!!!Presse, Druckschriften
Press, collective term for periodical publications. The Austrian press
market is divided into newspapers (dailies and weeklies) and magazines
(news magazines, illustrated magazines, light reading and technical
journals). The majority of publishing houses are private, they operate
on the income by sales (retail sale and subscriptions) and
advertisements. - There are (1998) 17 daily newspapers, 2 commentated
weekly newspapers ("Die Furche", " Praesent") and
about 50 regional weeklies, of which some are published in local
issues ( "Neue Niederoesterreichische Nachrichten";
"Oberoesterreichische Rundschau"). Other weekly publications
include the church periodicals of the Austrian dioceses and other
local papers. In addition, there are about 2,500 magazines. The total
circulation of the Austrian daily press amounts to (1998)
2.8 million copies per day, with the "Kronen-Zeitung"
(about 1 million) being the most popular.
\\
Austria has 4 different types of newspapers besides the only financial
paper WirtschaftsBlatt: the popular to sensational tabloid press
("Kronen-Zeitung", "Kurier", "Taeglich
Alles"), the supra-regional, quality newspapers ("Die
Presse", "Standard", the all-Austrian edition of the
"Salzburger Nachrichten"), the provincial newspapers
("Kleine Zeitung", Graz and Klagenfurt;
"Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten", Linz; "Salzburger
Nachrichten"; "Tiroler Tageszeitung", Innsbruck; and
"Vorarlberger Nachrichten", Bregenz) and smaller secondary
papers, of which some are publications of political parties
("Neue Zeit", Graz, social democratic, independent;
"Kaerntner Tageszeitung", Klagenfurt, SPOe; "Neues
Volksblatt", Linz, OeVP; "Salzburger Volkszeitung",
OeVP; "Neue Vorarlberger Tageszeitung", Bregenz,
independent). The larger provincial newspapers are in fierce
competition with the provincial editions of the
"Kronen-Zeitung". The smaller provincial papers, as well as
"Die Presse" and "Der Standard" are supported by
press subsidies.
\\
The efficiency of the daily press and especially its performance
concerning advertisements are subject to regular readership analyses
(e.g. Media-Analyse, Oesterreichische Verbraucheranalyse) and the
Oesterreichische Auflagenkontrolle (Austrian circulation control
board, OeAK).
\\
The economic situation of the Austrian press market is characterized
by large-scale publishing houses. "Kronen-Zeitung" and
"Kurier" come out under the umbrella organisation of
Mediaprint, although they are printed in different publishing houses,
(together they command about 50 % of total circulation); the
Verlagshaus Styria Medien AG in Graz owns "Kleine Zeitung"
and "Die Presse" (together about 12 % of the total
circulation) and the weekly "Die Furche". In addition, there
are influential family businesses (in Linz, Salzburg, Bregenz) and
foreign investors also play an important role.
\\
The most successful magazines (except for the club magazines
"auto touring" and "Freie Fahrt" published by the
Austrian drivers´ clubs) include K. Falk´s entertainment
weekly "Die ganze Woche" and the news magazine
"News" published by the brothers Helmuth and Wolfgang
Fellner. The influence of popular magazines from Germany on the
Austrian magazine market, which peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, has
decreased. However, they still dominate the fields of women´s
and fashion magazines.
\\
The most popular news and business magazines (along with
"News": "profil", "trend",
"Gewinn" and " Format" are all made in Austria. As
regards illustrated magazines, the monthly "Wiener" clearly
leads over foreign titles like "Bunte" and
"Stern".
\\
While daily newspapers have been in the lead among the classical
advertising media (i.e. other than direct marketing) for many years,
followed by television, (28.4 % of the total advertising expenses
of ATS 20.2 billion in 1997; television: 22.8 %);
magazines (15.6 %) rank before radio (8.9 %), weeklies
(6.1 %) and posters (6.5 %).
\\
The history of the Austrian press starts in the 17%%sup th/%
century and can be divided into 5 stages: 1) the period of the
state-controlled and censored press from 1621 until 1848; 2) the
development of the modern press from 1848 until 1918; 3) the press of
the First Republic (1919-1933), 4) the period of press control by the
Corporate State and the Third Reich (1934-1945) and 5) the period of
reconstruction and consolidation since 1945. Austria has rarely played
a pioneering role in the development of the press - one exception
being during the "golden era" of Austrian journalism (around
1870-1914) -, but it has contributed some special developments like
the "Catholic Press Associations" (Katholische Pressvereine,
Styria) and the small-format daily newspapers
("Kronen-Zeitung").
