Europe’s newspaper woes spread to Germany

Germany’s newspaper crisis has led to the birth of a new compound noun: Zeitungssterben, newspaper death. The announcement by G+J, the magazine division of Bertelsmann, that it will close Financial Times Deutschland and the bankruptcy filing of the Frankfurter Rundschau have led to much soul searching. Even chancellor Angela Merkel offered her condolences, calling on the sector to keep its spirits up. “I think print media are very important,” she said on her weekly web-post. But her officials note that what Germany is seeing is not unique. While the country looks set to lose two quality dailies, in Spain editorial staff are being slashed, and in Italy speculation about possible newspaper mergers comes and goes.