Future of the Official Journal: Thuringian cities rely on pressure or digital?

Future of the Official Journal: Thuringian cities rely on pressure or digital?

Sonneberg, Deutschland - A race for the printed offices unfolds in Thuringia! While some cities want to abolish the expensive printed products, others rely on a comeback of the classic format. In Sonneberg, the end of the printed official leaves is already decided: from January 2025 the delivery will be discontinued, and the few remaining specimens are only available in the town hall. The city has already switched to digital announcements and even plans its own app for current information.

Not all municipalities follow this trend! In Erfurt and Jena, the printed Official Journal is considered indispensable in order to reach older citizens in particular. Anja Schultz from the Erfurt city administration emphasizes that the printed variant will continue to be supported, despite the high annual costs of up to 400,000 euros for distribution. In Jena, on the other hand, a return of the printed official gazette is even prepared for all households to fight against the flood of false news on social media.

The numbers speak for themselves!

The edition in Weimar has increased to almost 40,000 copies in the past ten years, and citizens prefer the printed format compared to the online version. In the meantime, the digital offers in Mühlhausen experienced a real boom after hiring the Official Journal for all households in March 2024: online access doubles! Each issue is called between 1,000 and 2,500 times in Erfurt, and in Jena the digital official has been clicked over 2,000 times since the beginning of the year.

The municipalities surveyed agree: the demand for digital offers is growing, and at the same time it is taken care that the offices stand out significantly from traditional newspapers in order to prevent legal problems. The future of the printed official sheets remains exciting - a duel between Tradition and progress!