MON_media town vienna

report
Media town
Vienna
Population: 1.74 million
and rising
Newspapers: 10
New
series
TV stations: 11
Radio stations: 8
Media outlets still
train journalists in
the Voluntär, or
apprentice, system.
Home to the Academy
of Fine Arts, Europe’s
oldest art school.
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alive and
kicking
—Vienna
Preface
In the first of a new series
that will be examining
cities through their media
make-up, we look at the
varied and self-effacing
Austrian capital.
writer
Kimberly Bradley
photographer
Andreas Jakwerth
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01 (L to R) Nathalie
Brunner, Martin Pieper
and DJ Phekt of FM4
02 FM4 host Esther Csapo
during her live show
03 FM4’s studios
04 Breakfast at
Cafe Engländer
05 Café Korb’s terrace
06 Magazine section at
Thalia bookshop
The Viennese often underestimate what
they have and how special it is – the
local take on the city’s media scene is no
exception. It perhaps takes an outsider to
see that Vienna is one of the few cities
with an independent weekly that is still
independent, still weekly and still charging a cover price. The country’s major
news magazine has had stable circulation
stats for the better part of two decades.
Austrian state television, headquartered
here, still primarily uses its own global
news correspondents – an endangered
species elsewhere. State radio even has
a frequency that broadcasts more than
half its airtime in English (the other
half is great music you’ve never heard
anywhere else).
“Austrian media is very creative and
the Austrian scene has always exported
ideas or even editors, especially to Germany,” says Christian Rainer, editor
in chief and publisher of Profil news
magazine. Rainer remembers glamorous publications such as the original
version of Wiener, and mentions that
it was the Austrian daily Der Standard
that developed the first full online version of
a German-language newspaper. There
is, of course, some clever buttonpushing in Profil, too – an entire recent issue
used only feminine versions of German
nouns as a comment on the national conversation about whether “he” or “she” or
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issue 77 — 165
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report
Media town
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ORF Newsroom
Café Korb
ORF Newsroom
Nadja Bernhard
Newsstand in Vienna’s
1st district
Armin Thurnher of ‘Falter’
Scooter parked outside
the ‘Falter’ office
Magazine stack at
‘Profil’s’ offices
Christian Rainer of ‘Profil’
Vienna’s Rhiz bar
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THE NEWS MAGAZINE
Profil
Founded in 1970, Profil is
to Austria what Der Spiegel
is to Germany. Except, as
editor/publisher Christian
Rainer points out, the
Austrian newsweekly is put
together by an agile team
of 25 journalists compared
to the 150 to 200 staffers
of their German counterparts. In print, he says,
“what you have to sell is
analysis and give readers
a chance to elaborate on
their opinions”. Profil does
that by running commentary-driven articles that hold
true to its provocative,
opinionated brand.
Circulation has remained
steady during Rainer’s
16-year tenure; testament
to continuity in an otherwise
volatile media segment.
profil.at
THE RADIO STATION
FM4
Austrian Broadcasting’s
fourth radio channel was
founded in the mid-1990s
by some producers
wanting to tap into the
alternative music scene.
What began as an evening
programme became its
own 24-hour frequency.
Programming is more than
50 per cent in English and
editor/DJs like Natalie
Brunner and Alexander
Hertl (DJ Phekt) assemble
their own playlists. This
makes for unusual shows
and brand-new music. “It’s
about maintaining trust,”
says producer and
co-founder Martin Pieper.
“We have to keep our
authenticity.”
fm4.orf.at
THE TELEVISION
NEWS SHOW
Zeit im Bild
Nadja Bernhard has
anchored Zeit im Bild,
Austria Broadcasting’s
(ORF’s) news broadcast,
since 2012. ORF maintains
high ratings – one million
Austrians watch state
news – in part because
private television hasn’t
made as many in-roads
here as elsewhere in
Europe (Austria was the
last European country to
allow private broadcasting
in 1998). Bernhard says
that her employer is proud
of its high-level, first-hand
information. “It’s unique
that state television is still
so strong. Despite being
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a new and strange amalgamation of the
two should be used in official language.
