At the end of September, the newspaper, which was first published on January 2, 1869, announced that it would stop its daily print edition at the end of the year following more than 44,000 issues – 15 of 45 employees continue to work online and on a monthly printed publication.
“Of course there is sadness on a day like this,” wrote editor-in-chief Roland Korntner in his last editorial published in print and thanked readers, letter writers and the team. He has been working for Upper Austria since 1992. Volksblatt and stated that journalism has “become incredibly fast” in these 30 years and that media and therefore diversity of opinions is extremely important for a democracy, “… which is why a message should not be forgotten at this point: politics has the clear mandate to ensure the appropriate framework conditions so that the Austrian media market does not atrophy further and soon only consists of a well-financed ORF and a very few other brands as well as large foreign players.”
No figures published
Of the 45 employees, 15 remain, including nine of the 27 editorial employees, including six editors, one editorial assistant and two technicians. The reasons given for the disappearance of the print title were the changing market environment, “increased competition, a change in readership and of course increased costs, particularly in production and distribution”.
Figures on the printed circulation and reach of the medium attributable to the ÖVP are not published. It decided not to have the figures collected via Austrian circulation control or media analysis. The end of the “Oberösterreichische Volksblatt” as a daily newspaper follows shortly following that of the “Wiener Zeitung” on July 1st. This means that the daily newspaper landscape continues to shrink and will only have twelve titles at the end of the year.