\\
1) The first Austrian newspaper was the weekly "Ordinari
Zeittungen", published by the Formica/Cosmerovius printers in
Vienna from 1621 onwards. The same printers produced the
"Ordentliche Postzeittungen" in 1622. The titles were
changed several times and the former was discontinued in 1698, the
latter in 1700. In the rest of Austria, the press only developed
slowly and sparsely. There was usually one weekly in each of the
provincial capitals, which was published officially or
semi-officially: in Linz "Ordinari-Zeitungen" came out as
early as 1630 and their tradition is carried on by the contemporary
"Amtliche Linzer Zeitung". Graz has a printing licence of
1639 on record, but no copy of the paper has been preserved; there are
also some records from Innsbruck from 1648 onwards. The first weekly
in Bregenz was probably published between 1658 and 1680. Salzburg,
where the first newspapers entitled "Woechentliche Ordinari
Post-Zeitungen" were published in 1669, occupied a special
position as it was a sovereign territory until 1803; its provincial
newspaper under Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo, called
"Oberdeutsche Staatszeitung" (directed by Lorenz Huebner),
pursued a fairly independent policy between Munich and Vienna. It
remained the only newspaper of the province of Salzburg until 1848. In
the period before the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848 the Austrian
monarchy only had 19 political newspapers; 3 of them were published in
Vienna, for instance, the semi-official "Oesterreichischer
Beobachter" (since 1810) and the official "Wiener
Zeitung", which had been founded as "Wienerisches
Diarium" in 1703. All these newspapers were subject to strict
preliminary censorship, which had been modernized with the
establishment of the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) (1815) and
- under the pressure of Austria and Prussia - tightened again by the
Karlsbader Beschluesse in 1819.
\\
2) When censorship was abolished on March 15, 1848, this did not
yet mean that the freedom of the press was guaranteed, but it did
provide for more rights for journalists than the temporary reduction
of censorship by the "Grund-Regeln zur Bestimmung einer
ordentlichen kuenftigen Buecher Censur" ("Principles to
Define an Orderly Book Censorship"), which had been issued by
Joseph II in 1781. In March 1848, the dimensions of the previous
suppression became clear for the first time: In Vienna alone, about
300 periodicals were founded during the Revolution, including 86 daily
newspapers. Besides the traditional newspapers, various other papers
were called into existence in the capitals of the crown lands; and at
least part of this great variety was preserved after the Revolution.
In the middle of the Revolution (July 3, 1848) the daily
"Die Presse" was founded: it was not really revolutionary in
the political sense of the word but reformed journalistic practice and
from then on set the standard for press modernisation.
\\
Several varying press laws and regulations (1849, 1852, 1859, 1863)
alternatively restricted and eased the situation for the media.
Freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the prohibition of
censorship were laid down in the Fundamental Laws in 1867
(Article 13). The obligation to obtain a licence for newspapers
was abolished in 1863 and the special newspaper stamp duty
("Zeitungsstempel") was dropped at the end of the century
(December 27, 1899).
\\
By that time the Austrian press was flourishing. This positive
development was promoted by an economic upswing and a revival of
science and the arts (magazines), and especially by the foundation of
new political parties. Alongside the Conservatives and Liberals, the
Social Democrats and Christian Socialists gained political influence.
In Vienna numerous local papers emerged side by side with the
large-scale liberal newspapers and during the last decade of the
19%%sup th/% century the political parties also started to
publish newspapers ( "Arbeiterzeitung",
"Reichspost"). In the capitals of the crown lands many
newspapers were founded which, although they could not live up to the
great variety of the rapidly expanding capital, definitely contributed
greatly to the high standard of Austria´s press. Moreover, a
large number of weeklies guaranteed that small towns and provincial
regions were also supplied with the latest news. This development was
strongly influenced by Catholic press associations, which had been
founded in Austria in 1869 (e.g. Katholischer Pressverein of the
Diocese of Graz-Seckau).Their purpose was to found and promote
Catholic dailies and weeklies, publishing houses and bookshops. It is
due to these press associations that Austria eventually became a
country with great variety of newspapers; they were also responsible
for another innovation which helped to promote newspapers in Austria:
the cheap small-format daily newspaper. From the long-term
perspective, the "Illustrierte Kronen-Zeitung" (Vienna 1900)
and "Kleine Zeitung" (Graz 1904) had more impact on
transforming the Austrian press than, for instance, the highly
acclaimed Wiener Feuilleton.
\\
3) Vienna´s press was gravely affected by World War I and
its consequences because a considerable part of its educated readers
now lived in the successor states of the monarchy, and the
international character of Vienna´s newspapers was reduced by
radical movements in many European states. However, during the First
Republic newspapers in Vienna became more important than ever before.
According to recent studies, there were 140 (partly short-lived)
newspapers in Vienna between 1918 and 1934. They also included papers
which spread National Socialist ideas and political anti-Semitism
(e.g. "Deutschoesterreichische Tageszeitung") and entrenched
political positions were often reflected in the style of the
newspapers.
