Seitenhistorie

Chapter Two: Media History

In order to understand Germany’s media system, one has to know its history.

Many of its particularities are results of the countries moved past. Media history begins even before the German national state was constituted.

• a first important landmark was the invention of the printing press with movable letters. Approximately around 1450 Johannes Gutenberg developed a machine that could print bibles in larger quantities, making them available for more and more people
  
  
• In 1609 the first periodical newspaper “Aviso” was published, but it took nearly 200 years more until a serious press landscape developed in Germany. A necessary precondition was further technological progress, like the invention of the quick-printing press.
  
  
• 19th century more and more regular and daily newspapers were established, mostly “opinion press” or “party press”: media was strongly affiliated with certain parties or political fractions, like conservative, liberal and socialist press. By that time, according to Habermas, a “bourgeois public sphere”, emerged. We would call it today polarized pluralist: each paper very biased but together expressing broad pluralism. This general tendency continued until the Weimar Republic in the 1920s.
  
  
• 1819: since the press became more vivid and important, the ruling aristocrats agreed on censoring it
  
  
• in 1848: however, after the March revolution press freedom was implemented in several constitutions across Germany
  
  
• in 1871: the formerly scattered German countries are united to form the “German Empire” and national media started to grow for example major publishing houses were founded since 1870 like Ullstein Verlag, Scherl, Mosse
  
  
• 1914-1918 during WWI, press freedom was once again abolished by military censorship. However, technological development advanced quickly:
  
  
• in 1917 the Universum Film AG (UFA), as first German film company is founded
  
  
• in 1926: first radio broadcast was transmitted in Germany  by Deutsche Welle AG) and in 1929 the first television was broadcast as well, but dark times approached as the Nazis seized power in 1933 and started with it a dark phase of media manipulation and instrumentalization. Under the term of “Gleichschaltung” (bringing into line), all media had to adapt to the Nazi ideology. Media was centralized and media companies and publishers were expropriated. Especially the radio (“volksempfänger” or “people’s receiver) and public weekly newsreels in cinema were heavily utilized for Nazi propaganda, spreading anti-semite hate-speech and justification of the war
  
  
• 1945: at the end of the WWII the huge task was to establish a democratic and pluralist media system, preventing abuses like during the Nazi era in the future, the allies vowed for a re-Education of the German population: newspapers had to be licensed and were subject to censorship after publication
  
  
• 1949: Germany is officially separated: this leads to completely different media systems. In the eastern GDR a heavily state-controlled media system was implemented, including party-press and censorship alike the soviet model.
  Its main task was to serve as the “voice of the working class” and to educate citizens to “socialist personalities”
  
  
• In western Germany, a federal public broadcasting service similar to the British bbc was introduced as well as a press System allowing only minimal interference by the state. While press products did not cross the border between the two states, East German citizens were able to receive West-German television (and vice-versa). This led to a subtle propaganda-war on both sides. However, it was West German radio and television which had a strong audience in East Germany.
  
  
• In 1984: the dual system is introduced in Germany, meaning that for the first time private broadcasting is allowed. Technical progress like cable & later satellite TV made it possible to broadcast more channels, but in particular the pressure of market liberalization in the 1980s in Europe were the main reasons for this development.
  
  
• In 1990 Germany was reunified: The east German media landscape was to be incorporated into the West German. State owned TV and radio channels are transformed into public broadcasters, many (regional) newspapers were sold by the reunification trust agency to West-German publishers and media companies. While the principal structure remained, there was a strong decline in east German newspaper circulation
  
  
• Since 2000: new dynamics in press landscapes emergence. Online journalism leads to declining circulations and a downfall of the ad-sales. This development is coined as “Zeitungssterben” or “dying of the press”, but compared to the US the crisis is not as severe. However, it leads to a diversification of media formats, content and distribution and the emergence of new business models, cross-media formats, blogs and web formats.

Chapter four: General Information about the Media System

TV

Television is by far the most used and widest spread media in Germany and is therefore particularly important.TV doesn’t only serve entertainment purposes; most of the Germans use it also for political education and for information. The German broadcasting is characterized by a dualistic system: a public broadcasting service on the one hand, and private broadcasters on the other hand.Until 1984, private broadcasting wasn’t allowed.Therefore the mission of the public broadcasters is to provide a full program, consisting of a mix of entertainment, information and education.The broadcasting mandate also requires to offer a “basic supply” of information and to offer a pluralistic range of views.

