About Ostfriesischer Kurier

Ostfriesischer Kurier

The Ostfriesischer Kurier is a German daily newspaper based in the town of Norden in East Frisia, Lower Saxony, and one of the oldest newspapers in northwestern Germany. First published on 2 July 1867 by the entrepreneur Dietrich Gerhard Soltau, it appears Monday through Saturday in Berlin format and serves Norden and the surrounding coastal region. Its sold circulation was 8,079 copies in the fourth quarter of 2025 according to IVW figures cited by German Wikipedia, with subscriptions making up 86.4 percent of sales. The paper is published by the Ostfriesischer Kurier GmbH, part of the SKN media group rooted in the Soltau family, with Heidi Janssen as editor-in-chief and Charlotte Basse and Victoria Basse as managing directors. In a widely noted transaction, the NOZ/mh:n media group of Osnabrueck announced plans to acquire the Ostfriesischer Kurier together with the Norderneyer Badezeitung from the SKN group, subject to approval by the Federal Cartel Office. The paper's website is ostfriesischer-kurier.de.

Overview

The Ostfriesischer Kurier, known throughout East Frisia by its abbreviation OK, is the daily newspaper of the town of Norden and its surroundings in the district of Aurich. Norden, one of the oldest towns in East Frisia, lies near the North Sea coast opposite the island of Norderney, and the paper's circulation area covers the town and the neighboring coastal communities, a region shaped by tourism, agriculture, and the maritime economy. Published Monday through Saturday in the Berlin newspaper format, the Kurier is a full-service regional daily with locally reported pages for the Norden area and supra-regional sections covering state, national, and international news.

The paper's readership reflects the coastal East Frisian community: municipal officials, tourism and hospitality businesses, farmers, craftspeople, retailers, and the members of the region's clubs and associations. With 86.4 percent of its sold circulation coming from subscriptions, the Kurier enjoys the deep reader loyalty typical of the East Frisian newspaper market, where household subscriptions are often passed down through generations. Distribution is by early-morning carrier delivery and newsstand sales, supplemented by the e-paper for digital subscribers.

The Kurier's market position is distinctive: in Norden it competes with the Ostfriesen-Zeitung of the ZGO group, making the town one of the few places in East Frisia with a genuine choice of daily newspapers. This competition has historically sharpened both papers' local journalism. Digitally, the Kurier publishes at ostfriesischer-kurier.de with continuously updated local news, and its reporting reaches readers well beyond the print circulation area, including the many former East Frisians and holiday guests who follow the region online.

History

The paper was founded by the entrepreneur Dietrich Gerhard Soltau, who published the first issue of the Ostfriesischer Kurier on 2 July 1867 in Norden. Just a year later, in 1868, Soltau launched a sister publication on the island of Norderney, the Norderneyer Badezeitung, which became the first newspaper on a North Sea island. The two papers grew up together under the Soltau family's ownership, forming a small publishing dynasty in East Frisia that would span five generations.

In 1922 Soltau's enterprise was divided among his children through an inheritance settlement: the Norderneyer Badezeitung went to Otto G. Soltau and became independent, separating from its sister publication, the Ostfriesischer Kurier, which continued in the Soltau Kurier Norden publishing house, known as SKN. The Kurier thus remained the Norden paper of the SKN group, while the island paper went its own way for nearly nine decades. The Kurier survived the upheavals of the twentieth century, including the Nazi era and the postwar reorganization of the German press, maintaining its Norden identity throughout.

A remarkable reunion came on 1 July 2011, when the Norderneyer Badezeitung was taken over by Christian Basse, owner of the Ostfriesischer Kurier and the SKN Druck und Verlag company in Norden, reuniting the two papers in one publishing house after 89 years of separation. Christian Basse, son of the senior church councillor Ottokar Basse and the publisher Ursula Basse-Soltau, represented the fifth generation of publishers since the founding of the business in 1867. In the most recent chapter, the NOZ/mh:n media group announced its intention to acquire the publishing company Ostfriesischer Kurier GmbH and the associated distribution company from the SKN media group, a transaction presented as securing the long-term future of local journalism in the region, with approval by the Federal Cartel Office still pending at the time of the announcement.

