Frankfurter Rundschau
Encyclopedia
The Frankfurter Rundschau is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 daily newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition (see link below) as well as an e-paper. Local major competitors are the conservative-liberal Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...

, the local edition of the conservative tabloid Bild-Zeitung
Bild-Zeitung
The Bild is a German tabloid published by Axel Springer AG. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday, while on Sundays, Bild am Sonntag is published instead, which has a different style and its own editors...

, the best-selling newspaper in Europe, and the smaller local conservative Frankfurter Neue Presse. The Rundschau's layout is modern and its editorial stance is liberal. It holds that "independence, social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

 and fairness" underlie its journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

. The publisher of the "Rundschau", the Druck und Verlagshaus Frankfurt am Main (DUV) GmbH, is owned by the independent publisher M. DuMont Schauberg
M. DuMont Schauberg
M. DuMont Schauberg is one of Germany's oldest and largest publishing houses. Founded by Bertram Hilden in 1620, Marcus du Mont acquired the "Kölnische Zeitung" in 1805 - then the business's main newspaper...

 (50 percent plus one share), the social-democratic media holding DDVG (40 percent) and the Karl-Gerold-Foundation (10 percent of the shares).

History

The "Rundschau" published its first issue on 1 August 1945, shortly after the end of World War II. It was the first newspaper published in the US sector in occupied Germany and the second newspaper in post-war Germany
History of Germany since 1945
As a consequence of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II Germany was split between the two global blocs in the East and West, a period known as the division of Germany. While seven million prisoners and forced laborers left Germany, over 10 million German speaking refugees arrived there from...

. The licence was handed over to the first team of editors consisting of Emil Carlebach, Hans Etzkorn, Wilhelm Karl Gerst, Otto Grossmann, Wilhelm Knothe, Paul Rodemann and Arno Rudert, a progressive think-tank of social democrats, political Catholics and communists, who had spent years in the resistance and Nazi concentration camps or in exile. With the coming of the cold war, the American occupation authority forced all communist members of the editorial team to leave the paper two years later. Today the newspaper boasts a circulation of around 180,000.

Changes

On May 30, 2007 the "Rundschau" changed its format to the award winning smaller tabloid size (see link below).

Restructuring

In 2003, the paper had financial difficulties and was supported by a guarantee from the federal state of Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

. In May 2004 the DDVG acquired ninety percent of the shares of the Druck-und Verlagshaus Frankfurt am Main (DUV). The social democrats emphasized, that they wanted to assure the future of one of the few left-liberal daily newspapers in Germany and asserted they would not exert influence on the articles. The social democrats also announced that they wanted to reduce their share to under fifty percent until 2006. In order to save the paper from insolvency, the DDVG soon drastically cut back expenditures. By means of dismissals
Termination of employment
-Involuntary termination:Involuntary termination is the employee's departure at the hands of the employer. There are two basic types of involuntary termination, known often as being "fired" and "laid off." To be fired, as opposed to being laid off, is generally thought of to be the employee's...

 and outsourcing
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...

, the number of employees shrank within the last three years from 1700 to 750.

Amid speculation on DDVG's complaints about too friendly articles on the new left party "Die Linke" and its plan to sell the majority of its shares (see article in the newspaper Junge Welt from August 30, 2007) Dr. Wolfgang Storz's term as editor-in-chief ended abruptly on May 16, 2006. The appointed next editor-in-chief was Dr. Uwe Vorkötter (effective July 1, 2006). Only a few days later, on July 18, 2007, the DDVG announced that it would sell 50 percent plus one share to the independent publishing company DuMont Schauberg based in Cologne, Germany. Today, DuMont Schauberg holds 50 percent plus one share, the DDVG owns 40 percent and the Karl-Gerold-Foundation holds 10 percent of the newspaper.

Literature

Emil Carlebach: "Zensur ohne Schere, Die Gründerjahre der 'Frankfurter Rundschau' 1945/47" (English: "Censorship without scissors, The founding years of the 'Frankfurter Rundschau' 1945/47". Frankfurt 1985, ISBN 3-87682-807-4

Wolf Gunter Brügmann : "1968 - 2008. Vom Aufstieg und Niedergang der Frankfurter Rundschau" ("1968 - 2008: The rise and fall of the Frankfurter Rundschau")

Sources

European Newspaper Award 2007

German links:

Report in the German magazine Spiegel from July 18, 2006

Report in the newspaper Junge Welt from May 13, 2008
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