You know, history is not enough to save your life. Like many other paper newspapers, the Wiener Zeitung is also in danger of closing its doors. Forever. In the case of the Austrian newspaper, the prospect is particularly painful: it is the oldest newspaper in the world still published. The first issue of the newspaper appeared on August 8, 1703: at the time, the Ottomans had left the Austrian capital for just twenty years, and the paper – which was still called “Wiennerisches Diarium” – had imposed itself on publish anything “worthy of reflection”, including the number of deer killed by the imperial hand during the hunt. Well, 318 years later the Wiener Zeitung – which reaches about 10 thousand readers during the week, a number that quadruples over the weekend – is likely to bid its farewell to the world. And to think that when the current director, Waelter Haemmerle, took office in 2018, he made a solemn promise: «I will do everything to ensure that the words ‘last director of the Wiener Zeitung’ do not appear on my tombstone.
It is the Spiegel online that today recalls the epic of the newspaper, which narrated “the Declaration of Human Rights of the French Revolution as well as the triumphal march of Adolf Hitler in Vienna in 1938”. The paradoxical thing is that it is its publisher that puts the life of the newspaper at risk: which, in this case, is the Austrian state. Represented, as is evident, in the person of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Who had written in black and white in the government contract, the formal announcements will be abolished: that is, not only public jobs and changes in the trade register, which make the Wiener Zeitung a kind of Austrian Official Gazette. Until 2004 it also printed the newly passed laws, but today the government version of the statutes and treaties is published on the Internet. This is an income of 18 million euros: if that fails, the 45 full-time journalists will have to prepare the boxes. Barring a last minute miracle.
The director, heard by Spiegel, does not seem particularly optimistic. “Those who have to decide do not give us the impression that what we do here is a good to be preserved”, even if “a little political will would be enough to ensure the life of this small but refined newspaper”. Haemmerle proudly explains that the Wiener Zeitung “offers quality information, focuses on the relevance of the news and is not driven by click algorithms”.
And it is Spiegel himself who recognizes the ancient Viennese newspaper “a solid section of international information and a demanding cultural insert”, which – according to the German weekly – “must be considered a merit in the panorama of the Austrian press, in which many Popular tabloids are substantially supported by the public hand through advertisements and other aids. ”
The Wiener Zeitung does not fail to report its pride as a newspaper, describing itself on the Internet as “the oldest newspaper in the world with one of the youngest editorial offices in the country”. Not that the sword of Damocles prevents the Wiener Zeitung from maintaining critical tones towards the Austrian government. In an editorial signed by the director himself, Chancellor Kurz is for example criticized for his “staging” regarding the anti-Covid vaccination campaign. Remarkable demonstration of independence is observed in Vienna, as the head of the editorial office has in practice received his post from the Austrian chancellery itself.
Indeed, in order to avoid the newspaper’s farewell, a public campaign has begun that includes former head of state Heinz Fischer, the president of the Salzburg Festival Helga Rabl-Stadler, while in a few days a petition in favor of the newspaper has reached over 3300 signatures. However, the editor Haemmerle fears that, once the wave of public indignation subsides, the newspaper will stop taking its last breath anyway. Unless at the last minute a patron who is interested in keeping alive a history that has lasted over three hundred years emerges: the question that arises in these hours in the editorial office overlooking the rooftops of Vienna in the ancient district of the former slaughterhouses is whether respect for the centuries is enough to move private money. Who knows.