Interview with Ciro Krauthausen director of Mallorca Zeitung newspaper

Ciro Mallorca Zeitung Director

June 11 is the 15th anniversary of the Mallorca Zeitung; do you plan to celebrate in a special way?

We are going to have a big party at the Mares Sea Club in Puig d’en Ros, and expect to welcome renowned guests and many of our readers.We have placed a great deal of emphasis on attendance not only by our advertising partners and some recognized personalities, but also by readers, since they are, after all, our foundation.Our partners also include Bufete Buades, with which we have collaborated closely for many years with an excellent relationship.

Afterward, we will launch a special publication containing a series of articles chronicling these 15 years, which will be especially created for the occasion.

After 15 years of existence, how do you evaluate the newspaper’s level of penetration among the island’s residents of German origin?

Today, we are certainly well established as the referent for information in German about what is happening on the island, on the possibilities it offers, and a bit of everything in general. Today, we always plan Mallorca Zeitung from the analysis and information from news occurring in Mallorca, on one hand, and on the other, by developing articles, major interviews and, definitely, plenty of reading material along with other service notices.For example, among the latter, we advise our readers about various bureaucratic processes that may be necessary on renting a house, and what to keep in mind.A complete series of legal aspects are regularly explained on our pages, and they are very helpful for everyone arriving on the island.The Germans tend to arrive in Mallorca without the baggage one accumulates about the functioning of the place and how things are done here, some of the rules being social and others legal, as well as all of the aspects related to our lifestyle here. We cover all this at an informational level on paper and our website.

Ciro Krauthausen y equipo MallorcaZeitung

What does accepting the challenge of directing the newspaper mean for you in such a special year, and what challenges does the weekly face, now and in the immediate future?

The major challenge is clear: transformation to digital.That is, it is the greatest challenge currently faced by all newspapers or print media, transferring this informational quality to the website without neglecting the paper, which continues to be a very attractive product, and much more if it fits into a weekly that allows leisurely reading.The printed product allows the pleasure of reading and careful analysis, while on the website, reading is more immediate, since the news is provided up to the minute.With the online version of Mallorca Zeitung, it is certain that we may work to offer this deeper analysis, but it is often more complicated.Capturing this is the great challenge.

I am convinced of the pleasure of reading, and this pleasure, in my opinion, can work both in digital and print media.Independent of the medium, promoting this pleasure of reading, it is assumed that there must be a journalist or information professional who has previously dedicated time to the story and who has the knowledge and abilities, the craft and the talent to be able to tell a story, dedicating time to it.

In the digital world, very attractive things are being done based on innovation, as in the case of multimedia reporting, but a great deal of resources are needed to obtain an excellent result.

How important are initiatives such as Fundamente Mallorca, also promoted by your newspaper, for those German or German-speaking citizens wishing to establish their residence and business in Mallorca?

I think it is an excellent initiative because it brings together the strengths of a series of actors and companies here and also in the German market.The underlying idea is basically to offer a service or advice that allows both residents and new arrivals who may purchase a house or apartment, resolve a great number of problems they may encounter around the property, which are many.Thinking about needing to purchase or build a house, we often allow our good friends to advise us, if they know a good electrician, how do they manage to pay the taxes derived from the dwellings or similar things.When one comes from abroad, this network of contacts does not exist, and one does not know who to approach. This is the dilemma resolved by Fundamente Mallorca.

One of the dabates that most concern the modern press is how printed and digital editions should coexist.How does Mallorca Zeitung face them?

It is through constant innovation and continual testing and evaluation of the results, analyzing each of the changes.At this time, we, unlike some Spanish print media, do not include all our content on the website.Our group is opting for a payment model called “freemium,” where specific information of greater value added is offered only by subscription, which is perfectly reasonable given that it is journalistic work that has value and needs to be financed in some way.In any case, everything on our website is free, and what happens is that we do not load all the content of the paper version on the website, because we have a great deal of exclusive contents in the paper edition.

Most readers from Germany arrive at our website; that is, they are in Germany, and they consult us because they want information on Mallorca. Thus, the website is extremely attractive for advertisers who wish to reach the customer before he or she arrives at the island. The printed weekly, however, tends to be read more here, among the German residents.

The audience increasingly demands greater immediacy in the media and accessibility from any device.Have you noticed these new needs among your readers, and, in this case, how do you address them?

I believe that both types of information are equally valid and complement each other.The information, called “breaking news” is crucial, and we cannot leave it aside.But a slower analysis is also as important, which was defined above as the pleasure of reading, both in the website and on printed paper.Now, the immediacy depends a bit on the interests of the readers, since not everything can be equally interesting and immediacy for its own sake would not be beneficial.Not every traffic accident is interesting; I believe that as journalists, we should filter the relevant from the irrelevant, and this must increasingly be our role, since information is everywhere and readers have very fast and immediate access to information.There are not only traditional media, but social networks also appear here, which make the news run and fly.We must also analyze that is really interesting and what is not.That is, without neglecting information.

It is well known that an infallible economic thermometer in the EU is the level of expenses and the investment capacity of Germany.  According to the information that you have available, are we in a positive moment for economic reactivation after 7 years of deep crisis?

Everything indicates that we can detect a certain, generalized optimism.Beginning from the basis that the economy is mostly psychological, it is very important to have this feeling of throwing ourselves forward and verifying that things are improving little by little.