The framers of American occupation policy viewed the reshaping of Germany's media landscape as a central element in the process of democratization. Like their British, French, and Soviet counterparts, the American military government (OMGUS) placed strict controls on German press activity, but it also led the way in establishing procedures and institutions that rapidly returned democratically minded Germans to lightly supervised, effectively self-censoring control of key media outlets. Compared with other “sociopolitical” reorientation efforts undertaken by the Western Allies (e.g., in the field of educational reform), media reform came very close to fulfilling the promise of pre-Cold War expectations; in the field of print journalism, the American contribution was the driving force behind this development.

OMGUS aimed initially at establishing a complete media blackout in occupied Germany. After banning preexisting publications in the areas they controlled, the American army groups issued “overt” newspapers, which served to communicate official notices to the population; ten such overt papers were being published by summer 1945. By that time, OMGUS had also begun to allow Germans who met certain anti-Nazi licensing requirements to reenter the publishing field. The first such licensed paper, the Frankfurter Rundschau, was approved at the end of July. By the end of November, there were 19 more licensed papers; at the close of the year, the number had risen to 23, one for every large city in the American zone, with a combined twice-weekly circulation of 3,170,000.