Speaking to the World Editors Forum in Hamburg today, Giovanni di Lorenzo made a passionate defence of the continued role of print as a medium for quality news.
The weekly newspaper editor said he believed in the future of print and that he disagreed with publications that said "bad things" about their own products: "fear of death can indeed be a cause for suicide".
"The past four years are our best four years in terms of financial results. Last year we sold more than 500,000 copies and we have expanded circulation in the last five years by 60 per cent," he said.
"These are perhaps grounds for hope in the newspaper industry. There will be a shakeup (...) but the essential titles in each market will survive."
Print is often decried in favour of online, but until Die Zeit's website and digital products start making money, print should not be villified, he said.
"We cannot give the readers the impression that the future is anywhere else but beyond the medium in their hands for which they pay money," he said.
"I don't in anyway want to downplay or minimise some of these problems [faced by newspapers] (...) but if we do have high quality products we must carefully cultivate and care for these products, rather than create the impression that these are disposable."
His support for print is a result of its current importance to Die Zeit's business model and readers, but the title is developing new features and applications to reach readers on digital devices.
"We are not cannabalising ourselves. The users of Zeit Online are generally not readers of the print edition, but they do have common interests," he said.
Die Zeit has launched three applications for mobile devices and the iPad, linking up print and digital in subscription packages and through the content that is offered, including previews of the print edition for subscribers to the applications.
"We can't make the same mistake as we did when we began with online... ladies and gentlemen, we need paid content. The iPad gives us the best opportunity to reap a financial return," said di Lorenzo.
But the newspaper man admitted he is sceptical about predictions for the newspaper industry's future and media commentators calling technologies that will save or sink newspapers.
Die Zeit has ignored those who sounded the death knell for print and those who said long-form journalism and less political news was what readers wanted, he said. Newspapers should learn from the mistakes of the past, particularly those made when first going online and the standardisation of newspaper design, content and layout between titles that is currently on show.
Newspaper organisations are in danger of being "far too passive and fatalist". The emergence of new technologies and distribution platforms, such as the iPad, "should not dictate formats and contents, rather we should use the ipad to benefit quality journalism".
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