In May, “Spiegel” author Dirk Kurbjuweit surprisingly moved to the top of the editorial team. For the first time, he speaks in detail about the circumstances of his move in the dpa interview.
According to the new editor-in-chief Dirk Kurbju, the journalistic quality of the news magazine “Der Spiegel” can be improved. When asked about his strategy in an interview with the German Press Agency, the 60-year-old said: They wanted to “further strengthen the journalistic power of “Spiegel””.
Right-wing populism, Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East – they want readers to be better informed and oriented about all important developments in Germany and the world than the competition. “We are already very good at this, but we can do even better,” added Kurbjuweit, who has been at the editorial helm of the weekly magazine since May with a sold circulation of around 690,000 copies.
When asked what quality needs to be improved, the journalist, who most recently worked in the “Spiegel” capital office, explained: “I have always understood my job in such a way that I constantly want to learn, even through my mistakes. We are not a rigid system, but a learning one.” Language, structure, depth of thought, comprehensibility, clarity, originality – these are the criteria in the house, not only for the text, but also for audio and video. “We are gradually creating a breathing catalog of standards that improves our quality.”
In the dpa interview, Kurbjuweit also spoke out in favor of streamlining production processes for the magazine and switching the entire thinking process to digital first. “We’re working on that.”
Changes at the top were accompanied by internal noise
The journalist spoke in detail for the first time in an interview after he unexpectedly moved to the top of the editorial team based in Hamburg in May. Kurbjuweit is known for his “Spiegel” reports and essays on federal politics and major social issues. For many years he observed top politicians including the then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and since then Olaf Scholz (SPD). In addition to his journalistic work, Kurbjuweit is also a writer of novels (including “Angst”).
The change at the top of “Spiegel” was accompanied by internal noise and a power struggle that reached the outside world. Steffen Klusmann, who had run the company for several years and managed the crisis following the forgery scandal involving “Spiegel” reporter Claas Relotius, had to leave. In recent years there have been repeated noisy and abrupt changes at the powerful leadership of “Spiegel”, which is one of the best-known news magazines beyond Germany.
Kurbjuweit said in the dpa interview about how he became editor-in-chief: “Thomas Hass, the managing director of the publishing house, asked me at lunch. I was quite surprised, but was happy to say yes.”
The house was in turmoil at the time. “The change had not been announced, which is why I could understand the discontent among parts of the editorial team.” There was a long list of signatures for Klusmann, but when his name was published as his successor, he received “a lot of supportive emails from colleagues.”
Relotius scandal was “the worst time”
When asked what time horizon he expected for himself at the top, the 60-year-old, who turns 61 on Friday, said: “According to my last letter from the German pension insurance, they expect me to retire in the summer of 2029 .”
Kurbjuweit described the forgery scandal at the end of 2018 surrounding the award-winning “Spiegel” author Claas Relotius, who repeatedly cheated in his texts, as the “worst time” in his journalistic life. The 60-year-old added: “I was the editor-in-chief at the time and in this role I was one of those who should have prevented the fraud. We didn’t see it and had no suspicion. That still hurts me to this day.” They had to learn the hard way that their own security systems were not prepared in the event that someone wanted to deliberately commit fraud.
When asked whether he ever saw Relotius again, Kurbjuweit replied: “I think I saw him once in a bar in Berlin. He was typing away on a laptop. And I briefly had the impulse to go up to him and ask: What are you writing?”
The founder saw the magazine as an “assault gun of democracy”
The house is celebrating an important anniversary these days. “Spiegel” founder Rudolf Augstein would have been 100 years old on Sunday (November 5th). The controversial publicist, who died in 2002, was one of the most influential and important media men of the 20th century. The magazine, considered left-wing liberal, first appeared in 1947, shortly after the Second World War, when Germany was in turbulent times and searching for itself after the Nazi dictatorship. Augstein saw his magazine as an “assault gun of democracy”.
Kurbjuweit said in the interview: “The “Spiegel” owes a lot to its founder. He implanted our DNA in us: the research, the close look, the phrase “Say what is”.” For him, Augstein is very alive.