Moritz Szeps

Austrian newspaper tycoon

Moritz Szeps (5 November 1835, Busk – 9 August 1902, Vienna) was an Austrian newspaper tycoon who founded and published the Neues Wiener Tagblatt (1867 1886), Wiener Tagblatt (1886 1894), and Das Wissen für Alle (1900).

Szeps was born into a Jewish family in Busk, Ukraine in 1835. His father was a doctor, and he initially studied medicine in Lemberg. After going to Vienna to continue his studies, he decided to change careers and became a journalist instead.

From 1855 to 1867, he was editor in chief of the de. In 1867, following the resignation of most of its employees, he took over the Neues Wiener Tagblatt, which became the leading a liberal newspaper in Austria. As a friend of Crown Prince Rudolf,

Eventually, his financial backers wanted him to be more cautious and, in 1886, eased him out of the company. With the help of a Hungarian financier, he purchased the Morgen Post and changed its name to the Wiener Tagblatt (after 1901, Wiener Morgenzeitung). The paper eventually failed to meet expectations, and was discontinued in 1905. Like the Crown Prince, he felt that Austria should emulate France, rather than reactionary Prussia. Therefore, he had numerous contacts in Paris, including Georges Clemenceau, who was also a newspaper editor at that time. This was met with fierce opposition by the Pro German nationalists, who were increasingly Anti Semitic. When the Crown Prince died in 1889, the liberal cause suffered a serious setback and Szeps's finances dwindled accordingly.

Szeps' daughter, Berta Zuckerkandl, became a well known writer, journalist and art critic. Berta and her husband Emil Zuckerhandl created a brilliant salon for artists and writers that was at the center of cultural life. His other daughter, Sophie, married Paul Clemenceau, the brother of the prime minister of France.