About Gmünder Tagespost

Gmünder Tagespost

The Gmünder Tagespost is the local daily newspaper of Schwäbisch Gmünd in the Ostalb district of Baden-Württemberg, published by the SDZ Druck und Medien GmbH & Co. KG of Aalen. Appearing Monday to Saturday with a sold circulation of 10,095 copies, of which 3,445 are e-paper subscriptions, it serves the oldest Staufer town and its surrounding communities with local pages produced by its own newsroom in Schwäbisch Gmünd, combined with the national section of the Südwest Presse of Ulm. Founded in 1959 by the Süddeutscher Zeitungsdienst, the paper made press history in 1965 as the first newspaper in the Federal Republic to be printed in four colours on a rotary press using the offset process.

Overview

The Gmünder Tagespost appears Monday to Saturday as a subscription daily for Schwäbisch Gmünd and the eastern Ostalb district. Its sold circulation stands at 10,095 copies (IVW 4/2024, Monday to Saturday), a decline of only 9.1 percent since 1998, one of the most stable circulation trajectories among German local dailies; the 3,445 e-paper subscriptions testify to the paper's successful digital transition. The paper's distribution area covers Schwäbisch Gmünd with its districts Bettringen, Bargau, Degenfeld, Großdeinbach, Herlikofen, Lindach, Rechberg, Straßdorf and Weiler, and the surrounding municipalities from Heubach, Lautern and Lorch to Bartholomä, Böbingen, Durlangen, Eschach, Göggingen, Gschwend, Heuchlingen, Iggingen, Leinzell, Mögglingen, Mutlangen, Ruppertshofen, Schechingen, Spraitbach, Täferrot, Waldstetten, Wäschenbeuren and Alfdorf.

The readership of the Tagespost is the population of the Rems valley's oldest town and its neighbouring communities: the employees of the town's precision-engineering and jewellery industries, the commuters who work in Aalen, Stuttgart or the Rems valley, the retailers and craftspeople of the historic old town, and the engaged citizens of a town whose Staufer heritage, from the Heilig-Kreuz-Münster to the town fortifications, shapes its identity. In Schwäbisch Gmünd the Tagespost competes with the Rems-Zeitung, the oldest still-published daily in Baden-Württemberg founded in 1786, making the town one of the state's few remaining two-paper markets.

History

The Gmünder Tagespost was founded in 1959 by the Süddeutscher Zeitungsdienst, the publishing company that also publishes the Schwäbische Post of Aalen, as the daily newspaper for the district of Schwäbisch Gmünd. The Süddeutsche Zeitungsdienst had itself been founded in 1948, when Johannes Binkowski and Konrad Theiss received permission from the US military government to publish the Schwäbische Post as the twelfth newspaper in Baden-Württemberg. In 1965 the Gmünder Tagespost, together with the Schwäbische Post, became the first newspaper in the Federal Republic to be printed in four colours on a newspaper rotary press using the offset process, a milestone in German newspaper printing technology.

In 2000 the Süddeutsche Zeitungsdienst was renamed SDZ Druck und Medien GmbH & Co. KG, the Aalen-based media group that publishes the paper to this day. Since 1977 the publishing house has also produced the two advertising papers Wochenpost and Gmünder Anzeiger for the same distribution area, and since May 2004 the Tagespost has offered its subscribers the TagespostCard, a customer loyalty card for discounted shopping in the region. The paper's online edition has appeared since 13 February 2003. The editors-in-chief are Constantin Blaß and Michael Länge, and the managing directors are Constanze van Overdam and Bernd Sievers. The company and its subsidiaries employ around three hundred people, including trainees, dual-study students and volunteers.

Coverage and Content

The Gmünder Tagespost sets a clear emphasis on its local section: the newsroom is based in Schwäbisch Gmünd and brings local and regional competence to its reporting. The town council and the town administration form a core beat, as do the neighbouring municipalities and the district administration in Aalen. The paper reports on the town's precision-engineering, jewellery and manufacturing industries, on the retail trade and the development of the historic town centre, on schools and the town's educational institutions, and on the transport connections of the Rems valley. The courts, the police and the emergency services are covered as a matter of course.

The paper's sections cover the day's topics and politics, background reporting, the South-West review, the view of the world, local news, culture, sport and business, complemented by a youth page, leisure and event tips, and entertainment such as puzzles. The paper sets store by modern infographics that supplement the information in its articles. The community life of the area, the volunteer fire services, the sports clubs and their leagues, the churches and their congregations, and the cultural life of the Staufer town, from the museums to the festivals, fill the local pages. The national section comes from the Südwest Presse's central editorial office in Ulm. Family announcements, event listings and the classified and display advertising complete the daily.

The paper's TagespostCard customer loyalty programme, offered since May 2004, links the subscription to discounted shopping in the region's retailers, while the SDZ group's advertising papers Wochenpost and Gmünder Anzeiger, published since 1977, carry the group's advertising into the same distribution area. With 3,445 e-paper subscriptions the digital edition already forms a substantial share of the total circulation, and the paper's local journalism is shaped by its base in Schwäbisch Gmünd rather than by the Aalen publishing headquarters.

Organization and Ownership

The Gmünder Tagespost is published by the SDZ Druck und Medien GmbH & Co. KG, the Aalen-based media group that also publishes the Schwäbische Post. The company and its subsidiaries employ around three hundred permanent staff, and the publishing house's history reaches back to the Süddeutscher Zeitungsdienst founded in 1948. The editors-in-chief are Constantin Blaß, responsible, and Michael Länge; the managing directors are Constanze van Overdam and Bernd Sievers. The paper takes its national pages from the central editorial office of the Südwest Presse in Ulm, combining the Aalen-Gmünd publishing house's local journalism with the Ulm group's national and regional coverage.

The SDZ group's structure reflects the consolidation of the East Württemberg press, in which the historic publishing houses of Aalen and Schwäbisch Gmünd were brought together under one corporate roof while maintaining their own mastheads and local newsrooms. The group's printing operations serve the region's newspapers, and its advertising papers Wochenpost and Gmünder Anzeiger complement the dailies in the same distribution area. Financial details for the individual titles are not disclosed separately; the paper's economics rest on the combination of the stable subscription base, including the growing e-paper segment, local advertising and the shared production of the group.

Digital Presence

The Gmünder Tagespost has been online since 13 February 2003 at gmuender-tagespost.de, where the paper's local journalism for Schwäbisch Gmünd and the eastern Ostalb district is available digitally. The site carries continuously updated local news, photo galleries and multimedia content, and the paper's reporting is presented with the modern infographics that characterise its print edition. The paper is published as an e-paper, available through the iKiosk platform, reproducing the printed edition page for page for reading on smartphone, tablet or computer at any time and in any place; with 3,445 e-paper subscriptions, the digital edition forms a substantial part of the paper's circulation.

As a subscription daily, much of the digital content is reserved for registered and paying readers, while selected local stories remain freely accessible. The paper's digital products include newsletters and breaking-news alerts for the region, and its local journalism circulates through social media channels to readers who encounter the paper primarily on mobile devices. For the readers of Schwäbisch Gmünd and the Rems valley, the digital Tagespost is the online companion to the printed daily: the Staufer town's news on the phone in the morning, the e-paper on the tablet in the evening, and the gmuender-tagespost.de portal as the continuous news service for the eastern Ostalb district between editions.