Vienna:
Austria’s Wiener Zeitung, one of many world’s oldest newspapers, will go primarily on-line, following a choice on Thursday by the nation’s parliament.
The event is the newest step in a years-long dispute between the Austrian authorities and the newspaper over the way forward for the state-owned each day.
Based in 1703 below the identify Wienerisches Dierium, and later renamed Wiener Zeitung in 1780, the previously personal bi-weekly paper was nationalized in 1857 by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, the nation’s Turned the official Gazette.
“It’s adopted with a majority,” stated parliament’s third speaker, Norbert Hofer, of a brand new legislation to maneuver publication primarily on-line from July 1.
Relying on obtainable funds, the paper will keep a minimal of ten print publications per 12 months.
The World Affiliation of Information Publishers instructed AFP that in 2004 Wiener Zeitung was ranked as one of many oldest newspapers.
The newspaper’s position because the official gazette, it is primary income, will transfer to a separate state-owned on-line platform.
The federal government argued that this was according to a European directive to centralize and publish official data on-line.
In the meantime, Wiener Zeitung will arrange a media hub, a content material company and a coaching middle for journalists.
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“Some concern that the federal government solely needs to maintain the Wiener Zeitung model with its 320-year-old historical past, whereas nobody is aware of what the publication of the longer term will appear to be – whether or not it can nonetheless be critical journalism,” says its deputy managing editor Matthias Ziegler. instructed AFP.
Almost half of the paper’s greater than 200 employees – 40 of whom are journalists – may very well be laid off, in accordance with the commerce union.
The circulation of the Wiener Zeitung is round 20,000 on weekdays and nearly double that on weekends.
European Union Fee Vice President Vera Jourova instructed Austrian information company APA that she was “not proud of the scenario”.
“I feel that the Wiener Zeitung has performed a very good position in informing individuals through the years”.
A number of hundred individuals took to the streets in Vienna on Tuesday to protest the federal government’s transfer.