Nicole and Tawny: Die Welt

Our first media appointment was at Axel Springer AG, one of Europe's largest newspaper companies with over 15o newspapers and magazines reaching 30 different countries.  Specifically we focused on Die Welt, Germany's third largest newspaper with a circulation of 209,ooo.  Die Welt, meaning "the world," has grown a lot in the past ten years.  In 2004, they began publishing Welt Kompakt, a 32-page cut-down version targeted toward youth.  Two years later they had an integrated newsroom.  Then in 2007 they re-vamped Welt Online.  Recently, they have surpassed the U.S. with technology that gives them the ability to be able to retrieve additional story details on their phone by simply taking a photograph of an image at the end of an article.

Other differences we noted include the fact that 80-90% of their newsroom staff are bilingual if not trilingual.  Here, this is not at all the norm.  Also, newspapers are the number one source of news information for Germans, where as in the United States, more people get their news from the television or internet. 

Just walking into the building gave way to another huge difference:  security.  The security in the building included security guards and metal detectors after an incident where a man intending harm one the writers made it to the seventh floor.  He did not agree with the newspapers pro-Iraqi war stance.  

A huge difference in terms of advertisements exists between both countries as well as Germany labels their columns with certain agendas as advertisements.  Die Welt will even sell its entire front page as an advertisement as long as it is labeled.  Sometimes they even combine a product's logo with their own name.  However, in America we leave out labels and write more opinionated columns.

Die Welt's paper is always full of stories on the United States as we are a focal point for their news.  Conversely, Germany is not covered to such an extent in our American papers.

Lastly, and the most striking difference between the German and American newspaper business today involves reaction.  Americans are reacting to the downfall of newspaper readership, while Germany has been preparing for the last four years and are not experiencing such a hardship.