Are national communication journals still necessary? A case study and some suggestions

The number of journals in the field of communication is increasing. Above all, new, and more specialized journals geared to an international market, and therefore published in English, have appeared. In contrast to those journals, most national journals are still published in languages not accessible to the majority of communication scholars. How could national journals position themselves to survive? Our case study of 48 years of the leading German communication journal 'Publizistik' provides first insights into possible USPs of national communication journals.