The Bauer media group will in future save an editor-in-chief for its two daily newspapers in Saxony-Anhalt. The Central German newspaper in Halle and the popular voice in Magdeburg will be managed from Friday by Marc Rath, who took over as editor-in-chief in Halle a year ago. The previous editor-in-chief of popular voice, Alois Kösters, is leaving the company “due to structural changes (…) combined with the desire to face new professional challenges in the future,” as the media company said in a statement, in which his departure was “by mutual agreement.” was regretted. Kösters had been in office since 2011.
The media company Bauer had them popular voice three years ago with the blessing of the Federal Cartel Office by the Cologne-based media group DuMont. The two regional newspapers are in the immediate vicinity, even if their circulation area hardly overlaps. With the takeover, Bauer became the largest newspaper publisher in Saxony-Anhalt, a difficult newspaper market because delivery to the dwindling print readership has become significantly more expensive since the introduction of the minimum wage. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the total paid circulation of both newspapers was 263,000 copies according to the IVW.
Rath, 56, knows the editors of the popular voice well, worked as a local editor in Haldensleben in the 1990s and returned to other positions in 2011. In 2013 he became a member of the chief editorship in Magdeburg as coordinator of the local editors. For uncovering election fraud in the 2014 local elections in Stendal, he was awarded a Guardian Prize by the German daily press. When asked by the SZ, Rath emphasized that there should continue to be two different titles and not a single newspaper. The respective regional orientation should remain, the day-to-day business should be controlled by the deputies, who stand for an independent and unmistakable style of the two newspapers.
