Inside The Süddeutsche Zeitung: Why Print Still Matters

Our visit to Süddeutsche Zeitung printing house (SZ München) honestly felt almost like stepping into the set of a mysterious film, as the vibes were both intriguing and isolating at the same time. But the moment one of the staff members came, he instantly shifted and lifted up the whole mood. He welcomed us warmly to the printing house and gave us a glimpse of the overall introduction. I found it really interesting that at a very first moment, he joked that in five years someone might think that this entire place might become a museum because no one will need printing anymore, but he was confident that printing still has a place, maybe just not the same place it used to occupy.

One of the pieces of information that caught my attention was how they work on the opinion page or page 4 on the newspaper. They described it as “democratic,” as there is no certain political direction, meaning that the writers are free with no specific guideline, no right or left wing push, or no editorial pressure from the publisher organization. He explained that they don’t tell people what to think, they just provide a space in a form of information, where people can have their own opinion. That idea is quite rare in the current media landscape where most media outlets find it hard to be neutral considering many ongoing factors nowadays. I personally appreciated the concept of this agreement between publishers and editors, not only does it protect editorial freedom, but serves the public as well.

We also learned about the demographic of readers that are mostly well-educated, earn above-average income, and are willing to pay thousands of euros a year for subscriptions. That might be the reason why advertisers like BMW still invest in the printing medium in this modern world, and most of them are special print features, like the translucent page we saw or the tactile textures that imitate a steering wheel or a driver’s coat. It suddenly makes sense how both industries integrate and lean on each other. 

Overall, this field trip opened my perspective on how I see printing media. Seeing the printing plates, the massive machinery, the evolution of the printing process and the entire workflow made me understand why he was so sure that printing won’t disappear as easily as people believe.