About tz

tz

The tz (short for Tageszeitung) is Munich's boulevard daily from the Münchner Merkur stable — founded in 1968 as an offshoot of the Münchner Merkur and originally advertised as "Bayerns flotte Zeitung" ("Bavaria's snappy paper"), the paper the Merkur created to fight the Abendzeitung on its own turf. Published since 18 September 1968 in the Münchener Zeitungs-Verlag, and made in the Pressehaus on Bayerstraße like the Merkur, it was launched to fight the Abendzeitung and Bild's Munich edition for the city's tabloid readers. Since 1982 it has belonged to Dirk Ippen's Mediengruppe Münchner Merkur/tz. With a sold circulation of 69,275 copies (a decline of 53.8 percent since 1998) — down from 114,612 in early 2016, 98,116 in 2019, and 85,042 in the third quarter of 2022 — it appears in Rheinisch format Monday through Saturday. Its website is tz.de — the digital home of "Bayerns flotte Zeitung," still snappy after more than five decades.

Overview

The tz is Munich's second boulevard paper — the tabloid arm of the Münchner Merkur group, complementing the Merkur's conservative subscription daily with street-sale sensationalism: the same publishing house, the same Pressehaus, two very different papers. Its main distribution area is Munich and the adjacent parts of Upper Bavaria.

The paper's history mirrors the Munich tabloid wars: launched in 1968 by the Merkur to take on the Abendzeitung, priced at 20 Pfennig, it grew into one of Germany's most-visited news websites in the 2010s — tz.de ranked 19th among the 50 largest German news sites in 2013, with 40.8 million monthly page views and 6.3 million visitors — even as its print circulation collapsed from six figures to under 70,000.

Munich's three-way tabloid fight

The Munich boulevard market has long been a three-way battle: the tz (Merkur group/Ippen), the Abendzeitung (Friedmann, then Balle's Mediengruppe Attenkofer), and the Munich edition of the national Bild (Axel Springer). The tz was created as a weapon in this fight — the Merkur's answer to the AZ — and for decades the two Munich papers chased the same scoops, the same celebrities, and the same FC Bayern locker room. The fight has now moved online, where tz.de's national-scale audience gives the Munich tabloid a reach its print edition never had.

History

"Bayerns flotte Zeitung": the 1968 founding

The tz was founded in 1968 as an offshoot of the Münchner Merkur and originally advertised as "Bayerns flotte Zeitung" — Bavaria's snappy, zippy paper, the Merkur's answer to the Abendzeitung's dominance of the Munich street-sale market. From 1968 to 1970 the first editor-in-chief was Erich Helmensdorfer, a journalist also known from television programs. The tz competed primarily with the Abendzeitung — the boulevard paper of the Süddeutscher Verlag — but also with the Munich edition of Bild from Berlin's Axel Springer Verlag. Originally the paper, made like the Merkur in the Pressehaus on Bayerstraße, cost 20 Pfennig — the classic tabloid price of the era.

In 1982 the tz was acquired by the Westphalian publisher Dirk Ippen as part of the Münchner Zeitungsverlag — the same deal that brought the Münchner Merkur into Ippen's hands, with Ippen taking 24.9 percent of the Münchener Zeitungs-Verlag from Axel Springer AG. The Munich tabloid wars thus ended with a Westphalian owner holding both the Merkur and its tabloid offshoot — and the Springer group, once the tz's great rival through Bild, selling its Munich stake to the man from Hamm.

A roll call of editors

The paper's chief editors trace the Munich tabloid's history: founding editor Erich Helmensdorfer (1968–1970); Franz Schönhuber (autumn 1969–Easter 1970); Otto Merk (Easter 1970–1987), the long-serving editor who shaped the paper for 17 years; Hans Riehl; Thomas Dobernigg (June 1997, formerly of Bild Munich — the Springer tabloid's man taking over the Munich rival); Peter Fischer (May 1998, in dual role as Münchner Merkur editor); Karl Schermann (February 1999); Rudolf Bögel (2006–2018), a former local chief of the Abendzeitung — the rival's man now leading the tz; and Sebastian Arbinger (2018–).

The digital tz

In June 2006 an internet version of the paper went online as tz Live. In February 2008 the formerly static page became the multimedia news portal tz-online.de. Since 4 December 2013 the site has been reachable at tz.de, redesigned and technically adapted for the mobile internet. Its own online editorial team supplies the portal daily with current news, focused on local news from Munich and Upper Bavaria as well as sports and boulevard topics. In 2013 the site was called up 40,806,290 times per month, reaching 6,339,913 visitors including 1,350,000 unique users — 19th place among Germany's 50 largest news websites, ahead of many national titles. The tz was thus one of the first German regional tabloids to build a genuinely national-scale digital audience.

The tz also owns the Hallo München advertising paper — the free weekly that lands in Munich mailboxes, extending the group's reach into every household.

Content and Programming

The tz's content is Munich's daily life in tabloid form: city news, crime, celebrities, FC Bayern and TSV 1860 — the paper lives off the Bavarian capital's obsessions, from the Allianz Arena to the Wiesn — and Upper Bavarian regional stories. The thematic focus of tz.de is local news from Munich and Upper Bavaria plus sports and boulevard topics — the digital continuation of the "flotte Zeitung" idea, snappy then and snappy now, with the website's own online editorial team feeding the portal around the clock.

Coverage and Audience

The tz serves Munich and the adjacent parts of Upper Bavaria — the same region as the Münchner Merkur, but for the tabloid audience: the readers who want their Munich news fast, sensational, and unpretentious. With 69,275 copies sold, its print readership is a fraction of its digital one: the 2013 figures of 6.3 million monthly visitors showed a paper whose future was already online. Its readership is the classic boulevard profile: entertainment-oriented, city-focused — the Munich that reads about itself in the morning and argues about it by noon.

Ownership

The tz (short for Tageszeitung) first appeared on 18 September 1968 as an offshoot of the Münchner Merkur and is published by the Zeitungsverlag tz München GmbH & Co. KG; it belongs to Dirk Ippen's Mediengruppe Münchner Merkur/tz, with Ippen and Alfons Döser as publishers. Its founding editor-in-chief was Erich Helmensdorfer, and since 2018 the editor-in-chief has been Sebastian Arbinger. The free advertising paper Hallo München also belongs to the tz.

The tz is published by Zeitungsverlag tz München GmbH & Co. KG. The owners are Dirk Ippen and Alfons Döser, within the Mediengruppe Münchner Merkur/tz — the same ownership as the Münchner Merkur, making the tz the group's tabloid complement to the Merkur's subscription daily: one publishing house, two Munich papers, two very different readerships, and a combined presence in the Munich market that neither the AZ nor Bild can match alone.

Digital Presence

The website tz.de is one of Germany's most-visited regional news portals, with its own online editorial team publishing daily — the 2013 ranking of 19th among Germany's 50 largest news sites made the Munich tabloid a digital player far beyond Bavaria. Since the December 2013 relaunch it has been optimized for the mobile internet. The site operates with digital advertising revenue and serves the Munich tabloid audience online — the readers who once bought the 20-Pfennig paper on the street now scrolling it on their phones. As of October 2018 the print single-copy price was 1 euro Monday through Friday and 1.20 euros on Saturdays — a long way from the 20 Pfennig of 1968, but the "flotte Zeitung" promise is the same.