About Chiemgau24

Chiemgau24

Chiemgau24 is a German-language regional news portal for the Chiemgau and the Traunstein district in southeastern Bavaria. Operated by OVB24 GmbH, the digital subsidiary of the Oberbayerisches Volksblatt media house in Rosenheim, it is one of the most-read regional news portals in Bavaria, generating more than five million page views per month. The portal covers the towns and villages around the Chiemsee, Bavaria's largest lake, from Traunstein and Traunreut to Prien, Aschau and Reit im Winkl, combining hyperlocal breaking news with service content, multimedia storytelling and video. Like its sister portals in the OVB24 network, it is built for mobile-first reading and financed through digital advertising.

Overview

Chiemgau24 serves a region defined by the Chiemsee and the Chiemgau Alps: a landscape of lakes, mountains and traditional market towns whose economy blends tourism, skilled manufacturing and agriculture. The Traunstein district, with Traunstein as its administrative centre and Traunreut as its largest town, is one of Bavaria's most dynamic rural regions, home to major employers and a strong small-business sector alongside the tourism magnets of the Chiemsee, the Kampenwand and the Winklmoos-Alm. Chiemgau24 addresses this audience with journalism that is simultaneously local and outward-looking, covering district politics and village life as well as the regional economy and Alpine tourism.

The portal's scale sets it apart within the OVB24 network. According to the publisher's media data, Chiemgau24 records around 5.4 million page views, 2.47 million sessions and 596,000 users per month (September 2025 figures), making it the second-largest portal in the network after rosenheim24. Across all six OVB24 portals, the network reaches roughly 2.9 million users and 22.5 million page views monthly, with around 80 percent of traffic arriving via mobile devices. An earlier industry case study credited the OVB24 portals with more than 15 million monthly readers and 73 million impressions, underlining the network's position among Germany's leading regional online media.

Editorially, the portal combines the speed of a digital newsroom with the resources of the OVB media house. News is published throughout the day, supplemented by photo galleries, interactive elements and video content, including drone footage and features produced under the emovies24 label.

History

Chiemgau24 was launched as part of the digital expansion of the Oberbayerisches Volksblatt media house, whose newspaper roots stretch back to 1854 and whose modern form was re-established in Rosenheim in 1945. As the newspaper industry confronted declining print circulation in the 2000s and 2010s, the Rosenheim publishers created OVB24 GmbH to build digital-first news brands that could reach audiences beyond the newspaper's traditional circulation area and beyond its traditional readership demographics.

The Chiemgau portal became the network's brand for the Traunstein district and the Chiemsee region, areas partly covered by the OVB Heimatzeitungen and partly new digital territory. Its growth was rapid: the combination of hyperlocal relevance, free access and mobile optimization attracted a large and loyal audience, and the portal established itself as the leading digital news source for the region. The network's commercial development, including the use of content-recommendation technology to grow advertising revenue and engagement, supported continued investment in the portals' journalism.

Over the years Chiemgau24 has professionalized its multimedia output, adding video reporting, drone imagery of the Chiemgau landscape and interactive formats, while keeping the hyperlocal news core that built its audience. The portal's trajectory mirrors the wider success story of Germany's regional digital publishers that managed the transition from print-centric to digital-first organizations.

Coverage and Content

District and municipal news forms the backbone of Chiemgau24. The newsroom covers the Traunstein district administration, the town councils of Traunstein, Traunreut, Trostberg and the market towns and villages around the Chiemsee, reporting on planning, schools, transport, tourism policy and local services. Police, fire service and mountain-rescue reports are a daily staple, reflecting strong reader interest and the safety realities of a region of lakes, mountains and busy tourist traffic.

The regional economy is a particular emphasis. The portal reports extensively on local companies, economic developments and innovative projects in the Chiemgau, supporting the visibility and networking of the regional business community. Major employers in manufacturing and technology, the skilled trades and the tourism industry all feature regularly, as do debates about skilled-labour shortages, infrastructure and the energy transition in a rural district.

Tourism and leisure coverage spans the Chiemsee with its islands and castles, the ski areas of Reit im Winkl and the surrounding Alps, hiking and cycling, and the cultural calendar of the region. Weather, snow and lake reports are among the most-read service formats. The tone is accessible and community-oriented, with compact articles designed for mobile reading, complemented by photo galleries, videos and reader interaction through comments and social media sharing.

The Chiemgau's seasonal rhythms drive much of the editorial calendar. Winter brings snow reports, ski-area news and the challenges of winter tourism; spring and summer shift the focus to the Chiemsee's beaches and boat traffic, hiking in the Alps and the open-air event season; autumn covers the harvest, the Almabtrieb cattle drives and the run-up to the Christmas markets. Major recurring events, from traditional festivals to sporting competitions, receive dedicated coverage with practical service information for visitors and residents alike.

Organization and Ownership

Chiemgau24 is operated by OVB24 GmbH, the digital subsidiary of the Oberbayerisches Volksblatt media house (Oberbayerisches Volksblatt GmbH & Co. Medienhaus KG) in Rosenheim. The media house is significantly owned by the Döser publishing family, with Oliver Döser and Norbert Lauinger managing the group. The OVB Heimatzeitungen rank among the most widely read local newspapers in Bavaria.

OVB24 runs the six regional portals, rosenheim24, chiemgau24, innsalzach24, bgland24, wasserburg24 and mangfall24, with shared technology, video production and advertising sales through OVB MediaSales, plus the classified verticals for real estate and jobs. Detailed information about Chiemgau24's individual editorial leadership is not publicly confirmed, but the portal's journalism draws on the combined resources of the OVB newsrooms.

The network model gives each portal advantages of scale while preserving local identity. Shared content-management technology, centralized video production and joint advertising sales keep costs manageable, while each portal maintains its own editorial voice and agenda for its district. For Chiemgau24, this means the resources of a major regional media house directed at the concerns of the Traunstein district, a combination that underpins its position as one of Bavaria's most-read regional news portals.

Digital Presence

The website chiemgau24.de is the portal's digital home, optimized for mobile with continuously updated news, multimedia features and video content. The group's YouTube channel carries video reporting, including the popular aerial footage of Chiemgau towns and landscapes. Social media profiles extend the portal's reach, with stories shared and discussed by a large regional community and content easily shareable by readers.

Search visibility drives much of the traffic: readers arrive via Google searches for local incidents, weather and snow information, event details and tourism questions. With the majority of users on smartphones and strong engagement metrics, Chiemgau24 exemplifies the successful German regional news portal, deeply embedded in its district's daily life while operating at a scale that rivals many national niche publications.

The portal's video strategy deserves particular mention. Aerial drone footage of Chiemgau towns and landscapes, produced under the emovies24 label, has proven highly shareable, showcasing the region's beauty while drawing viewers into the news brand. Combined with the group's YouTube channel and the portal's own video reports, this visual journalism extends Chiemgau24's reach beyond text readers, engaging audiences who discover the region through moving images and stay for the news.