''Pforzheimer Zeitung'' is an independent local subscription

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

with seat in

Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the nickname "Goldstadt" ("Golden City") ...

, which is mainly distributed and read in the city of Pforzheim and the surrounding

Enz The Enz is a river flowing north from the Black Forest to the Neckar in Baden-Württemberg. It is 106 km long. Its headstreams – the Little Enz (german: Kleine Enz) and the Great Enz or Big Enz (''Große Enz'') – rise in the Northern B ...

district. Its language of publication is

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 ...

and it appears daily, from Monday to Saturday. It features in-depth coverage of news on Pforzheim and the surrounding region, and reports on major national and international events. News topics are politics, economy, social issues, and sports. The newspaper has the largest circulation in the region with more than 100,000 copies per day. It has an editorial office in

Mühlacker Mühlacker is a town in the eastern part of the Enz (district), Enz district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Mühlacker station has direct rail connections with Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Pforzheim and the Northern Black Forest. Mühlhau ...

and publishes special local versions for the Mühlacker and Northern

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

regions. The Pforzheimer Zeitung was founded in October 1949 by Jakob Esslinger, who had been operating in Pforzheim as a printer and newspaper

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

since 1928. His earlier newspaper was the daily "Pforzheimer Rundschau", a newspaper with a long tradition, which he took over in 1928 and published until March 1, 1943, when it was shut down by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

regime citing "lack of paper" as the reason. But this reason was only a pretense, given the independence of the paper in times when the Nazi regime was aiming at total control of the media. The PZ was founded in economically difficult times after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and in a town that to a large extent had been destroyed by an

area bombardment In military aviation, area bombardment (or area bombing) is a type of aerial bombardment in which bombs are dropped over the general area of a target. The term "area bombing" came into prominence during World War II. Area bombing is a form of str ...

. The

bombing raid Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematic ...

had destroyed all printing presses of Esslinger's company. Pforzheimer Zeitung is registered under the company name "J. Esslinger GmbH & Co. KG" and is led by the publisher Albert Esslinger-Kiefer (2006). The Pforzheimer Zeitung operates its own printing shop in the center of Pforzheim and nowadays is one of the most modern and productive independent newspapers in Germany. It utilizes modern techniques such as electronic text and

image processing An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

digital photography Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image is sto ...

computer-to-plate Computer-to-plate (CTP) is an imaging technology used in modern printing processes. In this technology, an image created in a Desktop Publishing (DTP) application is output directly to a printing plate. This compares with the older technology, co ...

technology, high-quality

four-color printing The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refers ...

, and large

rotary printing press A rotary printing press is a printing press in which the images to be printed are curved around a cylinder. Printing can be done on various substrates, including paper, cardboard, and plastic. Substrates can be sheet feed or unwound on a continuo ...

es which can print up to 35,000 copies per hour. PZ has established its own internet homepage where it offers a news summary free of charge. In 2006, PZ had around 150 employees, of which 37 belonged to the editorial staff. At that point, PZ earned roughly 70% of its revenue from advertising and the remaining 30% from subscriptions.

External links

Pforzheimer Zeitung homepage
Daily newspapers published in Germany Mass media in Pforzheim {{Germany-newspaper-stub