Profil, (stylized in all lowercase) is an Austrian weekly news magazine published in German and based in Vienna. It was founded as a monthly magazine and has been in circulation since 1970. The magazine is sometimes considered the Austrian counterpart to Der Spiegel.[1][2] In 2008 the magazine was described as the “most important Austrian news magazine”.[3]
The first edition of profil came out as a monthly on 7 September 1970. Starting in October 1972, it was published every two weeks and from January 1974 every week.[10] In 2001 profil became part of the publishing company NEWS.[5] In 1975 business magazine, ecco, merged with profil.[8]
profil includes sections for Austria, abroad, economy, society, science, and culture. Glosses, caricatures, and letters to the editor are also published. In the mid-1980s it had an independent and liberal leaning.[11] In the 2000s the magazine had a left liberal political stance.[12] It targets Austria's intelligentsia.[8] Both profil and trend initiated investigative journalism in the country.[8] It was profil which revealed the Nazi past of Kurt Waldheim, former Austrian president.[13][14] Investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin served as the political editor of profil.[15][16] He uncovered the story about Kurt Waldheim's Nazi connection.[16]
In December 2022 it was announced that Richard Grasl would also become profile managing director in addition to his journalistic work for the Kurier.[17] On the same day it was announced that Christian Rainer would end his role as editor-in-chief and publisher of Profil.[18] Due to Grasl's appointment, the editorial team felt compelled to publicly emphasize the magazine's "untouchable journalistic independence".[19] At the same time, management reported three profile editors to the works council for termination.[20]
Editorial GmbH led by Grasl became the new publisher in January 2023. The new editor-in-chief has been Anna Thalhammer[21] since March 1, 2023.[22][23]
The economics department head and deputy editor-in-chief Michael Nikbakhsh also left the magazine in this context. He was offered the opportunity to run Kurier and Profil's planned investigative academy as a self-employed person.[24] Even before the academy started, Nikbakhsh “irrevocably” resigned from the leadership in February 2023. He developed a program for the academy and presented it to Richard Grasl, Martina Salomon and Anna Thalhammer at a meeting. According to Nikbakhsh, they had begun “in all seriousness” to classify intended speakers “according to suspected or supposed party-political affiliation”. Salomon explained that it was important to her that “not only leftists” appeared. Those mentioned contradict Nikbakhsh's account.[25]
Circulation
The circulation of profil was 72,000 copies in 1985.[11] In 1993, the magazine had a circulation of more than 100,000 copies.[26]
The weekly had a circulation of 76,000 copies in 2003 and 78,000 copies in the first quarter of 2004.[10] In 2006, the magazine had a readership of 6%, being second to NEWS magazine.[27] The circulation of the magazine was 251,000 copies in 2007.[28] Its circulation for the first half of 2008 was 59,124 copies.[29] The 2010 circulation of profil was 93,000 copies.[30] The circulation of the magazine during the first half of 2013 was down to 71,033 copies.[31]
^ abjoint venture with Amperwelle Studio München Programmanbietergesellschaft, Axel Springer AG, Burda, Studio Gong, m.b.t. Mediengesellschaft der bayerischen Tageszeitungen für Kabelkommunikation, Medienpool and Radio Bavaria Rundfunkprogrammgesellschaft.
^joint venture with Verlagsgesellschaft Madsack, Studio Gong Niedersachsen and Brune-Rieck-Beteiligungs.
^joint venture with Axel Springer, Heinrich Bauer Verlag, Lühmanndruck Harburger Zeitungsgesellschaft and Morgenpost Verlag.
