About Subway

Subway

Subway (styled SUBWAY) is a free city magazine for Braunschweig and the surrounding region in Lower Saxony, published monthly since November 1987. With 8,000 copies per issue distributed in Braunschweig, Wolfenbüttel, Wolfsburg, Gifhorn, Salzgitter, and Peine, it covers music, film, culture, and city life, with a service section of event calendars, cultural, film, and TV tips, and classifieds, and it has documented the region's cultural scene for nearly four decades. It is published by the oeding magazin GmbH of Braunschweig, after the original SUBWAY Medien GmbH went through insolvency in 2016 and was dissolved, and it continues the title's run that began in November 1987.

Overview

Subway appears monthly on the first of the month, free of charge, present all year round, with double issues in July/August and December/January that each lie out for two months. The magazine's media data tagline is "Mitten im Kulturleben" (in the middle of cultural life): the city magazine for Braunschweig and the region, since 1987. The print run is 8,000 copies per issue (2026 media data), distributed at cultural and nightlife venues, gastronomy, and retail in six cities of the region, down from the IVW-audited 20,000 to 22,959 copies of the late 2000s and early 2010s, reflecting the general contraction of free print city magazines. The magazine's sections cover music, film, culture, and city life: sound colors, film world, pop and culture, life and space, a structure that has organized the magazine's content for years. Readers actively seek the magazine for concerts, theater, gastronomy, and excursions, making it the region's practical companion for planning leisure time.

The content combines reportage from Braunschweig and surroundings with previews of current events, cinema previews, and interviews on society, sports, film, and music. The magazine's themes, in its own words: music, film, culture, and city life, organized in the sections Klangfarben (sound colors), Filmwelt (film world), Pop and Kultur, and Leben and Raum (life and space). The service section with the event calendar, cultural, film, and TV tips, and classifieds maps the leisure offerings of the Braunschweig region, from the arthouse cinema to the village festival. The issue volume runs to 80 to 100 pages. The magazine is financed exclusively through advertising, the classic free-city-magazine model in which the readers pay nothing and the region's cultural, gastronomic, and retail businesses pay for access to them. Its Instagram account counts 4,534 followers with 1,232 posts as of October 2026, with weekly event tips, raffles, and cooperations with the region's cultural institutions: 194 tips, 21 raffles, and 127 partner accounts mentioned in the preceding twelve months, a social media operation that extends the print magazine's event-guide function into the daily feed.

History

Subway's predecessor in Braunschweig was Downtown; the first Subway issue appeared on November 1, 1987, making it one of the long-running free city magazines of northern Germany. Its ISSN is 1618-6370. The magazine established itself as the city magazine of Braunschweig, distributed free at over 300 locations (over 400 at its peak) including libraries, cinemas, discotheques, pubs, restaurants, retail, and public and private meeting points. In 2008 the 250th issue appeared with a new logo and layout designed by magazine designer Uwe C. Beyer, described as urban, edgy, and self-confident, and the same publishing house produced two sister city papers, BackStage Braunschweig and indigo Wolfsburg.

In 2006 the Braunschweig district court decided that the trademark and title rights of the Subway Medien GmbH were older and thus took precedence over a customer magazine of the Subway fast-food chain, a notable legal victory for the small Braunschweig publisher against the global sandwich corporation. In early 2007, Braunschweig's mayor Gert Hoffmann ordered city institutions to avoid the columnist Hartmut El Kurdi over critical articles, an attempt to ostracize a journalist that the German Cultural Council (Deutscher Kulturrat) publicly reprimanded as an attack on press freedom. El Kurdi left the magazine in summer 2007 after twelve years as columnist. The Braunschweig writer Alexander Wallasch became the new columnist in 2008, ending his column with the departure of longtime editor-in-chief and co-publisher Christian Göttner in the December 2012 issue, closing a chapter of the magazine's editorial history.

On May 30, 2016, under file number 275 IN 176/16, the publishing house SUBWAY Medien GmbH filed for insolvency; the company was dissolved after the insolvency opening on July 7, 2016. The magazine continues under the new publisher, the oeding magazin GmbH of Braunschweig, at Erzberg 45, 38126 Braunschweig. The publisher's media data carry the oeding contact details for ad production and data delivery, and the subway.de website was relaunched in 2026.

Coverage and Content

Subway's coverage spans the cultural life of the region: music from concerts to the local scene, film previews and reviews, theater and cultural events, city life and gastronomy, and the surrounding region's leisure offerings. A May 2026 issue, for instance, featured the Braunschweig board game club Brot und Spiele, now in its fifteenth year with 55 active members and a game library of over 150 board games, illustrating the magazine's attention to the region's associational life beyond the mainstream cultural program. The event calendar is the magazine's backbone, with "Today" and "Weekend" sections online, and the classifieds give the region's residents a marketplace for the small transactions of everyday life. The classifieds and service tips complete the offering. The magazine's tone is that of the engaged city magazine: close to the scene, critical when warranted, as the El Kurdi affair demonstrated, and rooted in the region's cultural institutions through its many cooperations.

Organization and Ownership

Subway is published by the oeding magazin GmbH, Erzberg 45, 38126 Braunschweig, whose media data for 2026/27 present the magazine's advertising environment. The publisher's graphics department designs advertisements for clients' use in the print and online media at no extra charge, and the ad closing date is the 13th of the preceding month. The original publisher, the SUBWAY Medien GmbH, was dissolved in 2016 after insolvency proceedings. The magazine is financed exclusively through advertising. Financial details are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

Subway.de was relaunched in 2026 with an event calendar featuring "Today" and "Weekend" sections, music, film and series, culture, city life, leisure and region coverage, and the magazine archive, with all advertising placements available for smartphone and desktop. The relaunch modernized the magazine's digital home after years of the classic city-magazine website, and the magazine archive keeps past issues accessible online. The Instagram account, with 4,534 followers as of October 2026, posts weekly event tips, raffles, and cooperations, mentioning 127 partner accounts in the preceding twelve months. The media data for 2026/27 present the magazine as embedded in the region's cultural life: printed every month, online in the event calendar, and on Instagram in the middle of things, with the advertising message that the advertiser's message stands where Braunschweig plans its evenings.

Braunschweig's City Magazine

For nearly four decades, Subway has been Braunschweig's free city magazine: the monthly guide to the region's cultural life, surviving trademark battles, editorial controversies, and insolvency to continue under new ownership. From the Downtown predecessor to the oeding era, it remains where Braunschweig plans its evenings: in the middle of cultural life, as its tagline promises, month after month since 1987.