Status: 20.10.2021 5:51 p.m.
In the affair surrounding former “Bild” boss Reichelt, the Ippen.Media editor-in-chief apologized for not publishing the research. A “New York Times” author assumes that Springer had known about the events for a long time.
Ippen.Media general editor-in-chief Markus Knall has apologized to those affected for not publishing research on the former “Bild” editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt. In a statement on his own behalf, which was published on the “Münchner Merkur” portal belonging to the Ippen Group, Knall wrote: “In the course of researching the Julian Reichelt case, numerous women turned to our editorial team and took the courage to contact us to tell her story. We have promised to report anonymously on her personal fate. We were not able to keep this promise. I deeply regret that. ”
Knall added: “Because we did not publish the originally promised contribution at short notice, we did not live up to the trust that was placed in us. For this I apologize from those affected.”
Criticism of reluctance to research
For months, an investigative team at Ippen had researched earlier allegations against Reichelt, then editor-in-chief of “Bild”. The research results should actually appear days ago. However, at the instigation of the publisher Dirk Ippen, the media company decided against a first publication. The reason given included: “As a media group that is in direct competition with ‘Bild’, we have to be very careful not to give the impression that we want to harm a competitor economically.”
An online report on Reichelt and Springer appeared in the “New York Times” on Sunday, which also dealt with the prevented reporting at Ippen. The matter aroused great criticism both internally at Ippen and externally. In the meantime, parts of the Ippen research appeared in an online report by “Spiegel”.
Allegations of abuse of power
On Monday, the media group Axel Springer announced that it would release Reichelt from his duties. “As a result of press research, the company had gained new insights into the current behavior of Julian Reichelt in the last few days”, the publisher justified the decision. This information was followed up. “In doing so, the board of directors learned that Julian Reichelt did not clearly separate private and professional matters even after completing the compliance procedure in spring 2021 and told the board the untruth about it.”
In earlier internal proceedings against Reichelt in the spring, the result was that he should be given a second chance. At that time, according to Springer, at the core of the investigation were allegations of abuse of power in connection with consensual relationships with female employees and drug use in the workplace.
Döpfner confirms Reichelt’s relationship with employee
The CEO of the Axel Springer Group, Mathias Döpfner, has now confirmed a relationship between Reichelt and an employee who reports to him. Reichelt initially denied this, said Döpfner in a video message. The day before yesterday, the company then received “two very credible witness reports that have shown that this relationship does exist”. Reichelt was then confronted again, whereupon he admitted the relationship. “And that made it clear: firstly, he hadn’t learned anything from the cases from back then. Second, he didn’t tell us the truth,” said Döpfner.
He also spoke out in favor of a faster cultural change within the tabloid, but stated: “This is not a cultural problem for the whole Springer publishing house. There is this problem with ‘Bild’.” That is why we have to “work very quickly on the modernization and change of our culture in the sense of respect.”
“NYT” -Author: Reichelt’s behavior Springer was known
The author of the “New York Times” article on Axel Springer, Ben Smith, was meanwhile surprised at Reichelt’s dismissal. From a protocol of the internal investigation at Springer’s behavior, which he had before him, it could be concluded that “the editor-in-chief’s relationships were well known,” he told the Hamburg weekly newspaper “Zeit”.
From the American point of view, he was “much more surprising” how quickly the original compliance investigation against Reichelt was ended in March, added Smith. An American manager would have been fired immediately “for every small subset of these allegations, even for five percent of the known allegations”. Even in times before the “#MeToo” movement, which draws attention to the extent of sexual assault on women, such a case would have been very unusual.