Der Standard

What is Der Standard?

Der Standard is an Austrian national daily newspaper and the news site derstandard.at. Its disclosure under § 25 of the Mediengesetz, as retrieved on 26 September 2026, prints no date and names the media owner and publisher as STANDARD Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H., Vordere Zollamtsstraße 13, Vienna, with Alexander Mitteräcker as managing director.^[1]

The same disclosure lists the shareholders of STANDARD Medien AG as Oscar Bronner with 58.91 per cent, Alexander Mitteräcker with 19.96 per cent, Andrea Bronner with 19.64 per cent and free float with 1.49 per cent.^[1] The Euromedia Ownership Monitor's Austria report of December 2025 gives the main owner as “Family Bronner (98,5%)”.^[2] The two sources give different figures, and both are reported here as printed.

The disclosure states the paper's basic line: “DER STANDARD ist ein liberales Medium. Es ist unabhängig von politischen Parteien, Institutionen und Interessengruppen”.^[1] That is the paper's own statement.

What does Der Standard cover?

The paper runs a sport section online. Its sport feed, titled “Sport - derStandard.at”, describes itself as offering “Sport-News aktuell auf DER STANDARD”. On 24 September 2026 its items included Austria's 3–1 Nations League win over Israel, reported with a live ticker, David Alaba's transfer to Udinese, Felix Großschartner's contract extension with UAE to the end of 2028, a 200 metres breaststroke world record and Formula 1 practice in Baku. The same feed carried other results from Austria's Nations League group, Kosovo's 1–0 win over Ireland, and Germany's 1–1 draw with the Netherlands.^[3]

Sport was not part of the paper at launch. Its own history records under 19 October 1988: “DER STANDARD erscheint zum ersten Mal.” It adds that the paper at first appeared only five times a week and, for the time being, “ohne Chronik- und Sportressort”, without local-news and sport desks.^[4] The history retrieved gives no date for the addition of a sport desk.

How large is Der Standard's audience?

Readership. The Media-Analyse 2025, covering January to December 2025 and 14,403 interviews, gives Der Standard a print reach of 6.9 per cent, or 542,000 readers aged 14 and over, with a margin of plus or minus 0.4 points. Its CrossMediaReach table gives Der Standard and derstandard.at together 11.3 per cent, or 880,000.^[5] Those are annual survey figures.

The publisher's own media kit, dated 17 April 2026, cites the same survey for a wider measure that also counts newsletters: “Jeden Tag lesen 953.000 Menschen den STANDARD – sei es als gedruckte Tageszeitung, online oder via Newsletter”. It gives that measure as 12.2 per cent.^[6] That is the publisher's presentation, and the measure differs from the survey's published CMR table.

Circulation. The Österreichische Auflagenkontrolle's list for the first half of 2026 gives Der Standard subscriptions of 50,817 copies on average, of which 24,114 were ePaper, single-copy sales of 1,875 and a sold circulation (Verkaufte Auflage) of 54,278. The list notes that the figures cover DER STANDARD from Monday to Saturday and DER STANDARD Kompakt from Monday to Friday.^[7] Those are the list's weekly averages for the half-year.

Since when has Der Standard existed?

The paper dates itself to 1988. Its history records the first issue on 19 October 1988, and under 2 February 1995: “DER STANDARD geht online.” It states that it thereby became “die erste deutschsprachige Tageszeitung im Internet”, the first German-language daily on the internet.^[4] That is the paper's own claim.

Its corporate page states that it was founded by the publisher Oscar Bronner and has been led since 1 January 2017 by Alexander Mitteräcker as sole board member of the company, and it gives the staff as “knapp 600 Mitarbeiter:innen”, nearly 600.^[8] Those are the company's own figures. In 2025 and 2026 the paper appears as a national daily both in the Media-Analyse and in the circulation audit of the Österreichische Auflagenkontrolle.^[5][7]

Why does Der Standard matter in Austria's sport?

It is one of the national dailies measured by the Media-Analyse, with a print reach of 6.9 per cent and a combined reach of 11.3 per cent in 2025, and it carries a daily sport feed covering the national football team, Austrian athletes and international sport.^[5][3] Its sport coverage sits inside a general news title: the publisher's media kit of April 2026 presents reach figures for the whole title, for readers aged 14 to 29 and for decision-makers, and no separate audience for sport.^[6]

A monitoring body has published on the market it works in. The Media Pluralism Monitor's Austria 2026 page states: “Concentration in the audiovisual, radio and newspaper sectors is extremely high: the four largest players hold between 70 and 92% of the respective markets in terms of revenue and audience.”^[9] That is the monitor's characterisation of the sector and does not name the paper.