Kronen Zeitung

File:Kronen Zeitung logo.PNG

File:Kronen Zeitung.PNG The January 16, 2005 front page of the Kronen Zeitung.
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner(s)	Hans Dichand, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
Publisher	Krone Multimedia GmbH & Co KG
Editor	Christof Dichand
Founded	1900
Political alignment	Right wing, populist
Headquarters	Muthgasse 2, 1190 Vienna
Website	www.krone.at

The Kronen Zeitung, commonly Krone, is Austria's largest newspaper. Currently the newspaper is the most influential newspaper in Austria. According to a Österreichische Media-Analyse study, the daily readership on average is 2,970,000 (14 years or older), which corresponds to a range of 43,7% of all newspaper readers. The number of daily copies printed were 1,006,134 in the first half-year 2004, according to the Österreichische Auflagenkontrolle (ÖAK).

Its positioning is right wing and catholic-conservative. The Kronen Zeitung has often been accused of abusing its near monopoly to manipulate public opinion in Austria. Its many critics blame its populist style and emphasis on the topic of immigration for the spreading of fear and hatred among its readers.

History

The first issue of the Kronen Zeitung appeared to January 2, 1900. Gustav Davis, a former army officer, is considered the founder. The name was not a hommage to the monarchy (Krone means crown), but refers to the monthly purchasing price of one crown. This affordable price could be enabled, after the bureaucratic duties on newspaper (Zeitungsstempelgebühr) were abolished on December 31, 1899.

In the first three years the newspaper did not do well, until it landed the direct hit by reporting about the regicide in Belgrade of King Aleksandar Obrenović, and thus reached enormous popularity. The paper also became well-known for its featured novels and other innovations such as games for readers. In 1906 it reached the 100,000 copies benchmark. Franz Lehár composed a Walz for the newspaper for their 10,000 issue. After the Anschluß of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938, all media had to undergo the Gleichschaltung, which meant loosing all independence. The war took a further tool and on August 31, 1944 the paper had to shut down.

Rebirth of the Krone

In 1959, the journalist and previous editor-in-chief of the Kurier newspaper Hans Dichand bought the naming-rights of the Kronen. He refound the newspaper as the Neue Kronen Zeitung. The name is official, however the newspaper refers itself as Kronen Zeitung. First released on April 11 1959, it soon became Austria's most influential but also controversial tabloid newspaper. In the beginning of the 1960's, the journalist Fritz Molden wanted to buy the paper, however the Creditanstalt bank would not give him the necessary credit, according to Dichand.

Even until today the circumstances concerning the purchase of the Kronen by Dichand are shrouded in mystery. The highly influtential SPÖ politician Franz Olah, then vice-president of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), brought Dichand in contact with the German businessman Ferdinand Karpik, who wanted to buy a share of 50%. The right-hand man of Dichand became the marketing-strategist Kurt Falk (former editor of the weekly newspaper Die ganze Woche). The Krone developed into one of the most widely-read Austrian newspapers.

In the middle of the 1960's, the ÖGB suddenly raised ownership claims on the Krone. They claimed that the former vice-president Franz Olah misused the trade union's funds for the purchase of the newspaper, using the German investor as a stooge. The newspaper responded with a smear campaign against the social-democratic party SPÖ, which was considered as the first successful campaign of the newspaper. A court-case of many years between the newspaper and the trade union federation followed. The ÖGB finally settled with an 11 million Schillings compensation deal, and Kurt Falk took over the 50% from the German Ferdinand Karpik.

Kurt Falk himself left the newspaper after a long fight with Dichand in the 1980's. He sold his shares to the German WAZ media group. The WAZ is said to have close connections to the German social-democratic party SPD. In 1989 Hans Mahr took over as manageer, he was previously advisor to Dichand since 1983.

Methods used by the newspaper

Already in first years after the reestablishment of the Krone, it became clear that this newspaper proceeded with unorthodox methods against the competition.

