About Westfalen-Blatt

Westfalen-Blatt

Westfalen-Blatt is a regional daily newspaper headquartered in Bielefeld, in the Ostwestfalen (East Westphalia) region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Published on weekdays in Rhenish format, it is the leading subscription newspaper of its home region, appearing in 13 local editions that also circulate under established local titles such as the Herforder Kreisblatt and the Westfälische Volksblatt. The newspaper is part of the Westfälische Medien Holding AG group. Its political profile is generally described as center-right and bourgeois-conservative, and its roots extend back to 1839.

Overview

Westfalen-Blatt serves the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region — the eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia — with dense local journalism produced by editorial offices and media-consulting teams in some twenty towns, including Bad Oeynhausen, Bielefeld, Bünde, Delbrück, Enger, Espelkamp, Halle (Westfalen), Herford, Höxter, Lübbecke, Paderborn, Rahden, Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock, Steinhagen, Vlotho, and Warburg. Around 60,000 newspaper pages are produced each year, roughly a third of them advertising pages.

The paper appears in Rhenish format, while its magazines and special editions use the half-Rhenish format. Subscription sales dominate: about 88 percent of the sold circulation of roughly 75,000 copies (as of early 2026, per German circulation audit figures) goes to subscribers. Like most German dailies it has lost circulation over the past decades — down by nearly half since 1998 — but it remains the market leader in its core districts, including Paderborn, Höxter, Warburg, Herford, and parts of the Gütersloh district.

The paper's chief editor is Ulrich Windolph, and its managing directors are Dennis Hagen and Marc Zahlmann. Its digital home is westfalen-blatt.de, which carries the print content, regional news updates, e-paper editions, and themed magazines.

History

Origins and postwar relaunch

The newspaper traces its lineage to 1839, though its modern history begins after the Second World War. Under the name Westfalen-Zeitung, it appeared on 15 March 1946 as Bielefeld's first independent newspaper of the postwar era, eleven months after the city's liberation. The British occupation authorities had licensed a new generation of German newspapers, and the Westfalen-Zeitung's founding editorial — signed by Alfred Hausknecht and Dieter Lauenstein — framed the launch as a contribution to the political re-education of the German public and a step toward an independent German press.

The Busse era

Since its 1946 licensing, the paper was owned by the Busse family, later organized as Busse-Holding. In 1958 the family expanded its holdings by acquiring the Westfälische Volksblatt publishing house in Paderborn from its previous owners. The Westfälische Volksblatt had been a newspaper of the Catholic Centre Party until 1933; its sale to Carl-Wilhelm Busse, owner of the Westfalen-Blatt, meant that Paderborn's Catholic milieu lost its own independent local paper — a transaction that local historians still note as a turning point in the region's press history.

The paper's conservative profile became nationally famous in 1971, when Der Spiegel characterized it as "Germany's northernmost CSU newspaper" — a reference to the Bavarian Christian Social Union that captured its distinctly center-right, Catholic-influenced editorial stance. The paper is generally described as bourgeois-conservative to this day.

Ownership shifted in stages during the 2000s. In 2004 the Axel Springer publishing house acquired a minority stake of 14.5 percent. In November 2009 Springer sold its share to publisher Dirk Ippen, and in July 2011 the Aschendorff media group of Münster — publisher of the Westfälische Nachrichten — bought a further 24.9 percent, a transaction approved by the Federal Cartel Office in January 2012. Kai Diekmann, who later became editor-in-chief of the tabloid Bild, began his journalistic career at the Westfalen-Blatt.

The Westfälische Medien Holding

On 1 January 2019, Westfalen-Blatt folded its entire business into a newly formed Westfälische Medien Holding AG, into which the Aschendorff group likewise contributed its media operations in daily newspapers, advertising papers, printing, and radio. The structures of both companies in the Münsterland and Ostwestfalen regions remained unchanged under the holding's roof, preserving the editorial identities of the participating titles while pooling back-office and commercial functions.

The printing side of the business was consolidated in 2023: the printing plant in Bielefeld-Sennestadt closed on 31 July 2023, and since August 2023 the Westfalen-Blatt has been printed at the Aschendorff print center in Münster-Mecklenbeck. From 1 January 2025, advertising sales for all of the paper's digital and analog products were bundled with those of the rival-turned-partner Neue Westfälische under the umbrella of OWL Media Solutions GmbH.

In March 2026, the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe announced its intention to take over the Westfälische Medien Holding, a move that would bring the Westfalen-Blatt and the Westfälische Nachrichten under the Düsseldorf-based group. The Federal Cartel Office approved the acquisition in April 2026.

Two dramatic episodes marked recent years. On 7 July 2024, a major fire partially destroyed the paper's publishing building in Bielefeld; the roof collapsed along the entire length of the complex, and the building was declared beyond saving. The paper nevertheless continued to appear.

Content and Programming

Westfalen-Blatt's strength is local and regional journalism. Its 13 local editions cover their districts with town-level reporting on councils, schools, clubs, business, and culture, supplemented by national and international pages produced centrally. The paper's themed magazines — with titles such as "Mein Garten" (My Garden), "Fit," and "Schöner Reisen" (Travel in Style) — appear inside some editions and extend the brand into service journalism.

The group historically also published a large portfolio of free advertising papers, including OWL am Sonntag, Paderborn am Sonntag, Desenberg-Bote, Kalletaler Blick, and Wir in Löhne. These were discontinued with their final issues on 29 April 2023, as the advertising-paper market contracted; some titles, such as the Sintfeld Bote and Delbrücker Stadtpost, were continued by other publishers. The ZVG Zeitungsvertriebs- und Servicegesellschaft belongs to the group as its distribution and service arm.

The paper's main competitor is the Neue Westfälische, also based in Bielefeld; in the former Wiedenbrück district of Gütersloh it additionally competes with Die Glocke of Oelde, a Catholic-oriented paper.

Coverage and Audience

The distribution area covers Ostwestfalen-Lippe with 13 local editions, some under their own historic mastheads: the Herforder Kreisblatt serves the Herford area, and the Westfälische Volksblatt serves the Paderborn district. In Paderborn, Höxter, and Warburg, as well as in Herford, Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock, Steinhagen, and Werther, the paper's editions are the circulation market leaders.

The readership is the classic profile of a German regional subscription daily: locally rooted, comparatively older, and loyal, with 88 percent of sales coming from subscriptions. Sold circulation stood at about 75,000 copies in the first quarter of 2026, declining by an average of just over 4 percent per year over the past decade. The digital audience on westfalen-blatt.de and the e-paper editions partially offsets the print decline, though the paper remains fundamentally a print-subscription business.

Ownership

The newspaper is published by Westfalen-Blatt Vereinigte Zeitungsverlage GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of Westfälische Medien Holding AG. Following the Federal Cartel Office's April 2026 approval, the holding — and with it the Westfalen-Blatt — is set to become part of the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, one of Germany's major regional publishing groups. The paper's editorial leadership consists of editor-in-chief Ulrich Windolph and managing directors Dennis Hagen and Marc Zahlmann.

Digital Presence

The paper's website, westfalen-blatt.de, publishes regional news continuously, offers the e-paper edition of the print paper, and hosts the themed magazines and special editions. Like most German regional dailies, the site operates with registration and subscription models for full access. The paper is active on social media, where its local editions maintain their own channels, and it distributes newsletters tailored to its districts. The 2025 bundling of advertising sales with the Neue Westfälische under OWL Media Solutions reflects the broader industry trend of regional publishers pooling digital and print advertising operations to remain viable.