The railway says goodbye to its last ray of hope

There are many good reasons to get upset about Deutsche Bahn. The printed customer magazine "DB Mobil" was not one of them until now. Yes, customer magazines are investments in marketing and not independent journalism. And yes, for a number of years, Deutsche Bahn has had its own PR articles about the company printed further down the page. Otherwise, "DB Mobil" is a very well-made magazine, with interviews, reports and columns that are contributed by excellent authors and photographers.

But that's the end of it, after 21 years and 261 issues, as Jürgen Kornmann, Head of Marketing at Deutsche Bahn, announced via the LinkedIn business portal. From next year, "DB Mobil" will only appear digitally, the printed edition will be discontinued with the December issue. "After long and intensive discussions" the decision was made to "change the tracks", Kornmann wrote. That's how they talk on the train.

The change in media use is the reason for the change, explained Kornmann. This means: people look at their screens and no longer leaf through printed media. After all, according to market research, more than a million people picked up the printed magazine every month, which is not a small number.

But, according to Kornmann, by doing without paper one also wants to make a contribution to "resource protection", in other words: save paper. The hashtags with which Kornmann provided his post are:

But back to “DB Mobil”. The reasoning for the change is understandable, but also adequately conceals the fact that Deutsche Bahn probably wants to save on its customer communication. "Economic considerations" also played a role, the marketing man confirmed to the trade journal "Horizont".

Digitization is unstoppable, circulation is falling, printed periodical media will disappear in the long term, with a few exceptions. Thats all right. But if there is a customer magazine that was a good investment on paper, then it is "DB Mobil".

Almost every passenger had it within reach in the storage net in front of their legs. In the at least often relaxed situation on the train - you can't do much else anyway - the magazine was a good variation in the eternally same process between smartphone, laptop, book and looking out the window. And in case of delays you could cling to it. In addition, the notoriously unusable WLAN on the train almost forces you to slow down.

So "DB Mobil" was a small ray of hope, a likeable companion on the railway lines of the republic. Too bad.