About Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung

Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung

The Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung (DHZ) is Germany's largest newspaper for the skilled crafts and small business sector, published fortnightly from Bad Wörishofen in Bavaria by Holzmann Medien. Founded in 1949, it is the official publication organ of 23 chambers of crafts across Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, and reaches more than 470,000 craft businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises. With a distributed circulation of around 500,000 copies, it is by far the highest-circulation title in its segment. Its editorial programme covers economic, financial and social policy from the perspective of craft businesses, with dedicated sections on law and taxes, business administration, management, mobility, finance, technology and digitalisation, supported by correspondents in Berlin and Brussels.

Overview

The skilled crafts (Handwerk) form one of the largest economic sectors in Germany, encompassing over a million businesses from bakers and butchers to electricians, plumbers, carpenters and hairdressers, and the DHZ is their leading journalistic voice. Unlike specialist trade journals that address a single craft, the DHZ speaks to the entire sector on the issues that affect all craft businesses equally: economic policy, taxation, labour law, financing, succession planning, digitalisation and the skilled-labour shortage. Its readers are predominantly business owners and managers who need reliable, practical information to run their companies.

The newspaper appears every two weeks and is distributed through the chambers of crafts, which gives it an exceptionally dense penetration of its target group: the distributed circulation of 500,970 copies (IVW 2/2021) means that virtually every craft business in the chambers' regions receives it. This distribution model, combining chamber membership with editorial independence, is the foundation of the title's market position and its attractiveness to advertisers from the automotive, tool, software, insurance and financial services industries.

Editorially, the DHZ combines political reporting with hands-on business journalism. Correspondents and editors in Berlin and Brussels report on legislative developments relevant to small businesses, while the "Betrieb" (business operations) section provides detailed guidance on law and taxes, business administration, management, mobility, finance, technology and digitalisation. Interviews and analyses regularly feature decision-makers from politics and business, and special issues focus on economic and financial policy flashpoints. The paper was comprehensively relaunched at the end of 2007 with the Munich agency pinball and won an Award of Excellence at the European Newspaper Award in 2008 for its design.

History

The Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung was founded in 1949, in the founding year of the Federal Republic of Germany, as the voice of the skilled crafts in the new West German economy. The post-war reconstruction era gave the crafts a central economic role, and the new publication set out to inform craft businesses about the economic and political framework being built around them. From the beginning, it was conceived as a joint organ of the chambers of crafts, the statutory self-governing bodies of the sector.

Over the following decades, the DHZ grew with the German "Mittelstand" into the largest craft newspaper in the country. The publisher, the Holzmann media house founded in 1936 and based in the Bavarian spa town of Bad Wörishofen, built a portfolio of trade and business media around the title, including handwerk magazin and titles for the hospitality industry. With around 170 employees and annual revenues of about 27 million euros, Holzmann Medien ranks among the 50 largest business and specialist publishers in Germany.

The end of 2007 brought a comprehensive relaunch of the newspaper, developed with the Munich advertising and media agency pinball, which modernised its design and editorial structure. The relaunch was recognised with an Award of Excellence at the tenth European Newspaper Award in 2008, in which 236 newspapers from 27 countries participated. In 2021 the publisher acquired a majority stake in Handwerker Radio from Schwäbisch Hall, extending its craft media portfolio into audio. The DHZ has thus evolved from a classic chamber newspaper into a cross-media brand for the skilled crafts, while maintaining its fortnightly print edition as the core product.

Coverage and Content

The DHZ's political coverage follows the issues that matter to craft businesses: tax policy, bureaucracy reduction, energy costs, skilled immigration, vocational training policy and EU regulation. With correspondents in Berlin and Brussels, the paper reports directly from the centres of political decision-making and explains what new laws and directives mean for the workshop, the construction site and the salon. Interviews with ministers, MEPs and business leaders give readers direct access to the political debate.

The business sections provide the practical counterpart to the political reporting. Law and taxes covers the legal questions of running a craft business, from employment law to contract design; business administration and management deal with costing, financing, marketing and succession; mobility follows developments in commercial vehicles and fleet management; and technology and digitalisation address everything from craft software to artificial intelligence in the workshop. This service journalism is written for owners who need answers, not theory.

Special issues on economic and financial policy topics allow the editorial team to go deeper on subjects such as pension provision for the self-employed, the energy transition in the crafts or the future of vocational training. The combination of political advocacy journalism and practical business guidance reflects the dual role of the chambers of crafts as both interest representatives and service organisations, and it is this combination that has kept the paper indispensable to its readers for more than seven decades.

Organization and Ownership

The DHZ is published by Holzmann Medien GmbH & Co. KG, based in Bad Wörishofen, a mid-sized media company led by Alexander Holzmann. It is the official publication organ of 23 chambers of crafts from six federal states, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, as well as the Baden-Württembergischer Handwerkstag, the state-level craft association. The chambers are the formal publishers (Herausgeber), which anchors the paper institutionally in the self-governing bodies of the craft sector.

The editor-in-chief is Steffen Range, with Frank Muck leading the editorial office in Bad Wörishofen. The publisher's portfolio includes 13 IVW-audited newspapers and journals, among them handwerk magazin, titles for the food crafts, building technology and the hospitality industry, as well as books, seminars, a web radio station and online products. The 2021 majority acquisition of Handwerker Radio added audio to the portfolio.

The business model rests on the chamber-based distribution, which guarantees the extraordinary circulation, combined with advertising from industries that target craft businesses and SMEs. The publisher's media data document the reader structure and distribution in detail, providing the verified basis for the advertising business. As a chamber organ, the paper balances the interests of its publishing chambers with journalistic independence in its reporting.

Digital Presence

The website deutsche-handwerks-zeitung.de extends the fortnightly print edition into daily digital coverage, with news, background articles and service content for craft businesses. The online editorial team, for which the publisher regularly recruits trainees and volunteers, produces digital-first content alongside the print edition, and newsletters deliver the most important news to readers' inboxes. The publisher's job advertisements for the online editorial team describe the work as business journalism with depth, situated between politics, the Mittelstand and real people.

The digital portfolio includes the website, mobile offerings, newsletters and an internet marketplace, all documented in the publisher's media data with usage, reach and structural data. The acquisition of Handwerker Radio has added a web radio station to the brand's digital ecosystem, giving the DHZ a presence in audio as well. On social media, the paper follows the conventions of B2B business media, sharing news teasers and engaging the craft community. The digital strategy supports the print flagship: the website and newsletters provide speed and continuity between the fortnightly issues, while the print edition remains the product that reaches virtually every craft business in the distribution area.