The September 17, 2010 front page of Bild |
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| Type | Daily tabloid, except Sundays and public holidays |
| Format | Tabloid ("nordisch" size) |
| Owner | Axel Springer AG |
| Editor | Kai Diekmann |
| Founded | 1952 |
| Political alignment | Right-wing populism |
| Headquarters | Zeitungsgruppe BILD, Axel-Springer-Straße 65, D-10888 Berlin |
| Official website | bild.de |
The Bild (formerly Bild-Zeitung, lit. Picture Newspaper; pronounced [ˈbɪlt]) is a German tabloid published by Axel Springer AG. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday, while on Sundays, Bild am Sonntag (lit. Picture on Sunday) is published instead, which has a different style and its own editors. Bild is tabloid in style, although actually broadsheet in size. It is the best-selling newspaper outside Japan and has the sixth-largest circulation worldwide.[1] Its motto, prominently displayed below the logo, is unabhängig, überparteilich (independent, nonpartisan). Another slogan used prominently in advertising is Bild dir deine Meinung!, which translates as "Form your own opinion!" (i. e., by reading Bild), a pun based on the fact that in German, Bild (more properly Bild'!, a short form of Bilde!) can also be understood as the imperative form of bilden, "to shape, to form".
Bild's nearest English-language stylistic and journalistic equivalent is often considered to be the British national newspaper The Sun—the second highest selling European tabloid newspaper—with which it shares a degree of rivalry.[2][3][4]
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Bild was founded by Axel Springer in 1952. It mostly consisted of pictures (therefore the name BILD, German for picture). Bild soon became the best-selling tabloid, by a wide margin, not only in Germany, but in all of Europe, though essentially to German readers. Through most of its history, Bild was based in Hamburg. Bild moved its headquarters to Berlin in March 2008, stating that it was an essential base of operations for a national newspaper. It is printed nationwide with 32 localized editions. Special editions are printed in some favoured German holiday destinations abroad, in Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey.
Although it is still Germany's biggest paper, the circulation of Bild, along with many other papers, has been on the decline in recent years. After selling more than five million copies every day in the 1980s, circulation dropped below the four million mark in 2002 for the first time in almost 30 years. By the end of 2005, the figure dropped to 3.8 million copies.[5]
Bild was modeled after the British tabloid the Daily Mirror; although its paper size is larger, this is reflected in its mix of celebrity gossip, crime stories and political analysis. However, its articles are often considerably shorter compared to those in British tabloids, and the whole paper is thinner as well. Bild has been known to use controversial devices like sensational headlines and invented 'news' to increase its readership. The policy of having a topless woman on its front page virtually every day has also been criticised by German feminist groups.
From the outset, the editorial drift was unabashedly conservative and nationalist. The GDR was referred to as the Soviet Occupation Zone (German: Sowjetische Besatzungszone or SBZ). The usage continued well into the 1980s, when Bild began to use the GDR's official name cautiously, putting it in quotation marks. Bild heavily influenced public opinion against the German student movement of the years following 1967, after the assassination attempt on activist Rudi Dutschke. A popular catchphrase in left-wing circles sympathetic to student radicalism was "Bild hat mitgeschossen!" (Bild shot at him too). At the height of left-wing terrorism around 1977, Bild took a strong stance that could be said to have contributed to the climate of fear and suspicion.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War in Europe, Bild's editorial stance seems to have become more centrist. Despite its general support for Germany's conservative parties and especially former chancellor Helmut Kohl, its rhetoric, still populist in tone, is less fierce than it was thirty years ago. Its traditionally less conservative Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag (Bild on Sunday) even supported Gerhard Schröder, a Social Democrat, in his bid for chancellor in 1998.
On the day of the election of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, Bild ran with the now-famous headline "Wir sind Papst" ("We are Pope"). In 2004 Bild started to cooperate with fast-food giant McDonald's to sell the tabloid at its 1,000 fast food restaurants in Germany. The cooperation still goes on, often enough by advertising the restaurant chain in 'news' articles. Like The Sun, young women in skimpy clothes - called Page Three girls in the United Kingdom - appear on Bild's page one below the fold as "Seite-eins-Mädchen" or "Page One Girls".
Bild is printed in Ahrensburg, Hanover, Berlin, Leipzig, Essen, Neu-Isenburg, Esslingen, Munich and Syke. Foreign locations exist in Spain in Madrid, Palma de Mallorca and Las Palmas. In Italy in Milan, in Greece in Athens and in Antalya, Turkey. The foreign locations cater mostly for German tourists and expatriates.
It is argued Bild's thirst for sensationalism results in the terrorizing of prominent celebrities and stories are frequently based on the most dubious evidence. The journalistic standards of Bild, or the lack thereof, are the subject of frequent criticism by German intellectuals and media observers.