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TIME: Almanac 1993
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TIME Almanac 1993.iso
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070990
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07090216.000
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1992-08-28
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GERMANY, Page 79Freedom Fling
The East German press is dying while being reborn
The press was among the first to benefit when freedom came
to East Germany. Censorship fell with the Wall. Hard-line
editors retired or were fired. The dull, gray Communist Party
daily Neues Deutschland, so lickspittle that it once published
26 photos of Erich Honecker in a single edition, lightened up
with a fresh design and uncensored stories. The daily Berliner
Zeitung shed its communist ties and became East Berlin's
liveliest and most popular newspaper. Junge Welt, once a loyal
youth tabloid, turned muckraker overnight.
But for East German journalists, the good news has turned
bad. Dozens of newspapers are on the point of collapse or
takeover from the West. They have lost vital subsidies and
cannot compete with glossier West German publications. The East
German press seems condemned to die just as it began to live.
"Our circulation was 1 million in 1989," says Reiner
Oschmann, of Neues Deutschland. "Now it is half a million. I'm
surprised that we managed to keep even that many, and we expect
to have a further decline."
Oschmann, 42, became deputy editor after Honecker fell. He
is part of a reformist team that is trying to save the paper,
but concedes that the job is nearly hopeless. ND's power in the
past was based on its status as a party organ. "The circulation
was artificially high in the old days," Oschmann says. "It was
thought `fit' to subscribe to Neues Deutschland even if it was
never read. That, thank God, is no longer the case."
Nor is it the case with other East German newspapers. Junge
Welt has lost more than half its 1.6 million subscribers, and
collapse is imminent. Berliner Zeitung is a takeover target of
powerful West German publishing houses. Regional newspapers
from Leipzig to Rostock are in similar straits. "During the
past few months, we were able to do what we wanted for the
first time in our careers," says Oschmann. "We had freedom that
we never had before. But it won't last."