• Kurt Falk is considered the inventor of the so-called "Sonntagsstandln", which are plastic bags with little money boxes installed on poles on the streets and pavements, containing the Sunday edition (Sunday all shops are closed in Austria). This idea, which was laughed at by the competition in the beginning, quickly caught on and is today very popular.
• In 1963 Kurt Falk came to a mutual agreement with the competitor at that time Kleines Volksblatt that both papers would change from a small format to broadsheet. The Kleines Volksblatt kept their end of the bargain and changed their format, the Kronen Zeitung however kept their original small format - and won thereby 40,000 new readers. When the Kleines Volksblatt subsequently folded, the Krone could not resist poking fun at them for having changed their format in the first place.
• In 1970 Falk and Dichand bought the tabloid Express, shutting it down after the acquisition.
• After one of most important printing houses of Austria, the Pressehaus in Vienna, was sold in 1972 to the BAWAG bank, which in turn had close connection to the socialist ÖGB union, the Krone threatened the bank to build its own printing house and thus forced the BAWAG to sell the whole deal to the Krone.
• In 1995 the Krone sued the Viennese city newspaper Falter, with claims of several millions Schillings in damages, for allegedly having violated the competition laws because of a gaming action. The Falter only barely escaped financial ruin. It is suspected that the Krone tried to shut down the Falter, because of its critical reporting about the Krone. The Green politician Karl Öllinger called the case in the Austrian National Council an attack on press-freedom.

The Krone today

Appearance, layout

The Krone appears daily, in colour, containing approximately 80 pages. At the newsagent the paper costs € 0,90, and has the tabloid format (similar to A4 paper size). The editions vary from state to state, except for the state of Vorarlberg, which does not have its own version.

Structure and owners

Editor-in-chief is Christoph Dichand, son of the founder and publisher Hans Dichand. The appointment of the son led to a power struggle between the Dichand family and the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ), a German media group that holds 50% of the company. Acting editor-in-chief send by the WAZ is Michael Kuhn, publisher of the Mediaprint newspaper printing company.

Characteristics

• A characteristic of the Krone is their large number of columns full of comments. There are 16 regular appearing columns of individual authors. The most important Krone-columnist is Günther Nenning, Wolf Martin and the former bishop of St. Pölten, Kurt Krenn, who writes under the pseudonym Christianus. The publisher Hans Dichand himself sometimes writes comments to topics which are personally important to him, sometimes also on the title page, under the alias Cato.
• Characteristically of the Krone is the relatively small length of the articles (max. limit: 1600 letters)
• The newspaper organises regularly campaigns and starts or supports at the same time referenda on issues concerning animal protection, protests against the Czech nuclear power station Temelín, or the purchase of fighter jets by the Austrian government. One the most successful campaign of the newspaper was against the construction of a hydro-electric power plant at Hainburg an der Donau in the 1980's.

The power of the Krone

With about three million readers out of Austria's total population of approximately eight million, the Kroneis thus the most successful (and probably most influential) newspaper. The Krone has therefore nearly three times as many readers as its strongest competitor, the Kleine Zeitung (12.4 % share of all readers).

Nevertheless, certain regional differences between eastern and western Austria exist which also affect the newspaper. Into eastern states (such as Burgenland) it has almost a 60% share of the market, into which western states such as the Tyrol and Vorarlberg the Krone has been barely penetrated the market. While in Vorarlberg the Krone is totally insignificant, in the Tyrol it has been able to make some gains. Local newspapers there such as the Tiroler Tageszeitung now fear for their positions. In response, the Tiroler Tageszeitung created in 2004 its own tabloid, called Die Neue.

Publishing house and marketing company Mediaprint

In the 1990's the Krone, together with the second-strongest newspaper the Kurier, founded the publishing house and marketing company Mediaprint, which took over the print, marketing and sales of the two newspapers. Many observers at that point already spoke of a monopoly. In 2000, the most successful Austrian magazine-group, the NEWS media company, which owns the magazines NEWS, Profil, E-Media, Format and Trend, fused together with Mediaprint. Since then the majority of the printed media in effect comes from the same company.

Notoriety

The Austrian newspaper Der Standard had accused the Kronen Zeitung of disseminating anti-semitic and racist undertones, whereupon the Kronen Zeitung took the matter to court. In August 2004, the case was dismissed because Der Standard could provide a proof of truth for its allegations [1].

Many Austrian intellectuals hold the Kronen Zeitung responsible for the gains of the far right Freedom Party in the 1999 elections, claiming its journalism is selective to an unacceptable level.

Famously, when feminist Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek, a long-time sharp critic of the newspaper, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004, a major event for Austria, the main headline on the Kronen Zeitung's first page read 'You may lose your driving license' and a short article about Jelinek was hidden deep within the paper. Over years the paper had been at odds with her and columnists had denounced her in an aggressive way.

References

• Fidler, Harald: Im Vorhof der Schlacht. Falter-Verlag, Wien 2004, ISBN 3854393415
• Steinmaurer, Thomas: Konzentriert und verflochten. Studien Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3706517558
• Rauscher, Hans: Methoden eines Kleinformates- In: Der Standard. 24./ 25. April 2004

External link

• Homepage of the Kronen Zeitung