Der Spiegel follows the example set by The NYT and The Economist. But the Hamburgers go even further. Starting next year, the complete archive of Der Spiegel since it was launched by Rudolf Augstein & co in 1947 will be freely available online, says Netzeitung/dpa, the stories from the latest edition of the magazine being the only exception, as Spiegel explains.

The free archive will be part of a new knowledge portal, Spiegel Wissen, where free encyclopedia material and dictionaries will be found next to the Spiegel archive. This is a cooperation with Bertelsmann. The whole show will be financed by advertising. Take into account the already existing history portal Eines Tages as well, and there is no doubt — the news magazine is Germany’s most innovative “old” media company and would rank high internationally as well.