About Waiblinger Kreiszeitung

Waiblinger Kreiszeitung

The Waiblinger Kreiszeitung is a daily regional newspaper published in Waiblingen, in the Rems-Murr district of Baden-Württemberg, and the flagship title of the Zeitungsverlag Waiblingen (ZVW). Tracing its lineage to the Intelligenz-Blatt für den Oberamtsbezirk Waiblingen of 17 November 1839, it serves Waiblingen — the district capital on the Rems river, northeast of Stuttgart — and the surrounding Rems-Murr communities. Published Monday through Saturday, it appears alongside the group's sister titles: the Welzheimer Zeitung, the Schorndorfer Nachrichten, and the Winnender Zeitung. Its digital home is zvw.de.

Overview

The Waiblinger Kreiszeitung covers Waiblingen — with around 55,000 inhabitants, the Rems-Murr district's administrative capital — and the district's western communities. The paper appears Monday through Saturday, produced by the Zeitungsverlag Waiblingen's newsrooms: 35 editors at four locations produce the local sections and a shared district section, while the national and international pages come as a shared package (Mantel) from the Stuttgarter Nachrichten.

Waiblingen's identity blends district-capital administration, Stuttgart commuter-belt prosperity, and Rems valley wine and industry. The paper's readership consists of the district's households, the public administration's employees, local businesses, and the Mittelstand manufacturers of the Rems-Murr region — a prosperous, engaged audience that sustains one of Baden-Württemberg's most decorated local newspaper groups.

History

The paper's history begins on 17 November 1839, when the first issue of the "Intelligenz-Blatt für den Oberamtsbezirk Waiblingen und Umgebung" appeared "with royal Württemberg most gracious permission" — the official gazette of the Waiblingen upper district in the Kingdom of Württemberg. The sister papers' lineages are similarly deep: the Welzheimer Zeitung was first printed on 2 January 1845, a Schorndorf paper appeared in August 1848, and the Winnender Zeitung followed within a year.

For over a century the four papers developed independently, each serving its town through the Empire, Weimar, the Nazi era, and the post-war reconstruction. In 1971, the four previously independent publishers joined forces as the Zeitungsverlag Waiblingen — a cooperative consolidation that preserved the four historic titles while sharing production and resources. The arrangement became a model of its kind: local identities maintained, economics rationalized.

The modern era brought recognition: the Zeitungsverlag Waiblingen received the Deutscher Lokaljournalistenpreis (German Local Journalism Prize, awarded by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation) in 2006 and 2021 — the 2021 prize honoring the "Extra-Seiten" concept of focused editorial specials — plus a 2008 prize for editorial marketing and a 2009 special prize for journalistic responsibility in covering the Winnenden school shooting of 11 March 2009. In August 2026, the publishing house announced the takeover of the Backnanger Kreiszeitung and the Murrhardter Zeitung, with integration to be completed by the end of January 2027 — extending the group's reach across the Rems-Murr district.

Coverage and Content

The local section covers Waiblingen's town politics, the Rems-Murr district administration (seated in Waiblingen), and the western district's communities. The district-capital function shapes the agenda: the Landratsamt's decisions, the district's hospitals and schools, and the regional planning that affects the Stuttgart commuter belt.

The Rems valley's character — the vineyards, the historic old towns, the Mittelstand manufacturers — features prominently. The paper covers the local economy's global players (the district hosts world-market leaders in their niches), the wine festivals, and the cultural life of the district capital. Sports coverage follows the local clubs and the VfB Stuttgart passion — the publishing house even produces a VfB podcast with Die Neue 107.7.

The Winnenden school shooting of March 2009 — one of Germany's worst such tragedies — remains part of the paper's institutional memory; the special prize for responsible coverage recognized journalism under the most difficult circumstances. Beyond the local pages, the Stuttgarter Nachrichten supplies the national and international sections.

