Der Postillon

Der Postillon
Ehrliche Nachrichten – unabhängig, schnell, seit 1845 (honest news, independent, quick, since 1845)
Type Parody news organization
Format Website
Owner(s) Stefan Sichermann
Founder(s) Stefan Sichermann
Editor Stefan Sichermann
Founded 2008 in Germany
Website der-postillon.com

Der Postillon is a German website, run by Stefan Sichermann featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news in newspaper and TV format. In February 2014, the Postillon had more than 4 million visitors.[1]

Background

Stefan Sichermann, a PR expert, started the page 2008 as a hobby. Until 2011 he continued working for a PR agency.[2] The Onion was one of the inspirations for the website.[3] However the website itself claims a continuous history since October 1845.[4] The name postillion refers to French postilion and is used in the German language in traditional or literary circumstances.

After a satirical article about the closure of video-on-Demand-page Kino.to went viral on facebook and twitter, Postillon received a much broader audience.[2][3] In the meantime, Sichermann started to run the page professionally, hired some coworkers and financed the emissions via advertisements, a shop[5] and flattr donations. The social media impact of Postillon is higher than that of many official newsportals, such as Focus Online, Süddeutsche.de and Frankfurter Allgemeine.[6]

Scoops

Shortly after the death of Steve Jobs, the Postillon speculated about the technical features of the tech-gurus coffin and the enscription buried in my iTomb.[7] Angry comments of readers containing the phrase „ein Leser weniger“ (one reader less) gained notoriety as a running gag among the reader community.[2] Fans of Felix Baumgartner got angry about an Postillon entry claiming the record jump was declared invalid, since the Austrian crossed a foul line before the start signal.[8][9][10]

In 2012 German TV host Dieter Moor used a satirical notion about the delays at Berlin Brandenburg Airport without reference to the origin. The Postillon had implied, the ongoing delays would enquire to introduce a new form of German Future tense.[11][12] Various media asked Moor to excuse himself and to mention the jokes origin.[13] Moor acted accordingly.[12][14]

Ronald Pofalla change from politician to railroad operator Deutsche Bahn was interpreted by some as fake news from Postillion.[15][16][17]

Postillion claimed a landlord offering shots for each guest and German goal during Brazil v Germany (2014 FIFA World Cup) had faced ruin. The article was spread and quoted on various Russian news outlets as a true story[18] including TV broadcaster Russia-24.[19][20][21]

Awards

Content and further publications

Postillion provides classical news, a newsticker, commentaries, advice columns, opinion editorials and fake surveys. In 2012 the Postillon published various articles in form of a book.[23] Also in 2012 the first fake TV emissions followed on YouTube.[24] Further videos are published in a cooperation with Yahoo.[25] and some have been run on German Broadcaster NDR.[26][27]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Auf der-postillon.com werben. Der Postillon, abgerufen 6. März 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ronnie Grob: Wahre Lügen aus dem Posthorn. Medienwoche.ch, 19. Januar 2012
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Gestatten: Der Postillon! Academicworld.net
  4. ↑ Der Postillon 1845–2012. Der Postillon.
  5. ↑ Pünktlich zum 166-jährigen Jubiläum: Postillon-Shop Shopillon eröffnet! Der Postillon, 28.10.2011
  6. ↑ Social-Media-Charts: RTL.de und Postillon mit neuen Like-Rekorden, meedia.de, 17.4.2014
  7. ↑ Technikjournalisten und Fanboys spekulieren über Design und Features von Steve Jobs’ Sarg. Der Postillon, 6.10.2011.
  8. ↑ Linie übertreten: Rekordsprung aus 39 Kilometern Höhe für ungültig erklärt. Der Postillon, 15.10. 2012.
  9. ↑ Michèle Binswanger: Teenager von sich selbst sexuell belästigt. tagesanzeiger.ch, 17.10.2012.
  10. ↑ Links! Zwo! Drei! Vier! (Baumgartner Spezial). Der Postillon, 20.10.2012.
  11. ↑ Neue Zeitform Futur III eingeführt, um Gespräche über Berliner Flughafen zu ermöglichen. Der Postillon, 15.8.2012.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Thomas Knüwer: Dieter Moor, der freundliche Plagiator der ARD. Indiskretion Ehrensache, 20. August 2012
  13. ↑ Niels Kruse: Wo „Titel, Thesen, Temperamente“ seine Witze klaut. Stern.de, 20.8.2012.
  14. ↑ Moor schreibt bei „Postillion“ ab. In: Der Tagesspiegel, 22. August 2012.
  15. ↑ Stefan Sichermann (2014-01-02). "Exklusiv: Ex-Kanzleramtsminister Ronald Pofalla wechselt in den Vorstand der Deutschen Bahn". Der Postillon.
  16. ↑ Lars Wienand (2014-01-03). "Pofalla absurd: Wie der Postillon das Netz doppelt trollte". Rhein-Zeitung.
  17. ↑ Jan Falk, Oliver Koch (2014-01-03). "Pofalla geht zur Bahn - Wie die Satire-Seite Postillon das Netz verwirrte". RuhrNachrichten.de.
  18. ↑ Kneipenwirt, der für jedes deutsche Tor einen Schnaps gratis versprochen hat, pleite, Der Postillon, 9.July 2014.
  19. ↑ Der bankrotte Barkeeper: Russen-TV fällt auf Postillon-Witz herein, Meedia, 11.7.2014.
  20. ↑ Video auf vesti.ru.
  21. ↑ Links! Zwo! Drei! Vier! (232), Der Postillon, 12. Juli 2014.
  22. ↑ "Grimme Online Award 2013: Grimme-Institut kürt Preisträger in Köln". Grimme-Institut.
  23. ↑ Die besten Postillon-Artikel von 2008 bis heute jetzt auch als Taschenbuch erhältlich. Der Postillon, 15. März 2012, abgerufen 22. August 2012.
  24. ↑ Postillon24 Nachrichten auf YouTube.
  25. ↑ "Postillon" geht auf Sendung Süddeutsche.de, 13.11.2013
  26. ↑ "Postillon" kooperiert mit NDR Süddeutsche.de, 9.März 2014
  27. ↑ FAZ.net: Arschkalt erwischt

External links