Upper Austrian publisher

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag group of companies (spelling: Oberösterreichischer LANDESVERLAG) was a media group based in Linz . It comprised 19 book and paper stores, several own printing works and book publishers as well as a participation in the radio station Life Radio . The best-known media product from the publishing house was the Oberösterreichische Rundschau . At the beginning of the 1990s, around 1000 employees worked for the group of companies. 2003 was the Upper Austria. Landesverlag is still among the 10 largest media companies in Austria. Between 1996 and 2008 the complete sale of all parts of the group took place in several stages.

History from 1615 to 1995

380 years of economic history

The state publisher traced its origins back to the first printing company in the Upper Austrian capital Linz. On February 7, 1615, Johann Planck received the approval of the provincial estates of the Archduchy of Austria ob der Enns for this printing company . His most important patron was Johannes Kepler , who had been in Linz since 1612 and had tried for a long time to persuade a master printer to move to Linz. It was important to Kepler that his ideas appear on site. Among other things, the Nova Stereometria was printed by Planck, as well as works by Hieronymus Megiser . At the same time, Planck was given the right to set up a bookshop in the Upper Austrian country house .

Its three immediate successors, Voytlender, Paltauf and Kürner, were rather moderately successful. When Kürner died in January 1641, he left practically no assets and his widow, who had to look after six children, had to start practically from scratch with the landscape printing house in Linz. In 1671 one of the family members, Maria Kürner, married the very enterprising book printer Caspar Freyschmied. From 1709 the company changed hands six times, until it was finally bought by the Catholic Press Association on January 1, 1872. The chain of succession and transfers of ownership over the course of around 350 years, from the printer Planck to the state publisher, is completely closed and documented several times.

Catholic press association and Upper Austrian state publisher

The Upper Austria. Landesverlag in Linzer Landstrasse, around 1970 (today Thalia)

With the purchase of the Huemers Witwe und Danner printing company in (today's) Rathausgasse ( Johannes Kepler's residential building ), the Catholic Press Association also took over the Linzer Volksblatt , an Upper Austrian daily newspaper that had existed since 1869 and which still appears today under the name Neues Volksblatt . At that time the company comprised 26 people and 2 high-speed presses from 1848. In 1888, the press association opened a branch in Wels , followed by branches in Ried im Innkreis (1892), Rohrbach (1893), Urfahr (1894) and Grieskirchen (1920) . Most of the branches had a bookstore in addition to the printer. In 1902 , building no. 41, located next to the Protestant church , was acquired on Linzer Landstrasse and a bookshop was set up there. In 1932 and 1933 the Innviertler Zeitung and the Mühlviertler Zeitung were taken over, increasing the number of employees to 243 workers.

On March 13, 1938, as a result of Austria's annexation to the Third Reich, the Catholic press associations were occupied by Nazi organizations and in July 1938 a forced purchase agreement was drawn up between the diocese and the Nazi company Gauverlag and Oberdonau printing company. August Eigruber was also a partner at Gauverlag . During the war , the bookshops were gradually shut down, and the properties in Linz and Wels were badly bombed in 1944 and 1945.

In May 1945, the American military authorities appointed a provisional administrator for the company; the name was agreed with Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag . The Linzer Volksblatt appeared again in October 1945 in the Landesverlag. In 1947 the diocese's press association was appointed administrator, and the state publishing house was officially returned to the association on March 29, 1950. From 1953, the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten daily newspaper was produced in the state publishing house for about a year . With effect from January 1 , 1971, the ownership, publishing and publishing rights to the Linzer Volksblatt were transferred to the Upper Austrian ÖVP.

The organizational chart of September 1, 1972 showed the following picture for the Upper Austrian Provincial Publishing House: At that time, the owner was still 100% the Catholic Press Association of the Diocese of Linz. The Landesverlag had 6 locations. In Linz one operated the branches of printing, bookstore, paper shop, book publishing, magazine publishing, Artina publishing house (picture, desk and reservation calendar). The Wels, Ried, Rohrbach, Grieskirchen and Schwanenstadt locations each had a printer, a bookstore and a paper shop.

The Oberösterreichische Rundschau consisted of four regional editions: Mühlviertler Nachrichten, Rieder Volkszeitung, Vöcklabrucker Wochenspiegel and Welser Zeitung. In 1972 the number of employees at the Landesverlag was 333 workers, 210 salaried employees and 74 apprentices, a total of 617 people.

In the course of the following decades, the state publishing house expanded with its own printing works and bookshops as well as with the Upper Austrian Rundschau . In 1982 the Veritas publishing house and bookstore in Linz were taken over. The owners of the Landesverlag Holding GmbH at that time were: Diocese of Linz 51%, Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich 38%, Katholischer Pressverein 8% and Neues Volksblatt 3%.

