Die Tageszeitung (often displayed as "die tageszeitung" and commonly referred to as
taz), was founded in 1978 in
Berlin. It is a
cooperative-owned
German daily
newspaper which is administrated by a
workers' self-management. Rising out of the midst of a progressive and politically left-leaning movement in the 70's, its main focus has been on current politics and societal issues such as inequality and ecological crises both at the local and global scale and not covered by the more traditional and conservative newspapers at the time. It has often supported the
German Green Party, but the
taz has also been critical of the
SPD/Greens coalition government (1998–2005).
From the beginning, the taz was intended to be an alternative to the mainstream press, in its own words "irreverent, commercially independent, intelligent and entertaining." One expression of its alternative approach to journalism was the payment of unified salaries for all employees until 1991. Nowadays, employees in highly responsible positions receive bonuses. Still, salaries paid by the taz are considerably lower than what is paid in the rest of the industry.[citation needed]
Since 1992, the Tageszeitung has been owned by currently more than 8,000 paying members. It has a circulation of more than 60,000, with almost 50,000 subscriptions. In 1995, it was the first German national newspaper to make all of the content of issue available online. In 1999, Bascha Mika (born in 1954 in Komprachcice, Silesia) became editor in chief.
From the beginning, the Tageszeitung appeared in a nation-wide edition as well as in a Berlin local edition. Over the years, local editorial offices for North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg and Bremen were added. While the latter two were merged to "taz nord" (North) the NRW-offices are closed as of July 2007.
