About Ostfriesische Nachrichten

Ostfriesische Nachrichten

The Ostfriesische Nachrichten is a German daily newspaper based in Aurich, East Frisia, in northwestern Lower Saxony, and one of the oldest continuously published newspapers in the region. First issued on 26 January 1864, then under the title Auricher Nachrichten, the paper has been published by the Dunkmann family business for more than a century and a half and remains the most-read daily newspaper in its core circulation area, the old district of Aurich. Its sold circulation was 9,924 copies in the second quarter of 2026 according to IVW figures cited by German Wikipedia. The paper appears Monday through Saturday under the umbrella of the ZGO Zeitungsgruppe Ostfriesland, the regional media group based in Leer, while publishing under its own historic masthead. With Stephan Schmidt as editor-in-chief and the managing directors Robert Dunkmann and Dr. Alexander Weinstock, the Ostfriesische Nachrichten combines deep local roots with the resources of a modern regional media group, serving a readership in one of Germany's most distinctive cultural landscapes.

Overview

The Ostfriesische Nachrichten, universally known in East Frisia by its abbreviation ON, is published daily from Monday to Saturday for the city of Aurich and its surroundings, the so-called Altkreis Aurich, the historic district of Aurich excluding the former district of Norden. Aurich, a town of around forty thousand inhabitants and the former princely residence of East Frisia, is the paper's home and the centre of its reporting. Within this core area the Ostfriesische Nachrichten is the most-read daily newspaper, a position it has defended for generations against competitors from the wider East Frisian newspaper market.

The paper's audience is the classic East Frisian regional daily readership: municipal officials, farmers, craftspeople, retailers, and the members of the region's exceptionally dense network of clubs, from sports and shooting clubs to choirs and local heritage societies. Subscription loyalty is high, and the paper functions as the primary daily record of public life in the Aurich area, from town council decisions to court reports to the announcements of clubs and parishes. Distribution is by early-morning carrier delivery and newsstand sales, the traditional channels of the German regional press.

Digitally, the paper publishes at on-online.de, a continuously updated news website with an online subscription offering, an e-paper replica of the print edition, and a dedicated ON app for smartphones and tablets. The publisher also operates a Media Store in Aurich, a customer service and retail presence offering subscription advice, advertising services, event tickets, and books. In a region where East Frisian identity, the Low German language, and local traditions remain living realities, the Ostfriesische Nachrichten positions itself as the newspaper of the Aurich area in both print and digital form.

History

The paper's history begins with the printer's journeyman Adolf Hermann Friedrich Dunkmann, who applied to the Aurich town magistrate on 1 April 1861 for permission to establish a printing works and received his printing concession on 4 October of that year. Some two and a half years later, on 26 January 1864, the first issue appeared under the title Auricher Nachrichten. It was published on Tuesdays and Fridays, always timed to Aurich's market days, ran to four pages, cost one thaler a year, and charged six pfennigs per line of advertising. The paper quickly found readers beyond Aurich itself, and on 2 January 1872 it was renamed Ostfriesische Nachrichten and expanded with an Emden local supplement; at the time its circulation was 1,200 copies.

At the beginning of 1895 the founder handed the business to his son Adolf Heinrich Dunkmann, under whose leadership the paper took clearer political positions alongside its official notices and regional reporting. Rising circulation made a new publishing house necessary, built on Kirchstrasse in Aurich, where the Dunkmann publishing building still stands. After Adolf Heinrich Dunkmann's death in March 1918, the authorized officer and editor Karl Meyer initially led the company, with the founder's grandson Dietmar Dunkmann working in the business. By the end of the First World War circulation had climbed to 10,300 copies, before the paper was battered by the hyperinflation of 1923, when a single issue cost 150 marks in January and prices changed from day to day.

The paper survived the economic crises of the twentieth century and the Second World War, and in the postwar decades consolidated its position as Aurich's daily newspaper under continued Dunkmann family ownership. In mid-2009 the Ostfriesische Nachrichten was leased by a subsidiary of the Zeitungsgruppe Ostfriesland, the Leer-based media group, bringing the historic title under the operational umbrella of the ZGO while preserving its masthead and its Aurich identity. In autumn 2009 a significant round of job cuts was announced as the group adapted the paper to the structural pressures on the regional press. The title has since continued as the ZGO's Aurich paper, published by the wholly owned subsidiary Ostfriesische Nachrichten GmbH.

