Germany: Complete relaunch for compact News

Posted by Anna-Maria Mende on May 30, 2006 at 12:39 AM

German publisher Holtzbrinck is planning a complete relaunch of its compact News, which is currently published only in the city of Frankfurt on the Main, reports the Sunday paper Welt am Sonntag and other German media. The relaunch plans are disputed. The new paper will have another name; the working title is currently Business News. The launch of the new paper is expected as soon as August 1 and is planned to be sold throughout Germany. Editor in chief Klaus Madzia, together with his newsroom, will move from Frankfurt on the Main to Berlin.

The target group of the paper stays the same: like News also Business News will try to attract young people (20 to 39 years old) with an interest in business. The price will also be the same: 50 cents. Holtzbrinck did not comment on the project officially. But the Welt am Sonntag speculates that Business News might be planned as a competitor to the Financial Times Deutschland (FDT), a business daily published by Gruner+Jahr. The Financial Times Deutschland was founded in 2000. Business News will have the same structure as FTD: first business news, then politics and miscellaneous. The difference is that the Financial Times Deutschland employs 140 editorial staff, while Business News will make it with 20. This is only possible, because Business News will use resources from other Holtzbrinck titles, notably the business daily Handelsblatt.

The whole project was much debated at Holtzbrinck, because some fear that Business News will cannibalize the Handelsblatt. Because Business News will offer something like a summary of the Handelsblatt for 50 cent, while the Handelsblatt costs 1,80 Euro.

The compact News was launched in September 2004 in Frankfurt on the Main with plans to extend to other cities later. However, the compact was not very successful: the media magazine Kress said that the daily paid circulation is about 500 copies, while Holtzbrinck speaks of 7,500.

Sources (in German): Welt am Sonntag, Netzeitung, DWDL,

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