Bremen daily newspapers

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Weser-Kurier media group
Bremer Tageszeitungen AG

description Newspapers
publishing company Bremer Tageszeitungen AG ( Germany )
Headquarters Bremen
First edition January 14, 1743 (Bremer Nachrichten)
September 19, 1945 (Weser-Kurier)
Frequency of publication Every day
Sold edition 124,093 copies
( IVW 2/2020, Mon-Sat)
Range 0.391 million readers
( MA 2019 II )
Editor-in-chief Silke Hellwig
executive Director David Koopmann
Web link weser-kurier.de
Article archive 1945 ff.
The press house on Martinistraße in Bremen.

The Bremer Tageszeitungen AG (BTAG) is a publisher that publishes various regional newspapers in the city of Bremen and in the area around Lower Saxony . These include above all the daily newspaper Weser-Kurier with the head editions of Bremer Nachrichten and Verdener Nachrichten, as well as the Sunday newspaper Kurier am Sonntag, which appear in Bremen and the surrounding area of ​​Lower Saxony. There are also some regional and local supplements. The sold circulation is 124,093 copies, a decrease of 38.5 percent since 1998.

The publishing house is based in Bremen and has its own printing house in the Woltmershausen district . The publisher, which was founded in 1945 and operates under commercial law as a stock corporation , is owned equally by the Hackmack family and Christian Güssow, grandson of Hermann Rudolf Meyer .

history

Bremen News (BN)

Logo of the Bremer Nachrichten
The first edition of the Bremer Nachrichten from January 7, 1743

The Bremer Nachrichten is the fourth oldest daily newspaper in Germany that is still published. Due to the merger of the publishers F. Pörtner (Die Norddeutsche) from Bremen-Nord and C. Schünemann (Bremer Nachrichten) in October 1971, which then jointly published both daily newspapers, the economic situation could not stabilize. On September 6, 1974, both titles were taken over by the Weser-Kurier. From March 31, 1979, Norddeutsche became the regional edition of Weser-Kurier and Bremer Nachrichten. Since the 1980s, the Bremer Nachrichten has gradually lost its independence as a daily newspaper in Bremen. The joint advertising section under the title “Bremer Werbung block” for the Weser-Kurier and the Bremer Nachrichten already existed at the time when the Bremer Nachrichten was still being published by Schünemann-Verlag. Its own local editorial office was retained until the end of the 1980s. Today both newspapers are completely identical in terms of content - they only differ in name.

Weser Courier (WK)

The logo of the Weser-Kurier
Brand logo of the Weser-Kurier
Bremen city seal - The seal shows the emperor Karl sitting on a bench on the left with scepter and orb and on the right Saint Peter with sword and key. The seal was used from 1366 to 1834 and has been in the head of the Weser-Kurier's title page since September 19, 1945 (first edition of the Weser-Kurier)

In 1945, Hans Hackmack received a license from the military government of the American occupation zone to publish a newspaper that was named Weser-Kurier . It was one of the first licensed newspapers in occupied Germany after the Second World War and appeared on four pages for the first time on September 19, 1945. It cost 20 pfennigs and had a circulation of 150,000 copies on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Bremer Nachrichten was only allowed to appear in 1949; They could not make up for the lead of the WK. The editorial content was controlled by the US military government in 1945/46, but the editorial staff soon became independent. Weser-Kurier GmbH was founded in 1946 . The Weser-Kurier appeared as a non-partisan newspaper, initially with a socially liberal character.

In 1947, the communist and businessman Eberhard Peters (who left in 1948) and Felix von Eckardt , who was not affiliated with the CDU , were added as license holders and publisher of the newspaper . Hackmack, however, remained the driving force behind the publishing house. The writer Manfred Hausmann was the feature editor of the Weser-Kurier from 1945 to 1952 . In mid-1947 the WK was able to appear three times a week thanks to a better paper supply. In 1949 the newspaper was printed by the Schünemann-Verlag under contract printing. From September 1949 the newspaper appeared on working days. Eckardt was also editor-in-chief at Weser-Kurier until February 1952, until 1952 when he took over the management of the Federal Government's Press and Information Office in Bonn .

In 1952, the businessman Hermann Rudolf Meyer , who was already working for Weser-Kurier GmbH , became a co-partner and in 1956 acquired further shares from Hans Hackmack, so that both owned the publisher equally. Meyer's influence expanded significantly thereafter. After becoming increasingly hard of hearing, Hackmack left the management team in 1960.

