Cologne (dpa / lnw) – The publishers in North Rhine-Westphalia have asked the state government to campaign at federal level for financial support for early morning newspaper delivery. “The cost explosion in delivery is a problem of existential proportions,” said the chairman of the digital publisher and newspaper publisher association in North Rhine-Westphalia (DZV.NRW), Christian DuMont Schütte, on Tuesday. The further increase in the minimum wage made the situation even worse. The nationwide supply of information is acutely endangered. The federal government must therefore present a funding concept.
At the annual general meeting in Cologne on Tuesday, the chairman of the association also spoke of rising paper and energy costs, which put an additional burden on the publishers. He called on politicians to support local journalistic diversity as far as possible from the state and as easily as possible. One solution is to set the VAT for journalistic offers “to zero”, said DuMont Schütte.
According to the association, the gas supply is a concern. “Most newsprint manufacturers in Germany generate their energy with gas,” said DuMont Schütte. That’s why the DZV.NRW is campaigning “to ensure that newspaper production remains secured as a critical infrastructure in a gas emergency scenario”.
Despite the difficult situation, he sees the industry on the right track in terms of digital transformation and also economically, said DuMont Schütte. “The past few years have given digital paid content an important boost.” In the past year, the sales figures for e-paper and digital subscriptions have grown again.
In his speech to around 40 participants, DuMont Schütte also criticized the texts available on the websites of the public broadcasters. The market for privately financed journalistic products is severely affected by the free texts offered by the institutions.
According to its own statements, the digital publisher and newspaper publisher association NRW represents the interests of more than 40 member companies that publish daily newspapers with digital and printed editions as well as other digital journalistic offers.
