Austria’s media landscape is on the verge of a historic transformation. With Germany’s Funke Media Group reportedly finalizing its exit from all Austrian holdings, including its remaining stake in the Kurier, the country’s press may soon be fully in domestic hands for the first time in decades, reported by “die Presse”.
The departure began with Funke’s sale of its 50% share in the Kronen Zeitung to the influential Dichand family. Now, insiders say the group is pushing to offload its minority stake in the Kurier, where talks with majority owner Raiffeisen are underway. Though the two sides are still negotiating a final price, sources close to the matter expect the deal to close as early as the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1.
Should Funke complete its retreat, it would mark the end of foreign ownership in Austria’s major print media—a striking reversal from the late 20th century. In the 1980s, German publishers were deeply embedded in Austria. WAZ (now Funke) bought into both the Krone and Kurier in 1987, and helped found Mediaprint, Austria’s key printing and distribution network. Even the liberal Standard, launched the same year, was born with seed money from Axel Springer, with further investment from the Süddeutsche Zeitung until Oscar Bronner regained full control in 2008.
This wave of de-globalization has been unfolding for years. Germany’s Gruner + Jahr exited the News Publishing Group (VGN) in 2016. Styria’s partnership with Sweden’s Bonnier ended in 2006. Switzerland’s NZZ abandoned its digital experiment, NZZ.at, in 2017. Today, Austria’s newspapers are largely family- or locally owned, though exceptions remain in broadcasting—Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 still owns Puls4 and ATV, and ServusTV is backed by the multinational Red Bull.
The reasons behind this shift are rooted in market realities: print is in decline, and international publishers are turning to digital-first models. Axel Springer, for example, offloaded much of its print empire and pivoted toward digital ventures like Politico.
For Austria, the question now looms: with the global players gone, can the local press sustain itself—and compete—in a world that’s moved online?
