About Datum

Datum

Datum is an Austrian monthly magazine of reportage, political and cultural features and analysis, essays and criticism, published and edited in Vienna. Started in 2004, it appears ten times a year and focuses on the political and cultural life of Austria, while reaching a significant audience outside the country. Across the German-speaking countries it is known for its journalism on political, cultural and social issues, its illustrations, its rigorous fact-checking and copyediting, and its cosmopolitan sophistication. Its founder, the author and journalist Klaus Stimeder, also writing as JM Stim, set out to create a sophisticated monthly based on the editorial concepts of The New Yorker, the German weekly Die Zeit and the weekend supplement of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In this directory's batch record it is listed among Austria's high-brow magazines alongside profil and Gewinn, published in Vienna by Datum Verlag, with media overviews associating it with the publisher Loudon. Reference sources give its current publisher as Satzbau Verlags GmbH — a discrepancy this profile notes openly. Its circulation was about 10,000 copies as of 2020.

Founding in March 2004

Datum debuted in March 2004. It was founded by author and journalist Klaus Stimeder (JM Stim) and Hannes Weyringer, a businessman and financial consultant. Stimeder wanted long articles with background information on contemporary and historical topics, in the tradition of ambitious long-form magazines rather than the fast, visual style of Austria's Fellner-group weeklies. The magazine's first office was based in Stimeder's apartment in a public housing project in Vienna. Despite occasionally precarious early years, it soon established itself as a prominent forum for non-fiction writing and serious journalism. That founding story — a literary-political monthly started from a flat in municipal housing — is part of Datum's identity: an independent, author-driven magazine built on writing quality and fact-checking rather than on a large publishing group's marketing power. Stimeder later founded and published work in New York and wrote the biography of Oscar Bronner, the founder of profil and trend, a neat connection between Austria's magazine generations.

Editorial concept: reportage, essays and criticism

Datum is described in reference works as a magazine focused on reporting and opinion analysis related to European politics and culture, and in fuller accounts as a magazine of reportage, political and cultural features and analysis, essays and criticism. Its stories focus on the political and cultural life of Austria, with background on contemporary and historical topics. The models named by its founder explain the mix: The New Yorker for narrative reportage and fact-checking discipline, Die Zeit for essays and intellectual debate, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung's weekend supplement for accessible long-form features. Austrian reference and directory sources classify it as a news magazine and a liberal monthly of long-form reporting, essays and interviews on politics, society and culture. It is perceived as left-leaning in one reference summary. Such characterisations describe reputation rather than a party programme; Datum has no party affiliation in the sources consulted.

Contributors and public role

In its first years Datum published features, essays and commentaries by many respected and sometimes controversial Austrian writers, journalists, artists, politicians, sportspeople and scientists. Names recorded in reference accounts include Karl Markovics, Wolf D. Prix, Johannes Hahn, Kurt Waldheim, Anton Zeilinger, Alfred Dorfer, Ursula Plassnik, Bernhard Lang, Louie Austen, Oliver Welter, Ursula Stenzel, Alfred Gusenbauer, Deborah Sengl, Peter Noever, Markus Kupferblum, Barbara Prammer, Toni Innauer, Lothar Höbelt and Andreas Khol. That range — a Nobel-recognised physicist such as Anton Zeilinger alongside former chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, former president Kurt Waldheim, actors, architects and cabaret artists — shows the magazine's ambition to be a forum where Austrian public life writes at length, not merely a newsroom product. A monthly that can attract such contributors competes on authority and voice, which is consistent with its reputation for essays and criticism as much as for reportage.

Frequency, format and readership

Datum is published ten times annually, a rhythm reference works describe both as monthly and as ten issues a year; the two descriptions are compatible, since ten issues is a common monthly schedule with combined issues. Its circulation was about 10,000 copies as of 2020 — small beside News or Die ganze Woche, but appropriate to a high-brow long-form title whose influence is measured in debate rather than mass reach. Although its stories focus on Austria, Datum has a significant audience outside the country and is well known throughout the German-language countries for its journalism, illustrations and fact-checking. That external readership matters: German-language readers in Germany and Switzerland who follow Austrian politics and culture are a natural audience for a Vienna monthly written to international long-form standards. No more recent circulation figure is verified in the sources consulted, and none is invented here.

