The future of print looks bleak

Published on: May 5, 2020 / Updated on: August 22, 2020 – Author: Konrad Wolfenstein

2020 – Infographic: The future of print looks bleak

According to IVW (German Audit Bureau of Circulations), the circulation of national daily newspapers in the first quarter of 2020 amounted to 2.2 million copies – 7.5 percent less than in the same period of the previous year. For comparison, in 2010 it was around five million copies. The BILD (including the BZ) has been hit hard by the print crisis, recently losing around eight percent of its circulation year-on-year. And this is far from the end of the line, as a forecast based on quarterly circulation figures since 1998 shows. According to this forecast, the tabloid's circulation will fall to approximately 890,000 copies by the first quarter of 2025. In this scenario, the total circulation of national daily newspapers would drop to around 1.6 million.

2018 – Circulation shrinks to 2.5 million – Bild loses 47 percent

Germany's national daily newspapers currently sell around 2.5 million copies per issue (-7.6% compared to Q3 2017). This is according to the latest data from the Information Community for Determining the Circulation of Advertising Media (IVW) for the third quarter of 2018. At the beginning of the decade, the figure was almost 1.8 million higher. Bild's circulation, for example, has shrunk by 47 percent compared to the first quarter of 2010 – the actual decline is likely even greater, as the circulation figures reported to the IVW also include BZ (since Q2 2013) and Fußballbild (from Q1 2017).