German newspaper market heats up.

This article reports on the state of the newspaper media market in Germany as Dow Jones & Co. helped relaunch the Handelsblatt newspaper in October 1999. The move continues a wide-ranging collaboration between the U.S. publisher of The Wall Street Journal Europe and the owner of Handelsblatt, Munich-based von Holzbrinck group. Dow Jones and von Holzbrinck own shares in each others' papers and cooperate on the editorial and ad sales fronts. Propelling the surge of foreign interest in Germany's media business is the country's high newspaper readership. According to newspaper circulation figures published by the Financial Times, up to 31 million copies are sold daily. Nearly 80% of Germans aged 14 years and older read at least one daily. The popularity of the Internet in Germany is also raising the competitive stakes.