The Austrian state newspaper Wiener Zeitung, founded in 1703 during the Habsburg Empire and which had resisted two world wars, will stop publishing its paper edition, following a law voted on Thursday in the Austrian parliament.
The Austrian lower house on Thursday approved a new legislation on the media that stipulates that as of July 1, this state-run newspaper, considered one of the oldest in the world, will cease to be sold on newsstands, according to the World Press Association.
This newspaper will, however, maintain its Internet portal, with the possibility of occasional paper publications “depending on available funds.”
Founded under the name of Wiennerisches Diarium and renamed in 1780, this newspaper had been nationalized in the 19th century by Emperor Franz Joseph I and currently belongs to the Republic of Austria.
Although it retains an independent part at the editorial level, it also serves as the Official Gazette and publishes information on Austrian companies.
The Wiener Zeitung relied on these funds, but this information will now be published on a digital platform.
Its editorial staff denounced a “destroying” project that deprives the newspaper of sufficient funds to print the paper version.
“No one knows what the future of the publication will be and if it will do rigorous journalism,” laments Mathias Ziegler, deputy editor-in-chief of a medium with a circulation of 20,000 copies a day and nearly double at the weekend.
Nearly half of its 200 employees, 40 of them journalists, could be laid off due to the end of print publishing, according to the unions.