About Express

Express

Express (stylized EXPRESS) is a German regional tabloid newspaper based in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia — the Rhineland metropolis where tabloid journalism found one of its most loyal markets. Published daily by the DuMont media group, it carries its own local sections for Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Bonn — three cities, three newsrooms, one tabloid voice — and is also available in the surrounding region (Aachen, Mönchengladbach, Duisburg) without a dedicated local section. The first edition appeared on 2 March 1964 (a free advance copy on 29 February 1964 — a leap-year launch, appropriately enough for a paper that has always liked a gimmick). The editor-in-chief is Christian Spolders. Its website is express.de, the digital home of the Rhineland's tabloid — and increasingly its only home.

Overview

Express is the Rhineland's tabloid — Cologne's answer to Bild, the paper of the Karneval, 1. FC Köln, and the city's daily dramas, from the cathedral square to the Südstadt pubs. Founded as DuMont's defensive move against a Springer/Rheinische Post tabloid project, it became the market leader among Cologne tabloids — a position it held for decades. Sold circulation was about 132,800 in the fourth quarter of 2015; it has since fallen dramatically — to about 24,500 copies, down 92.4 percent since 1998 — one of the steepest declines in German publishing, and a vivid measure of the tabloid's migration from newsprint to screen.

Together with the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the paper employs around 250 editors — a shared newsroom infrastructure that serves both the quality daily and the tabloid, an unusual arrangement in German publishing — and one that has helped both survive the cuts. It received the European Newspaper Award in 2014 (for the series "Wir leben in Köln" — "We live in Cologne") and 2015 (for the special edition "FC Total") — recognition that even a tabloid can produce distinguished journalism, and that Express at its best was more than screams and scandals.

History

A defensive founding in 1964

The idea for a publishing-house-owned tabloid came from founding publisher Alfred Neven DuMont — the DuMont patriarch who shaped Cologne's press for half a century. In December 1963 he read in his own Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger that the Springer publishing house and the Rheinische Post planned to bring a joint tabloid, Der Mittag, to market in Düsseldorf and Cologne in February 1964. This project was the trigger for a publishing-house-owned tabloid — DuMont would not let Springer plant a flag in his city, and the preemptive strike worked: Der Mittag never got its chance. The goal in the founding year was 30,000 sold copies; by 1965 already 100,000 copies were on the market with a rising trend — the defensive move had become an offensive success, and the paper kept growing for decades.

The first issue of Express appeared as a free copy on 29 February 1964, headlining "Freiflug in den Tod" (Free Flight into Death) about the plane crash near Innsbruck in which the Cologne native Walter Hausmann died — a classically tabloid debut: tragedy, locality, and a screaming headline. Regular distribution began on 2 March 1964 with a starting circulation of 30,000. In October 1965 the Bonner Express was added — Bonn being then the federal capital, a natural tabloid market of politicians, journalists, and diplomats; in October 1967 the Düsseldorf Express followed in cooperation with the W. Girardet publishing house (Westdeutsche Zeitung) — after the loss-making tabloid Mittag was discontinued on 20 September 1967, leaving 285,000 readers behind for Express to harvest. On 1 July 1973 the first issue of the Sonntag Express appeared, completing the seven-day tabloid week.

Since November 1999 DuMont's third-degree nephew Christian DuMont Schütte has been co-publisher; Alfred Neven DuMont's son Konstantin Neven DuMont also held the function but was recalled in November 2010 after family disputes.

The Cologne newspaper war

Express was the market leader among Cologne tabloids — ahead of Bild, the national tabloid that never quite conquered the Rhineland — but its position came under threat when the free daily 20 Minuten appeared in Cologne on 13 December 1999 with 150,000 copies, published by the Berlin Schibsted AG, a subsidiary of the Norwegian Schibsted group. The 24-page paper targeted young readers and was distributed free in the city — the Swedish Metro model imported to the Rhine, and a direct threat to Express's kiosk sales. The established dailies saw unfair competition and fought back with lawyers as well as headlines; the Springer publishing house sued before the Berlin regional court on 17 December 1999, won an injunction, lost it on appeal in February 2000 — and Schibsted began laying out its paper in Cologne's tram and subway stations. The "Kölner Zeitungskrieg" (Cologne newspaper war) raged until the free papers were discontinued in July 2001, ending the dispute in fact. Express survived; the invader did not — though the victory proved pyrrhic, as the digital revolution would do to Express what 20 Minuten could not.

Content and Programming

Express's content is classic tabloid: local news and scandals, 1. FC Köln and Fortuna Düsseldorf football — the twin football passions of the Rhineland — Karneval (the paper's high season, when Cologne lives in costume), celebrities, crime, and human-interest stories. The Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Bonn editions each carry their own local sections, so that a Düsseldorf reader gets Fortuna and a Cologne reader gets the Geißböcke. The Sunday edition, Sonntag Express (since 1973), extends the tabloid week — the Rhineland's Sunday mornings long accompanied by its headlines.

Coverage and Audience

Express serves the Rhineland — Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bonn, and the surrounding region, including Aachen, Mönchengladbach, and Duisburg. Its readership was historically the classic tabloid profile: working-class and middle-class, kiosk buyers, football fans — the readers who bought the paper at the station on the way to work. The catastrophic circulation decline — over 92 percent since 1998 — reflects both the tabloid crisis and the digital shift of its audience to express.de and social media, where the paper's content now lives primarily.

Ownership

The Express was founded in 1964 by Alfred Neven DuMont and is published by M. DuMont Schauberg; its first issue appeared free on 29 February 1964 — a leap day — reporting the crash of British Eagle Flight 802, with regular distribution starting on 2 March 1964. Much of its sales come from newsagents and its typical red vending machines, and its headlines frequently use the Kölsch dialect.

Express is published by the DuMont media group (M. DuMont Schauberg) of Cologne — the same house as the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, giving DuMont both the quality daily and the tabloid of the Rhineland. The editor-in-chief is Christian Spolders. The co-publisher is Christian DuMont Schütte, DuMont's third-degree nephew, who took the role in November 1999; Alfred Neven DuMont's son Konstantin Neven DuMont also held the function but was recalled in November 2010 after family disputes — a rare public glimpse into the DuMont family's internal tensions.

Digital Presence

The website express.de carries the paper's tabloid journalism online, with continuously updated Rhineland news, football coverage, and celebrity stories. As one of the region's most-visited news portals, it has become the paper's primary product as print collapsed — the digital Express now reaching more readers than the paper ever did in its print heyday. The paper is highly active on social media, where its tabloid content — 1. FC Köln, Karneval, local scandals — finds a large audience, and where the Rhineland's appetite for sensation remains undiminished even as the printed paper fades — the tabloid's future, if it has one, is on the phone in the reader's pocket. From Cologne's 1964 tabloid upstart to a digital-first regional brand, the Express has followed its readers from the kiosk to the feed.