About Chiemgau-Zeitung

Chiemgau-Zeitung

The Chiemgau-Zeitung is the local edition of the Oberbayerisches Volksblatt (OVB) for the Chiemgau region around Prien am Chiemsee in Upper Bavaria, Germany, appearing Monday to Saturday. The edition is one of the regional versions through which the OVB, the daily newspaper of Rosenheim and southeastern Upper Bavaria, serves its territory. The parent paper was founded on 26 October 1945, in the early postwar months, succeeding the Rosenheimer Anzeiger of 1855, and is published by the OVB GmbH & Co. KG of Rosenheim. The OVB's total sold circulation is around 62,856 copies, and its editor-in-chief is Christoph Maier, with managing directors Oliver Döser, Bernd Stawiarski and Florian Schiller. The paper belongs to the Ippen media group. The Chiemgau-Zeitung combines the OVB's professionally produced pages, created in a mantle cooperation with the Münchner Merkur, with local reporting from the Chiemsee region, with its lake, its mountains and its tourism. Its digital home is ovb-online.de, the portal of the Rosenheim daily.

Overview

The Chiemgau-Zeitung appears Monday to Saturday as the OVB's local edition for Prien am Chiemsee and the surrounding Chiemgau communities. The edition serves the Bavarian lake district around the Chiemsee, the "Bavarian Sea," with its islands, its mountain backdrop and its tourism economy.

The edition is part of the Oberbayerisches Volksblatt, founded on 26 October 1945, succeeding the Rosenheimer Anzeiger first published in 1855. The OVB is published by the OVB GmbH & Co. KG of Rosenheim, with a total sold circulation of approximately 62,856 copies, making it one of the significant regional dailies of Upper Bavaria.

The paper belongs to the Ippen media group of Munich, the family-owned group of publisher Dirk Ippen, which also publishes the Münchner Merkur. The OVB's national and regional pages are produced in a mantle cooperation with the Münchner Merkur, while the local editions add their district pages.

The readership is the Chiemgau's population: families, tourism workers, commuters to Munich or Rosenheim, farmers, club members and seniors. The Chiemsee, the Herrenchiemsee palace and the mountain tourism give the edition distinctive themes.

History

The Chiemgau-Zeitung's history is the history of the Oberbayerisches Volksblatt in the lake district. The OVB was founded on 26 October 1945, in the months after the Second World War, as one of the licensed dailies of the American occupation zone, succeeding the Rosenheimer Anzeiger tradition that reached back to 1855.

The Chiemgau edition emerged as the OVB's local version for the Prien area, giving the lake district dedicated local pages. The edition chronicled the region's postwar history: the tourism boom around the Chiemsee, the Herrenchiemsee palace's cultural program, the mountain villages' development, and the community life of the Bavarian lake district.

The Ippen group's ownership brought the mantle cooperation with the Münchner Merkur, securing the paper's national and Bavarian pages, and the investment in the digital transformation. The Chiemgau-Zeitung's journalism moved onto ovb-online.de, with e-paper, apps and digital subscriptions.

The Chiemsee's tourism shaped the edition's defining stories: the lake shipping's development, the Herrenchiemsee palace's cultural program, the mountain villages' growth and the debates over preserving the lake district's character amid mass tourism. The paper's reporters covered the "Bavarian Sea" with the expertise of locals, documenting both the postcard beauty and the practical challenges of one of Germany's great holiday regions.

The edition's history is the history of a lake-district paper within a strong regional daily, serving a tourism region known across Germany.

Coverage and Content

The Chiemgau-Zeitung's local pages are the daily record of the lake district. The Prien market town council and the district councils' decisions on tourism, the Chiemsee's shipping, schools, roads and the mountain villages' development are covered in the detail residents need.

Tourism dominates the agenda: the Chiemsee's islands, the Herrenchiemsee palace, the lake shipping, the mountain tourism and the debates over the visitor economy. The paper reports on the lake district with the expertise of a newsroom that has covered it for decades.

The mountains provide additional themes: the Chiemgauer Alpen, the hiking and skiing, the alpine clubs and the mountain rescue services. Club life is central: sports clubs, traditional costume associations, music bands, volunteer fire brigades and church congregations announce events and publish reports.

The OVB/Merkur mantle provides professional coverage of Bavarian, German and world news, business, culture and sports. Special supplements serve readers and advertisers throughout the year.

The edition's lake shipping coverage is a Chiemgau specialty: the historic paddle steamers, the island ferries and the lake's captains are reported with the affection of a paper that has watched the white fleet for decades. For the mountain villages, the paper's alpine club and mountain rescue coverage serves the region's outdoor community, while the Herrenchiemsee palace's concerts and exhibitions give the edition cultural content of international caliber. The Chiemgau-Zeitung's pages thus mirror the lake district's unique blend of nature, culture and tourism that draws millions of visitors to the "Bavarian Sea" each year.

Organization and Ownership

The Chiemgau-Zeitung is published as a local edition of the Oberbayerisches Volksblatt, published by the OVB GmbH & Co. KG of Rosenheim. The managing directors are Oliver Döser, Bernd Stawiarski and Florian Schiller, and the editor-in-chief is Christoph Maier.

The paper belongs to the Ippen media group, the Munich-based family group of Dirk Ippen, which also publishes the Münchner Merkur, thetz and other titles. The mantle cooperation with the Münchner Merkur provides the national and Bavarian pages, while the Chiemgau edition's local reporters write the lake-district pages.

The OVB's titles include the Chiemgau-Zeitung, the Mangfall-Bote, the Wasserburger Zeitung and the Mühldorfer Anzeiger, covering southeastern Upper Bavaria with a family of local editions.

Financial details of the individual edition are not publicly disclosed. The company follows the German Press Code (Pressekodex).

Digital Presence

The digital home of the Chiemgau-Zeitung is ovb-online.de, the portal of the Oberbayerisches Volksblatt, one of the most-visited regional news sites in Upper Bavaria. The site carries continuously updated news from Rosenheim and the districts, including the Chiemgau, along with e-paper access, photo galleries, videos and reader services.

The e-paper reproduces the printed edition page by page for computers, tablets and smartphones, including the Chiemgau-Zeitung local pages. The OVB app provides breaking news, personalized notifications and full e-paper access.

On social media, the OVB maintains strong presences on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, distributing regional news, engaging readers and driving traffic to the portal. The Chiemgau edition's stories, lake views, mountain pictures, palace features, reach audiences through these channels.

Newsletters deliver curated briefings on southeastern Upper Bavaria to subscribers' inboxes. The digital strategy of the Ippen group aims to build paid digital subscriptions alongside the printed paper, while the printed Chiemgau-Zeitung remains the daily paper of record for the Bavarian lake district around Prien am Chiemsee.

The edition's Trachten coverage reflects the region's living traditions: the costume associations' festivals, the mountain shooters' parades and the church processions fill the pages, serving a readership for whom Bavarian custom is daily life rather than folklore. For the Chiemgau's tourism workers, the paper's seasonal reporting is essential business reading, and for the lake district's clubs and parishes, the Zeitung's announcements remain the central forum of community life.

The Chiemsee's islands give the paper its most romantic beat: the Herreninsel's palace, the Fraueninsel's monastery and the lake's fishing traditions are covered with the devotion of a hometown paper. For the mountain rescue services and the alpine clubs, the Zeitung's mountain coverage is essential reading, while its reporting on the lake's ecology, from the water quality to the bird reserves, addresses the environmental concerns of one of Bavaria's most precious landscapes.