Interview: Prof. Dr. Jan Tonnemacher (Professor for Media Studies at Freie Universität Berlin):

The first or core principle of the founding fathers of the German broadcasting system was to give broadcasting freedom from government influence. The second, driven by the same experiences, was decentralization and division of powers which is normal as a basis for democracy. In both totalitarian regimes, radio and television were centralized under the power of the government and the parties.

The solution was – for the newly funded Federal Republic of Germany – cultural sovereignty of the states, not of Germany as a total. They found this better and included responsibility for the mass media.

Thirdly, there should be public funding for public broadcasting. But the money should not be raised by a state tax. Every household is responsible for public broadcasting by paying a monthly fee. So that gives independence as well. And the fourth principle: obligation of public broadcasting to offer a diversity of programs for all with program variety, one could say, possibly serving all needs in the best possible way.

Q: What are advantages and disadvantages of the German public broadcasting system?

To have an autonomous public broadcasting service. Being independent from the government and from economic powers as well. Offering quality programs which are better for information. Furthering investigative journalism, adding to form public opinion/s with education and entertainment. Plus, functioning as a controlling institution for the economic and political powers in Germany.

But I would as well see major disadvantages: A weakness in the construction of the broadcasting councils, the regulating boards. A council consists of members of a number of different societal, social relevant groups and among others but with heavy weight – the political parties. So independence from government is rather secured but not from the political parties. There representatives are more or less dominant in many boards of the broadcasting stations.

Secondly, the corporations ARD and ZDF partly tend to follow the run for viewer shares, the quota, in order to compete with commercial television. This results maybe in a tendency of assimilation, at least for parts of the program, mostly in the prime time. But looking for mass attractive entertainment programs is not the solution for the competition with the private commercial televisions.

They should think of their advantages.

Private television exists in Germany since 1984. Today, private channels hold a market share around 45%. The market is basically divided between only two companies: one is Bertelsmann and the other one is the ProSiebenSat1 AG. Since the beginning, private broadcasters are criticized for offering lower quality content and focus on (light) entertainment.

In general, the share of informational and news programs is lower than the ones of the public broadcasters and the coverage focuses more on scandals than on political issues. However, they are obliged by law to incorporate news in their program if they wish to broadcast nationally. Furthermore, there is a growing convergence between the content of both public and private broadcasters.

The Press

Germany is characterized by its wide-spread regional press. People from Berlin tend to read papers from Berlin, people from Munich tend to read papers from Munich and so on. Even national newspapers specific regional parts in order to be more attractive to readers. Altogether, regional dailies reach nearly 50% of the population. However, due to advancing press concentration, in over half of the administration districts only one regional newspaper is available – which is problematic in terms of diversity.

The most widely spread daily newspaper is the tabloid “BILD” owned by Axel Springer publishing house. Due to its enormous reach of over 12 Mio readers, BILD is regarded as a political actor itself. It has been involved in the rise and fall of several politicians including president Christian Wulff. Like other tabloids, BILD has often been criticized for neglecting journalistic ethics. Politically, BILD is rather conservative. In its guidelines it demands from its journalists to hold solidarity with Israel, support the transatlantic alliance with the US and to defend the social market economy.

National high quality dailies do not have such a high reach in terms of sold copies, but nevertheless they have a high political influence and are seen as opinion leaders.Several newspapers differ in their political tendencies.

The most important ones are the Munich based “Sueddeutsche Zeitung”, which is more liberal, and the Frankfurt-based “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” which is more conservative. Each of them sells about 400.000 copies per day.

The Berlin-based “taz” is a leftist daily which is owned by a cooperative – unique in the German media landscape.

The “Handelsblatt”, based in Düsseldorf, which is the biggest newspaper with a focus on the economy is also important.

Also weekly political magazines like “Der Spiegel”, “die Zeit” and “der Stern” are very influential in the German public sphere. They formed the liberal “Hamburg-Cartel” of post war Germany.

In times of declining newspaper circulation, weeklies gather more popularity since they offer in-depths analyses that are rarely to be found in online journalism.

Online journalism

Online journalism is still far behind the traditional sources of information, but is getting more and more important. In 2013, 60% of the Germans used the internet as a source for political information. The most visited news sites are “Bild.de”, “Focus Online” and “Spiegel online” and “Zeit online”.

It is noticeable that these are the online versions of traditional newspapers. Despite having often separate editorial departments, the online versions still rely heavily on print journalism in terms of content and financing. However, websites like “Huffington Post” and “and “Vice” which produce primarily online content and are quite successful with it.

Axel Springer recently reorganized its prestigious press title “Die Welt” into an online pay-to-read news platform, which only secondarily releases a print version. Advancing digitalization and different forms of financing make it seem likely that the internet will overtake traditional print journalism one day as a major news source.

