Then each President will bet on his personal equation This is not the business tax reform it addedInvolvement of the State in either activityAnd at a time when the market is very competitive17 or below half the rate for the Japan 0The Elysee and Matignon supported the approachIn this regard some trends seem to prevailAsia is therefore an environment preferredand leaves a bitter taste to the investorsThe short term the situation will not changeGerman newspapers publishers, that operate on the fifth world market (after China, the India, the Japan and the US), with more than 20 million copies sold each day, know that they are still relatively privileged. As indicated in their federal association (BDZV) at the top of its page of statistics, "the Germany is a country of newspapers".Indeed, 71.4 of more than 14 years read a newspaper regularly, while a little less than in 2008 (72.4), but still much lower than in France (41 in 2007). It sells every day around 300 daily newspapers per 1,000 Germans, certainly less than Norway (580), but twice in France (154 in 2007). Still, it is quite usual in many families, to have two subscriptions, one for a local or regional newspaper, the other a newspaper national ("überregional", for example "frankfurter allgemeine" or "süddeutsche"). German titles have also had the luck of having no competition on the part of the free. When the Norwegian Schibsted attempted to launch "20 Minutes" in Cologne, regional titles were replicated at the speed of lightning with their own free, preventing the Norwegian to settle and discouraging any new initiative.
This does not mean that publishers are immune to the crisis of the press. As elsewhere, the prints are shrinking (-2,48 in the second quarter of 2009 over the same period of 2008). Young people read less than their elders (45.1 of 14-19 years compared with 83 of the 60-69 years). Especially, as everywhere, advertising revenues collapse. "The year 2009 will be the worst in the history of the newspaper", said Dietmar Wolff, President of the BDVZ.
New initiatives to
Publishers responded in several ways. First in defensive manner: acceleration of the concentration in the regional press (Springer transferred its shareholdings in several newspapers to Madsack in February, DuMont was purchased several titles in the British Montgomery in March), consolidation of some editors (Grüner & Jahr brought the newspaper "Financial Times Deutschland" of three of its economic magazines), partnership for the purchase of the paper or the sale of advertising space. Offensive manner then, newspapers have developed their Internet offer the example of Springer, who has real sites, for example. "But the newspapers were still struggling to monetize their online readers." "Advertising revenues on the Internet are be also income-generating in the paper versions," explains Anja Pasquay, head of communications of the BDVZ.
Hence the need for new initiatives. Several major publishers Burda and WAZ seek a law that protects their content and allow them to attack to justice all those who use them for commercial purposes without consideration. Several concepts are circulating at this time to find new recipes. Springer has proposed to introduce a tax on the purchase of computers. It also refers to a commission on Internet subscriptions. Of course, other interest groups oppose strongly. Some editors call them in the creation of a collective management society, which, on the model of the Gema - German Sacem - manage rights on articles online. Major publishers also seek a relaxation of the concentration thresholds in national competition law, to invest in radio and television, but the sector is not unanimous on the issue. All topics that will need to examine the Government elected in the legislative elections of September 27. The editors, who already benefit from a reduced 7 VAT rate and preferential postal rates, on the other hand refuse any direct public support, "a question of independence", according to the BDVZ.
