About choices

choices

choices — "Kultur. Kino. Köln." — is the Cologne culture magazine, published in print and online by the Berndt Media-Verlag in Bochum. Founded in April 1989 as the cinema magazine, choices grew into the Rhineland's culture journal: the current reporting on the entire spectrum of metropolitan culture — the film, the theater, the music, the dance, the art, the exhibitions, the stage, the literature. The events covered — Cologne, Bonn, Leverkusen, and surroundings — make it the region's cultural compass: the independent medium's view, off the mainstream.

Overview

The magazine serves the Rhineland's culture-goers: the cinema fans, the theater audiences, the concert visitors, the exhibition wanderers, the readers. The editorial program covers the metropolitan culture's full spectrum: the film reviews (the separate middle section choices-roots), the theater reviews, the music, the dance, the art, the exhibitions, the stage, the literature — plus the monthly theme focus on current socio-political questions (since 2006, guided by "Wie wollen wir leben!?" — how do we want to live!? — and "Hat die europäische Aufklärung Zukunft?!" — does the European Enlightenment have a future?!).

The crossmedia concept — the print magazine and the choices.de (online since 2002) — gives the region the cultural journalism: the reviews, the previews, the themes. The Cologne editorial office — first in Bickendorf, then the Altstadt-Süd, now the Belgisches Viertel — places the newsroom in the city's creative quarter: the Belgian Quarter's galleries, bars, and cinemas. The sister magazines — engels (Wuppertal) and Trailer (Ruhrgebiet), founded 2001 — extend the family: the three titles under one editor-in-chief since 2011.

History

choices — founded April 1989 — emerged from the Rhineland's arthouse-cinema movement: the Filmkunstmacher around Heinz Holzapfel and Peter Liese had opened program cinemas in Cologne, Wuppertal, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, and Aachen from 1982, promoting them with program booklets. The Cologne booklet Lichtblick — taken over in spring 1989 by Joachim Berndt (with Peter Debüser and Reiner Michalke) and renamed choices — became the magazine: the model, New York's Village Voice; the ambition, continuing the postwar film-program booklets and the Cahiers du cinéma.

The arthouse-cinema roots — the magazine's founding context — deserve their telling. The program cinemas — the 1982+ openings in Cologne, Wuppertal, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Aachen — created the Rhineland's film culture: the Filmkunst, the retrospectives, the discoveries. The program booklets — the cinemas' promotion — were the magazine's ancestors: the film notes, the schedules. The Lichtblick — the Cologne booklet — became choices: the spring 1989 takeover by Joachim Berndt, Peter Debüser, Reiner Michalke. The Village Voice model — New York's alternative weekly — gave the template: the independent, the critical, the cultural. The Cahiers du cinéma ambition — the French film journal's seriousness — set the standard: the film criticism as the art. The mid-1990s expansion — the mainstream films — broadened the audience: the arthouse's rigor, the multiplex's reach. The 20th anniversary (2009) — the congratulations from the cultural scene (Reiner Michalke: the urbanity returned to the cultural metropolis; Barbara Moritz: the different view off the mainstream; Norbert Oberhaus: the independent medium's cultural diversity; Prof. Georg Quander, Cologne's cultural commissioner 2005–2013: the competent observer of the Cologne scene) — celebrated the independence.

Coverage and Content

The editorial program follows the Rhineland's cultural year. The film coverage — the choices-roots middle section — reviews the cinema: the arthouse and the mainstream, the festivals. The theater coverage — the reviews — treats the stages: the Schauspiel, the independent scene. The music coverage — the concerts, the festivals (the c/o pop, the Moers Festival) — serves the listeners: the classical, the jazz, the pop. The art coverage — the exhibitions — guides the viewers: the museums, the galleries.

