One of Germany's key newspapers, the Frankfurter Rundschau (FR), has filed for insolvency after years of falling circulation.
Frankfurt's administrative court confirmed yesterday that it had appointed an interim insolvency administrator, prompting a union leader to call it "a black day for media diversity in Germany."
Circulation of the FR, a left-leaning paper originally granted a licence by American occupiers in 1945, has shrunk to 118,000 nationwide. Advertising has also fallen away.
The FR, which now has 487 employees, began to run into trouble in 2001 when it had 1,500 staff. After rounds of redundancies in the following years, there were changes in ownership.
In 2006, the Cologne-based publishing house, DuMont Schauberg (MDS), took a majority stake of 50%. A media group associated with Germany's Social Democratic Party was left with 40% and the other 10% was held by the trust of one of the FR's founders.
In a cost-cutting drive that drew protests from workers and trade unions, the FR was turned into a tabloid in 2007. In recent decades, the paper was among Germany's 10 largest national dailies.
Source: DeutscheWelle/Wikipedia
