About Elmshorner Nachrichten

Elmshorner Nachrichten

The Elmshorner Nachrichten is a regional daily newspaper published in Elmshorn, Schleswig-Holstein, founded in 1851. It serves the Elmshorn area in the Pinneberg district, northwest of Hamburg, and is one of the oldest newspapers in the state, with a publishing tradition spanning more than 170 years. The paper is published by the A. Beig Druckerei und Verlag GmbH & Co. KG and reported a sold circulation of 4,957 copies per issue Monday through Saturday. After a long period of private ownership, the paper was sold to the Axel Springer publishing group in 1971 and passed to the Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitungsverlag (sh:z) in 2009. The paper's editors-in-chief are Gerrit Bastian Mathiesen and Jan Schönstedt, its publishers are Werner F. Ebke and Jan Dirk Elstermann, and its managing directors are Stefan Berthold and Jens Masur. The paper appears in print six days a week and digitally through the sh:z group's platforms, with its own section at shz.de/elmshorner-nachrichten.

Overview

The Elmshorner Nachrichten appears Monday through Saturday as a subscription daily for Elmshorn and the surrounding communities of the Pinneberg district, the district directly northwest of Hamburg. Elmshorn, the paper's home town, is a former industrial town on the Krückau river with a history of shipbuilding, leather, and food processing industries, now largely a residential town within the Hamburg metropolitan region. The paper's circulation area extends across the Pinneberg district's communes as well as Ellerau and Bad Segeberg.

The paper is structured in two books: the local book with reporting from the communes of the Pinneberg district, Ellerau, and Bad Segeberg, and the regional book covering the Pinneberg district, Schleswig-Holstein, and Hamburg, plus supra-regional pages on Germany and the world and a miscellaneous section. The paper's sold circulation of 4,957 copies reflects the long-term decline from 11,395 copies in late 2012, a trajectory shared with most German regional dailies, but its position as the historic daily of the Elmshorn area gives it a loyal core readership.

The A. Beig media house, the paper's publisher, also produces the Pinneberger Tageblatt, Quickborner Tageblatt, Schenefelder Tageblatt, Wedel-Schulauer Tageblatt, Barmstedter Zeitung, and Uetersener Nachrichten, making it the dominant local publishing house for the Pinneberg district. Elmshorn itself, with its historic town center, the Krückau river, and its commuter links to Hamburg, provides the paper with a dense local news environment: a town of around 50,000 residents with its own district court, hospital, and industrial employers, all of which generate the steady stream of reporting material on which a local daily depends.

History

The Elmshorner Nachrichten was founded in 1851, in the era of the German Confederation's press expansion, and remained in private ownership for 120 years. The paper documented the town's history through the German Empire, the First World War, the Weimar Republic, the National Socialist era, the Second World War, and the Federal Republic, serving as the daily record of the Elmshorn area's public life.

In 1971 the last private owner sold the paper to the Axel Springer publishing group, bringing the historic local title into one of Germany's largest publishing houses. Under Springer ownership the paper continued as the Elmshorn area's daily, maintaining its local identity within the group. In 2009 Springer sold the paper to the Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitungsverlag (sh:z), the Flensburg-based media group that unites many of the state's regional dailies, returning the paper to a northern German publishing home.

The paper's digital history began early: its homepage has existed since 1999, the e-paper edition launched in December 2009, and the iPhone and iPad app followed in December 2012, making the Elmshorner Nachrichten one of the earlier German regional dailies to establish a full digital presence. The 1851 founding date places the paper among the oldest continuously published titles in Schleswig-Holstein, a heritage that the sh:z group has maintained through its local newsroom in Elmshorn and the paper's distinct local identity within the group.

Coverage and Content

The Elmshorner Nachrichten's local book covers the public life of Elmshorn and the Pinneberg district communes in depth. Town politics in Elmshorn forms a core beat: the town council, the mayor's office, planning and infrastructure decisions, and the town budget. The paper reports on the Pinneberg district administration, covers the courts and police, and follows the local economy, from the remaining industrial employers to the retail sector, the skilled crafts, and the commuter economy oriented toward Hamburg.

The paper covers the emergency services and volunteer fire brigades, education from primary schools through the Gymnasien, and the churches, clubs, and associations that structure community life: sports clubs, music societies, carnival groups, and the calendar of town festivals, markets, and Christmas markets. Cultural coverage follows concerts, exhibitions, and theater, and the paper documents the town's heritage, from its industrial past to its role in the Hamburg metropolitan region.

The regional book extends coverage to the Pinneberg district, Schleswig-Holstein state politics from Kiel, and Hamburg, while the supra-regional pages supply national and international news, business and finance, sports, culture, and opinion. The paper carries the classified and display advertising, family announcements, and death notices customary in the German regional press. Reader service journalism addresses the practical questions of daily life in the district: transport connections to Hamburg, childcare, healthcare, and housing, alongside the profiles, interviews, and historical retrospectives that connect the paper's readers to their town's long history.

Organization and Ownership

The Elmshorner Nachrichten is published by the A. Beig Druckerei und Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, the Elmshorn-area media house that also publishes the Pinneberger Tageblatt, Quickborner Tageblatt, Schenefelder Tageblatt, Wedel-Schulauer Tageblatt, Barmstedter Zeitung, and Uetersener Nachrichten. The paper's editors-in-chief are Gerrit Bastian Mathiesen and Jan Schönstedt, who are responsible for all of the media house's products. The publishers are Werner F. Ebke and Jan Dirk Elstermann, and the managing directors are Stefan Berthold and Jens Masur.

The media house belongs to the Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitungsverlag group, which acquired the paper from Axel Springer in 2009. Editorial production combines the local newsrooms of the Pinneberg district, which produce the papers' local pages, with the group's central resources for supra-regional content. Financial details for the individual titles are not disclosed separately.

Digital Presence

The Elmshorner Nachrichten has maintained a homepage since 1999, among the earlier web presences of German regional dailies. Its digital home is the Elmshorner Nachrichten section of the sh:z portal at shz.de, one of the most visited regional news websites in Schleswig-Holstein, where the paper's local reporting appears alongside the group's wider coverage with continuously updated news, photo galleries, and video.

The e-paper edition, available since December 2009, reproduces the printed paper page for page, and the iPhone and iPad app, available since December 2012, delivers the day's news to mobile devices. The group's digital products include newsletters and push notifications for breaking news, and the paper's local reporting circulates through the group's social media channels. As the historic daily of the Elmshorn area with a staffed local newsroom, the Elmshorner Nachrichten's digital presence extends its 170-year-old local journalism to readers who encounter the paper primarily online. The paper's local reporters cover Elmshorn's news between print issues, ensuring that the town's stories remain current around the clock, and the digital archive gives readers access to the paper's reporting for research and reference.