About Waldeckische Landeszeitung

Waldeckische Landeszeitung

The Waldeckische Landeszeitung (WLZ) is a daily regional newspaper published in Korbach, in the Waldeck-Frankenberg district of northern Hesse, serving the historic Waldecker Land. First published on 10 May 1887 by founder Wilhelm Bing, it appears Monday through Saturday with a sold circulation of 12,634 copies (IVW 1/2026). Published by the W. Bing Druckerei und Verlag GmbH — whose sole shareholder since 2015 has been the Medien-Beteiligungsgesellschaft (MBG) in Bad Hersfeld — the paper is northern Hesse's voice for the Waldeck region. Its digital home is wlz-online.de.

Overview

The Waldeckische Landeszeitung covers the Waldecker Land: the district capital Korbach — with around 24,000 inhabitants, the historic residence town of the Waldeck princes — and the surrounding Waldeck-Frankenberg district, including Bad Arolsen, Bad Wildungen, and the Edersee region. The paper appears Monday through Saturday with a consistently four-color layout, daily rotating special pages, and photo galleries and videos complementing the online edition.

The Waldecker Land's identity blends princely heritage, half-timbered towns, the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park, and the rural economy of northern Hesse. The paper's readership consists of the district's households, local businesses, farmers, and the tourism sector around the Edersee — one of Germany's largest reservoirs and a major recreation area — readers whose attachment to the Waldecker Land runs deeper than ordinary local loyalty.

History

Wilhelm Bing founded the Waldeckische Landeszeitung on 10 May 1887, establishing the publishing house that still bears his name — the W. Bing Druckerei und Verlag GmbH, based at Lengefelder Straße 6 in Korbach. The paper served the Principality of Waldeck through the Empire's final decades, the Weimar Republic, and the post-war Federal Republic, documenting the region's transformation from principality to Prussian province to Hessian district.

A significant chapter: from 1974, the Frankenberger Zeitung (first published 1870) appeared as the WLZ's Kopfblatt with a local section for the old Frankenberg district. In autumn 2015, the Frankenberger Zeitung was discontinued in favor of the competing Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine (HNA) — its circulation then around 4,500 — and the Frankenberg newsroom was closed, concentrating the WLZ's editorial operations on Korbach, Bad Arolsen, and Bad Wildungen.

Ownership: since 2015, the publishing house's sole shareholder has been the Medien-Beteiligungsgesellschaft (MBG) in Bad Hersfeld. The paper is printed by Zeitungsdruck Dierichs GmbH & Co. KG in Kassel. From 2009, the WLZ (like the Frankenberger Zeitung) took its national pages from the Oberhessische Presse under the Madsack connection; the paper's supraregional sourcing has since evolved with the industry's networks. The editorial leadership includes Lutz Benseler and Philipp Daum (Redaktionsleitung), with Markus Pfromm named as publisher (Herausgeber) and Markus Dittmann as managing director, according to published sources.

Coverage and Content

The local section covers Korbach's town politics, the Waldeck-Frankenberg district, and the Waldecker Land's communities. The region's distinctive topics dominate: the Edersee's tourism and water management, the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park's ancient beech forests (UNESCO World Heritage), the half-timbered towns' heritage, and the rural economy.

Korbach's history — the Hanseatic trading past, the gold mining, the Waldeck princes' residence — features in cultural reporting, alongside Bad Arolsen's baroque Residenzschloss and Bad Wildungen's spa heritage. The paper covers the district's schools, hospitals, the volunteer fire brigades, and the clubs that anchor village life. Economic reporting follows the local Mittelstand, the timber industry, agriculture, and tourism.

