A new phrase was coined in Germany recently, triggering a debate which reflects the rapidly changing nature of the country's newspaper landscape. Journalist Wolfram Schütte, who used to work for the daily Frankfurter Rundschau, dared denounce the "Tchiboisation of the Süddeutsche Zeitung."
He compared the Munich-based daily newspaper, which now sells books, CDs and even wine on the advertising pages of its cultural section ("Feuilleton"), to the popular coffee company Tchibo. The latter is known for its special offers on everything from kitchen appliances to jewelry and even mobile phone service.
"The key spots in the section have been given over to self-advertising camouflaged as editorial contributions, while the real cultural commentary has been relegated to the unattractive second page of the Feuilleton," said Schütte, equating today's cultural editors to sales agents.
This is just one more attack on Germany's broadsheet newspapers, which have been subjected to accusations of "trivialization", "emotionalization" and "tabloidization" in recent years, as they have struggled to make ends meet in a volatile financial climate.
Printed press has been particularly hard-hit by the loss of revenue from job advertising and classifieds, as the World Wide Web offers cheaper advertisement possibilities. One alternative source of income has been to sell books, DVDs, CDs and audio-books through the newspapers.
Quality concerns arise
Critics of this phenomenon believe that some of the basic principles of journalism, such as the hitherto strict separation of editorial content and advertising, are under threat. Since newspapers are compelled more and more to use their own advertising pages to promote themselves and their publishing companies, the separating line is becoming progressively finer.
"All of a sudden we find ourselves in the border zone between classical reporting, whether on events, books or films, and our own products which need to be marketed," Thomas Leif, the president of Germany's lobby for investigative journalism "Netzwerk Recherche," told Deutsche Welle.
"This gray zone is getting grayer and grayer and that's a problem. That's one side of the coin and the other is, of course, that the publishers claim they can't survive without this commercialization," added Leif.
Thomas Leif and his colleagues have developed a media code, a complement to Germany's 1973 press code, which addresses these issues. Their ten-point plan gives guidance on how to produce independent, neutral and truthful journalism and calls for a strict separation between journalism and PR.
Younger journalists less particular
Commercial pressure is not the only driving force behind the press phenomenon. The younger generation of journalists is also less demanding when it comes to freedom of opinion, said Leif.
"The tendency is that young people who have grown up with it and were never told by their editors that there were differences are less sensitive," he said. "They have no problems with the fact that they're constantly told it's because of the pressures of the economy that they can't get jobs and are badly paid. There has definitely been a change of mentality among younger journalists."
What's more, the newspaper bosses aren't paying much attention to maintaining distance from PR, added Leif. "These three mega-trends are creating a huge impact and that's what we're up against today."
