Wetzlar New Newspaper

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Wetzlar New Newspaper

description German daily newspaper
publishing company Wetzlardruck GmbH
First edition January 1, 1946
Frequency of publication Monday to Saturday
Sold edition 19,424 copies
( IVW 2/2020, Mon-Sat)
Editor-in-chief Uwe Röndigs
editor Johann Eifinger †
Web link www.mittelhessen.de

The Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung (WNZ) is the main edition of the Lahn-Dill newspaper group . The sold circulation of the main edition is 19,424 copies, a decrease of 39.1 percent since 1998. With the four other editions of the newspaper group, a total circulation of 50,196 copies is achieved. The central editorial office in Wetzlar also supplies the Dill newspaper with their coat. It is the most important local press organ with a quasi-monopoly position in the Lahn-Dill district and beyond.

The Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung and its local editions also supply the news portal www.mittelhessen.de, which has over 500,000 page visits per month and is therefore one of the most successful Hessian news sites.

history

The Wetzlar newspaper tradition can be traced back to 1872, when Ferdinand Schnitzler published the Wetzlarer Kreisblatt . This newspaper was renamed the Wetzlarer Kreis- und Werbungblatt in 1873 and later the Wetzlarer Anzeiger . The newspaper appeared until the end of the Second World War under the editor Carl Theodor Ferdinand Schnitzler, the son of the founder.

As early as 1945, Johann Eifinger, as a politically unencumbered editor, together with Josef Hüsch, managed to obtain a license from the American occupation forces to publish the Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung . On January 1, 1946 , the first WNZ appeared under license no. 38 W of the military government's intelligence control . The newspaper appeared three times a week in rotary printing with a circulation of 20,000 copies, and it was printed in Wetzlarer Weißadlergasse. Due to the shortage of paper, newspapers were also in short supply at that time, the volume was adjusted to the paper supply. The newspaper has been published daily since 1948. The co-editor Josef Hüsch left the publishing house in 1950. In 1952 the publishing house merged with the Schnitzler family and soon after moved to the Karl-Kellner-Ring . In 1970 the Wetzlar publishing house was transformed into the Wetzlardruck GmbH, which still exists today. In 1975 the foundation stone was laid for the press house at Hörnsheimer Eck in the south of Wetzlar, where all newspapers have been printed since November 2, 1976. Johann Eifinger died on June 29, 1979. Today the publishing house is owned by the two heirs of the Eifinger and Schnitzler families.

The publication area of ​​the newspaper was extended to the Dillkreis , later to the Oberlahnkreis and the Marburg-Biedenkopf district . Six local editions for central Hessian sub-regions appear today. These have their own local editorial offices , the editorial coat is supplied from Wetzlar.

Uwe Röndigs has been editor-in-chief of the Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung since August 2011. He succeeded Alois Kösters, who switched to the Magdeburger Volksstimme .

In April 2018 it was announced that Wetzlardruck GmbH and Gießener Anzeiger Verlags GmbH & Co KG (GAV) intend to merge to form one of the daily newspaper publishers with the highest turnover and circulation in Central Hesse. VRM Holding GmbH & Co. KG from Mainz and Schnitzler Verlags- und Kinne Beteiligungs-GmbH from Wetzlar have a stake in the new company. The holding company Rossano-Eifinger will leave Wetzlardruck as a partner. The transaction is, however, subject to approval by the antitrust authorities.

criticism

The local CDU and its chairman Hans-Jürgen Irmer claimed that the CDU was discriminated against in reporting at events and by ignoring press releases. In this context, Irmer had accused the newspaper of “ censorship ”. The Wetzlar District Court issued an injunction against the CDU politician on December 8, 2000 on the initiative of the WNZ . This forbids him to designate the WNZ “as a newspaper that carries out unjustified censorship or is subject to it”. Should Irmer contravene this, he would have to pay a fine of up to 500,000 marks . The "Irmer case" made headlines nationwide. It is noteworthy that Irmer, as publisher of the advertising paper Wetzlar Kurier, is a direct competitor of the daily newspaper WNZ in the advertising business.

Edition

The main edition of the Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung has lost a lot of its circulation in recent years . The number of copies sold has fallen by an average of 2.8% per year over the past 10 years. Last year it decreased by 6%. It is currently 19,424 copies. The share of subscriptions in the circulation sold is 91.4 percent.

Development of the number of copies sold

literature

  • Welsch, Eva-Juliane: The Hessian licensees and their newspapers . Ed .: University of Dortmund. 2013 ( handle.net - dissertation).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. according to IVW , second quarter 2020, Mon-Sat ( details and quarterly comparison on ivw.eu )
  2. according to IVW , second quarter 2020, Mon-Sat ( details and quarterly comparison on ivw.eu )
  3. Participation of the VRM group: merger of Wetzlardruck and Gießener Anzeiger. VRM Holding GmbH & Co. KG, April 23, 2018, accessed on February 28, 2020 .
  4. a b Freedom of the press in Central Hesse . In: Die Zeit , No. 1/2001
  5. according to IVW ( online )
  6. according to IVW , second quarter 2020, Mon-Sat ( details and quarterly comparison on ivw.eu )
  7. according to IVW , fourth quarter in each case ( details on ivw.eu )