Coverage and Content

The Ostfriesischer Kurier's local pages cover Norden and the surrounding coastal communities in depth: the town council and local administration, planning and construction, the tourism economy of the North Sea coast, agriculture, the fishing and maritime trades, schools and kindergartens, police and court reporting, and the clubs, volunteer fire brigades, church parishes, and cultural associations of the area. Coastal themes give the paper a distinctive profile, from tidal flat and national park issues in the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea to ferry connections, island affairs on Norderney, and the seasonal rhythms of the tourism business.

The relationship with Norderney, where the paper's historic sister publication appears, adds an island dimension to the coverage, with reporting on the spa town's tourism, infrastructure, and local politics of interest to readers on both sides of the water. Local history is a recurring strength, with Norden's heritage as one of East Frisia's oldest towns, its historic town centre, and its churches providing rich material for features and series. Sports coverage, from local football to the traditional East Frisian sports, and the community calendar of festivals and markets round out the local offering.

The supra-regional sections bring coverage of Lower Saxon state politics, German national affairs, business, culture, and sport, produced within the paper's publishing network, so that readers receive a complete daily newspaper. Obituaries, family announcements, and letters to the editor sustain the Kurier's community role. Online, the paper's journalists publish continuously updated news with photo galleries and multimedia elements, carrying Norden's stories to readers throughout the day and to the East Frisian diaspora far beyond the print area.

Organization and Ownership

The Ostfriesischer Kurier is published by the Ostfriesischer Kurier GmbH, which belongs to the SKN media group, the Soltau-family-rooted publishing house based in Emden and Norden. The managing directors are Charlotte Basse, in the role since 2004, and Victoria Basse, since 2007, and the editor-in-chief is Heidi Janssen. The SKN group, formally the SKN Druck und Verlag GmbH and Co. in Norden, combines the newspaper business with printing and distribution operations, including the Soltau-Kurier-Vertrieb distribution company.

The announced acquisition by the NOZ/mh:n media group of Osnabrueck would transfer the Ostfriesischer Kurier GmbH and the distribution company, with their employees and the newspaper titles Ostfriesischer Kurier and Norderneyer Badezeitung, representing a combined sold circulation of just over 8,500 copies, to one of Lower Saxony's largest media houses. The NOZ/mh:n group publishes more than sixty daily and weekly newspapers and magazines, with its newspaper titles reaching a circulation of around 270,000 plus 130,000 digital subscriptions. Charlotte Basse described the planned change of ownership as the best prospect for maintaining the titles and the publishing house under the roof of a long-standing strong partner, while she intends to concentrate on her entrepreneurial role in the SKN group's remaining business areas. The transaction remains subject to approval by the Federal Cartel Office.

The newsroom works from Norden, with reporters covering the town's council, the courts, and community life at first hand, and the paper maintains its own local editorial identity distinct from its competitors. Advertising is sold for the Kurier's Norden circulation area, serving the town's retailers, tourism businesses, and craftspeople. The combination of a historic family publishing house, deep local roots, and, prospectively, the resources of a large media group defines the organizational setting in which the Kurier's journalism is produced.

Digital Presence

The Ostfriesischer Kurier publishes online at ostfriesischer-kurier.de, where local news from Norden and the surrounding area appears with continuous updates, photo galleries, and multimedia content. The website serves both the local readership and the wider audience of former residents, holiday guests, and East Frisia enthusiasts who follow the region from afar. The print edition is available as an e-paper replica for subscribers, and digital subscription models follow the standard German regional press practice of paid online content with print, digital-only, and combination bundles.

The paper maintains social media channels through which its local stories are distributed, and newsletters and push notifications keep readers informed of breaking news. Mobile access via responsive web design and apps gives readers the e-paper and the live news stream on smartphones and tablets. Online contact channels connect readers with the Norden newsroom.

For a daily newspaper of the Kurier's circulation scale, around 8,100 sold copies, professional digital publishing is sustained through the resources of its publishing group, first the SKN media group and prospectively the NOZ/mh:n group with its substantial digital operations. The announced acquisition was explicitly framed as an investment in securing the future of local journalism in East Frisia and on Norderney, including its digital future. The Kurier's online presence thus stands at the intersection of a 150-year-old local newspaper tradition and the ongoing digital transformation of the German regional press.