In the subsequent issue, controversial war
photography appeared on closed folded
spreads that readers had to rip open to
view. “We’re confronting readers with
their own voyeurism,” says Rainer from
his 14th-floor office overlooking Vienna’s
city centre.
Besides the creativity, the Viennese
scene has a longevity that can be attributed to both media makers and consumers. Elsewhere, as advertising has dried
up and other city publications became
freesheets or offered content online,
Falter, a Vienna weekly inspired by The
Village Voice, never faltered. It produces
high-quality content and continues to
enjoys stable readership, like Profil, but
not for free (both publications have
raised issue and subscription prices to
offset advertising losses; readers haven’t
seemed to mind). State-run broadcasters still capture large audiences on both
radio and television.
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such a small country with
a small state television
infrastructure, we have
a large network of
correspondents.”
tv.orf.at
THE INDEPENDENT
WEEKLY
Falter
With a print run of 45,000,
this weekly – combining
political commentary,
urban-life pieces and
listings – has “always tried
to be a balancing voice in
this crazy Austrian media
scene,” says editor and
publisher Armin Thurnher.
When he and a group of
friends launched Falter in
1977, most Austrian papers
had party affiliations; its
uncensored voice was
“something believably
oppositional”. Falter was
the first Austrian publication to run media criticism
and has broken many a
scandal. Many Austrian
media figures (including
Profil’s Christian Rainer)
started their careers here.
Falter (meaning “butterfly”
and a play on the word for
“fold”) now produces books
and corporate publications; sales have increased
every year since founding.
falter.at
but journos tend to date
and even marry each other.
heuer-amkarlsplatz.com
The canteen
Café Engländer
Owner Wolfgang Jelinek
upgraded the space
in 2000 and beyond
the excellent Viennese
cuisine, Engländer’s
comfortable banquettes,
private corners and soft
lighting have proved
popular with the city’s
media types.
cafe-englaender.com
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Major players
The essentials
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Poland
Germany
Czech
Republic
Vienna
Austria
Hungary
Croatia
Italy
The after-work hangout
Heuer am Karlsplatz
Entrepreneur Andreas
Wiesmüller and creative
director Javier Mancilla
have turned Kunsthalle
Wien’s pavilion into a
hotspot. Heuer (which
means “this year” in
Austrian) has walls lined
with homemade delicacies
in glass jars. After-hours,
journalists might meet at
music bar Rhiz. Media
cliques don’t always mix
The coffeehouse and
interview venue
Café Korb
A more offbeat option for
conducting interviews,
reading newspapers or
having what might be
Vienna’s best strudel.
Run by renowned beauty
and avant-gardist
Susanne Widl, Café Korb
is a veritable Vienna
thinkers’ institution.
cafekorb.at
The newsstand
Thalia
Vienna still lacks a good
dedicated magazine
shop but Thalia, a
venerable bookshop
chain from Germany, is
as good as it gets when
it comes to the international and local press.
Five locations in the city.
thalia.at
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Granted, Austria is still a country
where the Kronen Zeitung, a tabloid
charged with using dubious tactics to
sway public opinion and influence politics, is still the bestselling daily at nearly
three million readers a day. But beyond
mass consumption, Vienna’s media scene
can be counted on to subtly surprise its
readers – and sometimes itself. Cases in
point are niche publications including
Fleisch and Biber; Red Bull’s corporate
publications were also born here. Television journalist and anchorwoman Nadja
Bernhard, who returned to Vienna in
2011 after many years abroad, sees new
energy in Austria’s capital: “I always
found Vienna so old, and in the 1990s
maybe even a bit boring, but you can see
it’s younger and more open-minded. In
the media and arts, people are here to
achieve something.” — (m)
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166 — issue 77
issue 77 — 167