''Der Postillon'' is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

, run by Stefan Sichermann featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news in newspaper and TV format. In October 2015, the Postillon had more than 14 million visitors. Der Postillon also appears as an English version titled "The Postillon".

Background

Stefan Sichermann, a PR expert, started the page 2008 as a hobby. Until 2011 he continued working for a PR agency.Ronnie Grob
''Wahre Lügen aus dem Posthorn''.
Medienwoche.ch, 19. Januar 2012

The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 2 ...

was one of the inspirations for the website.''Gestatten: Der Postillon!''
Academicworld.net However the website itself claims a continuous history since October 1845. The name Postillon refers to French

postilion A postilion or postillion is a person who guides a horse-drawn coach or post chaise while mounted on the horse or one of a pair of horses. By contrast, a coachman controls the horses from the vehicle itself. Originally the English name for a ...

and is used in the German language in traditional or literary circumstances. After a satirical article about the closure of

video-on-Demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

-page Kino.to went viral on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, Postillon received a much broader audience. In the meantime, Sichermann started to run the page professionally, hired some assistants and financed the emissions via advertisements, a shop and

flattr Flattr is a Swedish-based microdonation subscription service, where subscribers opt-in to pay a monthly patronage to help fund their favourite websites and creators. Flattr subscribers install an open-source browser extension that records whi ...

donations. The social media impact of Postillon is higher than that of many official newsportals, such as Focus Online, Süddeutsche.de and Frankfurter Allgemeine.

Scoops

Shortly after the death of

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...

, the Postillon speculated about the technical features of the tech-guru's

coffin A coffin is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, either for burial or cremation. Sometimes referred to as a casket, any box in which the dead are buried is a coffin, and while a casket was originally regarded as a box for jewel ...

and the inscription ''buried in my iTomb''. Angry comments of readers containing the phrase „ein Leser weniger“ (one reader fewer) gained notoriety as a

running gag A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are not ...

among the reader community. Fans of

Felix Baumgartner Felix Baumgartner (; born 20 April 1969) is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper. He is widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as par ...

got angry about a Postillon entry claiming the record jump was declared invalid, since the Austrian crossed a foul line before the start signal. In 2012 German TV host Dieter Moor used a satirical notion about the delays at

Berlin Brandenburg Airport Berlin Brandenburg Airport ''Willy Brandt'' (german: Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg "Willy Brandt", , ) is an international airport in Schönefeld, just south of the Germany, German capital Berlin in the state of Brandenburg. Named after the f ...

without reference to the origin. The Postillon had implied, the ongoing delays would require to introduce a new form of German

future tense In grammar, a future tense (abbreviated ) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French ''aimera'', meaning ...

.Thomas Knüwer
''Dieter Moor, der freundliche Plagiator der ARD''.
Indiskretion Ehrensache, 20. August 2012 Various media asked Moor to apologize and to mention the joke's origin. Moor acted accordingly. Breaking, not yet officially confirmed news of

Ronald Pofalla Ronald Pofalla (born 15 May 1959) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as the Chief of Staff of the German Chancellery and a Federal Minister for Special Affairs from 2009 to 2013, in the second ...

's change from politician to the railroad operator

Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the se ...

were accompanied by a backdated, but otherwise correct Postillon post. As Postillon parody posts are often mistaken for real on social media, this did result in confusion among editorial offices and the general public. As a follow-up, Postillon's editor Stefan Sichermann criticized media for being less trust-worthy than Postillon. Postillon claimed a landlord offering shots for each guest and German goal during

Brazil v Germany (2014 FIFA World Cup) The Brazil versus Germany football match that took place on 8 July 2014 at the Mineirão stadium in Belo Horizonte, was the first of two semi-final matches of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Both Brazil and Germany reached the semi-finals with an un ...

had faced ruin. The article was spread and quoted on various Russian news outlets as a true story including TV broadcaster

Russia-24 Russia-24 (russian: Россия-24) is a state-owned Russian-language news channel from Russia. It covers major national and international events as well as focuses on domestic issues. It is owned by VGTRK. History The broadcast began January 1 ...

Awards

* 2010

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

award

The BOBs The Bobs were an a cappella vocal group founded in San Francisco, California in the early 1980s. They moved to Seattle, Washington and were active recording and touring throughout the United States, Canada and Europe until their farewell show a ...

as ''Best Weblog German''. * 2013

Grimme Online Award The Grimme-Preis ("Grimme Award"; prior to 2011: Adolf-Grimme-Preis) is one of the most prestigious German television awards. It is named after the first general director of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Adolf Grimme.advice column An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are w ...

s, opinion editorials and fake surveys. In 2012 the Postillon published various articles in form of a book. Also in 2012 the first fake TV emissions followed on YouTube. Further videos are published in a cooperation with Yahoo and some have been run on German Broadcaster NDR.FAZ.net
Arschkalt erwischt
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References

External links

German website

English website
* *
Sensation: Mann (32) verdient Geld mit Witzen im Internet
'' Bastian Brinkmann in ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

,'' 20 June 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Postillon, Der 2008 establishments in Germany Internet properties established in 2008 Magazines established in 2008 German comedy websites Satirical websites Satirical magazines published in Germany German-language magazines News parodies

Background

Scoops

Awards

See also

References

External links