A declaration of love to a disappearing medium
Not every newspaper reader is as obssessed as Thomas Bernhard: When he was desperate to read an article in the Neue Züricher Zeitung, which wasn’t available in his hometown of Ohlsdorf, he made his way to Salzburg; but he couldn’t find the paper there either, so he continued on to Bad Reichenhall, then Bad Hall, then Steyr – by the end, he had covered 350 kilometers in search of his drug of choice. Some people have similar experiences when they can’t get their hands on a paper. Yet no matter how powerful the addiction, it’s unlikely that the range of German-language papers – or daily papers in general – can be saved. We’re losing something.
With a wistfully sharp eye, Michael Angele (who, among other things, was editor-in-chief of the first German online newspaper and is anything but anti-innovation) reviews everything that is disappearing: not just a form of news delivery, but a cultural achievement – a way of life, even. Beginning with the environment in which we tend to read our papers, the ritual associated with it, and continuing with the exchanges set in motion (or prevented) by the paper over breakfast – some marriages probably would have taken a completely different course without newspapers.
Written with passion, grasped with acumen, Michael Angele erects a monument to the newspaper way of life.