Coverage and Content

The Ostfriesische Nachrichten covers the full range of local journalism for the Aurich area: the town council and the district administration of the Landkreis Aurich, planning and infrastructure, the agricultural economy that remains central to East Frisia, the energy transition with its wind farms and grid projects, schools and kindergartens, police and court reporting, and the club life, church parishes, and cultural events that animate the region. East Frisian traditions, from the tea culture to the Low German language to local festivals, receive attentive coverage, and the paper regularly publishes series on regional history and portraits of local people and businesses.

The supra-regional pages, covering Lower Saxon state politics, national affairs, business, culture, and sport, are produced within the ZGO group's editorial network, giving readers a complete daily newspaper alongside the deeply local Aurich reporting. Special pages and supplements on topics such as education, health, motoring, and real estate appear throughout the year, and the Friday edition has traditionally carried additional community content. Obituaries, family announcements, event calendars, and letters to the editor sustain the paper's role as the community's bulletin board.

On on-online.de, the paper's journalists publish continuously updated news from Aurich and the district, with photo galleries, videos, and live tickers for developing stories. The website bundles the digital reporting of the Ostfriesische Nachrichten in one place, and the online subscription gives readers full access to all content. Push notifications based on personal interest profiles alert app users to breaking news, extending the paper's local journalism into the rhythms of the digital day.

Organization and Ownership

The Ostfriesische Nachrichten is published by the Ostfriesische Nachrichten GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the ZGO Zeitungsgruppe Ostfriesland GmbH based in Leer. The publisher of record is the Dunkmann GmbH, the historic family company, and the managing directors are Robert Dunkmann and Dr. Alexander Weinstock, continuing the Dunkmann family's involvement in the paper's leadership into the present. The editor-in-chief is Stephan Schmidt.

The ZGO Zeitungsgruppe Ostfriesland is the regional media group for East Frisia, publishing the Ostfriesen-Zeitung for the whole of East Frisia, the General-Anzeiger, the Borkumer Zeitung for the North Sea island of Borkum, and, through its subsidiary, the Ostfriesische Nachrichten for the Altkreis Aurich. The group provides shared services in printing, distribution, advertising sales, and digital technology, while the individual titles maintain their mastheads and local editorial identities. The managing directors of the ZGO are likewise Robert Dunkmann and Alexander Weinstock, reflecting the close integration of the Aurich paper into the group.

The newsroom works from Aurich, with reporters covering the town's institutions, the district administration, the courts, and community life at first hand. Advertising is sold both for the Ostfriesische Nachrichten alone and in combination with the ZGO's other titles, offering local businesses targeted reach in the Aurich area and regional advertisers coverage across East Frisia. The Media Store in Aurich provides a physical customer presence for subscriptions, advertising, tickets, and books. This combination of a historic family publisher, a modern regional group, and a newsroom rooted in Aurich defines the paper's organizational identity.

Digital Presence

The digital home of the Ostfriesische Nachrichten is on-online.de, which the ZGO describes as the bundle of the paper's digital reporting, updated continuously so readers learn immediately what matters in Aurich and the district. The site carries the journalists' researched articles alongside multimedia content such as photo galleries and videos, and the online subscription opens full access to all of it. For smartphones and tablets the ON app presents the online content and the e-paper in a clear layout, with push notifications, adjustable type sizes, and the ability to save articles for later or offline reading.

The e-paper replicates the print edition digitally, serving subscribers who have moved from paper to screen while preserving the familiar structure of the newspaper. The publisher's digital strategy follows the standard German regional press model of paid online content, with the free website carrying a selection of articles and the subscription unlocking the full offering. Social media channels extend the paper's reach, distributing local stories to readers on the platforms where they spend their time.

The Media Store in Aurich complements the digital offering with personal, on-site customer service, advising on subscriptions, advertising, and digital products and selling event tickets, tablet accessories, and books. For a regional daily of the Ostfriesische Nachrichten's circulation, around 9,900 sold copies, the combination of a professionally maintained website, app, and e-paper with a physical local presence represents the contemporary answer to the structural transformation of the newspaper business: defend the core print readership while building digital products that can carry the historic Aurich masthead into the future.