In 1956 the new publishing and press building was built and in 1957 the company moved into. The WK was printed for the first time on its own letterpress machine. The printing house in Woltmershausen was established in 1970. Additional Lower Saxony regional editions were published.

The publishing house Weser-Kurier GmbH took over the Bremer Nachrichten in September 1974, which kept its own editorial team. The newspaper Die Norddeutsche from Verlag Schünemann & Pörtner was merged with Nord-Kurier from Weser-Kurier. The Wümme newspaper was merged with the Lilienthaler Kurier .

In 1981 the Bremer Tageszeitungen AG was founded; the Weser-Kurier GmbH was the main shareholder. In 1982 the conversion to a computerized text system (RTS) began. In 1983, the Kurier am Sonntag appeared for the first time and the metal typesetting process was abolished. As technology advances, editors have been given access to electronic word processing and the number of typesetters has decreased. As a result of further rationalization, the number of jobs in the technical area (typesetters, printers, etc.) decreased from 254 to around 70 by 2008.

History of regional editions

At the beginning of the 1970s, the Weser-Kurier increased the coverage of the Bremen area. Readers received information from their home region through special pages and inserts in the Weser-Kurier. It first began with the regional edition of the Weser-Kurier daily newspaper for Bremen-Nord . In the local area, this newspaper had a focus on the northern districts of Bremen - Burglesum, Vegesack and Blumenthal. Extensions into the Bremen area followed. Furthermore, the Südkreis-Kurier and the Delmenhorster Kurier were published as enclosed regional editions.

The Nord-Kurier appeared under this name from 1971 to 1979. From 1979 the Nord-Kurier was discontinued and the Norddeutsche the regional edition of the Weser-Kurier.

As a regional edition, the Südkreis-Kurier covered the reporting for the south and south-west areas around Bremen.

From publisher to media company

In the 1980s, the medium of screen text was used for the advertising business, but discontinued after a few years due to lack of demand.

In 1997 the Weser-Kurier set up a homepage on the Internet . BTAG and Nordwest-Zeitung from Oldenburg became equal partners in the regional internet portal NORDWEST.NET. From the NORDWEST.NET developed eMedienservice Nord GmbH . The company works with around 30 employees as an editorially independent and non-partisan news agency for Northwest Germany. In addition to current reporting in words and images, emsn creates complete pages or entire journals for both print and online use.

In 2000 the Bremer Tageszeitungen AG and the Oldenburger Nordwest-Zeitung founded MSP Medien Systempartner GmbH & Co from the respective IT departments . KG. With over 50 employees, it offers IT services for the media sector at its Bremen and Oldenburg locations.

In 2001 a new customer center was opened in the press house and the weekly youth website zoom was introduced.

In April 2013 it was announced that a third of the workforce (110 employees) were to lose their jobs. In addition to customer service and prepress, 20 editors should also be affected. In addition, the reporting of the regional editions Achimer Kurier and Verdener Nachrichten should be assigned to the service provider Pressedienst Nord GmbH (PDN) by April 30, 2013 .

In 2015, Bremer Tageszeitungen AG had 511 employees, including 145 editors, 274 publishing employees and 92 employees in the printing house. 2073 delivery staff were also on duty.

The Weser-Kurier obtained its national content from June 2015 from the DuMont main city editorial office and has obtained it from the German editorial network since October 2018 . In 2019 the company separated from RND and obtained its national content from Tagesspiegel.

expenditure

As of 2017, the publisher has three main editions (WESER-KURIER, Bremer Nachrichten and Verdener Nachrichten), a Sunday newspaper (KURIER am SONNTAG), seven regional editions, five district editions (district courier), a free cover sheet (KURIER der WOCHE), seven my- Association issues (free sheets) and the news portals weser-kurier.de , nordbuzz.de , Sportbuzzer and the smartphone app MEIN WERDER . The publisher reaches 416,000 readers.

In addition, 3.48 million web pages can be reached in the archive for customers.

Major expenses

  • The Weser-Kurier is the publisher's newspaper with the highest circulation.
  • The only difference between the Bremer Nachrichten and its sister newspaper Weser-Kurier, which is identical in content, is the name on the front page.
  • The Verdener Nachrichten in Verden (Aller) appear as a head edition with its own title and not as a supplement, but contain the same cover section .