\\
4) After the Austrian parliament was inactivated (March 4, 1933),
the government tried to strengthen its position by introducing
measures which gave the state better control over the press:
preliminary censorship was re-introduced in the form of the
"obligation of presentation" in 1933, and papers that did
not conform to the official policies, such as the
"Arbeiterzeitung", were prohibited in 1934. A Press Chamber
reflecting National Socialist thought was introduced in 1936.
Independent newspapers and papers which openly supported the
Fatherland Front were allowed to continue their work until
Austria´s Anschluss to the German Reich, when National Socialist
press control was introduced and the last vestiges of freedom of the
press were done away with. From June 1938 onwards the German
Reichskulturkammer law (compulsory membership in the Reichspress
chamber) and the Law on Press Editorship also applied to Austria.
\\
The number of newspapers in Vienna was reduced from 16 to 9 (1940) and
Jewish journalists were eliminated. Instead, the Vienna issue of the
"Voelkischer Beobachter" (March 16, 1938 -
April 6, 1945) came onto the scene.
\\
The National Socialists usually took over one newspaper in each of the
provincial capitals and used it as the official Gau newspaper and thus
an NSDAP mouthpiece. The remaining bourgeois or press association
newspapers were brought into line or forced to merge with the
respective Gau newspaper during the Second World War.
\\
5) The end of the Second World War completely changed Austria´s
press landscape. The re-education and media policies of the 4
occupying powers were quite different from each other, but they had 3
common features: All newspapers and magazines had to discontinue their
publications in April/May 1945; each of the occupying powers founded
at least one newspaper (in Vienna): "Oesterreichische
Zeitung" (Soviet), "Wiener Kurier" (American),
"Weltpresse" (British) and "Welt am Abend"
(French); new Austrian newspapers and magazines required a special
licence, which was issued by the respective occupying power. While in
the Soviet and British occupied zones in Vienna only party newspapers
("Arbeiterzeitung", "Das Kleine Volksblatt",
"Volksstimme") were given a licence (with the exception of
"Neues Oesterreich" a non-party paper); the Americans (and
later also the French) initially intended to limit licensing to
independent newspapers, which developed out of the newspapers already
established by the occupying forces ("Salzburger
Nachrichten", "Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten",
"Tiroler Tageszeitung"; and "Vorarlberger
Nachrichten"). However, when the first licences were issued in
October 1945, the US and French occupying forces decided to also
licence newspapers of political parties; by that time, however, it had
become almost impossible for these papers to catch up with the
independent press.
\\
The development of the Austrian daily press from the end of World
War II until 1998 is characterised by 4 major trends: the
concentration of Newspapers and at the same time an increase in total
circulation; the decline of the party press (from 60 % of the
total circulation in 1954 to 2.2 % in 1998); the concentration of
high-circulation tabloids ("Kronen-Zeitung",
"Kurier" and "Taeglich Alles", together 65 %)
and the shifting of relative importance from Vienna to the provinces:
total circulation in the provinces compared with Vienna increased from
1928 to 1994 from a ratio of 1 : 4.3 to a ratio of
1 : 2.4.
\\
The press law of 1922 was replaced by the Federal Law on the Press and
Other Journalistic Media, effective as of June 12, 1981, which
was extensively amended on July 1, 1993 in order to strengthen
the legal protection of personal rights. The amendment of the
antitrust law effective as of September 24, 1993, changed the
media landscape in that mergers of media companies of all kinds were
made more difficult by special turnover limits. This measure is
intended to impede the further concentration of newspapers.
!Literature
K. Paupie, Handbuch der oesterreichischen
Presse-Geschichte 1848-1959, 2 vols., 1960-1966; F. Ivan
et al. (eds.), 200 Jahre Tageszeitung in Oesterreich 1783-1983,
1983; H. Puerer et al. (eds.), Die oesterreichische Tagespresse,
1983; P. Muzik, Die Zeitungsmacher, 1984; W. Berka, Das Recht der
Massenmedien, 1989; H. Puerer, Presse in Oesterreich, 1990; G.
Melischek, J. Seethaler, Die Wiener Tageszeitungen. Eine
Dokumentation. vol. 3: 1918-1938, 1992; P. Pelinka et al.
(eds.), Zeitungs-Los, 1992; P. A. Bruck (ed.), Print unter Druck,
1993; F. Hausjell, Journalisten fuer das Reich, 1993; Institut fuer
Publizistik und Kommunikationswissenschaften der Universitaet Salzburg
(ed.), Massenmedien in Oesterreich (= Medienberichte 1-4), 1977,
1983, 1986, 1993; V. Oe. Z. (ed.), Pressehandbuch 1998 (1998
= No. 46); S. P. Scheichl and W. Duckkowitsch,
Zeitungen im Wr. Fin de Siècle, 1997; E. Geretschberger,
Massenmedien in Oesterreich, 1998.
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