Report on the Field Trip to the Editorial Office of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
On October 18, 2019, the IMKR, in collaboration with the German-American Lawyers’ Association (DAJV) – of which Prof. Rösler is a board member – organized a field trip for students from Siegen to the editorial offices of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. F.A.Z. editor and lawyer Constantin Baron van Lijnden first took the approximately 20 participants on a tour of the archives and the online newsroom. Van Lijnden has gained some recognition among legal professionals for the weekly audio podcast “F.A.Z. Einspruch”, which he co-hosts with his colleague Corinna Budras. In the approximately 100 podcasts released so far, the two discuss current topics of the week. The podcast is also available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Van Lijnden spoke about his experiences with the podcast and the many responses he has received from listeners and subscribers. At the same time, he noted that it represents a new approach to drawing the younger generation’s attention to the F.A.Z., as the F.A.Z., like all print media, faces major challenges. The participants discussed this at length, particularly the question of whether the company should pursue a cross-media strategy, as Springer has done, for example, with the newspaper Die Welt and its “spin-off” in the form of the television channel Welt (formerly N24).
Even while studying law, van Lijnden wrote articles on legal topics as a freelancer for publications including “ZEIT.” This led to a position as an editor at Legal Tribune Online (LTO) before he joined the F.A.Z. in 2017. Van Lijnden explained that the articles must also be understandable to non-lawyers. This requires a less detailed, yet still accurate, presentation of the legal situation. In addition to the podcast and general articles, van Lijnden also writes for the “F.A.Z. Einspruch” column, which is specifically geared toward readers interested in law and, in addition to common areas of law, covers topics such as the judiciary, legal policy, and “careers and education” in greater detail. Furthermore, Alexander Ross, a former U.S. correspondent and current head of the online newsroom, reported on this different approach to journalism and how Germany is perceived in the U.S.
In addition, a short article on this topic has been published in the university magazine, which you can access here (in German).
