Two items from a talk yesterday to the World Editors Forum in Hamburg by Giovanni di Lorenzo, editor of the weekly Die Zeit.
- In circulation and advertising, Die Zeit has just had the best four years in its history. Di Lorenzo said that circulation had grown by 60% and was now over 500,000 per week.
- On payment for digitally-delivered content, he was clear that newspapers should not repeat or continue the mistake of giving content away free. “We need paid content”, he said, for quality journalism to survive.
The first of these points may reflect conditions particular to the German market and the fact that Die Zeit is not competing in the daily print market. But I hope that Die Zeit’s success also illustrates that well-targeted journalism of depth can succeed. (There’s a fuler account of Lorenzo’s talk at editorsweblog.org here).
Tags: Die Zeit, Giovanni di Lorenzo