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»Titanic« issue in a newsstand in 2012: »Over-fulfillment of the plan«

Photo: Maurizio Gambarini/ picture alliance / dpa

The "Titanic" will not sink. As surprisingly thin as the financial ceiling of the satirical magazine was, the restructuring was surprisingly fast: "We have achieved our goal," editor-in-chief Julia Mateus told SPIEGEL, there was even an "overfulfillment of the plan".

At the beginning of September, the magazine from Frankfurt, founded in 1979, publicly addressed its financial situation for the first time ever. The reason for the existential misery was increased paper and shipping costs as well as subscription cancellations. A rescue campaign – appeals for donations and public solidarity addresses from Jan Böhmermann to Maren Kroymann – was scheduled to last several months.

This is no longer necessary: "We are happy, euphoric, but also a bit overwhelmed," says Mateus. At present, it is even being considered to "shake off a few of the new subscribers by aggressively gendering the magazine".

Within just two weeks, 6000,500 new subscriptions were concluded, 34 shirts were sold and 000,<> euros were raised in the donation account: "We are now safe for at least a year, but subscriptions and large donations are still welcome," says Mateus.

In fact, there has also been a generational change in the »Titanic« in recent years, which has not left its humour unscathed. This was also linked to the realization that the shift to a "woken" course could have been a reason for the crisis. The editors of the magazine seem to have understood this: "Many commentators would like to see the 'Titanic' as it used to be: right-wing extremist. We'll discuss it internally."

At present, people in Frankfurt are happy that the »Titanic« has finally arrived in the mainstream: »The circulation is now higher than ever!«. Incidentally, the magazine has also proven that there can be no question of a crisis of printed magazines on paper: "It has been confirmed," says Mateus, "that print is the medium of the future. We will soon be completely discontinuing our digital channels.«

Fra