About Blick aktuell Remagen

Blick aktuell Remagen

Blick aktuell Remagen is the free weekly newspaper for the Rhine town of Remagen in the district of Ahrweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, published as one of 36 local editions in the Blick aktuell network of KRUPP Verlags GmbH, Sinzig. Reaching approximately 8,293 households each week in tabloid format, the edition has been published since 1985, when it began as the Remagener Chronik, making it one of the oldest titles in the network. Remagen, world-famous for the Ludendorff Bridge of 1945 and today a university town on the left bank of the Rhine, gives the edition a remarkable backdrop: Roman history, the Peace Museum in the bridge towers, the Rhine promenade and a lively cultural scene. Produced by local editors and freelancers with the support of the network's central desk in Sinzig and printed by the family's KRUPP Druck OHG, the paper is financed entirely by advertising and contains no syndicated national news section.

Overview

Published once a week in tabloid format, Blick aktuell Remagen is delivered free to some 8,293 households in Remagen and the surrounding Rhine communities. The delivery area covers the town itself, with its districts of Kripp, Oberwinter, Rolandswerth, Unkelbach and Oedingen, along with neighboring villages that share the town's schools, clubs and Rhine-side life.

The edition is one of 36 titles in the Blick aktuell network published by the Krupp family's KRUPP Verlags GmbH of Sinzig, with a combined weekly circulation of roughly 430,000 copies. The Remagen paper dates to 1985, when it was founded as the Remagener Chronik, among the very oldest titles in the network and a pioneer of the KRUPP free-weekly expansion.

As with all Blick aktuell papers, there is no mantle: no bought-in bundle of national and international news fills its pages. All content is generated within the KRUPP organization, by the central editorial desk in Sinzig under Daniel Stoffel, by local editors and by freelance contributors from a network-wide pool of around 100 reporters and photographers. The paper is local from the first page to the last.

The readership spans the Rhine town's population: families, university students and staff, commuters to Bonn, club members, seniors and the visitors who shape the town's tourism economy. Advertisers are local retailers, craftsmen, car dealers, restaurants and hotels, health and care providers and service businesses, drawn by the paper's complete household coverage in its zone.

History

The Remagen edition was founded in 1985 as the Remagener Chronik, one of the earliest titles in what would become the Blick aktuell network. The mid-1980s were the pioneering years of the KRUPP publishing house's free-weekly strategy: the Sinzig family firm, rooted in the Sinziger Zeitung of 1876, was launching local weeklies in the towns around its home base, and Remagen, just down the Rhine from Sinzig, was among the first markets. The name Chronik signaled the paper's mission to chronicle the town's life.

The Chronik became Blick aktuell Remagen when the publisher consolidated its growing family of titles under the single Blick aktuell brand. The rebranding unified the advertising network while preserving each edition's local editorial identity, and brought the Remagen paper the infrastructure of the larger organization: centralized production, the blick-aktuell.de portal and the presses of KRUPP Druck OHG.

Four decades of publication have made the paper the printed memory of the modern Rhine town. It chronicled Remagen's transformation from a quiet riverside town into a university location with the RheinAhrCampus, the development of the Rhine promenade, the commemoration culture around the bridge towers' Peace Museum, and the steady rhythm of council decisions, club anniversaries and town festivals. It reported on the Rhine floods and on the town's solidarity with the neighboring Ahr valley after the 2021 disaster.

As one of the network's founding-era editions, Remagen embodies the longevity of the free-weekly model. Family ownership, with Hermann Krupp as editor-in-chief and Hermann and Peter Krupp as managing directors, provided four decades of continuity.

Coverage and Content

Blick aktuell Remagen's journalism is shaped by the town's unique history and Rhine-side present. The Remagen town council's decisions on urban development, the Rhine promenade, schools, culture and tourism are covered in the detail residents need, giving the community its essential record of local government.

History provides evergreen themes: the Ludendorff Bridge and the Peace Museum in its towers, the Roman heritage, the Apollinaris church and the town's role in the events of 1945. Features on commemoration, on the museum's exhibitions and on the town's historical identity appear alongside the weekly news, giving the edition a depth few local weeklies can match.

The university adds a youthful dimension: the RheinAhrCampus brings students, research and start-up culture to the Rhine town, and the paper covers campus life, student initiatives and the interplay between town and gown. The Rhine promenade, the passenger ships and the riverside festivals provide tourism material.

Club life is the paper's heart: sports clubs, carnival societies, music associations, volunteer fire brigades and church congregations announce events, celebrate anniversaries and publish photographs. Service pages carry classifieds, job listings, property offers, family announcements and municipal notices, while seasonal specials give advertisers themed contexts.

The tabloid's large color photographs show Remagen at its most evocative: the bridge towers against the Rhine, the promenade in summer, the town festivals and the familiar faces of local celebrations. The tone is historically aware, engaged and community-rooted.

Organization and Ownership

The publisher is KRUPP Verlags GmbH of Sinzig, the family-owned company of the Krupp family whose publishing tradition began with the Sinziger Zeitung in 1876. Hermann Krupp leads the Blick aktuell network as editor-in-chief, with Daniel Robbel as deputy editor-in-chief since 2018; Hermann Krupp and Peter Krupp serve as managing directors of the publishing house.

All 36 editions are coordinated through the central editorial desk in Sinzig, headed by Daniel Stoffel, which oversees production, layout and the digital portal. Local reporting comes from editors and freelance contributors drawn from a network-wide pool of about 100 journalists and photographers who live in the areas they cover. In Remagen, they attend council meetings, cover the Peace Museum's events and photograph the Rhine festivals.

The papers are printed in tabloid format by KRUPP Druck OHG, the family's printing company, appearing on weekdays between Tuesday and Saturday, each edition on its fixed publication day. The integration of publishing and printing under family ownership gives the company control of the production chain.

The paper lives entirely from advertising revenue: display ads, classifieds, inserts and special publications sold to local and regional businesses. There is no cover price and no subscription income. The company follows the German Press Code (Pressekodex), the voluntary ethical code of the German press.

Digital Presence

Blick aktuell Remagen appears online on blick-aktuell.de, the network portal gathering the local journalism of all 36 editions in geographically organized, continuously updated sections. Readers can follow Remagen news daily, browse photo galleries from town festivals and museum events, and search the archive of past coverage.

The e-paper presents the printed tabloid as a page-faithful digital replica for computers, tablets and smartphones, serving readers away on publication day and former residents following home from afar. Archived issues build a digital chronicle of the Rhine town, including four decades of local history.

On social media, primarily Facebook, the Blick aktuell brand shares story links, event tips and photo galleries directly with readers. Remagen's evocative content, bridge tower views, Rhine promenade scenes, festival pictures, performs strongly on social platforms, and the newsroom uses the channels to collect tips and reader photographs.

For advertisers, the publisher markets combined print, portal and social campaigns through a single sales contact. The approach reflects the company's strategy: sustain the profitable printed weekly, with its complete household coverage in Remagen, while expanding the digital channels through which Rhine journalism will increasingly be read.