Publishers outraged by Deutsche Post's newspaper plans

 Deutsche Post wants to enter the market for national advertising papers with a free newspaper. Publishers in the northern neighboring country are protesting and speak of a "scandal" or "regulatory super disaster". Post board member Jürgen Gerdes told the Financial Times Deutschland that a weekly newspaper on the subject of the Internet and computers was initially planned. It is to be distributed directly to millions of letterboxes. However, the final decision is still pending and will be made in the coming weeks. The computer newspaper could be followed by other papers, and the logistics group is apparently also targeting the topic of cars. With its newspaper offensive, Deutsche Post is directly attacking the core business of media companies in our northern neighboring country, even though Gerdes emphasized that editorial cooperations are planned.
Publishers are up in arms: "This is a scandal," Wolfgang Fürst from the Association of German Magazine Publishers told the Tagesspiegel. They will react "with all severity" to this offensive. One option for him is for the publishers to look for alternative distribution channels and thus deprive the Post of an important part of their turnover.
For Jörg Laskowski, Managing Director of the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers, the newspaper plans are tantamount to a "regulatory super disaster": the state is subsidizing the postal service because it is exempt from VAT. This is unacceptable if it is also involved in publishing.
Speculation about Deutsche Post's entry into the newspaper business has been repeated time and again in recent months, with publishers never failing to howl in outrage. The mail group is already active with its Einkauf aktuell supplement, which, however, has no editorial content.