Newspaper that covered the Crimson Tide, and a concert by Mozart, ends print edition
It’s not unusual for a newspaper to cover the Alabama Crimson Tide. One of these newspapers to have written about Mozart might be.
One of the world’s oldest newspapers, the Vienna-based Wiener Zeitung, ended its daily print run on July 2nd After more than 300 years. This newspaper covered the 2017 College Football Playoff final game in Tampa between Alabama and Clemson.
The Sydney Morning Herald and the Guardian newspaper also noted how Wiener Zeitung covered a 1768 concert by an “especially talented” 12-year-old named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
First published under the name Wiennerisches Diarium, the paper set out to provide a sober account of the news “without any oratory or poetic gloss” when it was launched on Aug. 8, 1703.
“320 years, 12 presidents, 10 emperors, 2 republics, 1 newspaper,” the print edition’s final front page read.
After a recent change in law, the Wiener Zeitung, owned by the Austrian Government but editorially independent of it, saw a dramatic drop in revenues. Companies no longer had to pay for the publication of changes to the commercial register in the print edition.
The newspaper, which was considered to be a publication of high quality, with articles on domestic and foreign news as well as culture and business, had to cut 63 positions and reduce the editorial staff to only 20.
In the press area of Raymond James Stadium, Moritz Ablinger, a journalist for the Wiener Zeitung, sat with Alabama Public Radio as the Crimson Tide fell to Clemson in the 2017 College Football Championship. In Wiener Zeitung, Ablingner wrote this of the game in his article titled “A title for eternity,” (this excerpt, in German, is translated into English through Google Translate…)
“Because college football is much more than a training facility for the NFL. The stadiums are not just for students, but also for those who have graduated. Bryant Denny Stadium, located in Tuscaloosa at the University of Alabama, can accommodate more than 101,000 fans and is sold out for almost every home match. Clemson has about 85,000. Clemson would be second in the NFL with these numbers. Swinney (Clemson coach) says, “The size is overwhelming.” “But the loyalty is what makes our sport special.” Thousands of alumni from both universities are already hanging out in Tampa the weekend before the game.”
The Wiener Zeitung, a high-quality publication that covers domestic and international news, business and culture, has been forced to reduce its editorial staff from 63 to 20.
It will remain online, and also plan a print publication every month.
In its final daily print edition the paper interviewed one of Austria’s most famous exports: actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger. It lamented that, unlike Schwarzenegger’s famous “Terminator” character, the newspaper won’t be able to make the phrase “I’ll be back” its motto for the future.