User:Ocharni/draft derstandard

der Standard is an Austrian daily newspaper which is published in Vienna. The paper, which was foudned in 1988 by Oscar Bronner, is printed in Berliner Format(300x450). der Standard is a cooperative member of the Austria Presse Agentur.

History
Prior the first issue being printed a suitable name was sought. Initial specimen numbers were printed under the title of Wirtschaftsblatt. In the end der Standard was agreed on based on examples from the anlgophone world where papers like The Standard or Evening Standard allready existed. The first issue was printed on October 19, 1988. der Standard was founded by Oscar Bronner who, for financing purposes, let the Axel Springer Verlag take a 50% stake. In 1995 derstandard.at went live as what is claimed to be the first web appearance of a german language newspaper. In 2006 der Standard followed the lead of Süddeutsche Zeitung and started its own, 175 part, DVD-Series titled Der österreichische Film. For this purpose the editorial staff picked popular titles aswell as others outside the mainstream that were deemed worth seeing.

On July 1, 2007 Alexandra Föderl-Schmied replaced Gerfried Sperl as second Editor-in-Chief besides Oscar Bronner. She thus became the first female Editor-in-Chief of an Austrian Newspaper.

Publishing Information
der Standard is published by the Standard Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H. Until the End of 2009 place of publication aswell as printing was Tulln in lower Austria where the printing was done by Goldmann Druck. Currently the printing is done by Mediaprint in Vienna. As a consequence of the move from Goldmann to Mediaprint the printing format was slightly reduced from 315x470 to 300x450. In 2007 the total revenue amounted to 55,4 million Euros with 206 employees. der Standard also receives 1,2 million Euros from the Österreichische Presseförderung and is consequently, on par with die Presse, the highest subsidized newspaper in Austria.

Ownership Structure
After the founding in 1988 Oscar Bronner aswell as the Axel Springer Verlag both held 50% of the stake. In 1995 Bronner bought back these shares but in 1998 sold off 49% to the Süddeutsche Verlag. Further 41% of Bronners shares were transfered to the Bronner Familien-Privatstiftung, the remaining 10% he holds directly. On August 13, 1988 the Bronner Online AG, in part financed by a large loan from Erste Bank, bought back the 49% share of Süddeutsche Verlag and as a result 100% of stakes now either reside directly with Oscar Bronner or in one of his Foundations.

The current structure is as follows:


 * Bronner Familien-Privatstiftung: 41% direct, 44,1% indirect through Bronner Online AG
 * Oscar Bronner: 10% direct, 4,9% indirect through Bronner Online AG

Distribution Range and Market Shares
Der Standard has a nation wide focus and has several editorial offices in the federal states of Steiermark, Oberösterreich and Kärnten. However in the past there was a focus on Vienna and subsequently range in vienna is higher then in other federal states(2008/9: Vienna 11,9% as opposed to 6% in other federal states). In recent years der Standard, like all Austrian daily newspapers, lost readers. However since 2007 that trend was, at least temporarily, halted and the number of readers started rising again. In 2009 once again the number started to decline and in 2010 have remained stable with only marginal increases. According to the Österreichische Media-Analyse der Standard had 421.000 readers(weekly). This amounts to a market share of 6%. Numbers from the Österreichische Auflagenkontrolle show that on average in 2010 73.071 issues were sold on each day of publication. This makes der Standard the 4th largest Austrian newspaper when papers that are free of cost are not taken into account.

Contents and Editorial Stance
Der Standard is published in accordance with the honour code of the Austrian press(which sets rules on matters such as a transparent seperation between and comment and the right to privacy). The paper's general editorial stance could be described as socially liberal and most of its regular columnists also tend towards such a position altough guest writers come from the whole range of the political spectrum. As a participant in Project Syndicate der Standard regularly publishes commentaries from individuals of international reputation whos work consequently gets worldwide distrubtion as part of the project.

Online Acitivies
In 1995 derstandard.at launched as what is claimed to be the first german language newspaper on the Internet. The online platform soon received its own editorial staff which publishes additional stories to the ones found in the print issue on the website. The online activities are the only part which was outsourced to from an autonomous company. The portal also houses a freely available archive(fee-based prior to 2009) that features all current and past articles both of derstandard.at and the print version.

derstandard.at also features sub-portals dedicated to specific topics.
 * diestandard.at(founded March 2000) concentrates on women and feminism issues
 * dastandard.at(founded February 2010) concentrates on issues of migration and its editorial staff is primarily made up of young migrants

derstandarddigital.at features the entire print issue as a fee-based e-paper.