By Simon Bond

  The chief economist of Germany's Deutsche Bank is the latest figure to get caught up in the crossfire that's raging in a battle for the country's business readers.
   Professor Norbert Walter, along with a number of other German business leaders, recently appeared in ads praising the virtues of the Financial Times Deutschland, the new German-language newspaper published by Pearson.
     FTD is the first national newspaper to be launched in Germany in two decades and the first ever to be published by a foreign company.
    The FTD's arrival in Germany, a country well known for its protectionist business practices, has attracted the full wrath of local media, and that wrath has spread to those who have gone public to endorse the paper.
   Following his appearance in the FTD advertisement, Professor Walter received a letter from a top executive  at Handelsblatt, Germany's leading business daily. 
   The letter detailed, in over two pages, why Walter should not be supporting their new foreign rival.
   Walter, not one to be bullied,  sent Handelsblatt a curt reply and passed a copy of the letter straight to the FTD.
  The FTD says the letter is just another play in a policy to "talk it down."
     Another attack on the FTD included the evocative headline "Image of Failure" above an article picturing FTD editor Andrew Gowers. 
    Another German newspaper, Die Welt, had to publish a correction after claiming, incorrectly, that  Gowers was about to leave the newspaper.
    In addition to its German competitors, the FTD is in a fierce struggle with The Wall Street Journal to become Europe's leading business daily.
   While the FTD has chosen to take on the Germans head to head, The Wall Street Journal has formed a partnership with Holtzbrinck, publisher of Handelsblatt. Under the terms of the deal, the Germans own 49 percent of The Wall Street Journal Europe and the Americans have taken a 22 percent stake in Handelsblatt. The two papers have access to each other's stories prior to publication, and they are cooperating in a number of other joint ventures. At present, though, a German-language edition of the WSJ is not planned.
     Though only publishing a year, the FTD can already claim to have had an impact on the German market. In order to keep pace, Handelsblatt has introduced color on its front page and extended its deadlines past 5:30 p.m., the traditional hour for German businesses to close down for the day.
     However, it is by revenues, not cultural impact, that the FTD will be measured. Its daily sales averaged 60,685 in the third quarter, but over 40 percent of these were "bulks"-- copies given away in hotels and on aircraft to promote the newspaper. 
   Over the same period, Handelsblatt sold an average of 161,030 a day, with only 10 percent of copies given away as bulks.
    The FTD claims the bulks are a valuable marketing tool, and believes that its circulation will increase to 80,000 by the end of next year as a result of such initiatives. 
     Backed by Pearson and Bertelsmann, FTD should have deep pockets, not least because Germany is the most valuable newspaper advertising market in Europe.
    According to media-buying agency Zenith Media, the German market was worth $9 billion in 2000, followed by the UK at $6.6 billion and France at $2 billion.
   These are also busy times for business journalists. The rise and fall of the dot.coms has been followed by a general growth of stock ownership in Germany, and this has attracted a growing following for business news.
    However, critics say that the FTD still has an uphill struggle, and not least because of the absence of a national newspaper culture in Germany. The country's only truly national newspaper is the mass-market tabloid Bild.
    As a result, Germany's newspaper market is dominated by a powerful group of regional monopolies.
    Even if the FTD defeats its business news rival, Handelsblatt, it may still have to do battle with the many-headed hydra of these regional publishing barons before it can claim to have won in Germany.

-Simon Bond covers European media for Media Life, writing from outside of London.


Printer-Friendly Version |  Send to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact Us

© 2001 Media Life