In addition to books, for some 500 years now newspapers and magazines have been a medium that as regards content, form and dissemination may well have been constantly modernized, but whose basic structure has remained more or less the same, despite the continued emergence of new media. Now, as ever, the press stands for in-depth analysis and background reporting, addressing specific topics, and comment. The partial dissolving of fixed ideological convictions in German society along the traditional spectrum of left and right was accompanied in part by the disappearance of a clear cut political allegiance on the part of the press. The German newspaper market is characterized by a large number of publications and regional differences. Alongside 333 regional daily newspapers there are ten national dailies, alongside ten quality publications and nine so-called popular newspapers that concentrate on general interest matters. In this category the influential “Bild”- Zeitung, which is published by Axel Springer Verlag and has a circulation of 3.6 million, is the only national newspaper to play an outstanding role. Overall the total circulation figures for some 350 German daily newspapers come to 24 million.

However, the financial footing of the classic daily press is under pressure: The younger generation is reading fewer newspapers, advertising revenue is declining, and all manner of content is nowadays procured from the Internet, which among almost all age groups has now advanced to become a leading medium. Almost two thirds of all Germans are meanwhile “online” – or 48.7 million people over ten years. Nevertheless there is one sold newspaper for more than every third German, and the number of readers is even higher. In terms of politics and culture several publications are considered to be highly influential, for example national quality newspapers such as “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“, “Süddeutsche Zeitung“ and the traditional weekly “Die Zeit“.

An increasing number of special interest publications have been appearing alongside the popular magazines. The entire range of popular magazines includes some 2,300 publications and boasts a total circulation of more than 120 million. “Stern“, “Focus“ and “Spiegel“, news magazines that play an active role in discussion in society or have themselves been the subject of important discourse, are among the most widely-read publications. Of these, “Spiegel“, a political journal with perhaps the greatest longterm influence of any weekly publication, is outstanding. The biggest publishers of popular magazines are Heinrich Bauer Verlag, Axel Springer Verlag, Burda and Gruner+Jahr, which is part of the Bertelsmann Group. Springer and Bertelsmann are also the two media corporations that by virtue of owning successful radio and TV stations, as well as Internet activities, generate sales in the billions, triggering a discussion about media concentration and the trans-media concentration of opinion.