The bookstore, which has been operating in Linzer Landstrasse since 1902, was rebuilt in 1991 and reopened as the Amadeus media company. With more than 4000 m² of sales area on five floors, the Landesverlag created one of the largest bookshops in Austria. In 1991 the Diocese of Linz sold its share in the group to the owner company of Passauer Neue Presse (Dr. Hans Kapfinger GmbH). The shares of the minority shareholders initially remained unchanged.

The state publisher in the Austrian media landscape

In the Linzer Wirtschaftschronik of 1990, the Landesverlag corporate group published the following economic data:

  • 19 book and paper shops, including 18 Landesverlag bookstores and one Veritas bookstore
  • 7 printing companies (including in Linz, Wels, Ried im Innkreis, Rohrbach and Schwanenstadt )
  • 4 book publishers (Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag, Veritas-Verlag, Salzburger Jugend-Verlag, Ehrenwirt)
  • Subsidiary company of value for office supplies, promotional gifts and logistics
  • Subsidiary Com Shop & System for computer literature, accessories and training
  • The Upper Austrian Rundschau with then 7 weekly regional editions, the Mühlviertler , Linzer , Rieder , Braunauer , Vöcklabrucker , Welser and Kremstaler Rundschau with more than 600,000 readers. The Steyrer Zeitung and the Salzkammergut Zeitung were still cooperation partners at that time, the legal takeover and incorporation into the Rundschau took place in 1991 and 2000 respectively.
  • Around 1,000 employees
  • More than a billion schillings in sales (around 72.7 million euros).

In the 1990s, the Landesverlag was the second largest bookseller in all of Austria.

In the following years, other previously independent regional newspapers were bought up, increasing the number of regional editions of the Upper Austrian Rundschau from 7 to 11. For the financial year 1994, therefore, a significantly higher group turnover of 2.02 billion schillings (approx. 145.4 million euros) was reported.

The subsidiary Veritas Verlag was the second largest school book publisher in Austria at the time . The Veritas bookstore focused on theology and education . The Landesverlag Buchverlag mainly produced leisure guides , illustrated books and non-fiction books .

Book, newspaper and magazine publisher

A cookbook from the 1990s. The yellow “V” in “Landesverlag” was a distinctive sign of the company

The book publisher in the Upper Austrian Landesverlag brought about 10 to 15 titles to the Austrian book market every year. The focus was on Upper Austrian topics. Multi-volume book series have also been produced on some topics, such as the Radio Oberösterreich - Cookbooks in cooperation with ORF . Authors who publish in the Landesverlag were a .: Hanna Maria Drack , Max Kislinger , Herbert Lange , Franz C. Lipp , Helmut Obermayr , Franz Pfeffer , Anneliese Ratzenböck , Harry Slapnicka , Rudolf Weilhartner , Kurt Wimmer and Julius Zerzer . Some of the writers supervised by the Landesverlag have been awarded the Upper Austrian Culture Prize.

As a newspaper and magazine publisher, the Landesverlag produced the following media:

The state publishing house was broken up in 1996

Starting in 1996, Landesverlag Holding gradually sold its subsidiaries:

Veritas Buchhandlung and Veritas Verlag were bought by Cornelsen Verlag , Ehrenwirt Verlag went to Bastei Lübbe , the 18 branches of the book and paper chain Amadeus were initially taken over by Libro and from 2002 by Thalia . The former Landesverlag headquarters on Linzer Landstrasse , in the immediate vicinity of the Martin Luther Church, became Thalia's Austrian headquarters. In 1999 the Lower Austrian Press House integrated the Landesverlag Buchverlag including the author's rights into its NP Buchverlag . Of the original seven printing houses, only the Wels site now bears the name Landesverlag and has been part of the Moser Holding since 2008 .

For the 2003 financial year, sales of 60.7 million euros were reported, so the Landesverlag was still among the top 10 Austrian media houses, despite the partial sales that had already taken place. The flagship was still the Oberösterreichische Rundschau. For 2006 the Landesverlag has given a circulation of 278,000 copies (Thursday edition) or more than 500,000 copies (Sunday edition).

In 2006, Tiroler Moser Holding took a 25% stake in Rundschau and took over it completely in 2008, which also ended the existence of the Landesverlag. The new owner also took over the blocking minority of the state publisher on the Upper Austrian private radio station Life Radio .

