Kronen Zeitung

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Kronen Zeitung
Media of Austria
  • List of newspapers

    • The Kronen Zeitung (German: [ˈkʁoːnən ˈtsaɪtʊŋ]), commonly known as the Krone, is Austria's largest newspaper. It is known for being Eurosceptic.

    History

    The first issue of the Kronen Zeitung appeared on 2 January 1900.

    duties
    on newspapers (Zeitungsstempelgebühr) on 31 December 1899. The monthly subscription price of one crown was maintained until December 1912.

    The newspaper struggled in its first three years until the

    Anschluß of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, all media had to undergo the Gleichschaltung
    , which meant losing all editorial independence. The war took a further toll and on 31 August 1944 the paper had to shut down.

    Rebirth of the Krone

    In 1959, the journalist and previous editor-in-chief of the Kurier newspaper Hans Dichand bought the rights to the Krone name. He refounded the newspaper as the Neue Kronen Zeitung. This remains the official name, but the newspaper refers to itself as the Kronen Zeitung. First released on 11 April 1959, it soon became Austria's most influential tabloid newspaper, but also the most controversial. At the beginning of the 1960s the journalist Fritz Molden wanted to buy the paper, but, according to Dichand, the Creditanstalt bank would not give him the necessary credit.

    The circumstances concerning the purchase of the Kronen by Dichand are shrouded in mystery. The highly influential Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) politician Franz Olah, then vice-president of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), brought Dichand into contact with the German businessman Ferdinand Karpik, who wanted to buy a share of 50%. Marketing strategist Kurt Falk became Dichand's right-hand man, and the Krone developed into one of the most widely read Austrian newspapers.

    In the middle of the 1960s, the ÖGB suddenly raised ownership claims on the Krone. They claimed that the former vice-president Franz Olah misused the trade union's funds for the purchase of the newspaper, using the German investor as a stooge. The newspaper responded with a smear campaign against the SPÖ, which was considered the first successful campaign by the newspaper. A court case followed between the newspaper and the trade union federation which lasted many years. The ÖGB finally settled with an 11 million Schillings compensation deal, and Kurt Falk took over the 50% from Ferdinand Karpik.

    Kurt Falk himself left the newspaper after a long fight with Dichand in the 1980s. He sold his shares to the German

    WAZ media group, which is said to have close connections to the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In 1989 Hans Mahr
    , an advisor to Dichand since 1983, took over as manager.

    Methods used by the newspaper

    It became apparent soon after the re-establishment of the Krone that the newspaper used unorthodox methods against the competition.

    The Krone today

    Appearance, layout

    The Krone appears daily, in colour, containing approximately 80 pages. The paper is published in tabloid format

    A4 paper size). The editions vary from state to state, except for the state of Vorarlberg
    , which does not have its own version.

    Structure and owners

    The

    WAZ, a German media group that holds 50% of Kronen Zeitung.[6][7] The WAZ also partly owns Kurier, another daily.[6][7] Hans Dichand owns the remaining 50% of the paper.[6]

    Acting editor-in-chief chosen by the WAZ is Michael Kuhn, publisher of the Mediaprint newspaper printing company.

    In 2018 the real estate and retail company Signa Holding bought company shares of the newspaper.

    Characteristics

    • A characteristic of the crown is its large number of commentary columns. The most important Krone columnists are and were Günther Nenning († May 14, 2006), Michael Jeannée (post from Jeannée), Norman Schenz (Adabei), Wolf Martin (rhymed in the wind; † April 12, 2012), Robert Löffler (Telemax; † December 27, 2016), Ernst Trost (what's behind it; † July 24, 2015), Claus Pándi, Richard Nimmerrichter (Staberl, until 2001), Kurt Krenn, the old bishop of St. Pölten ( † January 25, 2014) and the Archbishop of Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, who writes the "Thoughts on the Sunday Gospel" every week. The publisher Hans Dichand († June 17, 2010) himself wrote irregular comments on topics that seemed important to him personally, sometimes on the front page under the pseudonym cato.
    • A characteristic of the Krone is its relatively short article length (maximum: 1,600 characters).
    • The newspaper organises regular
      hydro-electric power plant at Hainburg an der Donau
      in the 1980s.
    • In line with this pronounced anti-technology stance, matters of basic or applied science are ignored unless they are represented as dangerous in a vague but broad fashion (as is evident in the paper's strong bias against all forms of genetic engineering) or as having a bizarre dimension.
    • A particularly important part of the reporting in the Kronen Zeitung concerns the area of society and events. According to resort manager Norman Schenz, this is characterized as "We no longer just write about an event, we tell stories".[8]

    Nudity

    The Krone features the picture of a topless or semi-naked woman "Girl des Tages" or "Girl of the day", usually on page three, five or seven.

    The power of the Krone

    With about three million readers out of Austria's total population of approximately nine million, the Krone has nearly three times as many readers as its strongest competitor, the Kleine Zeitung (12.4% share of all readers).

    Nevertheless, certain regional differences between eastern and western Austria exist which affect the newspaper. In eastern states (such as

    Tyrol it has been able to make some gains. Local newspapers there, such as the Tiroler Tageszeitung
    , now fear for their positions. In response, the Tiroler Tageszeitung created its own tabloid in 2004, called Die Neue.

    Circulation

    Kronen Zeitung was the seventh largest newspaper worldwide and the largest European newspaper with a circulation of 1,075,000 copies in the late 1980s.[9] It was the best-selling Austrian newspaper in 1993 with a circulation of 1.1 million copies.[10] In the period of 1995-96 the daily had a circulation of 1,075,000 copies.[11] Kronen Zeitung was the sixth best selling European newspaper with a circulation of 1,084,000 copies in 1999.[12]

    In 2000 Kronen Zeitung was the seventh best-selling newspapers in Europe with a circulation of 1,052,000 copies.

