Ein Tag mit Kleine Zeitung

A Day with Kleine Zeitung

On Wednesday, I spent the day with Kleine Zeitung sports journalist, Christoph Heigl.  Heigl picked me up at my apartment in Mürzzuschlag.  From there, we drove to the headquarters of the No. 1 newspaper in Styria, Kleine Zeitung, which is located in Graz.  He took me on a tour of the company's building and I was able to meet some of his colleagues.

We sat in on the newspaper's morning meeting at 11 a.m.  The chief editor of the newspaper asked me to open the meeting by critiquing the layout and content of the newspaper that was issued that day.  I was in a room full of German-speaking Austrian adults, who had way more experience in the working field of journalism than me.  Of course, my nerves trembled as I began to speak, but after talking for a few minutes, I started to feel at ease.  I talked about the differences between the Austrian newspaper and newspapers back home in the United States.  I found Kleine Zeitung's newspaper easier to handle than the newspapers in the United States because you can easily turn the pages like you would a magazine or book.  The newspapers in America are folded several times, forcing you to unwrap the newspaper like a Christmas present.  Kleine Zeitung can relate to newspapers in America in that is also broken down into sections, such as culture, sports, entertainment, etc.  Kleine Zeitung has a "Thema" article each day, which is featured on the first two pages of the newspaper.  The "Thema" section is usually the most important story of that day's newspaper.  One person in the room asked me to look at a picture in one of the sections.  The picture displayed a topless celebrity.  The person asked me if that type of photograph would be allowed for print in the United States.  I said, "Of course not."  That is one major difference I found in the culture of Austria and the culture of the United States.  Austrian culture can portray such nude images and it is considered part of the norm.

After talking 10 or 15 minutes, I let the chief editor and the rest of the room take over the remaining minutes of the meeting.  Although they all spoke in German, I was able to understand a bit of what they were saying.  The meeting extended for at least an hour and Heigl suggested that we leave the meeting or else our boredom would get the best of us.

After we left the headquarters of Kleine Zeitung in Graz, we had lunch reservations at a restaurant in Bruck called Baderhaus.  Baderhaus means "bathing house" in English.  As we stepped inside, it was as if we took a giant leap back in time.  With its historic stone walls, the restaurant dates back to the 9th century.  The restaurant was located near the water which made for a nice setting as we sat down for lunch.  Heigl ordered two soups for us to start our meals.  The soup was called Grammelstrudel, or crackling strudel in English.  Heigl attempted to explain that Grammel was the fat from pig skin after its been heated.  I don't think there is an actual English translation of what we ate, but it was good!  However, it doesn't really sound that good for you.  For our meals, Heigl ordered a pork dish with vegetables and noodles.  As I'm a girl that lives close to the beach, I ordered a seafood dish.  My meal was Tintenfisch, or calamari, cooked in garlic and oil with a side of potatoes mixed with spinach.  My meal was really good and I forced Heigl to try a piece of my calamari even though he hates seafood.  I don't think he enjoyed the rubbery texture of the calamari as he made a face of disgust when he ate it.

We finished our meals after an hour or so.  Afterward, we walked around Bruck for a little bit.  Then, we made our way over to Kleine Zeitung's Bruck office.  The office was smaller and had only a few employees compared to the large headquarters in Graz.  The people at the Bruck office seemed like a tight-knit group.  I worked with Heigl to edit my "Inside Neuberg Highlanders" article which came out today!  We worked for a few minutes, then we thought it was a good time to take a break.  We went into the "break room," where Heigl showed me their secret liquor cabinet.  We had a glass of white wine and took a shot of schnapps from Romania with one of his colleagues.  After our "break," we continued to work on the article and finished around 4:30 p.m.  After a long day, Heigl drove me back to Mürzzuschlag.  I enjoyed the day as I was able to observe the process of print journalism in Austria and see how it compares to the journalism field in the United States.  Below, you can find my article that was featured in yesterday's newspaper.

Finally I Found a Turkey
10. November 2011

"We won our sixth consecutive victory in the Damen BundasLiga on Sunday.  We beat Triglav 4:3.  This team had some of the biggest and fastest players we had seen so far in our league this season.  We did not play as well as we should have but we fortunate enough to hold the lead until the final buzzer.

After the match, we went to Sport Hotel as a team to eat a post-game meal and have some drinks.  My roommate, Courtney Bradley, invited her aunts to visit for the weekend.  It was nice hearing some English-speaking voices at the dinner table.  Her aunts showed their kindness as they paid for most of our meals, as well as donating some money toward the Neuberg Highlander program.

As all of us finished our meals at a very large table located in a private room in the back of the restaurant, I felt as if we were sitting at the dinner table celebrating American Thanksgiving as a family!  I have been hoping to still celebrate Thanksgiving even though I am in Austria.  The difficulty in this is finding a turkey!  My roommates and I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in October but failed in finding a turkey.  Luckily, I spotted two turkeys at the Merkur (grocery store) on Tuesday!  I, of course, had to purchase one for I was afraid I wouldn’t see another turkey again!  I placed my turkey in the freezer until I plan to cook it on Nov. 24 (Thanksgiving Day).  I look forward in celebrating my first American Thanksgiving in Austria!"