Many of the Landesverlag's books are still available in antiquarian versions, and the German National Library also has more than 200 books from various decades in its inventory using the search term Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag .

literature

  • Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag (Ed.): Tradition as an obligation: 350 years of printing history from Johann Planck to the Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag . 1st edition. Landesverlag, Linz 1972.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Verlag GFW Society for Economic Documentation (ed.): Linzer Wirtschaftschronik. 1st edition. GFW Verlag, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-90108002-3 , pp. 284-287.
  2. ↑ Only Life Radio and Welle 1 will broadcast from April. ( Memento from March 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: Wirtschaftsblatt. accessed on September 21, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b Austria's largest media company. In: The Standard. accessed on September 21, 2014.
  4. ↑ The country Publisher: A leading company was destroyed. In: Upper Austrian news. accessed on September 21, 2014.
  5. ↑ Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag (Hrsg.): Tradition as an obligation. 350 years of printing history from Johann Planck to the Upper Austrian state publisher. 1st edition. Landesverlag, Linz 1972, pp. 41–51.
  6. ↑ Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag (Hrsg.): Tradition as an obligation. 350 years of printing history from Johann Planck to the Upper Austrian state publisher. 1st edition. Landesverlag, Linz 1972, p. 55.
  7. ↑ Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag (Hrsg.): Tradition as an obligation. 350 years of printing history from Johann Planck to the Upper Austrian state publisher. 1st edition. Landesverlag, Linz 1972, pp. 64–75.
  8. ↑ Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag (Hrsg.): Tradition as an obligation. 350 years of printing history from Johann Planck to the Upper Austrian state publisher. 1st edition. Landesverlag, Linz 1972, pp. 76-80.
  9. ↑ Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag (Hrsg.): Tradition as an obligation. 350 years of printing history from Johann Planck to the Upper Austrian state publisher. 1st edition. Landesverlag, Linz 1972, pp. 81–88.
  10. ↑ Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag (Hrsg.): Tradition as an obligation. 350 years of printing history from Johann Planck to the Upper Austrian state publisher. 1st edition. Landesverlag, Linz 1972, pp. 134-135.
  11. ^ Veritas Verlag, history homepage of Veritas Verlagsgesellschaft, accessed on September 21, 2014.
  12. ↑ a b c Veritas Buch- und Kunsthandlung, History Homepage of the Veritas Buchhandlung, accessed on September 21, 2014.
  13. ^ Claudia Wild: Book market in Austria: The framework for the Austrian publishing industry. Working group of Austrian private publishers, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-901-08300-6 , p. 106
  14. ↑ Book trade penetrates the multimedia market. ( Memento from March 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: Wirtschaftsblatt. accessed on September 21, 2014.
  15. ↑ Landesverlag Holding Gesellschaft mbH In: Richard Bamberger , Maria Bamberger, Ernst Bruckmüller (ed.): Austria Lexicon in two volumes . Volume I. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-9500438-0-2 , p. 674.
  16. ↑ Landesverlag Holding in the AEIOU Österreich Lexikon Homepage of the Österreich Lexikon, accessed on September 22, 2014.
  17. ↑ Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag in the AEIUO Österreich Lexikon Homepage of the Österreich Lexikon, accessed on September 22, 2014.
  18. ↑ Veritas. In: Richard Bamberger, Maria Bamberger, Ernst Bruckmüller (Hrsg.): Austria Lexicon in two volumes . Volume II. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-9500438-0-2 , p. 546.
  19. ↑ Helmut Obermayr (Ed.): Delicacies from the vegetable garden. Radio Upper Austria Cookbook Volume 3. Landesverlag, Linz 1996, ISBN 3-852-14609-7 , pp. 158-160.
  20. ↑ Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag (Hrsg.): Tradition as an obligation. 350 years of printing history from Johann Planck to the Upper Austrian state publisher. 1st edition. Landesverlag, Linz 1972, pp. 119–122.
  21. ↑ Anton Durstmüller, Norbert Frank. 500 years of printing in Austria: The Austrian graphic trades between 1918 and 1982. Main Association of Austrian graphic trades, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-85104501-7 , p. 381.
  22. ↑ Judge zu Rettberg: "Explain that to me!" Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, accessed on September 21, 2014
  23. ↑ The bookstore chain Amadeus goes to the German Thalia group Die Presse, accessed on September 21, 2014
  24. ^ Norbert Bachleitner, Franz Eybl, Ernst Fischer: History of the book trade in Austria. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-447-04129-3 , p. 353
  25. ^ Main Association of the Austrian Book Trade (ed.): Anzeiger: The specialist journal of the Austrian book trade. Volume 137, Vienna 2002, p. 35.
  26. ^ Residenz Verlag: sold to Lower Austria Pressehaus Die Presse, accessed on September 21, 2014
  27. ^ Moser-Holding buys printing company in Wels Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, accessed on September 21, 2014
  28. ^ Peter Filzmaier, Peter Plaikner, Karl Duffek (eds.): Mediendemokratie in Österreich. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77598-0 , pp. 194–198.
  29. ↑ OÖ Landesverlag gets new managing director Der Standard, accessed on 23 September 2014
  30. ↑ Oberösterreichische Rundschau with a new design, Der Standard, accessed on September 23, 2014
  31. ↑ Moser heirs completely take over the holding again Der Standard, accessed on September 23, 2014
  32. ↑ Life-Radio shares freshly distributed Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, accessed on September 25, 2014