About Österreich

Österreich

Österreich, the German word for Austria itself, is a national daily tabloid newspaper published in Vienna and best known to many readers today through its online portal and television channel operating as oe24. Launched in 2006 by the Fellner brothers, it was a deliberate attempt to build a modern, magazine-like popular paper for younger readers in a market long dominated by the Kronen Zeitung and, from 2004, challenged by the free daily Heute. Its bold name, colourful design and integrated print, online and television strategy make it one of the most recognisable media launches in Austria this century.

On the most recent figures cited in Austrian newspaper listings, drawn from the ÖAK circulation audit and Media-Analyse for 2025, Österreich had a print run of about 360,346 copies and a national reach of 7.8 percent. Those numbers place it among Austria's largest dailies by distribution, although, as with all Austrian tabloids, print run, sold circulation and readership are different measures and should not be confused. In its early years the paper reported circulation of 159,306 copies in 2006, about 120,510 copies in the first half of 2007 and 129,680 in the same period of 2008, rising to a reported 410,000 copies in 2010, figures that reflect the mixture of paid and free distribution the title has used.

Launch on 1 September 2006

Österreich was first published in Vienna on 1 September 2006 by Helmut and Wolfgang Fellner. Wolfgang Fellner, the owner, publisher and editor most closely identified with the paper, had already launched other successful Austrian publications, including the weekly news magazine News. The Fellner brothers brought to the daily market the same formula they had applied in magazines: heavy promotion, visual impact, celebrity and lifestyle content alongside news, and a clear focus on readers who found the established papers too traditional.

The launch was one of the largest in Austrian press history and was covered internationally as a test of whether a new national daily could still succeed in a small, concentrated market. The answer, in distribution terms, was yes: within a few years Österreich had become established as the third force in the tabloid segment. In editorial terms the verdict of early reviewers was more mixed. A contemporary review in The Vienna Review praised the paper's impressive range and substantial feel, while questioning whether its publisher had a clear picture of the new Austrian reader he said he wanted to reach, and criticising the second half of the paper for superficial sports coverage and visual clutter.

The Fellner Brothers and Mediengruppe Österreich

The owner of the daily is Mediengruppe Österreich GmbH, the Fellner family's media group, also styled as the oe24 media group. Wolfgang Fellner is listed as founder, publisher and editor, an unusually complete concentration of roles that reflects the group's character as a founder-led business. Helmut Fellner, his brother, was co-founder of the newspaper. Before Österreich, the Fellners had built the News magazine group, launching titles including News, Format and Woman, and that magazine experience shaped the daily from its first issue.

Under Mediengruppe Österreich, the newspaper sits alongside the oe24 online portal and the oe24 television channel, as well as radio and other digital ventures the group has developed. That structure matters for understanding the title today: Österreich the printed newspaper is one product of a cross-media group whose centre of gravity has steadily shifted towards the oe24 digital brand. When Austrians speak of oe24, they may mean the website, the TV channel or the wider group, with the print paper as the founding product behind the name.

A Magazine-Like Tabloid Aimed at Younger Readers

Österreich is published in tabloid format and is repeatedly described as a magazine-like paper. Its editorial design has been compared to USA Today: colour on every page, short texts, large photographs, graphics and headlines that can run across a spread, and a front page often dominated by a single large image and a small number of headlines. Contemporary descriptions put the ratio of image to text at close to half and half, and noted that no article ran at great length and that stories did not jump to later pages in the traditional newspaper fashion. The design was built, in Wolfgang Fellner's own description of his target readers, for a show generation rather than a reading generation, accustomed to internet banners and split-screen television.

The target audience was stated at launch as young adults, variously described as readers aged 18 to 35 and as the broader 20-to-49 group. At weekends the paper has provided three supplements covering television and people, lifestyle, and a regional supplement. Politics, crime, sport, celebrities and service journalism form the core mix. Listings of Austrian media describe the paper's political alignment as conservatism and classify it among Austria's populist tabloids, alongside the Kronen Zeitung and Heute.

Contents, Sections and Presentation

A typical issue of Österreich moves quickly from a news front section, with quick-hit briefs arranged around the lead stories, through Austrian politics and world news to an extensive sports section in the middle and second half of the paper, followed by people, television and lifestyle coverage. The publisher's own promotional editorial has traditionally had a visible place near the front of the paper. That layout, closer to a daily magazine than to a classical newspaper, was the paper's main claim to innovation in 2006 and remains its distinguishing feature.

