Austria’s 319-year-old Wiener Zeitung newspaper can be leaving day by day print circulation and going nearly wholly on-line following a vote of the nation’s parliament Thursday.
The Wiener Zeitung (roughly, “Vienna Times” in English) was based because the Wiennerisches Diarium in 1703 because the official mouthpiece of the Habsburg emperors. The first difficulty was printed on Aug. 8 of that 12 months.
It was given its present identify in 1780, and possession of it transferred to the Austrian state in 1857.
While the newspaper stopped being the official publication for Austrian legal guidelines and govt orders in 2004, it continues to be the place the Austrian authorities prints legally required bulletins, together with firm registrations and vacancies within the civil service.
Starting July 1, the day by day newspaper will cease day by day print circulation. While there can be at the very least ten printed papers per 12 months relying on funds, the Wiener Zeitung’s official bulletins, its main income, will transfer fully on-line.
“Some fear that the government just wants to keep the Wiener Zeitung brand with its 320-year-old history, while nobody knows what the future publication will look like — whether it will still be serious journalism,” Managing Editor Mathias Ziegler informed the Agence France-Presse wire service.
The paper presently has a weekday circulation of round 20,000, and a weekend circulation of about 40,000.
There have been protests in Vienna arguing in opposition to the transfer, and Austria’s parliamentary opposition events additionally denounced the measure.
Jorg Leichtfried, a member of the main opposition celebration, known as it “a black day for Austria’s media and national culture,” in accordance to a Washington Times translation of the Wiener Zeitung performed with pc help.
“The newspaper was passed on from generation to generation, this newspaper has documented more important events in the course of its history than any other,” Mr. Leichtfried, a member of the Social Democratic Party, mentioned in a session of the Austrian parliament.
The ruling coalition in Austria consists of the populist People’s Party, of which Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is a member, and the Greens, of which President Alexander Van der Bellen is a member.
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