HUGO STINNES

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11685, 24 November 1923, Page 9

HUGO STINNES

* THE NEWSPAPER KING. Herr Hugo Stinnes, the famous German industrial magnate and newspaper king, has just .extended his chief journalistic enterprise in a remarkable way. The principal newspaper of the scores which he owns is the “Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung," published in Berlin. Before the 1918 revolution it was the "Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung,” which we used to call the “North German Gazette.” It was for generations the official mouthpiece of German Governments. Those whose business it was knew that anything appearing in the top, left-hand corner of the front page came direct from the highest official circles. Herr Stinnes de-officialised it, linked it up with the old Conservative “Tagelich Rundschau,” and poured out vast sums to give it what is now perhaps the best and fullest news service of all German newspapers. "D.A.Z.” The “D. 4. 3.”— as it is called for short —is now being printed and published simultaneously in Berlin and Frankfort-on-Main, two cities 300 miles apart. The contents of tlie Berlin paper, morn, ing and evening editions, are sent by private telephone and telegraph wires to the Frankfort office. This is the first time that such an enterprise has been attempted in the Fatherland. The "D.A.Z.” of Berlin, has, like everything to which Herr Stinnes puts his hand, been a great success, and other papers of similar views are feeling its keen competition. Unlike most German newspapers, its size is that of most English journals, and Herr Stinnes has also in the matter of “make-up" taken for model the English Press, of which he is a great admirer. In the German capital, tho “D.A.Z." has now the second largest sale, and it will be interesting to see how it prevails against another and well-established newspaper, the "Frankfurter Zeitung,” itself one of the most ably conducted journals on the Continent, and one with a great democratic record. The “Frankfurter” is iußt 6ix years older than the paper which is now to b« its chief rival —one being €8 and the other 62 years old.