Germany’s newspaper crisis has led to the birth of a new compound noun: Zeitungssterben, newspaper death. The announcement by G+J, the magazine division of Bertelsmann, that it will close Financial Times Deutschland and the bankruptcy filing of the Frankfurter Rundschau have led to much soul-searching.
Even chancellor Angela Merkel offered her condolences, calling on the sector to keep its spirits up. “I think print media are very important,” she said on her weekly web post. But her officials note that what Germany is seeing is not unique. While the country looks set to lose two quality dailies, in Spain editorial staff are being slashed, and in Italy speculation about possible newspaper mergers comes and goes.
Smaller titles serving smaller markets mean individual newspaper crises may not have the scale or the drama of those in the US where, for example, the Tribune Company, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, filed for bankruptcy in 2008 just a year after Sam Zell led a $8.2bn leveraged buyout of the company.