The oldest newspaper in the world says goodbye to its print edition after 320 years

The “Wiener Zeitung”, founded in 1703 and considered the oldest newspaper in the world still in circulation, published its last printed edition this Friday and will continue in digital format after a large downsizing.

“116,840 days, 3,839 months, 320 years, 12 presidents, 10 emperors, 2 republics, 1 newspaper”, Wiener Zeitung summarizes his story on its last front page.

The newspaper, which was first published in 1703 under the name of “Wiennerisches Diarium” and was later renamed as wiener zeitung in 1780, it has witnessed revolutions, the fall of European empires, including Austro-Hungarian, and two world wars.

The newspaper was nationalized by the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in 1857 and became the Official Gazette, which has given it most of its income up to now.

In addition to the publication of the Bulletin as a supplement, the newspaper existed as another medium, with editorial independence from the Government.

That role as an official gazette has been criticized by some businessmen, who are legally obliged to publish certain announcements in the newspaper, such as shareholders’ meetings and changes in business registration, as well as by other means that saw it as unfair competition.

The role of Official Gazette will now be carried out by a digital platform specifically created for this purpose and the Austrian Government, made up of conservatives and ecologists, justifies its decision in the application of a community directive that requires unifying public announcements on the Internet.

The management of the newspaper, the press associations and the Social Democratic opposition have harshly criticized the decision, since without state aid the newspaper disappears in its current format.

The rotary of wiener zeitung It was launched for the last time on Thursday night with the assistance of numerous editors and directors of the newspaper.

Thomas Seiferteditor-in-chief of Internacional, who has provisionally directed the newspaper in recent months, described the government’s decision as a “vandal act of uneducated barbarians”, according to the APA news agency.

The print run for the latest edition was 50,000 copies, well above the usual 20,000 on a weekday.

The changes mean the dismissal of 63 people, including 35 journalists. The new digital newsroom will only have 20 people.

The rotary presses where the newspaper is printed, an external company, also announced its closure at the end of the year and the dismissal of its 43 workers.

“The ‘wise’ media policy of the conservative environmental coalition has already caused more than 100 layoffs”, sums up the wiener zeitung in an article.

The header wiener zeitung it will continue to exist as a data-focused outlet that is further removed from daily news, as well as a training center for journalists and a publicly funded content agency.

Source: EFE