About Schifferstadter Tagblatt

Schifferstadter Tagblatt

The Schifferstadter Tagblatt is the local daily newspaper for Schifferstadt in the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis of Rhineland-Palatinate, published Monday through Saturday by the family-owned Geier-Druck-Verlag. Founded in 1905 by Emil Geier — and still published by his descendants — the paper is one of the few remaining genuinely independent family newspapers in Germany, with its own printing plant in Schifferstadt's Bahnhofstraße. With around 2,000 sold copies, it is a micro-daily that has preserved its local identity for more than a century, taking its national pages from the Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main in Mainz while producing its own local journalism.

Overview

The Schifferstadter Tagblatt appears six times a week in Schifferstadt, the town of around 20,000 inhabitants in the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis between Speyer and Ludwigshafen — the Palatinate town known for its Rettich (radish) festival, the Schifferstadter Rettichfest, and as the birthplace of Olympic wrestler Wilfried Dietrich. The paper is published by the Geier-Druck-Verlag of Schifferstadt, the printing and publishing house founded by the Geier family, with Susanne Geier as editor-in-chief and publisher (Herausgeberin).

With 1,953 sold copies (IVW, 4th quarter of 2011 — the most recent verified figure available), the Schifferstadter Tagblatt is among Germany's smallest daily newspapers. Its identity is that of the classic independent Heimatzeitung: the local pages — town council, schools, churches, clubs, sports, family notices — are produced by the paper's own small newsroom in Schifferstadt, while the national and international pages come from the Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main (VRM) in Mainz, one of Rhineland-Palatinate's large media groups. The paper is printed in its own plant: in 1993 the publishing house commissioned a four-colour rotary press, preserving the family's tradition of printing its own newspaper.

The readership is the loyal core of Schifferstadt's newspaper readers: families, local officials, club members and readers attached to the paper's century-long identity as the town's own newspaper. In Schifferstadt the paper competes with the local editions of the region's large dailies — Die Rheinpfalz of Ludwigshafen (the state's largest regional daily) maintains a local editorial office in Schifferstadt — but the Tagblatt's independence and its closeness to the town's institutions give it a distinctive position: it is the paper printed in Schifferstadt, by a Schifferstadt family, for Schifferstadt.

History

The newspaper was founded in 1905 by Emil Geier — the grandfather of the later publisher of the same name — and appeared initially once a week under the name Schifferstadter Anzeiger. From 1910 the paper became Schifferstadt's official gazette (Amtsblatt) and appeared three times a week; in 1917 it was renamed Bote vom Rehbach (after the Rehbach stream that flows through the town); from 1927 it appeared as a daily newspaper. On 20 June 1942 the paper's last wartime issue appeared for war-related reasons.

After the abolition of the newspaper licensing requirement in 1949, the founder's descendants resumed the newspaper business — finally under the present name, Schifferstadter Tagblatt. The post-war paper preserved the family's printing tradition: the Geier-Druck-Verlag printed the newspaper in its own plant, and in 1993 the house commissioned a modern four-colour rotary press. The paper's century of family ownership — from Emil Geier (1905) through his descendants to today's editor-in-chief and publisher Susanne Geier — makes it one of the longest continuous family publishing traditions in the German local press.

The paper adapted to the digital age with its website, schifferstadter-tagblatt.de, and a Facebook presence, while the printed daily — produced in the family's own printing plant — remained its core product. The national pages come from the Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main in Mainz, the standard arrangement for independent small dailies: local journalism from Schifferstadt, national journalism from the group newsroom. The Geier-Druck-Verlag's dual role as publisher and printer is increasingly rare in the German press: most small dailies long ago gave up their own presses and print in central plants, but the Schifferstadt house has kept its rotary press running, preserving both the craft and the independence it represents.

Coverage and Content

The Schifferstadter Tagblatt's local pages cover Schifferstadt and its immediate surroundings in depth: the town council, the local administration, the schools, the churches — including the St. Laurentius church and the Herz-Jesu church — the police reports, the volunteer fire brigade, and the dense network of clubs and associations, from sports clubs to the carnival societies and the Rettichfest organizers. The paper's reporting on the town's traditions — the Rettichfest, the Kerwe (church consecration festival), the Christmas markets — reflects Schifferstadt's Palatinate identity, and its sports pages cover the local clubs' fortunes.

The national pages from the Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main provide the wider context: Rhineland-Palatinate state politics from Mainz, national and international news, business, culture and sport. The combination is the classic formula of the independent small daily: the local paper for identity and community, the group mantle for the world beyond the town. The paper's family notices, club announcements and event calendars make it the chronicle of the town's social life — and its continuous publication since 1905, through the Empire, two world wars, the Nazi shutdown and the post-war re-founding, makes its archive one of the richest local-historical sources in the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis.

Organization and Ownership

The Schifferstadter Tagblatt is published by the Geier-Druck-Verlag of Schifferstadt (Bahnhofstraße, near the town hall and the railway station), the family-owned printing and publishing house founded by Emil Geier in 1905. The paper's editor-in-chief and publisher (Herausgeberin) is Susanne Geier — the founder's descendant, continuing the family's publishing tradition into its fourth generation. The publishing house prints the newspaper in its own plant, where the four-colour rotary press commissioned in 1993 produces the daily.

The paper's national pages come from the Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main (VRM) in Mainz — the media group behind the Wiesbadener Kurier, the Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz and the Darmstädter Echo group — the standard mantle arrangement for independent small dailies. The paper's local newsroom in Schifferstadt produces the local pages within this structure. Advertising sales are handled by the publishing house itself, with the paper's reach — around 2,000 sold copies — forming the basis of its media data. The Geier family's continued ownership makes the Schifferstadter Tagblatt one of the few remaining German dailies still published by its founding family — a living piece of press history in the Palatinate.

Digital Presence

The Schifferstadter Tagblatt's digital home is schifferstadter-tagblatt.de, the paper's own website, complemented by a Facebook presence — the standard digital offering of the independent small daily. The website carries the day's local news from Schifferstadt alongside the paper's service information, while the printed daily remains the core product, produced in the family's own printing plant.

For a micro-daily with around 2,000 print copies, the digital presence is both a reader service and a necessity: the website extends the paper's reach beyond its print distribution area — former Schifferstadt residents, commuters to Ludwigshafen and Mannheim, and readers interested in the town's affairs — while the Facebook page provides the interactive channel for reader engagement. The paper's digital strategy follows the pattern of the independent local press: the website as the always-available local news source, the printed daily as the finished newspaper for the loyal subscriber base, and the social media channels as the distribution network for the day's stories. The Geier family's printing plant, after more than a century, continues to produce the town's own newspaper — now complemented by the digital platforms that carry Schifferstadt's news beyond the printed page.