Der Postillon

Der Postillon is a German website, run by Stefan Sichermann featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news in newspaper and TV format. In October 2015, the Postillon had more than 14 million visitors.[1] Der Postillon also appears as an English version titled "The Postillon".[2]

Der Postillon
Ehrliche Nachrichten – unabhängig, schnell, seit 1845 (honest news, independent, quick, since 1845)
TypeParody news organization
FormatWebsite
Owner(s)Stefan Sichermann
Founder(s)Stefan Sichermann
EditorStefan Sichermann
Founded2008
CountryGermany
Websiteder-postillon.com

Background

Stefan Sichermann, a PR expert, started the page 2008 as a hobby. Until 2011 he continued working for a PR agency.[3] The Onion was one of the inspirations for the website.[4] However the website itself claims a continuous history since October 1845.[5] The name Postillon refers to French postilion and is used in the German language in traditional or literary circumstances.

After a satirical article about the closure of film-piracy-page Kino.to went viral on Facebook and Twitter, Postillon received a much broader audience.[3][4] In the meantime, Sichermann started to run the page professionally, hired some assistants and financed the emissions via advertisements, a shop[6] and flattr donations. The social media impact of Postillon is higher than that of many official newsportals, such as Focus Online, Süddeutsche.de and Frankfurter Allgemeine.[7]

Scoops

Shortly after the death of Steve Jobs, the Postillon speculated about the technical features of the tech-guru's coffin and the inscription buried in my iTomb.[8] Angry comments of readers containing the phrase „ein Leser weniger“ (one reader fewer) gained notoriety as a running gag among the reader community.[3] Fans of Felix Baumgartner got angry about a Postillon entry claiming the record jump was declared invalid, since the Austrian crossed a foul line before the start signal.[9][10][11]

In 2012 German TV host Dieter Moor used a satirical notion about the delays at Berlin Brandenburg Airport without reference to the origin. The Postillon had implied, the ongoing delays would require to introduce a new form of German future tense.[12][13] Various media asked Moor to apologize and to mention the joke's origin.[14] Moor acted accordingly.[13][15]

Breaking, not yet officially confirmed news of Ronald Pofalla's change from politician to the railroad operator Deutsche Bahn were accompanied by a backdated, but otherwise correct Postillon post. As Postillon parody posts are often mistaken for real on social media, this did result in confusion among editorial offices and the general public. As a follow-up, Postillon's editor Stefan Sichermann criticized media for being less trust-worthy than Postillon.[16][17][18][19][20][21]

Postillon claimed a landlord offering shots for each guest and German goal during Brazil v Germany (2014 FIFA World Cup) had faced ruin. The article was spread and quoted on various Russian news outlets as a true story[22] including TV broadcaster Russia-24.[23][24][25]

Awards

Content and further publications

Postillon provides classical news, a newsticker, commentaries, advice columns, opinion editorials and fake surveys. In 2012 the Postillon published various articles in form of a book.[27] Also in 2012 the first fake TV emissions followed on YouTube.[28] Further videos are published in a cooperation with Yahoo[29] and some have been run on German Broadcaster NDR.[30][31]

See also

References
  1. Auf der-postillon.com werben. Der Postillon, retrieved, 17 November 2015.
  2. Der Postillon, retrieved, 10 November 2016
  3. Ronnie Grob: Wahre Lügen aus dem Posthorn. Medienwoche.ch, 19. Januar 2012
  4. Gestatten: Der Postillon! Academicworld.net
  5. Der Postillon 1845–2012. Der Postillon.
  6. Pünktlich zum 166-jährigen Jubiläum: Postillon-Shop Shopillon eröffnet! Der Postillon, 28 October 2011
  7. Social-Media-Charts: RTL.de und Postillon mit neuen Like-Rekorden, meedia.de, 17 April 2014
  8. Technikjournalisten und Fanboys spekulieren über Design und Features von Steve Jobs’ Sarg. Der Postillon, 6.10.2011.
  9. Linie übertreten: Rekordsprung aus 39 Kilometern Höhe für ungültig erklärt. Der Postillon, 15.10. 2012.
  10. Michèle Binswanger: Teenager von sich selbst sexuell belästigt. tagesanzeiger.ch, 17 October 2012.
  11. Links! Zwo! Drei! Vier! (Baumgartner Spezial). Der Postillon, 20.10.2012.
  12. Neue Zeitform Futur III eingeführt, um Gespräche über Berliner Flughafen zu ermöglichen. Der Postillon, 15 August 2012.
  13. Thomas Knüwer: Dieter Moor, der freundliche Plagiator der ARD. Indiskretion Ehrensache, 20. August 2012
  14. Niels Kruse: Wo „Titel, Thesen, Temperamente“ seine Witze klaut. Stern.de, 20 August 2012.
  15. Moor schreibt bei „Postillon“ ab. In: Der Tagesspiegel, 22 August 2012.
  16. Stefan Sichermann (2 January 2014). "Exklusiv: Ex-Kanzleramtsminister Ronald Pofalla wechselt in den Vorstand der Deutschen Bahn". Der Postillon.
  17. Lars Wienand (3 January 2014). "Pofalla absurd: Wie der Postillon das Netz doppelt trollte". Rhein-Zeitung.
  18. Jan Falk, Oliver Koch (3 January 2014). "Pofalla geht zur Bahn - Wie die Satire-Seite Postillon das Netz verwirrte". RuhrNachrichten.de. Archived from the original on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  19. Henning Onken, Sidney Gennies (3 January 2014). "Satireseite stiftet Verwirrung um Pofalla". Tagesspiegel.
  20. @bamf4G (3 January 2014). ""02:38 UHR Was stimmt nun wirklich? Kann man jetzt, um diese Uhrzeit, kaum herausfinden." (bz-berlin.de) #pofalla" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  21. "Postillon-Satiriker kritisiert Medienbranche". DER SPIEGEL. 4 January 2014.
  22. Kneipenwirt, der für jedes deutsche Tor einen Schnaps gratis versprochen hat, pleite, Der Postillon, 9.July 2014.
  23. Der bankrotte Barkeeper: Russen-TV fällt auf Postillon-Witz herein, Meedia, 11 July 2014.
  24. Video auf vesti.ru.
  25. Links! Zwo! Drei! Vier! (232), Der Postillon, 12 July 2014.
  26. "Grimme Online Award 2013: Grimme-Institut kürt Preisträger in Köln". Grimme-Institut. Archived from the original on 2014-10-25. Retrieved 2014-08-03.
  27. Die besten Postillon-Artikel von 2008 bis heute jetzt auch als Taschenbuch erhältlich. Der Postillon, 15 March 2012, retrieved, 22 August 2012.
  28. Postillon24 Nachrichten auf YouTube.
  29. "Postillon" geht auf Sendung Süddeutsche.de, 13 November 2013
  30. "Postillon" kooperiert mit NDR Süddeutsche.de, 9 March 2014
  31. FAZ.net: Arschkalt erwischt
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