B.Z. (newspaper)


B.Z. is a German tabloid newspaper, published in Berlin by Ullstein-Verlag, a subsidiary of Axel Springer AG. As of 2010, it has a circulation of around 200,000.
B.Z. is not to be confused with the Berliner Zeitung, which has been published since 1945 and is often also informally known as B.Z. in the former East Germany, or with the evening tabloid formerly known as BZ am Abend, now the Berliner Kurier.

History of the newspaper

The newspaper was founded under the name Berliner Zeitung on 1 October 1877, and was abbreviated to B.Z. and purchased by Leopold Ullstein the following year. In 1904 it was remodelled as B.Z. am Mittag, and it was emphasized that it was a daily newspaper. During the Second World War it was discontinued, and the parent company Ullstein-Vermögen was expropriated by the Nazis; B.Z. did not reappear until 19 November 1953.
Since being taken over by Ullstein-Verlag in 1960, B.Z. is, like Bild and Die Welt, ultimately owned by the Axel Springer company and adheres to its political remit. In 2006 Axel Springer outsourced the newspaper to a company of its own, B.Z.-Ullstein, in order to increase profitability in the highly competitive Berlin market. The outsourcing entailed a move of the paper's editorial headquarters from in Kreuzberg to the Kurfürstendamm. A special sports edition of the paper, Sport-B.Z., was introduced for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and distributed from August of that year with a circulation of 50,000, but was discontinued on 22 December 2006.
Since 1991 B.Z. has awarded an annual cultural prize, the :de:Berliner Bär |Berliner Bär.

Editor-in-chiefs