Organization and Ownership

The Waiblinger Kreiszeitung is published by the Zeitungsverlag Waiblingen (Zeitungsverlag GmbH & Co Waiblingen KG), based in Waiblingen, as the flagship of the group's four (soon six) titles. The 1971-founded publishing house unites the Waiblinger Kreiszeitung, Welzheimer Zeitung, Schorndorfer Nachrichten, and Winnender Zeitung — with the Backnanger Kreiszeitung and Murrhardter Zeitung joining by January 2027.

Thirty-five editors at four locations produce the local sections and the shared district section; the Stuttgarter Nachrichten provides the national pages as Mantel partner. The publisher also produces a free Wochenblatt with various sub-editions in Waiblingen, Winnenden, Schorndorf, and Backnang. The group's digital platform, zvw.de, serves all titles with e-paper, newsletters, apps, and the VfB podcast.

The ZVW Model: Cooperation Without Consolidation

The Zeitungsverlag Waiblingen's 1971 founding represents a distinctive answer to the regional press's eternal dilemma: how to achieve economic scale without destroying local identity. Rather than merging the four papers into one, the publishers created a joint venture that shares everything except the titles and local sections. Each town kept its newspaper — its name, its newsroom, its community role — while production, administration, and the national pages were pooled.

The model's success is measured in prizes and longevity: the Deutscher Lokaljournalistenpreis recognitions (2006, 2008, 2009, 2021) testify to editorial quality, and the 2026 expansion to Backnang and Murrhardt shows the model's continued vitality. In an era when most press consolidation means closures and mergers, the ZVW's cooperative growth — adding titles rather than eliminating them — offers an alternative vision of the regional press's future.

The Rems-Murr District

The Rems-Murr-Kreis — named for the Rems and Murr rivers — is one of Baden-Württemberg's most economically dynamic districts, and the Waiblinger Kreiszeitung's journalism reflects its prosperity and complexity. The district blends Stuttgart's commuter belt (Waiblingen, Fellbach, Weinstadt) with the Swabian Forest's villages (Welzheim, Murrhardt), the industrial towns (Schorndorf, Backnang, Winnenden), and the wine villages of the Rems valley. Each sub-region gets its own paper within the ZVW family — the group's title architecture mapping the district's geography.

The district's global champions — the Mittelstand world-market leaders in their niches, from tools to automotive systems — give the papers' business coverage an international dimension. The paper tracks the district's infrastructure debates (the Stuttgart 21 rail project's regional effects, the road networks), the schools and hospitals, and the cultural life from the Waiblingen galleries to the village festivals. In a district where Swabian thrift meets global enterprise, the Kreiszeitung documents both with equal seriousness.
The ZVW papers' business journalists cover these hidden champions with the expertise of specialists: the order books, the succession dramas, the global expansions decided in Swabian boardrooms. The Rems-Murr district's prosperity — among the highest in Baden-Württemberg — gives the papers an advertising base most local dailies envy, and the publishers reinvest it in the prize-winning journalism that sustains reader loyalty.

Readership and Market Position

The Waiblinger Kreiszeitung is the Rems-Murr district's western paper of record, serving a prosperous Stuttgart commuter-belt readership of households, administrators, and businesses. Its market position combines the flagship title's authority with the group's district-wide coverage — the four (soon six) titles together blanket the Rems-Murr-Kreis.

Like all German regional dailies, the paper faces long-term circulation pressure, addressed through the zvw.de digital platform, e-paper editions, and digital subscriptions. The group's expansion and prize-winning journalism suggest a publisher investing in growth rather than managing decline.

Digital Presence

The paper's digital home is zvw.de, the Zeitungsverlag Waiblingen's online portal serving all group titles. The portal operates a digital subscription model with e-paper editions (including the e-paper reader), newsletters, apps, social media channels, and the "Wir reden über den VfB" football podcast. The Waiblingen newsroom's stories reach both the district's online readers and the wider ZVW audience, while the portal's Rems-Murr focus gives the coverage its natural regional context.