubis.de (since June 2011; relaunch in August 2016), a portal both for training companies to announce open training positions and for prospective trainees (who can create their own applicant profile here).
  • MZ-Jobs (since July 2013): This job portal replaces the old job market from Kalaydo (a DuMont subsidiary). In addition to job advertisements from the MZ as well as the WochenSpiegel and SuperSonntag, there are also job offers from the federal states of Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia.
  • Say goodbye (from January 2013), a mourning portal with memorial pages for the deceased. All obituaries and thanks from the MZ as well as the WochenSpiegel and SuperSonntag are published there.

literature

  • Medium Druck- und Verlags-Haus (Ed.): From “Freiheit” to Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. 1997.
  • Elizabeth Moore: Never the twain? "Ossies" and "Wessies" in a German newsroom. ( Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , a former East German newspaper now under West German ownership). In: Columbia Journalism Review , July 1, 1993
  • Walter J. Schütz: Deutsche Tagespresse 2006. In: Media Perspektiven. 11/2007, pp. 560-588.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. according to IVW ( details on ivw.eu )
  2. See Walter J. Schütz: Deutsche Tagespresse 2006. In: Media Perspektiven. 11/2007, pp. 560-588.
  3. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung Chronik 1989–1996, p. 12.
  4. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung Chronik 1989–1996, p. 239.
  5. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung Chronik 1989–1996, p. 26.
  6. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung Chronik 1989–1996, p. 28.
  7. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung Chronik 1989–1996, p. 38.
  8. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung Chronik 1989–1996, p. 244.
  9. a b c See request d. Ministers . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1991 ( online ).
  10. on March 29, 1990 there was already a test print of 30,000 copies
  11. ^ "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung" integrates online classifieds market on Kalaydo.de wuv.de, January 7, 2010
  12. ^ "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung": Augustin becomes editor-in-chief kress.de, May 12, 2010
  13. DuMont editorial group goes into operation on horizont.net, April 26, 2010
  14. Madsack Mediengruppe and DuMont found Hauptstadtredaktion haz.de, May 23, 2018
  15. Coup in the print market: What the Bauer Media Group could do with the “Mitteldeutsche Zeitung” meedia.de, January 15, 2020
  16. Kartellamt allows sale of the "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung" wuv.de, February 13, 2020
  17. according to IVW ( online )
  18. according to IVW , second quarter 2020, Mon-Sat ( details and quarterly comparison on ivw.eu )
  19. according to IVW , fourth quarter in each case ( details on ivw.eu )
  20. Imprint. In: mz-web.de. Retrieved June 19, 2020 .
  21. Azubis.de: About us.
  22. MZ-Jobs: The new job portal was launched on July 1st . mz-web.de, July 2, 2013; accessed on August 21, 2017.
  23. MZ jobs
  24. Abschied-haben.de: Commemoration and sympathy in the new mourning portal of the MZ. mz-web.de, January 6, 2013; accessed on August 21, 2017.
  25. Say goodbye