Editors and publishing house

Reference listings name Stefan Apfl in an editor role and Elisalex Henckel Donnersmarck as editor-in-chief, and give the publisher as Satzbau Verlags GmbH. The directory batch record, drawn from media overviews, names Datum Verlag and an association with the publisher Loudon. These may reflect different periods or different functions — an imprint, a publishing company and a media-owner listing do not always coincide — but the sources consulted do not allow the discrepancy to be resolved definitively, so both are reported and neither is presented as certain for the present day. Founder Klaus Stimeder's role is historical rather than current in these accounts; he left Austria for New York and pursued writing and publishing there. Readers needing the legally current publisher and editor should consult the magazine's own imprint at datum.at, its official website as recorded in reference entries — a site the batch record did not list, corrected here from Wikipedia and directory data.

Ownership change and continuity

Reference summaries of Datum include a section on change of ownership, indicating that the magazine passed through ownership changes after its founding, but the excerpted sources available for this profile do not give a complete, dated chain of owners. What can be verified is continuity of publication: a magazine founded in 2004 was still appearing ten times a year with a circulation around 10,000 in 2020 and is still listed in current magazine directories, described as a respected Austrian news and culture magazine launched in 2004, published from Vienna, blending The New Yorker and Die Zeit in spirit. For a small independent monthly, survival itself is significant in a market where many business and general magazines founded in the 1970s-1990s boom did not see the turn of the century, and where distribution and advertising are dominated by large groups. Datum's survival rests on a defined niche — readers willing to pay for long, checked, illustrated journalism — rather than on scale.

Vienna base and cultural position

Datum is published and edited in Vienna, in the state of Vienna, in German. Vienna's role as Austria's political capital and cultural centre — with its theatres, universities, museums and media — supplies the magazine's core subjects. The batch record lists it among Austria's high-brow magazines alongside profil and Gewinn, a useful positioning: profil offers weekly political investigation, Gewinn offers personal-finance service, and Datum offers monthly reflection — reportage and essays that step back from the weekly cycle. In directories of Austrian magazines it appears in the monthly section. Its cosmopolitan sophistication, noted in reference descriptions, also fits Vienna's international population of diplomats, organisations and expatriates, although the magazine is written in German for the German-speaking public sphere rather than as an English-language expatriate title.

Illustration, fact-checking and reputation

Two craft features recur in descriptions of Datum: its illustrations and its rigorous fact-checking and copyediting. In a German-language market where news weeklies often rely on photography and fast turnaround, a monthly that invests in commissioned illustration and New Yorker-style checking distinguishes itself visually and textually. Directory descriptions echo the same reputation — in-depth reportage, personal essays, social analysis, impressive visuals and well-researched commentary. Reputation is not a circulation figure, and this profile treats it as qualitative evidence: multiple independent descriptions, over many years, characterise Datum in consistent terms, which supports the conclusion that long-form quality is the magazine's actual market proposition, not merely its founding aspiration.

Digital presence

Datum's official website is datum.at, given in reference entries and magazine directories, which list it in digital and print formats and record a print subscription offer. The batch record for this directory listed no website, so the address here is a correction sourced from the magazine's reference entry and FeedSpot's directory listing. No verified traffic, follower or digital-subscription figures are used in this profile; social-media counts in commercial directories are undated marketing data. For a ten-issue print monthly, the website's verified role is the standard one for Austrian magazines: a public face, subscription route and archive of covers and articles between issues. Current details should be taken from datum.at directly.

Limits of this profile

Limits should be explicit. The publisher is given differently in the batch record (Datum Verlag, associated with Loudon) and in reference entries (Satzbau Verlags GmbH); the editor listings may not be current; circulation is verified only at about 10,000 as of 2020; and the magazine's ownership history is referenced but not fully dated in the available sources. No article-level history is invented. The verified core is substantial nonetheless: Datum is a German-language Austrian magazine of reportage, essays and criticism from Vienna, founded by Klaus Stimeder and Hannes Weyringer with a first issue in March 2004, modelled on The New Yorker, Die Zeit and the Süddeutsche Zeitung weekend supplement, published ten times a year, known across the German-speaking countries for political and cultural journalism, illustration and fact-checking, and read in Austria and beyond.