"Stupid" - Hamburg's media senator criticizes Özdemir's advertising ban

The shock waves after the Gruner Jahr publishing house was broken up are not only reverberating in Hamburg, other publishing companies are pushing their transformation into digitizing their products - and this in a situation in which external influences such as inflation, higher paper and energy costs and shrinking advertising markets make the process even more difficult. Under what conditions will good journalism still be affordable in the future given these framework conditions? How do editorial departments and offers have to change? The members of the Hamburg press club discussed this on Tuesday evening in the vonschmidt design agency in the Oberhafen district.

Hamburg's Culture and Media Senator Carsten Brosda (SPD) made it clear that the media situation cannot be seen separately from other political and social developments. For example, he criticized the "nonchalance" of the Federal Minister of Agriculture, Cem Özdemir (Greens), who is planning an advertising ban for foods with a high sugar, fat and salt content. As a media politician, you have to keep an eye on the refinancing models, which is why advertising bans as now announced are "stupid". Brosda: "I don't think it's smart, if you want something good, to leave a trail of devastation in your wake." The media crisis shouldn't be amplified politically in this way. Brosda called for a common interest in the functioning of the community.

But the behavior of some publishing houses themselves was also discussed. Philipp Welte, CEO of Hubert Burda Media and Chairman of the Media Association of the Free Press, referred to numerous transformation efforts in the houses, for which a lot of money is being spent. But now the crisis has worsened. “The digital transformation costs money. But now we are pushing the high energy and paper prices to the limit.” Many publishing families are extremely committed, which is one of the reasons why there is still a unique variety of media in this country. He sees the development at Gruner Jahr as an "alarm signal to politicians". It is now about the survival of free journalism. “That is not a matter of course. Freedom cannot be taken for granted either – if we no longer stand up for it, freedom dies.”

Christian Stöcker, Head of the Digital Communication degree program at HAW and “Spiegel” columnist, also assigned responsibility to the media for the current situation: “We have been discussing digitization for 15 years, and now everyone is surprised,” he said. For too long, journalism has relied on business continuing to function.

Meinolf Ellers from dpa Online and the Next Media Accelerator also recognizes strategic mistakes in the industry. "We saw the situation coming - journalism needs to transform," he said. That worked out differently. However, he also warned against sending negative messages: Transformation can succeed. We can't stick to the analogue models.” As Brosda sums it up, “We see two opposing tendencies. Journalism is more accessible than ever because digitization offers completely new possibilities. But the classic business model has collapsed. Journalism can rarely finance itself.” Unfortunately, in times of falling returns, companies are less willing to venture into journalism. This is where Brosda sees the danger: “There is a social meaning beyond the economic meaning. We have to find entrepreneurs who are also happy with lower returns.”