“Die Zeit” is a German weekly newspaper, that is “highly respected for its quality journalism” (Wikipedia). Before subscribing to it earlier this year, I occasionally bought issues of it and was very fond of some of the interviews and comments in it and so I finally decided to give it a try.
Although the quality for the occasional article is as high quality as I expected, the rest of the paper continues to approach the tabloid level. You could, for example, get an issue with a leader on some celebrity in it (like a completely irrelevant German weather anchor). On Page 3 there would be an interview with Helmut Schmidt, a former head of government, who is some kind of pet in the editorial office, about his views on the Japanese earthquake disaster. And the front page story would be about some former head of state, his last summer holiday and his plans for the future. The rest of the issue would be filled with meaningless comments on how the evil banks and the German national railway company will destroy Europe and why Germans still do not choose the right nutrition.
Do not get me wrong, some of the contents is still pretty readable, but there is this increasing tendency to dramatise, that is starting to dominate the whole character of this publication. There is absolutely no point in asking Helmut Schmidt, how he felt, when he first saw the pictures from Fukushima. The only way you can motivate this dramatisation of an otherwise perfectly justified interview is by better monetisation because of some form of public interest in this kind of journalism. But hey, why not earn even more money by putting some nude women into your paper? They already had page filling pictures of some Berlusconi-concubine (although not yet nude). There is even a small article on the front page called “prominent ignoriert” (“prominently ignored”), which pretentiously comments current irrelevant news from the tabloid-press, instead of just ignoring it like the title demands.
As you might have already guessed, I terminated my subscription.