About Kieler Express

Kieler Express

The Kieler Express is the free weekly advertising paper of the Kiel publishing house, distributed to the households of the Schleswig-Holstein state capital and its surrounding region. Published by the Kieler Zeitung Verlags- und Druckerei KG-GmbH & Co, the publishing house of the Kieler Nachrichten, the region's leading daily newspaper, the Kieler Express belongs to the classic German Anzeigenblatt genre: a free weekly, financed by advertising, with an editorial section of local news, service tips and event information. It reaches the households of Kiel that do not necessarily subscribe to a daily newspaper, complementing the subscription daily of the same publishing house.

Overview

The Kieler Express appears weekly as a free advertising paper for Kiel and the surrounding region. As an Anzeigenblatt, it is distributed free of charge to all households in its distribution area, financed mainly by display and classified advertising; by the definition of the Federal Association of Free Weekly Papers, such papers are press products distributed free of charge at least weekly to the households of a defined area. The editorial section typically makes up between 30 and 40 percent of the total page volume, with a focus on service tips, shopping information and reports on local events.

The readership of the Kieler Express is the population of the Schleswig-Holstein state capital and its environs: the families who do not subscribe to a daily paper, the city's students and young professionals, the shoppers of the regional retail trade, and everyone interested in the week's local events. Kiel's identity is shaped by the Kiel Firth, by the shipyards and the naval base, by Kiel University and by the Kiel Week, the world's largest sailing regatta, and the Express's editorial mix is aimed at the everyday life of this maritime city. Its readers include the commuters of the Kiel region and the bargain-hunters who read the paper, as the trade puts it, from the back.

History

The Kieler Express belongs to the publishing house of the Kieler Nachrichten, the only daily newspaper published in the Schleswig-Holstein state capital. The Kieler Nachrichten was first published on 3 April 1946 with the permission of the British occupation authorities, and it considers itself the successor to the Kieler Zeitung of 1864 and the Kieler Neueste Nachrichten of 1894. The publishing house, the Kieler Zeitung Verlags- und Druckerei KG-GmbH & Co, is majority-owned by the Madsack publishing group through its Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland, with a narrow majority of 50 percent plus one share.

The Kieler Express was developed within this publishing house as the free weekly companion to the subscription daily, following the pattern of the German regional press in which the daily's publishing house also operates the advertising paper for its market. The Kieler Nachrichten reaches 282,000 readers daily with its regional editions, the Eckernförder Nachrichten, the Holsteiner Zeitung, Kiel lokal, the Ostholsteiner Zeitung and the Segeberger Zeitung, and the Kieler Express extends the publishing house's reach into the households that the daily does not serve. The paper continues as the weekly advertising paper of the Kiel publishing house, distributed free to the region's households.

Coverage and Content

The Kieler Express covers the local life of Kiel and its surrounding region with the editorial mix of the classic advertising paper. The city council and the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein are reported on in compact form, as are the district administrations of the surrounding counties. The paper reports on the week's events in the state capital: the cultural programme of the theatres and concert halls, the Kiel Week and the other sailing events, the university and its research, the shipyards and the maritime economy, and the development of the city's districts. The police and the emergency services are covered in brief.

The editorial section gives particular attention to service and consumer topics: building and housing, health and wellness, automotive, fashion, travel, pensions and investment, pharmacy and medical on-call services, cinema programmes and shopping tips, the classic departments of the German Anzeigenblatt. The paper carries special supplements on seasonal themes, from the Christmas shopping season to the summer holidays, and its event listings and classified advertisements make it the marketplace of the Kiel region. The advertising sections, from the retailers' inserts to the real-estate and job markets, are the paper's economic foundation and its readers' weekly shopping guide.

The Kieler Express's editorial calendar follows the rhythm of the state capital's year: the Kiel Week, the world's largest sailing regatta, dominates the summer editions with its programme, its tall ships and its millions of visitors; the Christmas markets, the harbour festivals and the university's semester rhythm shape the other seasons. The paper reports on the shipyards and the naval base as the city's maritime employers, on the Holstenstraße and the Sophienhof as the shopping streets whose retailers advertise in its pages, and on the district festivals that give each neighbourhood its own identity. As the publishing house's household paper, the Express carries the retail trade's weekly offers into the homes that the subscription daily does not reach, and its inserts from the region's supermarkets, furniture stores and car dealers are the economic backbone of the title. The paper's service pages, from the medical on-call roster to the cinema programmes, make it the practical weekly companion of the Kiel households.

Organization and Ownership

The Kieler Express is published by the Kieler Zeitung Verlags- und Druckerei KG-GmbH & Co, the publishing house of the Kieler Nachrichten in Kiel. The Madsack publishing group holds a narrow majority of 50 percent plus one share through its Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland; the editor-in-chief of the Kieler Nachrichten is Tanja Köhler, and the publisher is Christian T. Heinrich. The publishing house's portfolio, beyond the daily and its regional editions, includes the Segeberger Zeitung and the Kieler Express, and the group understands itself as a multimedia provider, a logistics expert and a printing service provider for the regional economy.

The paper's editorial work is carried out within the publishing house's structure, drawing on the Kieler Nachrichten's local newsroom while producing the advertising paper's own editorial mix. The group's digital portfolio includes the kn-online.de news portal, the KN Mobil app for smartphones and the KN e-paper app for tablets. Financial details for the individual titles are not disclosed separately; the advertising paper's economics rest on the display and classified advertising of the regional retail trade, carried into every household of its distribution area.

Digital Presence

The Kieler Express is present online at kieler-express.de, where the paper's weekly content is available digitally alongside the publishing house's other digital products. The portal carries the paper's local news, service tips and event listings, extending the weekly's Kiel reporting to readers on desktop and mobile devices. An e-paper is available, allowing the weekly to be read online page for page, and the paper's content circulates through the publishing house's digital channels.

As a free weekly, the Kieler Express's digital offering is aimed at the broad household audience that the paper serves in print: the shoppers and event-goers of the Kiel region encounter the paper's advertising and editorial content on the phone as well as in the letterbox. The kn-online.de portal of the Kieler Nachrichten provides the continuous news service of the publishing house between the weekly's editions, with the Kieler Nachrichten's local journalism for the state capital and its regional editions. For the readers of Kiel and its surroundings, the digital Kieler Express is the online companion to the free weekly: the week's offers and events on the phone, the e-paper on the tablet, and the publishing house's portals as the continuous service for the state capital between editions.