About OH!

OH!

OH! is the city magazine of Oberhausen in the Ruhr region, delivered free every two months to all households in the city in a print run of 115,000 copies. Published since 2013 by the city's economic development and tourism agency (OWT) together with the city of Oberhausen, it informs residents with background stories, current reports and photo spreads about developments and events in the city. The print magazine is complemented by the digital platform Oh! Online, the Oh! Guide blog and social media channels, under the motto "from Oberhausen, about Oberhausen and for Oberhausen."

Overview

OH! is a bimonthly city magazine — "Das Stadtmagazin aus Oberhausen" — that has been delivered to every household in Oberhausen since 2013, six times a year, in a printed circulation of 115,000 copies. That universal household distribution makes it one of the highest-circulation city publications in the Ruhr region: every Oberhausen household receives it, free of charge, as an insert-like city medium. The content formula combines exciting background stories, current news and beautiful photo spreads about developments and events in the city. The digital arm, Oh! Online at oh-stadtmagazin.de, keeps residents up to date between issues, while the "Oh! Guide" blog and the social media channels put the city in the reader's pocket: excursion tips, café and restaurant recommendations and useful knowledge about the city, available everywhere with a few clicks. The magazine bundles all aspects of the city in one place — tourism, economy, culture, sport and society — giving every city conversation its platform. The self-description sets the tone: as honest as the Ruhr region, as versatile as Oberhausen.

History

The Oh! Stadtmagazin was launched in 2013 as a joint project of the Oberhausener Wirtschafts- und Tourismusförderung (OWT) — the city's economic development and tourism promotion agency — and the city of Oberhausen itself, in cooperation with the communications agency CONTACT. The concept was unusual for a city magazine: instead of a commercial publisher, the city and its development agency became the publishers, producing a magazine that is simultaneously city marketing, citizen information and local journalism. The team behind it are Oberhausen residents who know and love their city: experienced journalists, photographers and designers who make the magazine and the Oh! Online digital presence authentic and tangible. Over more than a decade the title has become a fixture of the city's communication: the waste-collection calendar for 2026, for instance, was distributed as a supplement in the Stadtmagazin to all households — a sign of the magazine's function as the city's official information channel. The digital expansion with Oh! Online, the Oh! Guide blog and social media extended the bimonthly print rhythm into a continuous city information service.

Coverage and Content

The magazine covers the full breadth of city life. The "Stadtgespräch" (city talk) section carries the current municipal news: the 2026 waste-collection calendar with its digital applications and reminder functions in the Oberhausen app and the WBO app; the wedding-date calendar with the 2026 dates at the four wedding venues (Technical Town Hall, Oberhausen Palace at the Kaisergarten, Vondern Castle and the Weiße Flotte passenger ship); and the VRR tariff reform with its reduction from seven to three price zones. The "Tourismus & Wirtschaft" sections report on the local economy and tourism, while "Umwelt" covers sustainability topics such as the repair cafés — the Repair-Café in the Schmachtendorf district library, where volunteers help residents fix appliances instead of throwing them away, with around 15 visitors per session. The Oh! Guide blog is the service-journalism arm: beer-garden guides (the Gdanska Polish pub on the old market square, the Liebling im Mühlenbach in the Hexbach valley, the Kanale Grande opposite the Kaisergarten with its view of the Rhine-Herne Canal, the Gecko Torhaus at the Olga Park), excursion tips and restaurant recommendations. Crisis communication is part of the remit too: the city's crisis guide with preparedness tips for blackouts, floods and evacuations is presented through the magazine's channels. The "Krisenlage" content lists the scenarios — evacuations after ordnance finds, storms and floods, heat periods, energy-supply disruptions, fires, prolonged blackouts — and the recommended precautions: emergency food and water supplies, first-aid kits and medications, alternative lighting and power sources, a battery-powered radio for official information, and a contact plan for family and neighbours. The Oberhausen crisis guide is available online and at eight municipal locations, from the town hall on Schwartzstraße to the district offices. This is the city magazine as civil-protection medium: the same publication that recommends beer gardens also tells residents where to meet when the power fails. The combination is deliberate — the magazine's universal household reach makes it the one channel that can credibly do both.

Organization and Ownership

The Oh! Stadtmagazin is published by the Oberhausener Wirtschafts- und Tourismusförderung (OWT) and the city of Oberhausen (Stadt Oberhausen) in cooperation with the communications agency CONTACT. This public-sector publisher model distinguishes OH! from commercial city magazines: the magazine is an instrument of city marketing and citizen communication, financed by the city and its development agency rather than by newsstand sales. The Oh! team consists of local journalists, photographers and designers from Oberhausen — the people who make the magazine authentic, in the publisher's words. The 115,000-copy household distribution is the economic foundation: universal delivery to all Oberhausen households, free of charge, financed as a municipal communication service. Advertising from the local economy — tourism, retail, services — complements the public funding. The cooperation with the CONTACT agency provides the professional communications infrastructure. The model has proven stable for over a decade: a city that publishes its own magazine, with its own team, for its own citizens.

Digital Presence

The digital home is oh-stadtmagazin.de — "Oh! Online" — the continuously updated city portal that carries the magazine's journalism between the bimonthly print issues. The site is organized by tags and sections: Stadtgespräch for municipal news, Tourismus & Wirtschaft, Umwelt, and the Oh! Guide for the service content. Recent articles document the portal's currency: the 2026 waste calendar, the VRR tariff reform, the repair-café report, the wedding-date calendar. The Oh! Guide blog extends the magazine into the recommendation business: beer gardens, pubs, excursion destinations, each with descriptions, opening hours and links. The social media channels carry the city's visual life into the feeds. The crisis-guide content shows the portal's public-service function: preparedness information for emergencies, linked to the city's oberhausen.de crisis pages. Between the bimonthly print magazine to all households, the daily-capable online portal, the guide blog and social media, OH! operates as a complete municipal media system — as honest as the Ruhr region, as versatile as Oberhausen, from Oberhausen, about Oberhausen and for Oberhausen. The 115,000-copy distribution is the key to the whole concept: no commercial city magazine in the Ruhr reaches every household, and no municipal website has the magazine's lean-back readability. OH! combines both — the authority of the official sender with the approachability of a city magazine written by people who know and love their city. Since 2013, through economic cycles and the pandemic, the title has kept its rhythm: six print issues a year to every door, and the digital channels always on. For a city of Oberhausen's size, that makes OH! not just a magazine but a piece of municipal infrastructure, delivered free to every door, every two months.