    Austrian readers.[20] Its circulation was 820,000 copies in 2013.[21]

    Publishing house and marketing company Mediaprint

    In the 1990s the Krone, together with the second-strongest newspaper

    NEWS media company, which owns the magazines NEWS, Profil, E-Media, Format and Trend
    , merged with Mediaprint. Since then the majority of printed media in Austria in effect comes from the same company.

    Focused interference in Austrian politics

    Kronen Zeitung was the supporter of

    1999 elections
    , claiming its journalism is selective to an unacceptable degree.

    However, until 2007 the effect of the Kronen Zeitung on Austrian politics, though regarded as extremely strong, had ultimately been indirect. In 2008 a new policy became apparent when the paper orchestrated a focused (and successful) campaign for the replacement of chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer as the head of the SPÖ by Werner Faymann, a decade-long close friend of Hans Dichand.

    On 27 June 2008 while the change of the guard at the top of the SPÖ was still ongoing, the paper published an open letter by Faymann (co-signed by Gusenbauer) to Dichand

    elections of 28 September 2008
    which were to a large part precipitated by this action, the Kronen-Zeitung openly and massively campaigned for Faymann as the next chancellor.

    However, in the campaign for the June 2009 European parliament elections the Kronen-Zeitung threw its entire weight behind Hans-Peter Martin, a populist ex-member of the SPÖ's European parliamentary faction. Although it is impossible to quantify the exact contribution of the support of Kronen Zeitung for Hans-Peter Martin's List to the 17.9% of the Austrian votes it secured in these elections, this figure is an approximate indicator for the newspaper's political muscle. According to a post-vote poll by the agency Gfk Austria,[24] 70% of Hans-Peter Martin's List voters at that election were readers of the Kronen Zeitung, and 29% of all Kronen Zeitung readers actually voted for him.

    It played a part in the

    FPÖ.[25]

    References

    1. ^ "European News Resources". NYU Libraries. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
    2. ^ "Photoshop in Syria". Reddit. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
    3. ^ Richard Wolf. (9 October 2012). Austrian Newspaper Apologizes for Fake Syria Photo Imedia Ethics. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
    4. ^
      ISBN 978-1-137-39138-4
      . Retrieved 16 January 2015.
    5. ^ Victor Flores (2013). "The Austrian Journalists' Report" (Report). Medienhaus Wien. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
    6. ^ a b c "Media Markets: Austria Country Overview". Russian Telecom. August 2004. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
    7. ^ a b "Communications Report 2005" (Report). Rundfunk and Telekom Regulierungs GmbH. Retrieved 1 January 2015.[permanent dead link]
    8. ^ „Society-Berichterstattung im Wandel. Wer berichtete denn noch über Promis?“ (German: Society reporting in transition. Who reported on celebrities?) in: Wiener Zeitung, 28 June 2013.
    9. ^ Franz Horner (1996). "Agencies of Socialization". In Volkmar Lauber (ed.). Contemporary Austrian Politics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. p. 223. Archived from the original on 1 January 2015.[ISBN missing]
    10. ^ Eric Solsten, ed. (1994). Austria: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
    11. ISBN 978-1-4462-6524-6
      . Retrieved 3 February 2014.
    12. ^ "Top 100 Dailies 1999". campaign. 24 November 2000. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
    13. ^ "Top 100 dailies 2000". campaign. 16 November 2001. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
    14. ^ Adam Smith (15 November 2002). "Europe's Top Papers". campaign. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
    15. ^ "World Press Trends 2003" (PDF). World Association of Newspapers. Paris. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
    16. ISBN 978-1-84150-192-5
      .
    17. ^ Anne Austin; et al. (2008). "Western Europe Market & MediaFact" (PDF). ZenithOptimedia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
    18. ^ "Western Europe Media Facts. 2011 Edition" (PDF). ZenithOptimedia. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
    19. ISBN 978-3-642-35691-9
      . Retrieved 2 December 2014.
    20. ^ "Austrian circulation rise because of free papers". Newspaper Innovation. 26 February 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
    21. ^ "Austria 2013". WAN IFRA. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
    22. ^ Richard Mitten (1992). The Politics of the Antisemitic Prejudice. The Waldheim Phenomenon in Austria (PDF). Boulder: Westview Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
    23. ^ Volksabstimmung für neuen EU-Vertrag.Full text of the Faymann-Gusenbauer open letter
    24. ^ Plasser F, Ulram PA. Analyse der Europawahl 2009. Gfk Austria. p. 36 PDF at Gfk Austria Archived 31 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
    25. ^ Al-Serori, Leila; Das Gupta, Oliver; Münch, Peter; Obermaier, Frederik; Obermayer, Bastian (18 May 2019). "Caught In The Trap". Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 19 May 2019. The supposed investor already had a plan: She proposed acquiring a 50-percent stake in the Kronen Zeitung, a highly influential Austrian tabloid, and to use the newspaper as a mouthpiece backing Strache and his FPÖ party in the election campaign.... A glance across the border is all you need to realize what he means, where the Hungarian public broadcasting system has already been the government's mouthpiece for several years. Even the privately held media there is largely under the control of people connected with Orbán. In such a situation, one doesn't have to worry much about unwanted criticism, and it's also easier to win elections. Freedom of the press? That's something that Strache also finds to be something of a nuisance...

    External links

    Media related to Kronen Zeitung at Wikimedia Commons

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