About Hohenzollerische Zeitung

Hohenzollerische Zeitung

The Hohenzollerische Zeitung is a German daily newspaper published in Hechingen, Baden-Württemberg. It appears as a regional edition, a Kopfblatt, of the Südwest Presse, the regional daily of Ulm published by the Neue Pressegesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, with a majority stake held by the Ulm group. The paper appears on working days, Monday through Saturday, serving Hechingen and the former Hohenzollern region with a sold circulation of around 7,269 copies. The publishing house is the Hohenzollerische Zeitung GmbH & Co. KG, based on Obertorplatz in Hechingen. The paper's digital home is the Südwest Presse portal at swp.de.

Overview

The Hohenzollerische Zeitung is published six days a week as a subscription daily in the Südwest Presse's edition system. Its distribution area is Hechingen, the former residence town of the princes of Hohenzollern at the foot of the Hohenzollern castle, and the surrounding communities of the Zollernalb district, the historic heart of the Hohenzollern lands. The paper reaches a sold circulation of 7,269 copies, down from around 6,500 in earlier counts that reflected the region's competitive market.

Hechingen's newspaper market is competitive: alongside the Hohenzollerische Zeitung, the Zollern-Alb-Kurier and the Schwarzwälder Bote appear with local sections for the town. The Hohenzollerische Zeitung's identity is tied to the Hohenzollern heritage of the region, from the castle on the Zollerberg to the Fürstlich Hohenzollerisches Forstamt and the Hohenzollerische Heimatbücherei in Hechingen. The town also hosts the district court of Hechingen, to which the local courts of Albstadt, Balingen, Hechingen and Sigmaringen are assigned, giving the paper's court reporting a regional significance beyond the town itself.

The audience of the Hohenzollerische Zeitung is the population of Hechingen and the Hohenzollern region: households that value a daily paper combining the Südwest Presse's national journalism with close reporting from the residence town and its surroundings. The paper's name itself is a statement of regional identity, invoking the Hohenzollern dynasty whose ancestral castle towers over the town and whose history shaped the former Prussian exclave in the south.

History

The Hohenzollerische Zeitung exists as the Hechingen regional edition of the Südwest Presse, which was founded in 1946 as the Schwäbische Donau-Zeitung in the American occupation zone and renamed Südwest Presse in 1968. The Ulm daily developed into one of the large regional newspapers of Baden-Württemberg with its network of regional editions and partner papers, each carrying the Ulm mantle while producing its own local section.

The Hohenzollerische Zeitung emerged within this development as the paper for Hechingen and the Hohenzollern region, giving the residence town its own locally named daily within the larger publishing structure. The paper's name carries the historic identity of the Hohenzollern lands, the former Prussian exclave in southern Germany, whose traditions remain visible in Hechingen's institutions.

The Südwest Presse is published by the Neue Pressegesellschaft mbH & Co. KG in Ulm, half owned by the Ebner Pressegesellschaft and half by the ZVD Mediengesellschaft. Since 2018 the Südwest Presse has cooperated with the Schwäbische Zeitung on reporting from Berlin, strengthening the national coverage available to the Hohenzollerische Zeitung's readers. Like the rest of the German regional press, the paper has lost circulation in recent decades, yet it continues to appear daily with local reporting from Hechingen. The Südwest Presse's cooperation with the Schwäbische Zeitung on Berlin reporting since 2018 gives the Hechingen edition access to national journalism resources, while the local pages remain the product of the Hechingen newsroom. The paper's publishing house on Obertorplatz in the historic centre of the residence town is itself a landmark of the town's media tradition.

Coverage and Content

The local section of the Hohenzollerische Zeitung covers Hechingen and the Hohenzollern region. Regular topics include the town council and the district administration of the Zollernalb district, urban development in the residence town, the Hohenzollern castle and the region's princely heritage, the regional economy with the Mittelstand companies of the Zollernalb, agriculture, schools and education, health care, the police blotter, club and association life, church news, culture and events, and local sport from district-league football to the traditional clubs. The Hohenzollern landscape with its castle, the Swabian Jura escarpment and the historic towns gives the paper's community reporting a distinctive local colour.

The mantle pages supplied by the Südwest Presse cover Baden-Württemberg state politics, German federal politics, international news, the economy, culture and sport. The Südwest Presse's mantle sections include international and federal politics, the Südwest-Umschau, the feuilleton, the Kulturspiegel, the Brennpunkt, the Blick in die Welt, national sport, the weekend supplement and special publications. The group's correspondents in Berlin, Paris, London, Rome, Washington and Stuttgart supply the Hechingen edition with reporting from the centres of politics and business. Weekend editions carry expanded magazine content. The division between the centrally produced sections and the locally produced pages gives readers a complete daily newspaper: the breadth of a large regional newsroom combined with the proximity of journalists who work in Hechingen itself.

The Hohenzollerische Zeitung's local section gives the residence town's princely heritage, the castle on the Zollerberg and the community life of the Zollernalb district a daily presence that no regional or national medium can match. For the readers of Hechingen, the paper remains the first source of information about their town. Advertising in the Hohenzollerische Zeitung reaches households in Hechingen and the Hohenzollern region precisely, making the paper an important medium for local retailers, craftsmen, service providers, the real-estate market and job advertisements. The Südwest Presse's advertising network extends the offering across eastern Baden-Württemberg for regional advertisers.

Organization and Ownership

The Hohenzollerische Zeitung is published by the Hohenzollerische Zeitung GmbH & Co. KG, based on Obertorplatz 19 in Hechingen, as a regional edition of the Südwest Presse. The Südwest Presse is published by the Neue Pressegesellschaft mbH & Co. KG in Ulm, half owned by the Ebner Pressegesellschaft and half by the ZVD Mediengesellschaft. The managing directors are Thomas Radek and Andreas Simmet, and the editor-in-chief of the Südwest Presse is Ulrich Becker.

The paper is printed in the group's production facilities and distributed to subscribers each morning on working days across Hechingen and the Hohenzollern region. The subscription model dominates sales, with a sold circulation of 7,269 copies. The edition operates within the group's shared services for printing, distribution, digital publishing and advertising sales, while the Hechingen newsroom retains editorial responsibility for the local pages that define the Hohenzollerische Zeitung's identity.

Digital Presence

The digital home of the Hohenzollerische Zeitung is the Südwest Presse portal at swp.de, where the paper's e-paper is available for digital reading on tablets, smartphones and computers. The paper's digital presence is integrated into the Südwest Presse's portal and app, which carry the group's regional and national content alongside the local editions.

The portal operates on the paid-content model: full article texts are generally reserved for subscribers, while headlines and teasers are visible to all visitors. On social media, the Südwest Presse's channels distribute headlines from eastern Baden-Württemberg, including Hechingen stories, and provide a point of contact between the newsroom and its readers. For the Hohenzollerische Zeitung, digital channels serve readers within the distribution area who prefer to read on their phones as well as former residents who have moved away from the Hohenzollern region but want to stay informed about their home region. The printed paper remains the core product and the economic backbone of the regional edition, carrying forward the Hohenzollern name in the town beneath the ancestral castle.