Generational change in print
Noticed: Public attention is increasingly shifting from big-picture politics toward everyday life and lifestyle—especially among young people. The primary victims of this trend are the traditional opinion-forming daily newspapers.
Column Public attention is increasingly shifting from big politics to everyday life and lifestyle - especially among young people. The main victims of this development are the traditional opinion-forming daily newspapers: Newspaper publishers and journalists recently gathered at the European Newspaper Congress in Vienna and looked into the void together. It's not just the ads that are missing, but also the new readers. Young people are no longer interested in the daily paper. Recent studies show that the number of newspaper readers among 14 to 19-year-olds has halved in the last ten years, while Internet use is steadily increasing. In a survey conducted by the University of Dortmund, the researchers found that the main reason for this was a simple lack of interest in what is written in the newspaper, and this reading fatigue stands in stark contrast to a new love of reading in another market segment. For a few months now, new and predominantly sophisticated press products have been appearing, particularly in Berlin, whose readers are also younger. These are thick, lavishly illustrated magazines called Dummy and Cicero, U-Spot, Qvest, Deutsch, Alert or Monopol and deal with culture, fashion, art, politics and society.
There is no sign of the much lamented trend towards short and very short texts. Instead, some offer reportages of eight, ten or more pages. The print runs are respectable and reach up to 60,000 copies. And the major publishers are considering further magazine projects - or the option of joining the magazines founded almost exclusively by independent small publishers.
There can therefore be no talk of substituting printed media. However, it is clear that a specific and particularly renowned print segment is in a structural crisis. In addition to the revenue model, this also affects the content on offer. Why do young people read political reports?
in - for example - Dummy, but don't fancy the Süddeutsche Zeitung or the FAZ?
If you leaf through the new magazines, you can see the reason: apart from Ringier's Cicero, there is no institutional politics and economics anywhere. The showdowns and rituals of governments, parties and lobbyists have no echo chambers here. The makers and buyers of these publications are completely indifferent to the productions on this stage.
Life worth reading obviously takes place elsewhere: In the studios, offices and workshops of creative contemporaries, in the various zones of society where outsiders on the one hand and up-and-comers on the other test out their destinies and life plans. There is a hunger for reality in the neighborhood and out in the world, where people work, love and die. This should not immediately be denounced as apolitical. After all, it is about attitudes and morals, about social conditions and about the possibilities for the pursuit of happiness that the American founding fathers spoke of. Exciting stories about this, at least it seems, only begin where big politics ends.
It is no wonder that the daily newspapers, as media that have traditionally devoted themselves entirely to chronicling the political and economic state theater, are suffering the most from this shift in interest.
As it cannot be assumed that the operations on the republican main stage will change fundamentally and thus become more attractive again, we will probably have to prepare ourselves for a further loss of function, especially of the traditional opinion-forming daily press. Even more than today, they will become niche publications for the communication of the functional elites, while society gathers around other campfires.
> Heribert Seifert is
Media and culture correspondent for the NZZ in Germany.
There is no sign of the much lamented trend towards short and very short texts. Instead, some offer reportages of eight, ten or more pages. The print runs are respectable and reach up to 60,000 copies. And the major publishers are considering further magazine projects - or the option of joining the magazines founded almost exclusively by independent small publishers.
There can therefore be no talk of substituting printed media. However, it is clear that a specific and particularly renowned print segment is in a structural crisis. In addition to the revenue model, this also affects the content on offer. Why do young people read political reports?
in - for example - Dummy, but don't fancy the Süddeutsche Zeitung or the FAZ?
If you leaf through the new magazines, you can see the reason: apart from Ringier's Cicero, there is no institutional politics and economics anywhere. The showdowns and rituals of governments, parties and lobbyists have no echo chambers here. The makers and buyers of these publications are completely indifferent to the productions on this stage.
Life worth reading obviously takes place elsewhere: In the studios, offices and workshops of creative contemporaries, in the various zones of society where outsiders on the one hand and up-and-comers on the other test out their destinies and life plans. There is a hunger for reality in the neighborhood and out in the world, where people work, love and die. This should not immediately be denounced as apolitical. After all, it is about attitudes and morals, about social conditions and about the possibilities for the pursuit of happiness that the American founding fathers spoke of. Exciting stories about this, at least it seems, only begin where big politics ends.
It is no wonder that the daily newspapers, as media that have traditionally devoted themselves entirely to chronicling the political and economic state theater, are suffering the most from this shift in interest.
As it cannot be assumed that the operations on the republican main stage will change fundamentally and thus become more attractive again, we will probably have to prepare ourselves for a further loss of function, especially of the traditional opinion-forming daily press. Even more than today, they will become niche publications for the communication of the functional elites, while society gathers around other campfires.
> Heribert Seifert is
Media and culture correspondent for the NZZ in Germany.
