Hamburg The ARD has recently been repeatedly criticized for its program. Now the new chairman, Patricia Schlesinger, wants to emphasize the information competence of the public broadcaster network. “It’s high time that the economically strongest country in Europe got the news channel it deserves,” says the 60-year-old television journalist in an interview with the Handelsblatt.
Schlesinger intends to develop the niche broadcaster Tagesschau24 into a fully-fledged television information channel. According to Schlesinger, “fewer repetitions, basically no more documentaries, more regional reporting” should be on the channel in the future. In the future, breaking news situations will be reported much faster live on Tagesschau24 and then the ARD main program will also be interrupted.
Schlesinger sees international news broadcasters, such as the BBC, as a role model. “Compared to CNN, we want to be a bit calmer, less spectacular,” says the ARD chairwoman, who is also the director of RBB.
Ms. Schlesinger, did you watch the Ukraine crisis in the first issue of “Hart aber fair” on Valentine’s Day?
No.
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The broadcast also came unusually late, namely at 11 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., because the festival meeting of the Aachen Carnival Association was broadcast beforehand. Is this a comprehensible program decision for you?
Entertainment is part of our mission and we want it to stay that way. The carnival is important for many people and regions, so I ask for tolerance – as a self-confessed non-carnivalist, by the way.
This case is neither the only nor the first in which ARD was criticized for neglecting its duty to provide information.
Wrongly so, because we take this job very seriously. With the Tagesschau, ARD has the strongest German news brand. We now want to significantly strengthen their role by expanding Tagesschau24 into a national, international and – in the case of nationwide interest – also a regional information channel, using all channels: app, live stream, TV, social media. As a self-confessed news junkie, I think it’s high time that the economically strongest country in Europe got the news channel it deserves.
So far, Tagesschau24 has been a special-interest channel in which, in addition to short editions of the Tagesschau, many repetitions are shown. What exactly should change there?
Less repetitions, basically no more documentaries, more regional coverage. More live switching to correspondents on site or in the studio. There will be regular deliveries from the new culture portal of the ARD in Weimar, from the business department in Frankfurt and the sports department of the WDR.
CV Patricia Schlesinger
Will the changes affect the first TV program?
When it comes to breaking news, whether it’s the storming of the Capitol or a valley in Bavaria being flooded, we’ll be reporting much faster live on Tagesschau24 in the future. And once the journalistic threshold has been crossed, at which point we interrupt the main program, we can also broadcast there much faster because we can switch to the Tagesschau24 offer on the first channel. What is important is that viewers have a contact point, an address where the latest news is bundled, and that will be Tagesschau24.
“We’ve had a lot of hot spots in the past few months”
How much should your news offensive cost, how should it be financed?
We will finance this from the inventory. What we are planning makes good business sense because we already have the cutlery in the drawer, we just have to put it on the table, lay it down properly and eat with it. We achieve this through synergies by using the existing journalistic resources of the ARD more efficiently.
Can you give a specific example of such synergies?
We have around 100 correspondents all over the world, for television and radio. Technologically, it has become much easier to work across media and to generate high-quality image material. A radio correspondent can also be connected to Tagesschau24 and classify the image material available there. I imagine the future division of tasks as we practiced it on Tuesday: In the 8 p.m. Tagesschau we had the report on the Chancellor’s visit to Moscow, which included a reference to the subsequent special program on the Ukraine crisis on Tagesschau24. Anyone who wants to find out more information can keep up with the topic without gaps.
In the past, in the same situation, a special program would have been included in the program at 8:15 p.m. Do you see the danger that ARD will finally outsource its information offering and broadcast even more entertainment in the main program in the future?
Not at all. In the past few months, we have had a disproportionately large number of current focal point programs on the first channel, because the news situation is what it is and the interest in information has increased significantly.
The correspondents are to work more cross-media in the future.
(Photo: obs)
When will the new offer of the information channel start?
We have already started with the first changes in the program and will now gradually roll them out. There will be no program change in one fell swoop with the cutting of red ribbons.
Is there a key figure that you use to measure the success of your offensive?
After one year there will be an evaluation.
“The BBC is always a role model in terms of journalism”
Do you have international role models for the information channel? In the past, if you looked for live television coverage of important news events, you quickly ended up at CNN or BBC.
The BBC is of course always a role model in terms of journalism. Compared to CNN, we want to be a bit calmer, less spectacular. We want to provide news people can rely on, in any situation, at any time of the day or night.
Was it difficult to push this project through among the ARD directors? They usually watch suspiciously as to whether a broadcaster in the ARD circle gets more power – as in this case the NDR, which is responsible for the Tagesschau.
It was neither disputed that we want the project nor that it will be based at NDR. There are clear responsibilities between the individual institutions. But of course we also had to talk about demarcation issues, for example Phoenix…
… the ARD broadcaster, which has so far been responsible for the transmission of live events such as Bundestag debates or party conferences. You can actually switch off Phoenix now, right?
But on the contrary. Phoenix’s profile will be sharpened, it will remain the channel for planned topicality, live broadcast of political events, key topics, documentaries and political talk. Tagesschau24, on the other hand, focuses on news and breaking news. But of course, in the future, Tagesschau24 can take over the broadcast signal from Phoenix for the decisive vote at a party conference – we want to use synergies.
You have been the ARD chairman since January 1st. After many years in public service broadcasting, is there anything else that surprised you in your new role?
Perhaps not surprising, but it’s fun to see that this huge tanker ARD, which in reality consists of a whole fleet of tankers, is able to move when there is a collective will. This has happened several times in recent years.
Ms. Schlesinger, thank you very much for the interview.
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