In addition to this:

  • The Kurier am Sonntag has been published since 1983 as a joint edition of the main editions. With a circulation of 172,604 copies, the Kurier am Sonntag is the sixth largest German Sunday newspaper.
  • The five district couriers every Monday and Thursday as a district-specific supplement: There is space for topics for the individual district. In addition, the local city editions should represent an editorial advertising environment for trade and commerce that are only bound by the city district.

Regional editions

The following seven regional and local editions appear as part of the main editions on weekdays, including Saturdays:

Weser-Kurier Plus

Since August 1, 2011, Bremer Tageszeitungen AG has grouped its digital products under Weser-Kurier Plus . This includes ePaper , apps for various end devices, m.weser-kurier.de and the digital newspaper archive (all issues from 1945). For this purpose, a new price model was developed that also allows a purely digital subscription, whereas previously this was only possible in connection with the paper edition.

Delmenhorster Kreisblatt

As early as 2005, the Delmenhorster Kreisblatt became part of the Bremen advertising unit . The collaboration also extends to the editorial area, with the Bremen daily newspapers supplying the cover section for the Kreisblatt. Since July 2011, the editorial staff of the Delmenhorster Kreisblatt has been producing the coat itself again, and the cooperation with the Weser-Kurier has been discontinued. This is how the newspapers in Delmenhorst differ again; the Weser-Kurier as an author's newspaper and the Kreisblatt as an agency newspaper with a focus on home.

Delmenhorst is also considered to be the Bremen publishing house's “test laboratory” in another area. The local editorial office of the regional edition Delmenhorster Kurier was dissolved in 2006. Instead, editors from an external company were used in the context of temporary employment. From the trade union side, this construction was viewed as an escape from collective bargaining agreements. The publisher had also outsourced other editorial services. There were no redundancies of editors due to the restructuring. The local editors affected were deployed in other departments of the house.

Circulation and range

Edition

The sold circulation of the two jointly reported daily newspapers Weser-Kurier and Bremer Nachrichten is 124,093 copies. In recent years, the two sheets have lost a lot of their circulation. The number of copies sold has fallen by an average of 2.5% per year over the past 10 years. Last year it decreased by 4.9%. The share of subscriptions in the circulation sold is 88.5 percent.

Advertisement for the Weser courier

Development of the number of copies sold

Since 2006 the publisher has been trying to compensate for losses in the daily newspaper business through other sources of income, for example by issuing a “AboCard”. Stronger marketing should attract more readers. The publisher wants to keep its newspapers attractive to the advertising industry by cooperating with Umland-Blätter. Since January 1, 2007 , the Rotenburger Kreiszeitung, which belongs to the Ippen Group via the Syke district newspaper, has been part of the “Bremen advertising block”. This ad combination now has a sold circulation of 131,617 copies. In retail , the publisher is making since mid-2007 reinforced advertising and sales efforts by z. B. Newspaper sales outlets are provided with outdoor advertising by the Weser-Kurier.

Range

According to the media analysis MA Pressemedien II 2009 by the media analysis working group , Weser-Kurier and Bremer Nachrichten have a reach of 63.1% in Bremen . This means that 263,000 people from Bremen read Weser-Kurier and Bremer Nachrichten every day. This is by far the top position among the major German city newspapers ( Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung / Neue Presse in Hanover: 56%, WAZ in Essen: 53.2%, Stuttgarter Nachrichten / Stuttgarter Zeitung in Stuttgart: 51.8%, Rheinische Post in Düsseldorf : 40.3%, Hamburger Abendblatt in Hamburg: 31.8%, Frankfurter Neue Presse / FAZ in Frankfurt: 22.3%, Berliner Zeitung / Berliner Morgenpost / Der Tagesspiegel together in Berlin: 35.3%). According to MA Pressemedien II 2009, the Bremen ad unit had a total of 510,000 readers and thus a reach of 54.9% in the distribution area. In comparison, the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung reached 442,000 readers in 2008 (MA 2008).