Statistics_TV.pdf

Statistics_Newspapers.pdf

Statistics_Most visited news sites.pdf

Statistics_Market Share of Regional Dailies.pdf

Chapter eight: Ownership structure

One aspect that might endanger press diversity is concentration and one that might endanger the informational function of media is instrumentalization by media owners. Therefore, a critical review of who owns the media in Germany and which share of the media seems to be necessary. Besides the public service broadcaster and a few local civic broadcasters, all media in Germany are in the hands of private companies. Most of them are also international players. However and in contrast to other Western countries, most of them limit their investments to media and do not engage in other sectors of the industry.

Bertelsmann is the biggest media company in Germany with a turnover of over 16 billion Euros a year and thus the 9 biggest media company in the world. It operates internationally and owns TV-channels (RTL Group), the publishing house Penguin Randomhouse, such press titles as STERN and BRIGITTE, the music rights management group BMG and even the customer service provider Arvato. In Germany, Bertelsmann owns the RTL-Group, a group of private TV-channels that have a market share of over 25%. It also owns the Gruner + Jahr GmbH, Europe’s second biggest publishing house. Famous titles are the weekly “Stern” and the women’s magazine “Brigitte”. Gruner + Jahr owns also 25% of the influential weekly “Der Spiegel”.Originally been a family enterprise, the Mohn family is still strongly connected to the company.

The family still owns 19.1 % in stocks. Christoph Mohn, now representing the sixth generation since the company was founded in 1835, is chairman of the supervisory board. His mother Liz Mohn is also member of the supervisory board, as well as board director of the Bertelsmann foundation which owns another 77.6 % of stocks.

The highly dynamic media company Axel Springer aspires to be a multinational, cross-media operating corporation. Traditionally focused on press, Springer’s press titles have the reputation to follow a more conservative and US-friendly line, which caused controversy in the past. Famous titles are Germany’s biggest tabloid “Die Bild” and the national broadsheet “Die Welt”. Recently Springer invests more and more into digital media and is one of the driving forces for new business models in online journalism.

S: Influential People behind Axel Springer

Friede Springer: the widow of the company’s founder is probably the most important actor behind the company. Indirectly, she owns 51.35 % of the company and is also the associate chairman of the supervisory board. She influenced the development of the company heavily during the 90s and appointed current CEO Mathias Döpfner in 2002

Mathias Döpfner: The former editor in chief of Springer press title “Die Welt” is responsible for major strategy changes which finally led the company out of its crisis. He often appears in talkshows and comments in newspapers and openly presents his political views.

Having experienced many changes in ownership structure in the past years, the ProSiebenSat1 AG is the second biggest Television Company in Europe. It has a market share of nearly 20% in German television and focuses mainly on Free-to-air TV channels like “ProSieben” and “Sat 1” and relies heavily on entertainment.

The main focus of the Funke Mediengruppe is the regional press which is in Germany traditionally very strong. It owns 27 regional dailies and a number of magazines and other publications. Recently, Funke has got under economical pressure and was forced to shut down an entire editorial department of the regional daily “Westfälische Rundschau”. The title is still published, but the content is produced by editorial departments of other newspapers of the company.

Similarly,  the Hubert-Burda Media group, the Georg-von-Holtzbrinck-Group or the M. Dumont-Schauberg Group are all leading German cross-media groups that are characterized by a strong leading figure and shape the media landscape in Germany.

However, there are also other models of owning and financing media outlets beyond the typical capitalist model.

Interview: Konny Gellenbeck (national daily taz) about its cooperative financing model

We have until today 15,000 cooperative members. Each member gives us 500 Euros. He or she can pay it in 20 parts but the very special thing is that every person who becomes a cooperative member has only one vote and it doesn’t matter how many money you gave us. The special thing is that we have to sorts of cooperative members: the workers (they are here) and the membership from outside (they only give the money). That is a big difference in how to become independent from persons who give the money. The persons from outside, who became cooperative members, have no special rights concerning the content of the newspaper.

Media concentration

Regarding concentration, however, one can see that the biggest companies also dominate the market. As mentioned before, the TV market is divided between the public service broadcasters and a duopoly of RTL and ProSiebenSAT1.In the print market we can also observe concentration. In the regional daily market, which has the highest share in Germany, 10 companies own 60 % of the market. This is especially problematic because in 44 % of the districts only one regional daily is available. Companies hold regional monopolies.

The tabloid market is almost solely dominated by Axel Springer AG. Its market share is 79%.