About Selber Tagblatt

Selber Tagblatt

The Selber Tagblatt is the local daily newspaper of Selb, the historic porcelain town in the district of Wunsiedel im Fichtelgebirge in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany. Published as part of the Frankenpost newspaper group, it appears Monday to Saturday with local pages dedicated to Selb and the surrounding porcelain region and the overregional sections supplied by the Frankenpost's central newsroom in Hof. Since April 2019 the paper has been integrated into the Frankenpost's Fichtelgebirge edition, which unites the former Selb edition with the Sechsämter Neueste Nachrichten, the Sechsämterbote and the Marktredwitzer Tagblatt. The paper serves a town whose identity is inseparable from porcelain, the industry that shaped Selb for more than a century.

Overview

The Selber Tagblatt is the Frankenpost group's paper for Selb and the northeastern Fichtelgebirge, the region around the Czech border defined by the porcelain industry. Selb is a town of around fifteen thousand inhabitants that was for decades the centre of the German porcelain industry, home to world-famous manufacturers such as Rosenthal and Hutschenreuther. The paper's circulation area covers Selb and the surrounding communities of the northeastern Wunsiedel district, including the neighbouring porcelain towns and the villages along the border with the Czech Republic.

As part of the Frankenpost's Fichtelgebirge edition, the Selber Tagblatt combines local pages produced for the Selb area with the group's comprehensive regional coverage. The Frankenpost is Upper Franconia's leading regional daily, read daily by around sixty percent of the region's residents, and its four editions cover the Hof district, the Fichtelgebirge, the western Hof district and the Kulmbach district. The paper appears six days a week in print and is available as an e-paper and through the frankenpost.de portal. Its readership consists mainly of subscribers in Selb and the surrounding porcelain region who rely on it for local news and the chronicling of their town's ongoing transformation.

History

The Selber Tagblatt belongs to the newspaper tradition of the Fichtelgebirge's porcelain region, serving a town whose modern history is the history of porcelain. Selb's rise began in the nineteenth century when the porcelain manufacturers established their factories in the town, and by the twentieth century the town was known worldwide as a centre of porcelain design and production. The local newspaper chronicled this development: the growth of the factories, the workers' housing estates, the social life of an industrial town, and the brands, Rosenthal, Hutschenreuther and others, that carried Selb's name across the globe.

The structural crisis of the German porcelain industry from the 1990s onwards, with factory closures and job losses, became the defining story of the town's recent history, and the Selber Tagblatt documented the transformation in detail: the efforts to preserve the porcelain heritage, the conversion of factory sites, and the town's reorientation toward tourism, outlet shopping and cross-border relations with the Czech Republic. The paper became part of the Frankenpost group, the Hof-based publishing house that consolidated Upper Franconia's dailies. In April 2019 the Frankenpost reorganised its editions, integrating the Selb edition with the other Fichtelgebirge titles into the single Frankenpost Ausgabe Fichtelgebirge, while preserving the Selber Tagblatt's identity as the paper of the porcelain town.

Coverage and Content

The Selber Tagblatt's local pages cover Selb and the surrounding communities of the northeastern Fichtelgebirge. Municipal politics is a central beat, with reporting on the Selb town council, the district council of Wunsiedel im Fichtelgebirge, and the planning issues of a town managing structural change. Economic reporting follows the fortunes of the remaining porcelain manufacturers, the outlet and retail sector that has grown around the porcelain heritage, and the cross-border economy with the neighbouring Czech regions.

The porcelain heritage gives the paper distinctive material: the Rosenthal factory's design history, the porcelain museums, the factory outlets that draw visitors from across the region, and the town's efforts to preserve its industrial monuments. The paper covers the cultural life of the border region, the clubs and associations, local sports and school topics. The Frankenpost's central newsroom in Hof supplies the overregional sections: Upper Franconian regional news, Bavarian state politics, national news from Berlin, international reporting, business, culture and sports. Service elements such as event calendars, obituaries, family announcements and consumer advice complete the daily offering.

Organization and Ownership

The Selber Tagblatt is published by the Frankenpost Verlag GmbH in Hof as part of the Frankenpost Ausgabe Fichtelgebirge. The publishing house is majority-owned by the Südwestdeutsche Medienholding (SWMH) with 52.8 percent and the Deutsche Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft (DDVG) with 35 percent. The group's subsidiary Blickpunkt Verlag in Hof produces the group's advertising papers. The Selber Tagblatt maintains its editorial presence in Selb, serving the porcelain town and the surrounding area.

Production is centralised at the group's printing facilities, and distribution, subscription management and advertising sales are handled through the group's shared services. The Frankenpost appears in the Rhenish format, and its four editions share the central mantle while producing distinct local sections. The 2019 reorganisation brought the Selb edition together with the other Fichtelgebirge titles under a single edition, streamlining the structure while preserving the Selber Tagblatt's name and its association with the porcelain town.

Readership and Market Position

The Selber Tagblatt, within the Frankenpost's Fichtelgebirge edition, holds a strong position as the newspaper of the porcelain town and the northeastern Fichtelgebirge. The Frankenpost group's market leadership in Upper Franconia, with around sixty percent of the region's residents reading the paper daily, provides the economic foundation for the edition. The paper's readership is rooted in Selb and the surrounding porcelain communities, a population shaped by the industry's rise and restructuring, with strong local identity tied to the porcelain heritage.

Like all German regional dailies, the Frankenpost has experienced circulation decline, addressed through e-paper subscriptions and the frankenpost.de portal. The Selber Tagblatt's market position rests on its role as the chronicler of the porcelain town's transformation: no other medium has documented Selb's journey from world porcelain capital through industrial crisis to renewal with comparable continuity. Its readers value the paper as the record of their town's distinctive history and its ongoing reinvention.

The Selber Tagblatt's editorial presence in the porcelain town keeps the newsroom close to the town council, the remaining manufacturers, the outlet retailers and the cultural institutions that define Selb's reinvention. For a town that has lived through the rise and crisis of an entire industry, the paper's continuous coverage provides a record of resilience that no outside medium could offer.

Digital Presence

The Selber Tagblatt's digital home is the frankenpost.de portal, the Frankenpost group's online platform presenting continuously updated news from Upper Franconia. Readers can access the complete printed edition as an e-paper, and the group's apps provide mobile access to all four editions. The digital offering follows a subscription model, with digital subscriptions available for the paywalled articles and the e-paper available as part of print subscriptions or standalone.

The Frankenpost's online newsroom produces digital-first updates throughout the day, and readers can follow the paper through social media channels, push notifications and newsletters. The integration into the large frankenpost.de platform gives the Selb title modern digital tools while preserving its identity as the paper of the porcelain town. The paper's digital reach extends Selb's local news beyond the print circulation area, serving former residents, the dispersed porcelain community and interested readers across the border region.