The Austrian government 's Wiener Zeitung was first printed in 1703.
The Wiener Zeitung , a daily newspaper based in Vienna, Austria, published its last print edition on June 30 after 320 years of operation.
The decision by the print newspaper came after Austria's coalition government in April passed a law that ended the legal requirement for companies to pay to publish notices in print, effectively ending Wiener Zeitung 's role as a national newspaper.
The change has cost the Austrian newspaper an estimated 18 million euros, according to calculations by German magazine Der Spiegel . Before deciding to stop printing, Wiener Zeitung had to cut 63 jobs, including reducing its editorial staff from 55 to 22 positions.
Wiener Zeitung will continue to report on its digital platform and hopes to be able to publish the monthly magazine in print in the future.
The Austrian government owns the newspaper, but it operates independently of its editorial content. It began publication in August 1703 and has seen 12 presidents, 10 emperors, and two republics.
In 1768, the newspaper reported on a concert featuring a 12-year-old genius named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
When Austria lost World War I, the newspaper published a special edition and published the abdication letter of the country's last emperor, Kaiser Karl.
In its final edition on June 30, the paper published an editorial blaming the government for enacting a law that led to the suspension of the print edition. “These are stormy times for quality journalism… on many platforms, serious and important content competes for attention with fake news, cat videos and all manner of conspiracy theories,” the paper wrote.
In April, the Wiener Zeitung newspaper circulated only about 20,000 copies per weekday, and this number doubled on weekends.
European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová told Austrian news agency APA that she was unhappy to hear that the newspaper had to suspend its print edition and praised the paper's role in informing readers over the years.
During its three centuries of publication, the newspaper only experienced one period of suspension from 1939 to 1945, and the main culprit was Nazi Germany.
The title of the world's oldest printed newspaper is currently contested by the Gazzetta di Mantova , a local newspaper in Italy first published in 1664. The London Gazette , the official British government newspaper that does not carry news, dates back to 1665.
Following the demise of the Wiener Zeitung , the oldest national newspaper in existence is believed to be Germany's Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung , first published in 1705.
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