B.Z. (newspaper)
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B.Z. is a German tabloid newspaper published in Berlin by Ullstein-Verlag, which is entirely owned by Axel Springer AG. B.Z. is currently the best-selling local newspaper in Berlin.[citation needed]
B.Z. is not to be confused with the Berliner Zeitung, which has been published since 1945 and is often also informally known as B.Z. in the former East Germany, or with the evening tabloid formerly known as BZ am Abend, now the Berliner Kurier.
[edit] History of the newspaper
The newspaper was founded under the name Berliner Zeitung on 1 October 1877, and was abbreviated to B.Z. and purchased by Leopold Ullstein the following year. In 1904 it was remodelled as B.Z. am Mittag, and it was emphasized that it was a daily newspaper. During the Second World War it was discontinued, and the parent company Ullstein-Vermögen was expropriated by the Nazis; B.Z. did not reappear until 19 November 1953.
Since being taken over by Ullstein-Verlag in 1960, B.Z. is, like Bild and Die Welt, ultimately owned by the Axel Springer AG and adheres to its political remit. On 9 November 2006 Axel Springer announced it was outsourcing the newspaper to a company of its own, B.Z.-Ullstein, in order to increase profitability in the highly competitive Berlin market. The outsourcing entailed a move of the paper's editorial headquarters from Springer-Haus in Kreuzberg to the Kranzler Eck on the Kurfürstendamm. A special sports edition of the paper, Sport-B.Z., was introduced for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and distributed from August of that year with a circulation of 50,000, but was discontinued on 22 December, 2006.
Since 1991 B.Z. has awarded an annual cultural prize, the Berliner Bär.
