German daily newspapers want money for content on the Internet
For years, German newspapers hoped to finance their free online offerings with advertising. But that didn't work. At Europe's largest media congress, they are announcing where the journey is heading.
In future, more and more German daily newspapers want to charge for their content on the Internet and introduce so-called online paywalls. "Of course we want to," said Tobias Trevisan, spokesman for the management of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung FAZ, on Wednesday at Medientage München, Europe's largest media congress. So far, however, there is no simple and cost-effective payment system for this.
The Managing Director of Südwestdeutsche Medien Holding, Richard Rebmann, also announced new paywalls. The previous business model, which relied on advertising, was not working, he said. The newspaper Die Welt recently announced that it intends to charge fees for online contributions.
Online appendage to print
Spiegel editor-in-chief Mathias Müller von Blumencron sees a lot of catching up to do in the online journalism of daily newspapers. Many newspapers are still too focused on their print editions on the web. The importance of smartphones is underestimated. "It's an incredibly dangerous competitor, and I don't think we realize that enough," emphasized Müller von Blumencron.
Overrated online media?
The editor-in-chief of the Berliner Zeitung, Brigitte Fehrle, warned against overestimating online media. "The decisive content that is still online today still comes from the print editorial offices," she said. In contrast to Twitter, it is the job of journalists not to pass on information one-to-one, but to check, evaluate, classify and provide background information. "Journalism is what we need to be strong in," emphasized Fehrle.
The Munich Media Days end this Friday. The motto is "Setting the course - the new laws of the media world". (sda)
