About Blick aktuell Höhr-Grenzhausen

Blick aktuell Höhr-Grenzhausen

Blick aktuell Höhr-Grenzhausen is the free weekly newspaper for the Kannenbäckerland town of Höhr-Grenzhausen in the Westerwald district, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, published as one of 36 local editions in the Blick aktuell network. Owned by the Krupp family's KRUPP Verlags GmbH of Sinzig, the edition reaches approximately 7,550 households each week in tabloid format and has been published since 2015. Höhr-Grenzhausen, famous for centuries as a center of ceramics and pottery, the Kannenbäckerland or "jug bakers' land," gives the edition a distinctive cultural backdrop: alongside the usual council reporting and club news, its pages cover the pottery markets, ceramics museums and artisan traditions that define the town. Produced by local editors and freelancers with the support of the network's central desk in Sinzig and printed by the family's KRUPP Druck OHG, the paper is financed entirely by advertising and contains no syndicated national news section.

Overview

Published once a week in tabloid format, Blick aktuell Höhr-Grenzhausen is delivered free to some 7,550 households in Höhr-Grenzhausen and the surrounding villages of the Westerwald district. The delivery area covers the town itself, formed in 1969 from Höhr, Grenzhausen and Grenzau, along with neighboring communities of the Kannenbäckerland that share its schools, clubs and administrative life.

The edition is one of 36 titles in the Blick aktuell network published by KRUPP Verlags GmbH of Sinzig, with a combined weekly circulation of roughly 430,000 copies across the Middle Rhine, Ahr, Moselle, Eifel, Westerwald and Bonn/Rhein-Sieg regions. The Höhr-Grenzhausen paper was launched in 2015, one of the younger editions, extending the network's coverage into the heart of the Westerwald's ceramics country.

Following the network's editorial philosophy, the paper carries no mantle: no bought-in package of national and international news fills its pages. All content originates within the KRUPP organization, from the central editorial desk in Sinzig under Daniel Stoffel, from local editors and from freelance contributors drawn from a network-wide pool of around 100 reporters and photographers. The paper is local from cover to cover.

The readership spans the town's population: ceramics artisans and factory workers, commuters to Koblenz and Montabaur, families, students of the ceramics college, club members and seniors. Advertisers are local businesses, pottery workshops and retailers, craftsmen, car dealers, gastronomy and service providers, drawn by the paper's complete household coverage in its delivery zone.

History

The Höhr-Grenzhausen edition was founded in 2015, when the KRUPP publishing house extended its free-weekly network into the Kannenbäckerland. The Sinzig family firm, rooted in the Sinziger Zeitung of 1876, had been systematically filling gaps in its coverage of northern Rhineland-Palatinate, and Höhr-Grenzhausen, with its unique ceramics identity, its technical college for ceramics and its active town life, was a natural market for a dedicated edition.

Unlike older sister editions that began under independent names, the Höhr-Grenzhausen paper was launched directly as a Blick aktuell title, with a modern tabloid design, a presence on the blick-aktuell.de portal from the start and an editorial team recruited for the Westerwald market. The launch gave the town its own printed weekly for the first time in the network's history.

In the decade since, the edition has documented the town's contemporary life: the pottery markets that draw visitors from across Germany, the work of the ceramics museum and the technical college, council debates over urban development and infrastructure, and the steady rhythm of club anniversaries, parish festivals and carnival sessions. It has covered the challenges facing the ceramics industry, from energy costs to skilled-labor shortages, stories with direct relevance to the town's identity and economy.

The edition's first decade coincided with the print industry's digital transformation, and it grew up as a hybrid product: a printed weekly with deep local roots and a daily-updated presence on the network portal and social media. Its history, though short, illustrates the network's continued willingness to invest in new local editions even in a difficult media market.

Coverage and Content

The editorial mix of Blick aktuell Höhr-Grenzhausen balances the universal themes of local journalism with the town's ceramics identity. Council reporting is a staple: the town council of Höhr-Grenzhausen and the Verbandsgemeinde council debate budgets, building projects, schools, roads and cultural funding, and the paper reports their decisions in the detail residents need.

Ceramics coverage sets the edition apart. The pottery markets, the Keramikmuseum Westerwald, exhibitions by local artisans, the activities of the technical college and the traditions of the Kannenbäcker trade appear regularly, giving the paper a cultural profile unmatched by its sister editions. Features on master potters, on the history of the Grenzhausen stoneware industry and on contemporary ceramic art connect the town's past with its present.

Club life fills the heart of every issue: sports clubs, carnival societies, music associations, volunteer fire brigades and church congregations announce events, celebrate anniversaries and publish photographs. The freelancers who cover this beat are part of the community, and the picture pages of local celebrations are among the most-read sections.

Service journalism completes the offering: classified advertisements, job listings, property offers, family announcements, church service schedules and official municipal notices. Seasonal specials on home and garden, building, travel and the holidays give advertisers themed contexts.

The tabloid's large color photographs capture the town's character: the pottery market stalls, the kilns and workshops, the carnival parades and the familiar faces of local events. The tone is constructive and community-oriented, the voice of a paper that belongs to the Kannenbäckerland.

Organization and Ownership

Blick aktuell Höhr-Grenzhausen is published by KRUPP Verlags GmbH of Sinzig, the family-owned company of the Krupp family whose publishing tradition began with the Sinziger Zeitung in 1876. Hermann Krupp is editor-in-chief of the Blick aktuell network, Daniel Robbel has been deputy editor-in-chief since 2018, and Hermann and Peter Krupp serve as managing directors of the publishing house.

The 36 editions are coordinated through the central editorial desk in Sinzig, headed by Daniel Stoffel, which manages production, layout and the digital portal. Local reporting is done by editors and freelance contributors from a network-wide pool of about 100 journalists and photographers who live in the communities they cover. In the Höhr-Grenzhausen area, they attend council meetings, photograph the pottery markets and keep the newsroom connected to town life.

The papers are printed in tabloid format by KRUPP Druck OHG, the family's printing company, appearing on weekdays between Tuesday and Saturday, each edition on its fixed publication day. The vertical integration of publishing and printing gives the company control over the production chain.

The paper is financed entirely by advertising: display ads, classifieds, inserts and special publications sold to local and regional businesses. There is no cover price and no subscription income. The company adheres to the German Press Code (Pressekodex), the voluntary ethical code of the German press, maintaining the separation of editorial and advertising content.

Digital Presence

The Höhr-Grenzhausen edition lives online on blick-aktuell.de, the network portal presenting the local journalism of all 36 editions in geographically organized, continuously updated sections. Readers can follow town news daily, browse photo galleries from the pottery markets and club events, and search the archive.

The e-paper reproduces the printed tabloid page by page for computers, tablets and smartphones, serving readers away on publication day and former residents following home from afar. Archived issues accumulate into a digital chronicle of the town.

On social media, chiefly Facebook, the Blick aktuell brand distributes story links, event tips and photo galleries to readers' feeds. The ceramics town's visual content, market scenes, pottery close-ups, festival pictures, performs well on social platforms, and the newsroom uses the channels to gather tips and reader photographs.

For advertisers, the publisher offers combined print, portal and social campaigns through a single sales contact, reflecting the company's strategy of sustaining the profitable printed weekly while building the digital channels that carry local journalism forward.