The Communications Media

Abstract

The first thing to realise about the West German press is that the Germans are not great newspaper readers, and in particular, not great readers of national newspapers. Most papers are regional and local. They are largely concerned with local affairs, but they also include news and editorials on national and international questions; the papers serving the big centres of population — such as Hamburg, the Ruhr or Stuttgart — are of a high standard. Thus the circulations given in table 32 are very small by comparison with those of the British popular papers. (However the readership per copy is high, because many cafés provide papers for their patrons.)