Publishing management and editors-in-chief

Publishing management and supervisory board

The Bremer Tageszeitungen AG publishing house is run by a one-man board (David Koopmann). The board member Florian Kranefuß had to give up his position on the board in December 2009 after two years of service. The chairman of the board, Dr. Ulrich Hackmack from one of the two owner families (Hackmack and Meyer) was dismissed by the Supervisory Board on April 25, 2013 after around 14 years. The company was thus ahead of a court ruling that ruled on April 26, 2013 that Dr. Hackmack was wrongly in office. The Meyer family had complained about this in various courts for four years. In October 2018 it was announced that Executive Board members Eric Dauphin and Jan Leßmann will be leaving the publishing house on December 31, 2018. Moritz Döbler and David Koopmann were equal members of the board of the Bremer Tageszeitungen AG on January 1, 2019. On August 26, 2019, it was announced that Moritz Döbler will move to the Rheinische Post as editor-in-chief on January 1, 2020. David Koopmann has been the sole director of Bremer Tageszeitungen AG since September 1, 2019

The chairman of the supervisory board was the lawyer Uwe Woywod until December 2009. With him, two other members of the supervisory board, including ex-Sparkasse boss Jürgen Oltmann, resigned in December 2009 because of considerable tension. Since June 28, 2019, Jochen Becker, Bernhard Gätjen, Christian Güssow, Rolf Nimz, Markus Ruppe and Dr. Ulrich Hackmack to the supervisory board. The Bremen lawyer and notary Bernhard Gätjen is the chairman of the supervisory board.

Editors-in-chief

Until 2008 there were independent editors-in-chief or an editorial board for the Weser-Kurier and the Bremer Nachrichten . Since March 2008, the editorial offices of Weser-Kurier, Bremer Nachrichten and Verdener Nachrichten have been headed by a single editor-in-chief - since January 2014 by a double head: The editor-in-chief Silke Hellwig, who was controversial because of her leadership style, was, according to the magazine "journalist", " largely disempowered ”. The BTAG board has placed a second, provisional boss at her side in Peter Bauer. He took on responsibility under press law and oversaw day-to-day business. According to the BTAG, Hellwig should “primarily devote himself to journalistic tasks”. On January 15, 2015, Peter Bauer was replaced by Moritz Döbler, who had been managing editor at the Berlin “Tagesspiegel” until then. Silke Hellwig has been the sole editor-in-chief since September 1, 2019.

Editor-in-chief of Bremer Nachrichten (1838–2008)

  • Abraham Schlichte, from January 1, 1838
  • Justus Finger, from July 1, 1874
  • Georg Kunoth , from May 20, 1899 to April 4, 1927
  • Fritz Reineck, from April 1, 1927 to May 31, 1937
  • Erich Beck, from June 1, 1937
  • Walter Gong, from September 20, 1949 to October 28, 1951
  • Adolf Wolfard , from October 29, 1951 to November 30, 1951 (until his murder)
  • Fritz Reineck, from December 7, 1951 to February 3, 1954
  • Hans-Joachim Kausch, from February 4, 1954 to December 31, 1956
  • Wilhelm Schmalfeldt, from January 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958
  • Heinz Winkler, from January 1, 1959 to December 31, 1963
  • Walter Steinhage, from January 1, 1964 to March 31, 1971
  • Hans Wolfgang Engelmann, from April 1, 1971 to July 16, 1976
  • Hans Joachim Groß, from March 1, 1975 to March 2, 1977
  • Hilmar Börsing, from March 2, 1977 to December 31, 1978
  • Jürgen Fränzel, from January 1, 1979 to February 1, 1981
  • Helge Ehler, from April 3, 1979 to October 5, 1982
  • Volker Weise , from October 6, 1982 to October 31, 1987 and from March 1, 2008 to January 31, 2009
  • Dietrich Ide, from October 6, 1982 to February 28, 2008 (as the last independent editor-in-chief of Bremer Nachrichten)

Editor-in-chief of the Weser-Kurier (1945–2008)

  • Hans Hackmack , from September 19, 1945 to May 31, 1955
  • Felix von Eckardt , from September 19, 1945 to February 1, 1952
  • Otto Bothe, from February 1, 1952 to November 25, 1963
  • Karl Bachler , from November 26, 1963 to December 31, 1970
  • Wolfgang Heyen, from January 1, 1971 to January 31, 1972
  • Unoccupied from February 1, 1972 to August 2, 1973

Editorial Board

  • Wolfgang Oelrich, from August 3, 1973 to April 1, 1974
  • Walter Tempelmann, from August 3, 1973 to March 15, 1978
  • Hilmar Börsing, from February 27, 1975 to February 28, 1977
  • Werner Schmidt, from June 16, 1976 to March 15, 1978
  • Jürgen Bettmann, from June 16, 1976 to March 15, 1978

