For economic reasons, the East Thuringian newspaper in some communities in the district of Greiz only as an e-paper in the future. The daily delivery of the printed newspaper will be discontinued there at the end of April due to increased costs for paper, production and delivery, said the Funke media group, to which the newspaper belongs. About 300 subscribers are affected. Adjusting the printed edition in the area is “certainly a difficult step for us as a media company,” said Funke’s managing director in Thuringia, Michael Tallai. In future, readers will pay EUR 29.99 for the e-paper instead of EUR 45.90 for the printed version.
Next to the East Thuringian newspaper (Gera) belong to the Thuringian General (Erfurt) and the Thuringian state newspaper (Weimar) to the Funke media in the federal state. So far, these newspapers had been delivered in all regions of Thuringia as a printed edition, as a spokeswoman says. The media group described the development in the district of Greiz on Tuesday as a “consequence that German media companies would have to draw from the explosion in paper, production and delivery costs”.
This development in East Thuringia does not come as a complete surprise, it can also be observed in many other places in Germany. The delivery of newspapers has become more difficult, especially in rural areas. A comparable case has not yet existed in Germany, the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) told the German Press Agency. “This is actually the first publisher to do it so officially,” said the head of publishing at the BDZV, Christian Eggert. He spoke of a “wake-up call” for the entire industry.