580 FRANK BÖSCH AND CHRISTOPH CLASSEN
vis-à-vis the West, but they neglected to point out the links between these
issues and the troubles that had plagued the GDR economy. Articles in
these press outlets also tended to divide East and West Germany more
often into the old and the new federal states, but these distinctions were
not made as often in the press in the former West,^108 mostly because they
tended to ignore the East altogether.
There were also diff erences in international news coverage in East and
West. The East German media did not off er as much international report-
ing as its counterpart in the West in the mid-1990s. It focused more often
on Eastern Europe, whereas West German newspapers continued to off er
more coverage of topics related to the West and what was then termed
the Third World.^109 Likewise, the media in East and West also adopted
diff erent tones in their respective judgments. The newspapers in the East
more frequently just repeated statements without adding much critical
commentary of their own. This can be interpreted as part of a style left
over from GDR times, but it also refl ects a conscious eff ort to exercise
political restraint in light of the political transformations taking place. In
exchange, the East German press tended to off er more practical advice
for life, especially the former SED outlets.^110
This not only had to do with readers’ expectations and the traditions of
the respective papers, but also the social structure of the journalist com-
munity. In light of the new constellations of ownership, accusations that
the newspapers were hiring only West German journalists quickly spread
in East Germany. Yet, in actuality, there was a high level of continuity in
personnel, despite the fact that most of the East German journalists prior
to 1989 had been members of the SED and had served as a mouthpiece
for the party for a long time. Personnel changes were made primarily at
the highest levels, but these fi rings hardly aff ected editorial staff. The
editors-in-chief of the SED district papers were switched out at the end
of 1989, but they were almost entirely replaced by successors who came
from within their own editorial ranks. According to statistics from the
time, about half of these new editors-in-chief remained in charge in the
years that followed.^111 Around 70 percent of the employees in the main
former GDR papers stayed on, while only about 30 percent of the journal-
ists who went to work for a few newly established publications were from
the GDR. As surveys indicated, about 60 percent of journalists who were
working in East Germany before the fall of the Wall were still employed
as journalists in 1992, and only a fi fth came from the West. Similarly,
only about a fourth of the editors-in-chief were West Germans.^112 Among
these journalists, there was not much self-critical refl ection on the past,
and the diff erences between them and their colleagues from the West
were often still considerable. It should be noted, however, that the West