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Fast rising stars in the media realm are held in awe. In those bright lights, power grows. Most can contain the ego-buzz. Some cannot. And everyone is waiting for a star to fall.
German tabloid Bild chief editor Julian Reichelt has been suspended. He asked for it, literally and - seemingly - figuratively. Publisher Axel Springer Verlag notified its board of directors Saturday (March 13) of an investigation into “rumors” of Herr Reichelt’s behavior that demand “undisturbed clarification.” An outside law firm - Freshfields - has been called in. The Axel Springer statement indicated Herr Reichelt had asked to step aside pending the outcome of any investigation.
While rumors of a problem had swirled for days, it was the cover story of Der Spiegel (March 12) that lit the match. The Der Spiegel article quoted unnamed Bild editorial staff detailing bullying, harassment and drug use. On Sunday Herr Reichelt said, quoted by Süddeutsche Zeitung (March 14), “the allegations are false" and he is ready to "defend himself against those who want to destroy me.” Chief editor of Bild am Sonntag Alexandra Würzbach is standing in for Herr Reichelt. (See more about media in Germany here)
Bild has the widest circulation of all German newspapers. Publisher Axel Springer was principally acquired by US private equity firm KKR in 2019. Herr Reichelt became Bild chief editor in 2018 at 37 years of age. It is a very powerful position with a powerful newspaper of a powerful publisher. The German media sphere has been beside itself. (See more about Axel Springer here)
“Welcome to the big Axel Springer crisis summit Sex Crisis at Bild with disgusting chief editor Julian Reichelt,” enjoined host of public TV ZDF satirical show Magazin Royal Jan Böhmermann a week earlier. The constant references to “rumors” were pointed at Bild’s “rumor-based reporting.” After the Der Spiegel article the word within German media was Schadenfreude.
UPDATE: The compliance investigation into the management behaviors of Herr Reichelt concluded that the Axel Springer board would not boot him out completely, said a company statement (March 25). He will be given a minder. Bild am Sonntag chief editor Alexandra Würzbach will share the Bild chief editor responsibilities, specifically those related to personnel and editorial management. He returns next week (March 29) after a ten day “leave.”
Herr Reichelt admitted that romping with female staff members may have been “inappropriate.” He denies using drugs on premises. "We want to, indeed we must learn and become better from this experience,” said Axel Springer chief executive Mathias Döpfner, in the company statement. “The Executive Board is convinced that there is no contradiction between modern, non-conformist tabloid journalism and a contemporary management culture.”
Online news portals continue to pop up. Often this phenomenon defies basic economics: demand. Of course, there was never great demand for a new transportation means at the time of the horse-drawn buggy. It just happened. The rest is history, except for the air pollution and traffic snarls.
Online news portals - or online anything - are a couple of decades old. This has been sufficient time for some to thrive and others to disappear. What is different in this new wave - including the newsletter rage - is the endless desire of people to share their thoughts, not to forget avoid social media takedowns for posting the most rancorous. It’s like Gresham’s Law.
News portal - loosely defined - Bulletin arrived in Sweden late last December. It was formed by a hedge-fund manager and a neoliberal economist as an opinion-driven portal. They raised a fair amount of money and hired staff. Local observers, Dagens Nyheter (December 31), described it as right-wing, akin to Fox News. (See more about online news here)
Since Bulletin’s auspicious highly-publicised launch it has attracted considerable attention from Sweden’s media sector, including media news portals Dagens Media and journalisten.se. Just two months after launching, chief editor Paulina Neuding “retired,” replaced by Ivar Arpi, who also became publisher. He has been a staunch supporter of Polish and Hungarian media policies. Then there were plagiarism charges. (See more about media in Sweden here)
More recently there has been a staff revolt to oust managers for meddling. And certainly there seems to be a problem with management style, screamers and schemers everywhere. The news staff “believe that opinion writers block” certain articles. Then it was revealed by Swedish press freedom expert Nils Funcke, in Dagens Media (March 15), that Bulletin is not following Swedish law by registering as a publication with media regulator MPRT, largely a formality. Without that registration Bulletin has no protection under press freedom laws. Dumb.
The Algerian government is quite displeased with TV news channel France 24. Many governments regularly unleash tirades about news coverage, particularly from foreign outlet and agencies. “A final warning before definitive withdrawal of accreditation was sent to France 24,” said a statement from Minister of Communication Ammar Belhimer, reported French daily La Croix (March 14). Supporters of the pro-democracy Hirak movement took to the streets last Friday (March 12) and news coverage was robust.
What most upset Minister Belhimer, also the official government spokesperson, was “flagrant bias” by France 24 using “archival images.” Parsing diplo-speak, it is a reference to the Hirak demonstrations that erupted in February 2019 as president Abdelaziz Bouteflika opened a bid for a fifth term. He gave it up but demonstrators continued going to the street each Friday hoping to hold the government accountable. They gave that up after a year due to the ravages of coronavirus. Return they did February 22, the second anniversary, along with news crews. The government was not pleased.
The Ministry called out France 24 further for “striving to rejuvenate at all costs these counter-revolutionary prefabricated upheavals instigated by NGOs that are well-established in Paris and other European capitals.” That would be an oblique reference to Paris-based press freedom watcher Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) and Amnesty International, both critical of government curbs on civil rights as well as censorship and corruption. The Ministry has also complained about French commercial TV channel M6 last September and public broadcaster France 5 last May. The AFP Algeria bureau chief Philippe Agret has been waiting for accreditation for 18 months.
The Hirak Movement is also known as the Revolution of Smiles. The demonstrations have been the largest in two decades. After ignoring the protests for a year Algerian state media changed tact to attack protestors. As a former French colony, many Algerians are fluent in French and choose French media.
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