As I remember it, Thomas Schuler had the idea. The new media column of the Netzeitung would be called Altpapier (“old”, i.e. recycled paper). Eight years and six weeks ago, the first daily commented overview of the German media pages of the day appeared. Crucially, the column would be published early in the morning. Don’t tell it, show it: The Altpapier signalled that we, the web-only newspaper, could not only give you an overview of what was printed in the paper-papers before you had had time to read them yourself, we could even give you a digested, annotated, commented overview. With links.

Netzeitung has suffered for years, especially badly under the ownership of the crumbling Mecom empire, a media company which has chosen to have no internet strategy (one obvious suggestion that they ignored… It remains a mystery why Mecom bought the company at all). Today’s blow is especially painful: The very last Altpapier was published. As could be expected of them, the writers go down in style. The last column is an overview of the year, not the day, and of 2009, not 2008. The result: an abundance of sensational news stories and undercover media celebrity gossip. The visionary merger between Axel Springer Verlag and food discounter Lidl gets top points (and it’s not as crazy as you’d think).

So the resource-starved Netzeitung now must do without the almost legendary column — but with a chief editor that reportedly threatened to sack the remaining eight journalists, as well.

The question mark? One news account of the Altpapier closure gives some hope: Apparently one ponders the possibility of continuing outside the Netzeitung. As it’s stated at the end of today’s text: “Der Altpapierkorb füllt sich an dieser Stelle nicht mehr.” (emphasis added).

(PS: All things considered, I found it wise to archive the last Altpapier at WebCite. Just in case).