The socio-political theme focus — the magazine's intellectual signature — deserves its telling. Since 2006 — the monthly Themenschwerpunkt — choices debates the current questions: "Wie wollen wir leben!?" (how do we want to live!?) and "Hat die europäische Aufklärung Zukunft?!" (does the European Enlightenment have a future!?) as the guiding reflections. The urbanity — the metropolitan life's forms — questioned: the housing, the mobility, the public space. The Enlightenment — the European values' future — defended: the reason, the tolerance, the democracy. The culture's politics — the funding, the freedom, the diversity — analyzed: the conditions. The magazine's ambition — more than the listings — argued: the cultural journalism as the society's debate — the independent medium's contribution, "trotz aller Schwierigkeiten" (despite all difficulties). The Cologne cultural scene — the magazine's subject — deserves its telling. The cathedral city's culture — the theaters (the Schauspiel Köln, the independent scene), the cinemas (the arthouse houses, the festivals), the music (the Philharmonie, the Stadtgarten, the c/o pop), the museums (the Ludwig, the Wallraf-Richartz, the Kolumba) — fills the pages: the previews, the reviews. The Bonn and Leverkusen — the former capital's culture, the chemical city's arts — extend the region: the Beethoven, the Bayer. The Belgian Quarter — the editorial's home — embodies the scene: the galleries, the bars, the creative. The magazine's role — "der ultimative Wegweiser in der Kölner Kino- und Kulturlandschaft" (the ultimate guide in the Cologne cinema and cultural landscape) — orients: the audiences' choices, the venues' visibility — the cultural journalism's service. The online — the choices.de — extends the print: the daily cultural journalism. The independence — the magazine's ethos — deserves its telling. "Ich freue mich sehr, dass sich choices als unabhängiges Medium in Köln trotz aller Schwierigkeiten etablieren konnte und zur notwendigen kulturellen Vielfalt in dieser Stadt beiträgt" (Norbert Oberhaus) — the independent medium's establishment despite all difficulties, the necessary cultural diversity's contribution. The alternative view — "abseits des Mainstream einen anderen Blick auf die Stadt und ihre Kultur" (Barbara Moritz) — the different gaze: the critical, the curious. The content interest — "inhaltlich interessiert und als Plattform für neue Impulse in der Stadt" (Achim Rohde) — the platform for new impulses: the ideas, the debates. The reminder — "das Medium, das mich am dringlichsten daran erinnert, mal wieder ins Kino oder Theater zu gehen" (Matthias Rincón) — the cultural nudge: the audiences' motivation. The independence's price — the difficulties — paid: the 35+ years' persistence — the Rhineland's cultural journalism, independent.

Organization and Ownership

choices is published by the Berndt Media-Verlag, Bochum. The founder and publisher — Joachim Berndt — initially held the editorial, graphics, distribution, and ad acquisition in his hand; since 2004 a deputy editor-in-chief, since 2011 an editor-in-chief responsible for all three magazines (choices, engels, Trailer). The Cologne editorial office — the Belgisches Viertel — houses the newsroom. The business model follows the culture-magazine pattern: the copy sales and subscriptions, the advertising (the cultural institutions, the cinemas, the theaters), and the online.

The Berndt Media-Verlag — the publishing house — deserves its telling. The Bochum publisher — Joachim Berndt's house — publishes the three culture magazines: the choices (Cologne), the engels (Wuppertal), the Trailer (Ruhrgebiet). The 2001 foundings — the engels and the Trailer on the choices model — extended the Rhineland to the Ruhr: the Wuppertal's culture, the Ruhrgebiet's scene. The shared editor-in-chief (since 2011) — the three titles' joint leadership — creates the synergies: the reviews, the themes, the resources. The Ruhrpott mentality — "Eine Filmzeitung als Herausgeber aus dem Ruhrgebiet in Köln auf den Markt zu bringen und das 20 Jahre lang mit großem Erfolg, das ist echte Ruhrpott-Mentalität" (bringing a film newspaper from the Ruhrgebiet to the Cologne market and 20 years of great success — that's real Ruhrpott mentality) — celebrated: the Bochum publisher's Cologne success — the independence, the persistence. Detailed current circulation and management figures are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The brand's digital home is choices.de — online since 2002: the cultural journalism, the reviews, the previews, the themes. The history page — the choices-geschichte — documents the founding: the Lichtblick, the Village Voice model, the expansion. The anniversary voices — the nrwkino.de page — gather the congratulations: the cultural scene's appreciation.

The digital strategy follows the culture-magazine logic: the print magazine for the deep cultural coverage — the reviews, the themes — the online for the daily cultural journalism. As Cologne's culture magazine — the 1989-founded title, published by the Berndt Media-Verlag — choices remains the Rhineland's cultural compass: the culture, the cinema, and the city — in print and on choices.de.