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Photo: DPA

Anti-Bild campaign mars paper's birthday stunt

Published: 24 Jun 12 13:42 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120624-43349.html

Populist newspaper Bild made it into the record books for its 60th anniversary edition at the weekend, distributing a record 41 million free copies to German households. But not everybody shared in celebrating the tabloid’s birthday.

Germany's bestselling paper had planned to send a special free edition to the whole of the country on Saturday to celebrate 60 years since Bild first went to print on June 24, 1952.

It also claimed the operation would set the record for the biggest distribution of a free special edition of a newspaper.

Yet not everyone was willing to raise a glass to the paper, whose sensationalist style often proves divisive, the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper wrote on Saturday.

An “Everyone against Bild” counter-campaign organised by Berlin students united 240,000 people across the country in explicitly refusing their permission to deliver the paper, presenting the Axel Springer publication with a logistical challenge.
German law forbids the delivery of circulars to anyone who has expressed their refusal, according to the Frankfurter Rundschau, a rule that if broken is punishable with a fine.

Germany’s 50,000 postal workers were under strict instructions not to deliver the free paper to those who had refused delivery. And Bild send those who said they did not want a paper, a posh-looking letter on thick paper in a big red envelope.

The individually addressed letter bent over backwards to be polite, stressing that not only was publisher Axel Springer specifically not sending a copy of the newspaper as requested, all the person’s data would be erased.

And in case the person had not specifically asked for no Bild, they could call a free hotline and get a copy, the letter said.

A hard-core group of Bild-haters countered by refusing permission to deliver the letter.

Organisers of the anti-Bild campaign seemed happy with the outcome.

“The resonance completely exceeded our expectations,” Yves Venedey from Campact, one of the campaign organisers, told Frankfurter Rundschau.

“It looks as if in the majority of cases [the campaign] worked,” added Venedey, and said that by Saturday afternoon there had only been isolated complaints.

In the 60 years since Bild was founded by German media mogul Axel Springer the paper has risen to become one of the world's most powerful newspapers.

With over 12 million readers and sales of three million copies a day, its readership figures are topped only by the Japanese press.

The Local/AFP/jlb/hc

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

15:05 June 24, 2012 by danclarkie
HTML entities don't work inside the title tag, it just looks unprofessional.
15:15 June 24, 2012 by yourkeau
Thanks for informing that the delivery was by Deutsche Post. I will throw it back to their postbox: simple and efficient.

(of course, I had "keine kostenlose Zeitungen" note, but the postman ignored it).
15:32 June 24, 2012 by IchBinKönig
Its not hard to see why our society necessitates laws protecting Free Speech. I'm afraid that you would have us exclusively reading what the confirmed idiots Paul Krugman and crew have to say in the NYT.
12:20 June 25, 2012 by socalbremer
"A hard-core group of Bild-haters countered by refusing permission to deliver the letter. "

I wonder how many of those to whom this refers feel justified by their "hate", but will , when confronted by those whose beliefs are in opposition to theirs, will use the term as a self indulgent pejorative.

¦quot;The resonance completely exceeded our expectations,¦quot; Yves Venedey from Campact, one of the campaign organisers, told Frankfurter Rundschau.....¦quot;It looks as if in the majority of cases [the campaign] worked,¦quot; added Venedey, and said that by Saturday afternoon there had only been isolated complaints."

What successful campaign, exactly? That a number of people were able to cover their eyes and ears and pretend they had any effect on Bild? Enjoy life in the cocoon............
12:47 June 25, 2012 by bearded1
what alot of rubbish they should have saved the paper all it has done is given me a bit more rubbish to get rid of Ba****ds.I wish they and all the other free altpapier zulieferer would stop putting it in my postkasten trotz kein werbung sign
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