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The media landscape in Germany

Since they first started to appear in the fifteenth century German-language newspapers have given important impetus for social change, from the Enlightenment to equal rights. Today Germany has around 300 daily papers, 30 weeklies and 10,000 magazines and specialist journals. The most important national quality newspapers are the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, while the daily with the largest circulation is the tabloid Bild.

Reichstag
Foto: Phillie Casablanca, Lizenz: Creative Commons by/2.0

In western Germany Press freedom has been enshrined in the Basic Law (German constitution) since 1949, while in East Germany the GDR regime controlled the media until its collapse in 1990. In western Germany broadcasting was and is financed by fees and organised according to the British BBC model. The goal was to guarantee strict economic and above all political independence in order to exclude the possibility of broadcasting being abused again by a totalitarian regime like that of the Nazis.

Today there are 75 public television and radio programmes in reunified Germany. East German newspapers were sold to West German publishers and have been able to maintain their monopoly-like position in their respective areas of circulation. In 2001 the so-called newspaper crisis set in motion a process of concentration in the newspaper sector, the end of which is still not in sight.

The public broadcasters are controlled by representatives of socially relevant groups who sit on supervisory committees. Because these groups also include political parties, the influence of politics on broadcasting is frequently criticised despite the constitutionally guaranteed independence from the state.

In the mid-1980s commercial broadcasting became legal in Germany. The commercial television market is dominated above all by the programmes of the RTL group and ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG. The news programmes broadcast by the commercial stations are often criticised for their lack of political coverage.

The Internet is a source of information that younger people in particular are increasingly turning to instead of the print media. Newspaper publishers are battling with dwindling circulations and advertising revenues, and this in turn is driving them to boost their Internet presence. Despite their growing numbers bloggers do not enjoy the popularity they have in the US, for example. Among the best-known blogs are netzpolitik, spreeblick and bildblog.

This country's media at euro|topics