(HRNW) – One of the world’s oldest newspapers still in print, Austria’s Wiener Zeitung, will primarily move online, after a decision on Thursday by the country’s parliament.
The development marks the final step in a years-long dispute between the Austrian government and the newspaper about the future of the state-owned daily.
Founded in 1703 under the name Wiennerisches Diarium, and later renamed Wiener Zeitung in 1780, the formerly private bi-weekly paper was nationalised by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in 1857, becoming the country’s official gazette.
“It is adopted with a majority,” Norbert Hofer, the third president of the parliament, said of a new law to primarily move the publication online from July 1.
The paper will maintain a minimum of ten print publications per year, depending on the funds available.
The Wiener Zeitung was in 2004 ranked as one of the oldest newspapers still in circulation, the World Association of News Publishers told AFP.