Newspapers and Magazines

Spiesser, Yaez and Freihafen are the three big names: youth magazines that are free to readers and offer a fresh perspective on youth culture. Now well-established beyond the mainstream, they spurn the glitz and glamour, celebrity lifestyles, boy and girl bands, style and fashion features that are the stock-in-trade of most youth magazines. Sales are increasing, advertisers are keen – and so are the readers.

Young and wild: challenging the cult of celebrity

Bravo, Yam, Popcorn, Youngmiss ... the old faithfuls for young readers are suffering a midlife crisis. Admittedly, sales during the first quarter of 2006 showed a promising increase of 12% compared with 2005, but the bottom line is that circulation is worryingly low. Bravo is a good example: the "classic" among Germany's youth magazines, its circulation topped 1.24 million in 1998 – more than double the figure today. In all, sales of youth magazines fell by 10% to 3.2 million in 2005. "Kids have to make their pocket money stretch to ringtones as well as burgers nowadays", says Thorsten Lühring from the Hamburg agency Initiative Media. "And Bravo is the first thing to go by the board". Another factor is the kids' growing fascination with the electronic media and their fading enthusiasm for celebs and stardom. "The problem is that there are simply not enough serious artists in the music industry who stay in the spotlight for long enough", says Tina Deissler, Director of Cultfish Entertainment, who admits that her magazine Top of the Pops is giving her headaches.

In summer 2005, Axel Springer Verlag – one of Germany's largest newspaper and magazine publishers – relaunched its youth magazine Yam with a new design concept and layout. Meanwhile, Bravo is pinning its hopes on a new editor-in-chief – fresh from New York. But it is the new-wave magazines which are breaking new ground – and they're doing it close to home. These new titles are available free of charge in schools, cinemas and nightclubs – and business is booming. Media specialist Thorsten Lühring is full of praise for their innovation and commitment: "If you disregard the regional focus, they really are worth looking at".

Yaez – for kids in the west

"Yaez is available wherever you find the target group: in schools, universities, cinemas and cafes", says Yaez's publisher Michael Hartung. In his view, this approach to distribution is his magazine's great strength. "We have managed to position ourselves very strongly against the established youth titles by offering a mix of politics and lifestyle. We do cover the celebrities as well, but we have a more serious approach; our main focus is preparing our core target group – 16-24-year-olds – for life", explains Hartung. A glossy format is not an option, but nor is it necessary. Yaez's readers don't mind the cheap newsprint and advertisers are vying for space in the paper. But not all of them are welcomed with open arms. Yaez adheres to a strict code of conduct: "We are committed to an ethical advertising policy, which means that we don't advertise alcohol and cigarettes in schools". Nonetheless, the magazine has drummed up enough advertisers to be able to fund itself entirely from advertising revenue – quite an achievement. Having started life as an online magazine, Yaez has been published in Baden-Württemberg since 2004. From an initial print run of 20,000 copies, its circulation now stands at 80,000.

Der Spiesser – for young East Germans

"Germany is being engulfed by a new wave of provincially minded home-builders", says editorial co-director Frank Haring: his aim is tap into the trend towards what he describes as a "generation of future mortgage-holders". His belief that "young people start making plans to settle down much earlier nowadays" than was customary in the past has apparently hit the mark. His magazine Spiesser has been published in Eastern Germany for more than ten years and its circulation tops 330,000. It also wants to gain access to the Western German market. It all started with a print run of 5000 copies in Dresden. Marketing managers are rewarding Haring's success: the magazine is funded entirely from advertising. Alongside major advertisers such as Deutsche Post, ARD and ZDF, the main backers are regional companies – from retailers to driving schools. It's a good investment, for Spiesser converts their cash into high-quality journalism. With challenging articles produced on newsprint, it is a very different creature from its glossy rivals. And its efforts are being rewarded. One of Spiesser's young writers won a Robert Bosch Foundation award for journalism in 2005 for her article on the Zivilcourage campaign, which promotes tolerance and combats right-wing extremism.

Freihafen – for northern souls

Modelled on Spiesser and Yaez, the Hamburg-based magazine Freihafen was launched in March 2005 and has a circulation of 20,000. Freihafen is published by Junge Presse Hamburg e.V., which is part-funded by the City of Hamburg. However, this leaves a massive shortfall, most of which is covered from advertising revenue. The Freihafen team's personal commitment does the rest: they all work for free. The magazine's photographers, authors, layout assistants, advertising execs, PR team and editorial support staff are all unpaid, and anyone can join in as long as they are aged between 14 and 27. The magazine's team includes school and college students, young people doing their alternative service, and trainees. They see themselves as a platform and mouthpiece for Hamburg's young people. Their work – as their editorial proudly notes – is "priceless" and their efforts are acknowledged and rewarded. Every month, the heavyweight news journal Spiegel Online features an article from Freihafen in its SchulSpiegel column.

The issues – for everyone under 30

The spheres of life inhabited by young people in Germany vary widely and are not without their difficulties. Many young people find it hard to secure a training place, decent work or adequate opportunities to study, and the fear of unemployment and poverty is all-pervading. Under these circumstances, Britney Spears' life story or the glittering musical careers of bands like Tokio Hotel hold little fascination. The new-wave magazines recognise this fact, which is why they focus on real-life topics: they offer tips on learning to drive and applying for jobs or training courses, provide careers advice, and run features on leaving home. The result is a variegated mix of styles and content, much of it local, all of it relevant, interspersed with features on culture, sport and leisure. Their great strength is their local focus. Readers can find out what is going on in their neighbourhood at the weekend and where the coolest gigs are happening. "Put your coat on, Dr. Sommer", Spiegel Online advises its colleagues from Bravo and co. "There's a chill wind of competition blowing out there."