The emphasis on sport deserves emphasis because it is structural, not incidental. Early reviewers already noted that once a reader reached the sports pages, sport occupied the rest of the paper in depth, with large glossy pictures. Austrian football, Formula One, skiing and other sports with mass followings in Austria give the paper reliable daily material for its target audience and for the oe24 television and online sports coverage that now extends the same content across platforms.

oe24: The Online Portal

The online version of the newspaper operates as oe24, a name derived from Österreich and the idea of news around the clock. The portal applies the print formula to the web: very fast breaking news, short items, strong images, video, and heavy coverage of celebrities, crime, sport and Austrian politics. For many younger Austrians, oe24 is encountered first, and often only, online or through social media, and the printed paper functions as one outlet of the brand rather than the other way round.

International media guides have not always been kind to the portal's reputation. Guides summarising Reuters Institute trust research describe oe24 as a free, sensationalist outlet leaning to the far right, with around 42 percent of respondents in one cited summary considering it untrustworthy. Those characterisations should be reported as the assessments of others rather than as neutral fact, but they are part of the paper's public profile and illustrate the familiar tabloid pattern of very high reach combined with contested credibility. The group's commercial strategy plainly prioritises reach, speed and shareability in a digital market where those qualities drive advertising.

oe24TV and the Move Into Television

On 16 August 2016 Österreich announced that it would start a television channel in cooperation with CNN, and oe24TV launched on 22 September 2016 with branding closely matching the online portal. The channel extended the group's news, talk, sport and entertainment formats to television and gave the oe24 brand a presence in Austria's private television market alongside channels such as ATV, Puls 4 and Servus TV. By February 2025 the channel's YouTube presence alone had more than 330,000 subscribers, according to the figures recorded for the channel.

Television changed the group's economics and its newsroom. A combined print, online and TV operation can reuse reporting, guests and video across the day, and can offer advertisers packages that a newspaper alone cannot. It also completed the transformation Wolfgang Fellner had signalled at the newspaper's launch: Österreich was never intended to remain only a newspaper. It was the print anchor of a popular media brand aimed at an audience that moves between paper, phone and screen.

Circulation, Reach and Market Position

Measuring Österreich requires care, because the paper has combined newsstand sales, subscriptions and free distribution in proportions that have changed over time, and because different sources report print run, distributed circulation or readership. The audited early figures show a new paper finding its level: 159,306 copies in 2006, then around 120,000 to 130,000 copies in the first halves of 2007 and 2008, with a readership share of 9.34 percent recorded for 2007-2008. The reported 410,000 copies for 2010 and the ÖAK and Media-Analyse 2025 listing of about 360,346 print run and 7.8 percent reach reflect the later, distribution-heavy model.

In market terms, research on Austrian newspapers for 2017 placed Österreich's daily reach at 7.2 percent, behind the Kronen Zeitung at 30.1 percent and Heute at 12.9 percent, and ahead of most regional and quality papers in raw audience. That is the paper's durable position: the third tabloid in a three-tabloid popular market, with a digital brand whose reach exceeds what the print figures alone would suggest. Austria's small population, about nine million, makes such shares significant for advertisers and for politicians alike.

Political Profile and Public Debate

Listings describe Österreich's political alignment as conservative, and media guides classify it as a populist tabloid. Its coverage emphasises Austrian politics, law and order, immigration, sport and celebrity in the direct style common to the segment. Like its tabloid competitors, it campaigns on issues and gives prominent space to its publisher's voice. Precise claims about its influence on particular elections are harder to verify than for the Kronen Zeitung, whose campaigns have been studied in detail, and a careful profile should not transfer the Krone's documented record onto Österreich without evidence.

What can be said on the record is that the paper's arrival intensified competition at the popular end of the market, forced responses from both the Krone and the quality press, and accelerated the visual and digital transformation of Austrian popular journalism. Academic and industry accounts of the Austrian market routinely date a new phase of tabloid competition from the twin launches of Heute in 2004 and Österreich in 2006.

Place in Austrian Media Today

Today Österreich is best understood as a Vienna-based, German-language national tabloid whose print edition remains substantial, with a cited 2025 print run of about 360,346, but whose future clearly lies with oe24 online and oe24TV. It is owned by Mediengruppe Österreich GmbH, led by its founder Wolfgang Fellner, and headquartered in Vienna. It targets younger readers than the traditional subscription press and competes for the same popular audience as the Kronen Zeitung and Heute.

For readers building a directory of Austrian newspapers, the key facts are the launch date of 1 September 2006, the Fellner ownership, the magazine-like tabloid format, the weekend supplements, and the oe24 digital and television extensions. Österreich did not displace the Kronen Zeitung, and it did not need to in order to succeed. It proved that, even in one of Europe's most concentrated newspaper markets, a heavily promoted new popular daily, built from the start as a cross-media brand, could carve out a lasting national audience.