Kronen Zeitung

What is the Kronen Zeitung?

The Kronen Zeitung is an Austrian national daily newspaper, published in print and online at krone.at. Its own site refused retrieval, so the paper is documented here from the audience-measurement bodies, a monitoring body and third parties, and its own pages are not quoted.

The Euromedia Ownership Monitor's Austria report of December 2025, by Mariia Aleksevych and Josef Trappel of the University of Salzburg, lists “Kronen Zeitung” and “Krone.at” in the Mediaprint Group and gives the main owners as “Private foundation of Family Dichand (50%); Benko family* (16,3%); Petra Grotkamp (10,7%)”. The report's footnote to the asterisk states: “*shares of Benko family are part of the bankruptcy estate. At the time of writing new ownership was not determined.”^[1] No ownership record dated closer to 26 September 2026 was retrieved; the paper's statutory disclosure under § 25 of the Mediengesetz is on its own site, which refused retrieval.

The Media-Analyse, the joint readership survey, lists the Kronen Zeitung among its national daily titles, and the Österreichische Auflagenkontrolle lists it as “KRONE GESAMT” in its circulation audit.^[2][3]

What does the Kronen Zeitung cover?

The paper's own sport pages could not be retrieved, so its sport coverage is documented here from a partner's record. A ServusTV release of 24 April 2026 names the Kronen Zeitung as one of four partners, with the Österreichischer Fußball-Bund, the ORF and ServusTV, in a campaign around the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and states: “Bereits im Vorfeld wollen der Österreichische Fußball-Bund, der ORF, die Kronen Zeitung und ServusTV eine positive WM-Euphorie entfachen und zugleich den gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt sowie das Wir-Gefühl in Österreich fördern.” It adds that the Sonntags-Krone, the paper's Sunday edition, would report on the initiative on 26 April, the same day as the ORF's programme “Sport am Sonntag”.^[4] That is the record of a sporting partnership, and it is the partner's account rather than the paper's.

No section-level readership for sport was retrieved: the Media-Analyse and the ÖWA figures reported below are for the title and the website as a whole.^[2][5]

How large is the Kronen Zeitung's audience?

Readership. The Media-Analyse 2025, published on 9 April 2026, covers January to December 2025 and a population of 7,805,512 people aged 14 and over, from 14,403 interviews. It gives the Kronen Zeitung a print reach, printed copies and ePaper, of 19.8 per cent, or 1,546,000 readers, with a margin of plus or minus 0.7 points. Its CrossMediaReach table, which combines print and online, gives Kronen Zeitung and krone.at 25.2 per cent, or 1,965,000.^[2] Those are annual survey figures.

Web. The ÖWA, the web audit, is the currency for online reach. The ORF's media research department reports from ÖWA data for the first quarter of 2026 that krone.at had 3.637 million unique users, a reach of 50.2 per cent, listed second among single offerings after orf.at.^[5] That is one quarter's reading.

Circulation. The Österreichische Auflagenkontrolle's list for the first half of 2026 gives “KRONE GESAMT” subscriptions of 435,904 copies on average, of which 58,672 were ePaper, single-copy sales of 38,522, a sold circulation (Verkaufte Auflage) of 491,770 and a print run (Druckauflage) of 482,184. The list notes that the overall edition covers all regional editions.^[3] Those are the list's weekly averages for the half-year.

Since when has the Kronen Zeitung existed?

No founding date from the publisher could be retrieved, because its site refused retrieval. A competitor dates it. An undated Der Standard article headed “100 Jahre „Kronen Zeitung“” states that the Oesterreichische Kronen Zeitung was founded on 2 January 1900 by the journalist and playwright Gustav Davis, the day after a tax on newspaper street sales was abolished in the monarchy, and credits its later growth to Hans Dichand.^[6] That is a single secondary source, published by a competitor, and its account is attributed to it.

The Dichand family's holding appears in the ownership table of December 2025 as a private foundation with 50 per cent.^[1]

Why does the Kronen Zeitung matter in Austria's sport?

In the Media-Analyse 2025 its print reach was 19.8 per cent; the same national table gives Heute 9.2 per cent and the Kleine Zeitung 9.9 per cent.^[2] In 2026 it was a named partner of the football association's World Cup campaign.^[4]

Its ownership sits within a market that monitoring bodies describe as concentrated. 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.” It also states: “State advertising is exceptionally high and concentrated, raising concerns about political influence over media; publicly reported state advertising reached 384 million euros in 2025.”^[7] Reporters Without Borders, in its 2026 entry, states: “With just a dozen major outlets, the media market is small and very concentrated.”^[8] Those are the two bodies' characterisations and do not name the paper.