Insights with a view: Visit to the Berliner Verlag publishing house and the Berliner Zeitung newspaper

The visit began with a tour of the publishing house, which, since returning to its historic location on Alexanderplatz, has impressed visitors with its modern interior design and open, cross-media concept. Particularly striking: although the online and print editorial teams work in the same building, they are clearly separated in terms of space. This also reflected the editorial ambition to allow both channels to develop their own dynamics – while at the same time interlinking content.

A particular highlight was access to the publishing house’s roof terrace, which offered the students a panoramic view of the whole of Berlin, including a direct view of the television tower. The combination of a historically significant location and an urban media centre made an impression: one student commented with a wink, ‘The roof terrace alone makes me want to work here.’

Moritz Eichhorn, deputy editor-in-chief of the Berliner Zeitung, and an alumna of Media University Berlin then welcomed the group. Both took ample time to discuss current developments in journalism, everyday life in the editorial office and the challenges facing the industry. Moritz Eichhorn, deputy editor-in-chief since September 2023, joined the Berliner Zeitung in 2021 as political editor. Prior to that, he worked for the FAZ, as spokesperson for the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag, and as founder of a medtech start-up, among other things. His diverse experience in politics, editorial work, and digital entrepreneurship also shaped the content of the discussion.

When asked about the significance of artificial intelligence in everyday editorial work, Eichhorn replied clearly: ‘I’m not afraid of AI at the moment, because the texts sometimes contain false facts or fabricated quotes. In addition, texts that are more than 60 percent written by AI are never displayed on Google News. Accordingly, we have no use for it and have no need for it at this point.’ Another focus was on the content profile of the Berliner Zeitung. Eichhorn emphasised the newspaper’s ambition to make topics from eastern Germany more visible and to take a pointed journalistic stance: ‘We at the Berliner Zeitung also want to focus more on the east and approach things differently than other newspapers. We write critically, with strong opinions in our commentaries – and sometimes about slightly different topics.’

The dialogue with the students also focused on journalistic responsibility, editorial culture, research processes and the interplay between journalistic freedom and economic conditions in a privately run publishing house. The visit offered a lively insight into the everyday life of a traditional yet forward-looking newspaper that is holding its own in a changing media environment. For the students, it was an opportunity to combine theory and practice – and to experience a piece of Berlin’s media reality first-hand.