About Rheinische Post

Rheinische Post

The Rheinische Post (RP) is a major German regional daily newspaper published in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia — the state capital on the Rhine, the city of the Königsallee and the Kunstakademie. Founded nine months after the end of the Second World War with a British military government license — its founders were the newspaper publisher Anton Betz, the later NRW minister-president Karl Arnold (CDU), and the jurist Erich Wenderoth — it first appeared on 2 March 1946 and has stood ever since, by its own account, for democracy, freedom, and human dignity. Especially dominant in the western part of North Rhine-Westphalia, it is one of Germany's most-cited regional newspapers — a distinction that reflects its unusually strong original reporting for a regional title. Its online platforms are RP ONLINE (rp-online.de) and Tonight.de — the latter the group's entertainment and lifestyle portal.

Overview

The Rheinische Post is the newspaper of the Rhineland — Düsseldorf, the state capital on the Rhine, the Bergisches Land, and the Lower Rhine to the Dutch border. The core distribution area stretches from the Bergisches Land to the Dutch border, with 31 local editions — including the Neuß-Grevenbroicher Zeitung, the Solinger Morgenpost, the Bergische Morgenpost, and the Bocholter-Borkener Volksblatt — each with its own regional news pages, so that a reader in Solingen and a reader in Bocholt each get a paper that feels like their own. The paper appears in Rhenish format, available at kiosks and by subscription — and its journalists' bylines carry weight far beyond the Rhineland.

Circulation was 343,000 copies in the third quarter of 1992, rose to 418,000 in 2001 — the paper's peak — stood at about 280,000 in 2018, and was reported around 253,000 in 2021 — the familiar decline, though the RP remains one of Germany's largest regional dailies. The editor-in-chief is Moritz Döbler (since 2020).

History

A 1946 founding for a new beginning

The Rheinische Post was founded nine months after the end of the Second World War with a license from the British military government — one of the Allied new foundations of the postwar era. Its founders — the newspaper publisher Anton Betz, the later NRW minister-president Karl Arnold (CDU), and the jurist Erich Wenderoth, all opponents of the NSDAP — campaigned for a political, economic, and moral new beginning after the war. The paper has stood since its first appearance on 2 March 1946, by its own self-understanding, for democracy, freedom, and human dignity — values the founders, who had lived through the Nazi dictatorship, inscribed in the paper's DNA. The first issue comprised four pages and was limited by paper shortages to 235,000 copies. The distribution area was almost the entire Düsseldorf administrative district, with initially 16, later 22 district editions.

The paper initially appeared twice weekly, then six times a week after the 1949 currency reform — the Währungsreform that stabilized the West German economy. The first publishing house rose on Düsseldorf's Schadowstraße; in 1956 came the move to Blumenstraße. 1981 also brought the central editorial office and advertising department to the Heerdt printing center, and by 1992 a new 14-story publishing house had risen in its neighborhood — the RP press tower. The old downtown publishing buildings were mostly demolished, though the listed facade of the old press building on Martin-Luther-Platz survived and now fronts the Schadow-Arkaden, home to the RP's Düsseldorf local editorial office.

The founding families' descendants — the Betz, Droste, and Wenderoth families (with the Arnold, Alt, and Ebel families also among owners) — remain the paper's publishers, a continuity rare in German media.

Cooperation with Girardet

Since 1976 the Rheinische Post has cooperated with the W. Girardet publishing house — publisher of the Westdeutsche Zeitung (WZ) — in printing and distribution; the cooperation was later extended to IT, administrative services, and advertising papers, and in 2017 the WZ moved its printing to Düsseldorf as well — into the RP's own Rheinisch-Bergische Druckerei in Heerdt. The two papers are competitors in Düsseldorf yet bound by cross-shareholdings: the WZ's Girardet holding owns 6.7 percent of the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, which in turn holds 12.2 percent of Girardet.

The media group

The Rheinische Post is the flagship of the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, which also owns the Saarbrücker Zeitung, the Lausitzer Rundschau, and the Trierischer Volksfreund — a national group built on the Rhineland daily, stretching from the Saar to the Spree. Since 2014 the RP has worked with the Neue Ruhr Zeitung (NRZ), supplying content for the western Ruhr and Lower Rhine paper, as well as for the Westdeutsche Zeitung and the Bocholter-Borkener Volksblatt — making Düsseldorf a news supplier for much of the state's regional press.

An authors' paper

The Rheinische Post is considered an authors' newspaper: 80 percent of articles are written by the company's own journalists — a point of pride in an era of syndication. A parliamentary bureau in Berlin, the central editorial office in Düsseldorf, and correspondents in Washington, London, Brussels, Paris, and Moscow supply content — a foreign network unusual for a regional paper, and the basis of its reputation as one of Germany's most-cited regional dailies. On 17 April 2021 the 75th-anniversary edition appeared with 160 pages — a celebration of three-quarters of a century of Rhineland journalism, from the four-page first issue of 1946 to a modern media group.

Content and Programming

The RP's content centers on the Rhineland: Düsseldorf city and state politics (the state capital, so Landtag politics is local news), the Bergisches Land districts, the Lower Rhine, Fortuna Düsseldorf football, and the cultural life of the Rhineland — from the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie to the Karneval, the "fifth season" that the paper covers with unmatched local expertise. The 31 local editions give each district dedicated pages, from Neuss-Grevenbroich to Bocholt-Borken. With 80 percent of articles written in-house and correspondents on three continents, the paper's national and international coverage exceeds the regional-daily norm — the reason Berlin editors read it and quote it.

Coverage and Audience

The Rheinische Post serves western North Rhine-Westphalia — from the Bergisches Land to the Dutch border — with about 730,000 readers (2021). Its readership is the classic Rhineland profile: locally rooted, loyal, subscription- and kiosk-based, with a strong presence among the region's business and political elites — natural for a state-capital paper. As one of Germany's most-cited regional papers, its journalism reaches a national audience, quoted in Berlin and beyond.

Ownership

The Rheinische Post was founded on 2 March 1946 by the Nazi opponents Karl Arnold, Anton Betz, and Erich Wenderoth with a British license, and is still owned by the founders' descendants — the Arnold, Betz, Droste, Alt, and Ebel families. It belongs to the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, which also owns the Saarbrücker Zeitung, the Lausitzer Rundschau, and the Trierischer Volksfreund. The paper is considered an "Autorenzeitung": some 80 percent of its articles are written by in-house journalists, with correspondents in Washington, London, Brussels, and Paris.

The Rheinische Post is published by Rheinische Post Verlagsgesellschaft mbH of Düsseldorf, owned by the founding families' descendants (Betz, Droste, Wenderoth, Arnold, Alt, Ebel) — an ownership continuity of 80 years, increasingly rare in a consolidating industry. It is the flagship of the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe. The editor-in-chief is Moritz Döbler, who took the helm in 2020.

Digital Presence

The online platforms RP ONLINE (rp-online.de) and Tonight.de carry the paper's journalism digitally, with continuously updated Rhineland news, e-paper editions, and newsletters. RP ONLINE is one of Germany's most-visited regional news portals, operating with digital subscriptions. The paper is active on social media, serving the Rhineland's digitally engaged audience and the Düsseldorf commuter belt — including the cross-border readers of the Dutch frontier. As the flagship of the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, the paper's digital operation also feeds the group's wider network of regional titles.