‘There is huge disappointment’: World’s oldest daily newspaper to cease publication next year

When the Wiener Zeitung (WZ) first appeared in Vienna in 1703, it promised readers a different kind of newspaper.

Unlike the “editorial fluff” offered by its rivals in Imperial Austria-Hungary, the new arrival would deliver “the absolute truth”.

Staying true to that mission statement, the WZ — said to be the world’s oldest daily newspaper — has announced it will cease publication next year.

“The mood is not good, there is huge disappointment among the editorial staff,” said Mr Michael Schmölzer, WZ foreign editor. “Regardless of what happens now, we are talking about the death of a newspaper.”

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As newspapers across Europe battle an uncertain future of vanishing readers and spiralling costs, some see the WZ’s end as a portent of what’s to come elsewhere. Others see it as the end of a media unicorn.

The quality newspaper sells about 20,000 copies on weekdays, twice that at the weekend. It was privately owned until 1857 when, thanks to its enthusiastic anti-imperial editorial line, the government intervened and bought the title. In state hands since, the newspaper financed its operations and editorial staff of 40 largely from income as the official state gazette.

New media bill

As well as government notices, Austrian law forces companies to take out public advertisements for everything from balance sheets to shareholder meeting announcements. But that will all end under a new media bill, presented last week by Austria’s conservative-Green government.

The new bill creates a €20 million media support fund, open to all media organisations that meet criteria on editorial independence and gender equality. In addition the bill makes more transparent the allocation of government and semistate advertisements. This is to end a previously opaque — and controversial — practice where such spending could make or break a newspaper. Revelations last year that Sebastian Kurz prioritised lucrative state advertising to tabloids well-disposed towards him helped bring him down as chancellor.

As well as funding for private media, the bill makes changes to public broadcaster ORF, reducing its text offering on its popular website — long a bone of contention among private Austrian news outlets.

For Austrian media minister Susanne Raab, the new bill would strengthen the country’s media as “the fourth pillar of democracy and an important corrective”.

Austria’s Green junior coalition partner agreed that “without media and journalism, democracy is non-existent”.

“We want to support this contribution to democracy,” said Ms Sigrid Maurer, Green parliamentary party leader. They insist the SZ will continue to exist — online daily and as a print monthly.

The media survival battle isn’t limited to Austria. Newspaper companies and printers in neighbouring Germany are bracing themselves for one of their toughest winters in decades.

They are struggling with an explosion in the cost of newsprint — the paper used for newspapers — from €450 to €1,000 per tonne, due in part to higher energy costs caused by the war in Ukraine.

Stockpiling

Pushing prices still further: a race by companies to stockpile newsprint before the next price hike.

The company that prints the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine daily and Die Zeit weekly has set up a tent next to its Frankfurt main plant to hold extra stock of 1,400 tonnes of newsprint.

Another cost factor is a new €12 minimum wage. Last month Matthias Döpfner, chief executive of the leading Axel Springer media group, said that rising wage bills had helped push Germany’s “press delivery infrastructure to the brink of collapse”.

Federal finance minister Christian Lindner told Germany’s publishers’ association (BDZV) last month he was open to state assistance for media organisations.

“We want to ensure the nationwide supply of periodical press products and check which funding options are suitable for this,” he said.

Not all newspapers may last that long. For the last four years the left-wing Tageszeitung (taz) has flirted with the idea of ending its weekday publication and retaining only its Saturday weekend edition.

For taz chief executive Andreas Marggraf, the rise in digital subscriptions and slide in print sales — expedited in the pandemic — meant a clear transformation process is under way. So far, though, he said no firm date had been agreed to end daily print.

“What’s clear is that the rising printing and distribution costs cannot be evened out by subscriptions,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily, “and that the earnings from the printed paper will continue to sink.”