The paper's presentation — consistently four-color, with daily special pages, photo galleries, and videos for the online edition, plus a mobile app — reflects a modern regional daily's multimedia approach.
The WLZ's multimedia approach — four-color print, daily specials, online videos, mobile app — reflects a publisher adapting the 1887-founded paper to contemporary reading habits without abandoning the print edition that remains its core. The three newsrooms' daily coordination across Korbach, Bad Arolsen, and Bad Wildungen keeps the Waldecker Land's journalism genuinely local while sharing the resources a modern regional daily requires.
The WLZ's 12,634 subscribers represent a community of readers whose loyalty the paper has earned across 139 years. In the Waldecker Land — where the princely heritage, the Edersee, and the half-timbered towns shape a identity unlike anywhere else in Hesse — the Landeszeitung remains what its name promises: the region's paper.

Organization and Ownership

The Waldeckische Landeszeitung is published by the W. Bing Druckerei und Verlag GmbH, based in Korbach, whose sole shareholder since 2015 has been the Medien-Beteiligungsgesellschaft (MBG) in Bad Hersfeld. The newsroom operates at three locations — Korbach, Bad Arolsen, and Bad Wildungen — producing the Waldecker Land's local journalism.

The paper is printed in Kassel by the Zeitungsdruck Dierichs operation. The WLZ's 12,634 sold copies (IVW 1/2026) represent a 42.3-percent decline since 1998 — the industry-wide pressure affecting all German regional dailies, here compounded by the 2015 loss of the Frankenberg edition.

The Waldecker Land

The Waldecker Land — the historic principality whose name the paper carries — is one of Hesse's most distinctive regions. The Waldeck princes ruled from Arolsen's baroque palace until 1918; the region's half-timbered towns, the Edersee's vast waters, and the Kellerwald's primeval beech forests form a landscape of exceptional beauty. The Edersee — built 1908–1914, breached by the RAF's 1943 "Dambusters" raid — is both a recreation magnet and a living memorial, and the paper's coverage navigates both dimensions.

Korbach's Hanseatic past, the medieval gold mining, and the town's role as the district's administrative and commercial center give the paper's local journalism deep roots. In a region where the princely heritage is not museum history but community identity — the Waldeck clubs, the festivals, the dialect — the Landeszeitung's name is a promise: the region's paper, for the region's people.

The Edersee: Reservoir, Memorial, Playground

The Edersee dominates the Waldecker Land's geography and the WLZ's journalism. Built between 1908 and 1914 as one of Europe's largest dams, the reservoir breached by RAF bombers on the night of 16–17 May 1943 — the famous "Dambusters" raid — unleashed a flood wave that killed dozens downstream and devastated the Eder valley. The paper's coverage of the raid's anniversaries navigates the delicate balance between commemoration and the region's identity as a victim of war's logic.

Today the Edersee is northern Hesse's great recreation area: sailing, diving (to the submerged old villages visible at low water), the lakeside promenades, and the national park's wilderness trails. The paper's seasonal reporting follows the water levels — the "Edersee-Atlantis" phenomenon when drought reveals the drowned villages — the tourism economy, and the dam's ongoing engineering. The reservoir's dual nature, as both memorial and playground, gives the WLZ's Edersee journalism a depth few regional papers' beats can match.

Readership and Market Position

The Waldeckische Landeszeitung is the Waldecker Land's paper of record, serving 12,634 subscribers across the district's towns and villages. Its readership consists of the region's established households, businesses, farmers, and the Edersee tourism sector — a loyal audience in a region with strong local identity.

The 2015 discontinuation of the Frankenberger Zeitung — ceding the Frankenberg area to the HNA — was a strategic retreat that concentrated the paper on its Waldeck heartland. Like all German regional dailies, the WLZ faces long-term circulation pressure, addressed through the wlz-online.de digital platform, e-paper editions, and digital subscriptions.

Digital Presence

The paper's digital home is wlz-online.de, offering local news with photo galleries and videos complementing the print edition's stories. The platform operates a digital subscription model with e-paper editions and a mobile app. The three newsrooms' stories — from Edersee tourism to Korbach town politics — reach both the Waldecker Land's online readers and the wider northern Hessian audience. The paper's consistently four-color print presentation and multimedia online approach reflect a regional daily investing in its journalistic future.