Germany: Sport daily looming?

According to the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD), German publishers are infected by football euphoria. With the world championship taking place in Germany in 2006, publishers are expecting a kick for their business. Three new sport magazines (Sportfrau, Champ and Rund) have been launched and two (Player and Fußball-Fieber) will be launched over the next few months. And Dirk Makritzki, sport editor and director of Eurostream.de, a company for internet broadcast & multimedia solutions, wants to establish a Germany wide sports daily. The title is planned to be called "Sportecho", like a sport newspaper that existed in the GDR but was ceased by Axel Springer, publisher of Bild, in 1991. Dirk Makritzki said in the FTD, that "almost all major German publishers have a concept for a sport newspaper. But nobody dares to enter the market because of a kind of agreement to keep still between publishers." The reason for this is said to be Springer's strong position in sport reporting. Springer already tested a sports daily in 2004, but did not launch it as it would have been too damaging for its other publications.

The success of a sports daily would be a big change to the German press market. In contrast to countries like Italy, Spain or France, Germany does not have a daily sport newspaper. Currently, Springer's weekly "Sport Bild" and Olympia's "Kicker", which appears twice a week, are dominating the market of football interested readers, reports FTD. However, circulation and advertising revenues of sport magazines are declining, writes pressetext austria. Additionally, a sport daily would be in direct competition with many daily newspapers that increased their sport reporting as well. It hence remains to be seen whether a sports daily could be successful.

Sources: Financial Times Deutschland, pressetext austria