A.The day after, the world is not yet in order for Springer-Verlag. On the day after the editor-in-chief of the Bild newspaper, Julian Reichelt, was accused of abuse of power and sexual relationships with employees who depend on him, the question arises why Reichelt was still in his post until Monday.
He apparently lied to the board of directors and carried on like he did before the compliance procedure in the spring. Then he had apologized and vowed to be purified. Springer’s CEO, Mathias Döpfner, stood by him. That he thinks of Reichelt a lot can be seen in the explanation of his replacement. He said he had “excellent journalistic development and made the brand fit for the future with Bild Live”. “We would have liked to continue the path of cultural renewal we have taken with the editorial team and the publishing house together with Julian Reichelt. This is no longer possible. “
“Cultural Renewal”?
The issue of “cultural renewal” reads rather stale in view of the allegations that the editor-in-chief chased young female colleagues, courted them, encouraged them, but at the same time asked them to sit on the career couch. Bosses who behave this way and abuse their power are out of place in any position of responsibility, not just at Bild, not just at Springer, not just in a media company.
The fact that the story that promoted Reichelt’s fall was in the New York Times indicates that Springer is aware that a company with great aspirations (most recently underlined by the purchase of Politico) has no chance in the American market there if it is shaped by an abusive leadership culture.
But that should also apply here. And who knows whether the research by the investigative team from Ippen-Verlag, which was supposed to appear in the Frankfurter Rundschau and which the publisher Dirk Ippen personally collected with flimsy justification, would not have appeared with a little delay and alone would have caused Reichelt’s fall: It was only through research inquiries that Springer became active again and new “findings” came about. Details on this can be found online at Spiegel, where they do the research for the journalists working for Ippen and also name the authors. This is a pretty unique collaboration that speaks for journalism in this country, for researchers who can even hold their own against the top boss. The publisher Ippen, however, is pretty duped with the admission that they did not want to give the impression of driving a competitor into the parade. No journalist would want such a publisher. The fact that the Ippen group is now saying that they might want to do the research after all – a spokesman told the Evangelical Press Service that they are checking “when and how we publish a publication” – does not make matters any better.
Häme is now inexpensive
The malice, however, with which a large part of the journalist bubble accompanies the fall of Julian Reichelt, is quite inexpensive. The whole scene works on the Bild-Zeitung every day, on this editor-in-chief anyway, with his countless attacks and excessive campaigns, for example against the virologist Christian Drosten, to name just one. Reichelt, it was said on Deutschlandfunk, was perceived as something like the “quarterly madman” of the industry. That hits it pretty well, even if you hear the verdict from the smoothly polished public service broadcasting. Reichelt raved through the landscape, knew no measure, but at the same time, when it came to the question of his – professional – methods, he was a mimosa.
For Mathias Döpfner, however, he is a “rebel”, the only one who rebelled against “the new GDR authoritative state”, “almost everyone else” had become “propaganda assistants”. With this, the Springer CEO clearly overshoots the mark. There is something to be said about the observation that there is too much adjustment, cautiousness and too little argument in the country, that most journalists like to hunt with the pack and otherwise do not have any pleasure in encouraging each other. You can see that again in the case of Julian Reichelt. Behavior like the one shown by this former editor-in-chief does not justify this in any way. This should also be understood by those who send Reichelt solidarity addresses on Twitter and elsewhere. If you want to be a rebel, you don’t behave like a dictator.
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