556 FRANK BÖSCH AND CHRISTOPH CLASSEN
membership, as well as a larger public involvement in civil society in the
1970s. Likewise, the circulation of the party papers grew alongside the
membership fi gures for the SED and other mass organizations; the SED
press ensured that new members were made aware of the offi cial inter-
pretations of the day’s events, making it easier for people to toe the party
line in offi cial situations.^19 But, just like the growth of the SED, the in-
creased circulation of the newspapers was part of a process controlled by
the party itself. That said, the newspaper boom was also tied to a growing
need for more local and regional information. In the East as well as the
West, surveys showed that most people were looking for more domestic
and local news that would help them navigate through daily life better.^20
Since the 1970s, a new interest in local life had accompanied the erosion
of the great Utopian visions of modern society in both German states.
This awarded the regional newspapers a key position because radio or
television coverage of local news was spotty at best, especially when GDR
residents tuned into Western stations. The local sections of the district
papers in the East, which were usually only about one page in an eight-
page newspaper, at least had a little room to maneuver. In some areas,
the bloc party newspapers even came to play a central role because of
their local reporting. Moreover, it was the non-editorial part of the papers
that was often important in terms of everyday life: surveys indicated that
the obituaries and the classifi ed sections were the most read parts of the
newspapers on either side of the Wall. The immense popularity of the
local classifi eds with their apartment ads and for sale sections, as well as
the municipal aff airs sections, underpinned the fast-paced boom in free
papers full of ads. In 1960, the weekly circulation of these publications
was about two million, but this fi gure had multiplied six times over by
1980.^21 Although people often made fun of their articles on local associa-
tions and dignitaries, these papers were nonetheless an expression of an
increased interest and involvement in local aff airs.
The press became more strongly consolidated in both Germanys, al-
though at diff erent points in time, which lent the regional papers with
several local sections more weight. More importantly, the reasons behind
this development diff ered; in the West, economic competition propelled
this shift, while it was political directives that changed the constellation
of the press landscape in the East. At the same time, both media systems
responded to readers’ desire for more local and regional information in
addition to the primary political coverage. In 1989, for example, thirty-
seven separate papers were published in the GDR, but there were 291
diff erent local editions that included the same national coverage. From a
political perspective, this consolidation was desirable because it off ered
a way to secure the SED’s power over the interpretation of the news,