Twingly – Social Data with Passion

The Lausitzer Rundschau (LR-Online.de) is the first German regional newspaper to join us on the Twingly-adventure!

They are based in Cottbus, which is situated close to the Polish/German border, between Berlin and Dresden. Here the Google-Map for everyone that wants to take a closer look, the region is called Lower Lusatia.

Historically, Lausitzer Rundschau (short version LR) has come a very long way. They were founded in 1946 and have been a newspaper of the SED (the leading political party in the German Democratic Republic) for the region of Lusatia. Obviously being an SED-paper was not quite that beneficial for their reputation, mock names at that time were among others “Lügen-Rudi” (“lying Rudi”).

In 1991, the “Wende”, as one calls the big political change in Germany, also started for Lausitzer Rundschau. They got bought by the Saarbrücker Zeitung, which again is a part of the Holtzbrink Group, one of Germany’s biggest publishing groups.

Since then LR is an independent newspaper and strives to supply their region with high quality regional news. They run 11 local news papers in the Brandenburg region and 2 in the Saxon part of Lusatia.
No talk about “Lying Rudi” anymore nowadays, which shows that they succeeded in really being “more than just a newspaper”.

Their online strategy has developed significantly during the past years. The latest steps are to connect its content closer with the world of social media. LR-Online now has not only joined Twitter actively but also wrote some really good articles for their readers about the subject.

LR-Online wants to involve external blogs more with its content, and this is where Twingly comes into the game. Having already some Swedish and Norwegian regional newspapers as partners that use Twingly successfully, we really are excited to see what our blog service will be able to do for LR and we look forward to support them in their social media strategy.