Editorial Director:

  • Hans-Joachim Groß, from March 16, 1978 to November 6, 1979

Editor-in-chief:

  • Walter Tempelmann, from November 7, 1979 to December 31, 1979
  • Heinz Nolte, from August 15, 1979 to August 18, 1985
  • Gebhard Hillmer, from January 2, 1980 to February 3, 1983
  • Werner Schmidt, from November 7, 1979 to March 31, 1990
  • Jürgen Bettmann, from November 7, 1979 to December 31, 1997
  • Volker Weise, from November 4, 1987 to December 31, 1997

Editors-in-chief

  • Volker Weise, from January 2, 1998 to January 31, 2009 (from March 1, 2008 also for the Bremer Nachrichten and Verdener Nachrichten)

Editor-in-chief of Weser-Kurier, Bremer Nachrichten and Verdener Nachrichten (from 2008)

  • Volker Weise , from March 1, 2008 to January 31, 2009
  • Lars Haider , from February 1, 2009 to June 30, 2011
  • Helge Matthiesen , from July 1, 2011 to September 14, 2011; provisional
  • Silke Hellwig , from September 15, 2011
  • Peter Bauer, from January 1, 2014 to January 14, 2015; provisional
  • Moritz Döbler , from January 15, 2015 to August 31, 2019

Awards

Veltins Local Sports Award

    • 2010 for Ruth Gerbracht, Weser-Kurier
  • European Newspaper Award
    • 2010 for Christina Kuhaupt
    • 2010 for Stefan Dammann
  • German Paralympic Media Award 2010 for Arno Schupp
  • Reportage award of the Network Young Journalists 2010 for Miriam Keilbach
  • Journalist Prize of the Bremerhaven-Unterweser Press Club 2010 for Maren Beneke
  • Mittelstand Media Prize - Print Regional 2012 for Krischan Förster

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. according to IVW ( details on ivw.eu )
  2. a b Eckhard Stengel: Creeping Death ( Memento from January 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: fr-online.de, August 22, 2010 - Explanation of the reasons for continuing to produce the newspaper under both names.
  3. Sparhammer at the Weser Kurier. In: meedia.de, April 24, 2013, accessed on November 12, 2019.
  4. a b Weser-Kurier of September 18, 2015, p. W 53.
  5. Weser Kurier will in future get capital city content from DuMont meedia.de, May 22, 2015
  6. Weser-Kurier-Verleger agree on a new board: the Christmas miracle from Bremen meedia.de, December 19, 2018
  7. WESER-KURIER - news from Bremen and Lower Saxony. Retrieved January 7, 2018 .
  8. Events, News & Lifestyle from the Bremen / Oldenburg region - nordbuzz. Retrieved January 7, 2018 .
  9. MeinWerder - The app for fans! Everything about Werder Bremen, all in one app! (No longer available online.) In: meinwerder.de. Archived from the original on January 8, 2018 ; accessed on January 7, 2018 .
  10. Henning Bleyl: Small sheet very big. In: taz, December 10, 2010, accessed on November 12, 2019.
  11. B. Hellmers, J.-P. Hein: Publisher in Bremen. Hooray, we sold the editorial team. In: taz . November 15, 2007, accessed February 1, 2009.
  12. according to IVW , second quarter 2020, Mon-Sat ( details and quarterly comparison on ivw.eu )
  13. according to IVW ( online )
  14. according to IVW , fourth quarter in each case ( details on ivw.eu )
  15. according to IVW , second quarter 2020, Mon-Sat ( details and quarterly comparison on ivw.eu )
  16. Court forces Weser Kurier boss to withdraw. Weser Kurier boss Hackmack has to resign ( memento from April 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: meedia.de, April 26, 2013.
  17. Meedia - Weser-Kurier threatens leadership vacuum. Retrieved November 26, 2018 .
  18. Weser Report. December 13, 2009, p. 1.
  19. Eckhard Stengel: BTAG. Take a deep breath in Bremen ( memento from March 5, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ). In: journalist.de, February 28, 2014, accessed on July 23, 2015.
  20. What happened? In: Der Spiegel . No. 49 , 1951, pp. 5 ( online report about fatal attack on Wolfard).