Type daily, Mon-Fr Founded 1916 Headquarters Windhoek, Namibia | Managing editors Stefan Fischer Language German | |
Owner(s) Democratic Media Holdings Pty Ltd. | ||
The Allgemeine Zeitung (literally in English "General Newspaper") founded in 1916, is the oldest daily newspaper in Namibia and the only German daily in Africa.
Contents
Profile
The Allgemeine Zeitung is a Namibian newspaper. It is written by 10 editors; most of the staff members are either born or naturalized Namibians. The newspaper leans liberal-conservative.
With a steadily growing circulation from about 5,300 copies (Mondays to Thursdays, 12 to 16 pages) to about 6,200 copies (Fridays, up to 32 pages) (Status: November 2015; up from 5,000 and 6,000, respectively, in 2009) the "AZ" is read mostly by German-speaking Namibians (~25,000). A few hundred papers are sent to South Africa and some (mostly the Friday release) to Namibian expatriates and to Germany. Once a month (usually first Tuesday of the month) an extra for tourists is added. The circulation then increases to about 12,000 copies.
In 1991 Democratic Media Holdings (DMH) bought the Newspaper. The managing editor since 2004 is Stefan Fischer. He modernized the design, which increased demand and led to initial profit for Allgemeine Zeitung. DMH also prints and releases Die Republikein, which is written in Afrikaans, and the Namibian Sun. All editorial content in the newspaper is written in German, a common language in Namibia.
History
The Allgemeine Zeitung was founded on 22 July 1916 under the name "Der Kriegsbote" (literally "The War Envoy") and reported on the events of the First World War. After Germany was defeated and lost German South-West Africa (now Namibia) to South Africa the name was changed to Allgemeine Zeitung on 1 July 1919.
In the year of 1937 the Newspaper was bought by the publisher "John Meinert Ltd." . The newspaper was released daily, except for Sundays, with a circulation of 1,800 copies. Most readers were Germans from Windhoek and surroundings. At that time the tagline was changed to indicate the intent to support German national interests. From 1939 for a short while the Newspaper was released under the name "Deutscher Beobachter" ("German Observer").
At the same time, smaller newspapers were released, such as "Der Farmer" ("The Farmer"), "Das Volksblatt" ("The People's Paper") owned by the Workers Association of South Afrika, the "Karakulzüchter" (literally in English "The Karakul Stockman") founded in 1933 and the "Heimat" ("Home") a German paper for Africa's evangelical community. In 1987, Diether Lauenstein became the new owner, before the Newspaper was sold to DMH.