About Back Journal

Back Journal

Back Journal is the monthly German-language trade magazine for the baking industry, published in Osnabrück by the INGER Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. Appearing once a month, it addresses the branch operations (Filialbetriebe) and premium bakers of Germany, Austria and Switzerland — the craft bakeries that have grown into multi-branch businesses and the quality leaders of the trade. Its program covers the baking industry's full agenda: news, bakery concepts, raw materials, law, returns management (Retouren), technical topics and food service — with special issues for the Internorga and Südback trade fairs. Under editor-in-chief Dirk Waclawek and publisher Monika Kordhanke, with Trond Patzphal as the publisher (Verleger) since 2002, Back Journal has served the baking trade since 1973: the independent, nationwide specialist journal the industry's first publisher envisioned, now part of the INGER group's baking-media portfolio alongside Artisan, Back Technik, BäckerGastro, Bäcker Zeitung, Cereal Technology, DBZ magazin, Filialmanagement and the quarterly Back Journal direkt.

Overview

The German baking trade is a craft industry under structural transformation: the artisanal bakeries compete with the discounters' bake-off stations and the industrial bakeries; the successful craft businesses grow into branch operations with dozens of outlets; and the premium segment — the slow-baking, sourdough, regional-grain movement — redefines quality. Back Journal addresses this world with a monthly program built around the baker-entrepreneur's decisions: which concepts work, which raw materials deliver, which technologies pay off, and which legal and business frameworks apply. The target group — the branch operators and premium bakers — represents the trade's growth segment: the businesses that have professionalized beyond the single bakery.

The editorial mix follows the baking industry's calendar. The news section delivers the industry's developments: the company news, the association politics, and the market movements. The bakery-concept coverage presents the business models: the successful branch concepts, the premium positionings, and the innovations in the shop design and assortment. The raw-materials coverage addresses the baker's craft foundation: flours, sourdoughs, preferments, and the ingredient innovations. The law section treats the regulatory framework: the food law, the labeling requirements, and the labor regulations. The returns coverage (Retouren) addresses the industry's distinctive economics: the unsold-bread management that determines the branch operation's margins. The technical topics cover the baking technology, and the food-service section the snack and gastronomy business that increasingly carries the revenues. The Internorga and Südback special issues provide the trade-fair reporting.

History

Back Journal was founded in 1973 — in the decade when the German baking trade's modernization accelerated. The first publisher, Hans-Dobler, had a clear vision: an independent, nationwide specialist journal for the entire baking industry, beyond the regional associations' publications through which the craft had primarily informed itself. The first Back Journal embodied this independence: the journalistic voice for the whole trade, from the artisanal bakery to the industrial operation.

The publishing history reflects the trade press's consolidation: in 1983 Wilhelm Schlame took over the magazine, and since 2002 it has been in the hands of publisher Trond Patzphal — the baker-media entrepreneur who built the INGER Verlagsgesellschaft (with Monika Kordhanke) into the baking industry's specialist publishing house. The INGER group's portfolio — Artisan (the slow-baking journal), Back Journal, Back Technik (the European baking-industry title), BäckerGastro, Bäcker Zeitung (founded 1909), Cereal Technology, DBZ magazin and Filialmanagement — covers the baking industry's segments from the craft to the industry. The sister title Back Journal direkt (launched autumn 2010, quarterly since 2011) extended the brand to the sales staff: the magazine for the bakery salespeople, with its offer presentation, customer loyalty, raw-material knowledge and hygiene topics. Through five decades — from the 1973 founding through the Schlame era to the INGER present — Back Journal has maintained its positioning: the independent monthly for the baking trade's entrepreneurs.

Coverage and Content

Each month's issue follows the baking industry's agenda. The news section delivers the trade's developments: the company announcements, the association news from the federal states, and the market movements — the consolidations, the insolvencies, and the success stories. The bakery-concept features present the business models in depth: the branch concepts that work, the premium bakeries' positioning strategies, and the shop-design and assortment innovations — the reportage from the trade's best businesses.

The raw-materials coverage addresses the craft's substance: the flour qualities, the sourdough management, the preferment technologies, and the ingredient trends — from the regional grains to the clean-label developments. The law section treats the regulatory reality: the food-information regulation, the hygiene requirements, and the labor law. The returns management (Retouren) coverage addresses the branch economics: the strategies for minimizing and managing the unsold goods — the margin lever of the multi-branch operation. The technical topics cover the baking technology: the ovens, the refrigeration, the automation, and the IT in production and sales. The food-service section addresses the growth business: the snack technology, the coffee business, and the gastronomy concepts. The Internorga (Hamburg) and Südback (Stuttgart) special issues provide the trade-fair pre- and post-reporting — the industry's gathering coverage.

Organization and Ownership

Back Journal is published by the INGER Verlagsgesellschaft mbH of Osnabrück — the medium-sized specialist publishing house (with locations in Osnabrück and Bochum) whose publications target the entrepreneurs of the baking and coffee industries. The editor-in-chief is Dirk Waclawek; the publisher (Herausgeberin) is Monika Kordhanke; the managing directors are Monika Kordhanke and Henning Tau; and Trond Patzphal has been the publisher (Verleger) since 2002. The editorial team combines baking-trade journalists with the industry's practitioners and experts as contributors — the master bakers, the technologists and the business consultants whose practical knowledge gives the magazine its utility.

Commercially, Back Journal follows the B2B trade-press model: subscriptions from the baking industry's companies (with the abonet.baeckerwelt.de article archive), advertising from the industry's suppliers — the oven manufacturers, the raw-material suppliers, the refrigeration and shop-fitting companies, the IT providers whose customers are the bakeries — plus the special-issue and sister-title revenues. The INGER group's self-description — making markets transparent, presenting the industries' best companies, offering practical utility, and maintaining an independent opinion: critical, constructive and independent — characterizes the editorial culture. The audience — the branch operations and premium bakers of the German-speaking market — is the baking trade's concentrated entrepreneurial readership. The ISSN 0940-0362 identifies the title in the journal databases.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital home is baeckerwelt.de — the INGER group's baking portal — carrying the industry news flow, the issue presentations, and the abonet.baeckerwelt.de article archive: the searchable back catalog of the magazine's decades. The portal's news sections deliver the baking industry's continuous coverage between the monthly issues: the company news, the association developments, and the market movements. The archive provides the journal's searchable memory — the concept features, the technical articles, and the raw-material coverage retrievable by topic.

The sister titles' digital presences extend the brand family: Back Journal direkt's quarterly for the sales staff, the Bäcker Zeitung's weekly news, and the group's other baking titles. The newsletters deliver the news selection to the baking industry's inboxes. On social media, the brand maintains channels for the industry's community. After five decades — from the 1973 founding through the Schlame and Patzphal eras to today's INGER group — Back Journal operates as the baking trade's monthly platform: the print magazine for the curated entrepreneurial reading, the portal and archive for the news flow and the reference — the independent specialist journal for the baking industry, in print and online, month after month, year after year, without interruption.