About HALLO

HALLO

HALLO is a German local weekly newspaper for the east and southeast of Munich, published by the Hallo-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG in Haar near Munich. Founded on 27 March 1968 by Karl Dressel, the paper appears weekly with a distributed circulation of around 323,814 copies across five district editions and two weekend editions, delivered free of charge to households. It is financed entirely through advertising, a model it has followed since its founding, and it has belonged to the Münchner Merkur newspaper group since 1998. HALLO covers the districts and municipalities of Munich's east and southeast, from Ramersdorf and Trudering to the communities of the southeastern district of Munich, with local editorial content combined with display and classified advertising.

Overview

HALLO is published weekly as a free local newspaper in the German Anzeigenblatt tradition, though with a stronger editorial profile than many pure advertising papers. Its distribution area lies in the east and southeast of Munich and the adjacent district of Munich: the five district editions cover Ramersdorf, Perlach and Berg am Laim; Trudering, Riem, Haar and Grasbrunn; Oberhaching, Sauerlach, Taufkirchen and Unterhaching; Feldkirchen, Aschheim and Kirchheim; and Aying, Brunnthal, Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, Hohenbrunn, Neubiberg, Ottobrunn and Putzbrunn. Two additional weekend editions extend the reach. With a weekly circulation of 323,814 copies, HALLO is one of the highest-circulation local weeklies in the Munich area.

The paper's content combines neighbourhood reporting with the advertising that finances it. The editorial pages cover local politics in the district committees and municipal councils, urban development, schools, clubs and associations, churches, culture and events in Munich's eastern districts and the southeastern municipalities. Because the paper is delivered free to every household in its area, it reaches residents who do not subscribe to any daily newspaper, giving it a broad and socially mixed readership.

The publisher is the Hallo-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, based in Haar, led by managing director Alexandra Gipser. The publishing house is a member of the Anzeigenblattgruppe Südbayern and of the Bundesverband Deutscher Anzeigenblätter (BVDA), the federal association of German advertising papers, embedding it in the industry's professional structures. The two weekend editions complement the five district editions, extending the paper's reach into the weekend shopping and leisure period and giving advertisers additional placements around the days when household purchasing decisions are made.

History

The Hallo-Verlag was founded on 27 March 1968 by Karl Dressel with the aim of informing citizens about events in their neighbourhoods and municipalities in the east of Munich. In the beginning the paper appeared exclusively in Waldtrudering, the eastern Munich district where it was born. HALLO was the first medium to appear in Neuperlach, the large satellite town built in the 1970s, giving the new district its first local press from the start. When the Messestadt Riem district began to be built on the site of the old Munich-Riem airport, HALLO started reporting there as well, accompanying the growth of Munich's eastern districts through the decades.

From its founding, HALLO financed itself exclusively through advertising, a principle that has remained unchanged for more than five decades. The paper grew with the eastern districts: as Neuperlach, Trudering, Riem and the southeastern municipalities expanded, the paper's district editions expanded with them, developing into the five-edition structure of today.

A turning point came in 1998, when the publishing house joined the Zeitungsgruppe Münchner Merkur, the newspaper group behind the Münchner Merkur daily and the tz tabloid. The integration into the Merkur group connected the free weekly to one of Bavaria's major regional publishing houses while preserving its identity as the local paper for Munich's east and southeast. The publishing house also became a member of the Anzeigenblattgruppe Südbayern and the BVDA, anchoring it in the cooperative structures of the southern Bavarian advertising-paper market.

Coverage and Content

The editorial content of HALLO is devoted to Munich's east and southeast and the adjacent municipalities of the district of Munich. Regular topics include the district committees (Bezirksausschüsse) of the eastern Munich districts and the municipal councils of Haar, Ottobrunn, Unterhaching, Taufkirchen and the other southeastern communities, urban development and major projects such as the ongoing evolution of the Messestadt Riem, schools and kindergartens, clubs and associations, churches and social institutions, culture and events, and announcements of festivals, markets and neighbourhood activities. The paper's long presence in Neuperlach gives it a particular connection to the satellite town's community life.

The advertising section is the economic core of the paper: display ads from the retailers, restaurants, craftsmen, medical practices and service providers of Munich's east and southeast, real-estate advertisements in one of Germany's most expensive housing markets, and job advertisements from local employers. Classified ads complete the marketplace function. Special editions and theme pages accompany the seasonal rhythms of local commerce, from the Christmas business period to the spring and autumn event seasons. Because the paper has been financed exclusively through advertising since its founding in 1968, its advertising sales organization is geared entirely to the needs of local and regional advertisers, from the single shop in Trudering to the retail centres of the southeastern municipalities.

Organization and Ownership

HALLO is published by the Hallo-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, based in Haar near Munich. The managing director is Alexandra Gipser. Since 1998 the publishing house has belonged to the Zeitungsgruppe Münchner Merkur, the Munich newspaper group that publishes the Münchner Merkur daily and the tz tabloid. The publisher is a member of the Anzeigenblattgruppe Südbayern and of the Bundesverband Deutscher Anzeigenblätter.

The paper is printed in the group's production arrangements and delivered free to households each week across its five district editions and two weekend editions in Munich's east and southeast. The business model is purely advertising-financed: there is no subscription or cover price, and revenue comes from display and classified advertising. The integration into the Münchner Merkur group provides the publishing house with the backing of a major regional media company while the editorial team in Haar retains responsibility for the local content that defines HALLO's identity.

Digital Presence

The digital home of HALLO is the Hallo-Verlag's website at hallo-verlag.de, which presents the paper's editions and content online and serves as the publishing house's shop window for readers and advertisers. The paper's integration into the Münchner Merkur group connects it to the group's digital infrastructure, including the Merkur and tz online portals, which extend the reach of local reporting from Munich's east and southeast into the digital environment.

On social media, HALLO's channels share district headlines and engage with readers from the eastern districts and southeastern municipalities, providing a point of contact between the newsroom and its audience. The printed weekly remains the core product, delivered free to more than three hundred thousand households each week, while the digital presence ensures that the paper's local journalism is findable and shareable online. For advertisers, the combination of high household coverage in print and digital visibility makes HALLO one of the notable local advertising media in the Munich market. The paper's history as the first medium in Neuperlach and its early presence in the Messestadt Riem give it a particular credibility in the districts it serves: generations of residents in Munich's east have grown up with HALLO as the paper that documented the building and maturing of their neighbourhoods.