Der Spiegel is Germany's leading news magazine and the largest in Europe, it was founded in 1947 in Hamburg as the successor of a magazine called Diese Woche or "This Week." It is independent and not associated with any political party or business group. The magazine is published every Friday and distributed in 172 countries. It has a circulation of 1 million copies. Der Spiegel reports on a wide range of topics, including politics, business, science, culture and entertainment, media, society and sports. In Germany, Der Spiegel is regarded as being synonymous with "investigative journalism." It is characterised by thorough research and dependable quality. In many cases four, five or even more journalists and correspondents work together on a single story. The journalists concentrate primarily on events of political and social interest. The result is a magazine which offers a lot of background information, a balanced mixture of short and long articles, by-lined commentaries, major reports, forums for dialogue and discussion and an in-depth examination of the issue's cover topic