The Press : Germany

Newspapers enjoy great popularity in the Federal Republic of Germany. In terms of the number of newspapers per 1,000 inhabitants, Germany is in sixth place in Europe behind Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. 81 percent of population read a newpaper every day for an average of 30 minutes. Despite stiff competition from radio and television, newspapers have held their own and kept in step with the times: At the beginning of 1997, 66 newspapers offered online news on the Internet, chiefly with an electronic version of their paper publications.

Local and regional daily newspapers predominate. On workdays 375 newspapers appear in the old and new federal states. They publish 1,600 local and regional editions in 135 offices. The total circulation is about 25.5 million. “Bild” is the German daily paper with the largest circulation (4.5 million a day). The editions of the “Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” constitute the biggest-selling subscription paper. The large national daily newspapers “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” and “Die Welt” have smaller circulations but considerable influence on political and business leaders. The same is true of the “Siiddeutsche Zeitung”, the “Frankfurter Rundschau”, “Der Tages-spiegel” and “Handelsblatt”, which have an impact far beyond the regions in which they are published.

Other important opinion leaders are the weekly newspapers “Die Zeit”, “Die Woche”, “Rheinischer Merkur” and “Das Sonntagsblatt” as well as the news magazines “Der Spiegel” and “Focus”. These offer background information, analyses and reports. There are also Sunday newspapers such as “Bild am Sonntag”, “Welt am Sonntag”, “Sonntag Aktuell” and “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. The leading Berlin dailies appear seven days a week, as do several daily newspapers in other cities.Many foreign newspapers also print special editions for foreigners living in the Federal Republic.