Speakers

Roger Blum was professor of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Bern until the end of January 2010. From 1991 to 2001, he was president of the Swiss Press Council. Since 2008 he is the head of the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television of Switzerland (ICA). He is a member of the advisory board of Message.

Steffen Burkhardt is a scholar of media studies at the Institute for Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Hamburg. He is the founder of the “Initiative for Young Journalists”, and he initiated Jakob Augstein’s “Innovation Lab Print” at the Hamburg Media School. He is also a member of the “Young Leaders Study Group on the Future of Europe”.

Tobias Eberwein is a research assistant at Dortmund University’s Institute of Journalism and the Erich-Brost-Institute for International Journalism. He is editor of the Journalistik Journals; from 2005 until 2008 he was review editor for the journal Publizistik.

Steffen Eßbach is head of the North German Broadcasting (NDR) magazine “Zapp”, the only weekly media magazine in German television, since August 2009. He started his career at NDR as a trainee, became editor for “Panorama/extra 3” in1999, and editor-in-chief of the NDR magazine “Markt” in 2007.

Christoph Fasel is professor for Media and Communications Management at the SRH Academy in Calw. He works as a coach for editorial departments, language teachers, media producers, and authors. From 1991 to 1996, he was a reporter for Stern magazine, from 1996 to 1999 he was editor-in-chief of the Reader’s Digest edition for Germany and Austria. He is a member of the advisory board of Message.

Susanne Fengler is professor for International Journalism at the Dortmund University's Institute of Journalism, and director of the Erich-Brost-Institute for International Journalism. After obtaining her PhD in 2001 with a thesis on media journalism in the USA, she worked in political communication and as lecturer for journalism studies.

Peter-Matthias Gaede has been editor-in-chief of the magazine Geo since 1994, and is also publisher of the Geo line extensions, having grown to a number of nine by now. After attending the Gruner + Jahr Journalism School and a couple of years at the Frankfurter Rundschau, he became a reporter with Geo in 1983. He is a member of the advisory board of Message.

Steffen Grimberg has been media editor for the daily newspaper taz since 2000. Additionally, he works as a university lecturer and in journalistic education and training. He has also contributed for reference books (“Die Alpha-Journalisten”, “Rufmord und Medienopfer”) and periodicals (Medium Magazin, Funkkorrespondenz).

Kuno Haberbusch has been a very important media journalist in German TV for years. From May 2004 to July 2009, he was head of the NDR magazines “Zapp” and “extra 3”, a satirical format. daily newspape. Currently, he works for the NDR department of documentaries and features.

Michael Haller is professor for journalism at the University of Leipzig and research director of the Institute for Practical Research on Journalism in Leipzig, as well as founder and publisher of Message and its predecessor Sage und Schreibe. He is a former executive editor of the weeklies Der Spiegel and Die Zeit.

Mike Hoyt is editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), the leading American journalism magazine, and its daily website cjr.org since 2001. He joined CJR in 1986, after having worked as freelance journalist for magazines and reporter for daily newspapers. He is co-editor of “Reporting Iraq: An Oral History of the War by the Journalists Who Covered It”, published in 2007 by Melville House.

Hans-Jürgen Jakobs has been online editor-in-chief of Süddeutsche Zeitung since 2007. Previously, he was a media editor for Der Spiegel; from 2001 to 2006 he was head of the media department of Süddeutsche Zeitung. He continues with media criticism, now in book-form. His latest book is “Mind or Money – The Big Sellout of Free Opinion” (2008).

Hans Werner Kilz has been editor-in-chief of Süddeutsche Zeitung since 1996. Prior to that, he worked for Der Spiegel for 25 years, first as a national correspondent in Mainz und Frankfurt, later as head of the Deutschland department, and, finally, since 1990 as chief editor. He has been a member of the advisory board of Message since its foundation.

Heidi Klein is co-founder and executive director of LobbyControl e.V., a civil society initiative based in Cologne. Previously, she had been an activist in various initiatives and social movements for numerous years. She studied political science and economics in Bremen and at the IEP Lille (France).

Hans J. Kleinsteuber is professor emeritus (since 2008) of Politics and Journalism at the University of Hamburg, where he heads the Research Centre Media and Politics. Since the 1980s, his work focuses on media politics, media economics and media technology in Germany as well as in international comparison. He is also a member of the advisory board of Message.

Andrzej Krajewski is a Polish freelance journalist, working for newspapers, magazines, radio and TV in Warsaw. From 1990 to 1994 he worked as a TV and radio correspondent in the United States. Media journalism has been his special interest for several years.

Wolfgang R. Langenbucher is professor emeritus (2006) for Journalism and Communication Science at the University of Vienna, where he started in 1984. Previously, he had been professor in Munich. He is member of the advisory board of Message.

Thomas Leif is reporter-in-chief of SWR (South West Broadcasting). Apart from that, he is chairman of “Netzwerk Recherche”, and therefore the chief advocate of investigative reporting in Germany. Moreover, he is host of the SWR political talkshow “2 + Leif” since 2009, and is honorary professor at the University of Koblenz-Landau.

Volker Lilienthal holds the Rudolf Augstein Foundation Professorship for Practicing Quality Journalism at the Institute for Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Hamburg since July 2009. Prior to that, he worked as editor-in-chief for epd medien. He became well-known in 2005 for revealing masked advertising on public TV channels, namely in ARD and ZDF early-evening serials.

Mathieu Magnaudeix is a french journalist, working since march 2008 for Mediapart.fr, a participative news site in France. Mediapart.fr was founded in 2008 by Edwy Plenel (former director of the editorial staff of Le Monde) and other 25 journalists from newspapers like Le Monde, La Tribune, Le Parisien, Les Echos. It was formed because its founding members have detected a crisis in the relation between journalist and publisher. Mediapart is persuaded that the media crisis is above all a crisis of journalism supply.

Albrecht Mueller is co-publisher of the media-critical website nachdenkseiten.de and author of the book “Meinungsmache – Opinion-forming – How economics, politics and media want us to give up thinking”. As an economist, Mueller directed the planning department at the German Federal Chancellery in the 1970s.

Stefan Niggemeier is probably Germany’s most popular online-media journalist and blogger. In 2004, together with Christoph Schultheis, he launched bildblog.de, which has become one of the most read German blogs. His website stefan-niggemeier.de is one of the German top blogs as well. He also writes for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, where he was the media editor from 2001 from 2001 until 2006.

Kai-Hinrich Renner is media editor for the Hamburger Abendblatt and author of the column “Medien-Macher” since April 2009. He was a long-time Hamburg correspondent for the trade journals Kontakter and W&V, as well as author for Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, before joining Die Welt, a paper published by the Axel Springer company, in 2007.

Stephan Ruß-Mohl is professor of journalism and media management at the University of Lugano, Switzerland, and director of the European Journalism Observatory (EJO). From 1985 to 2001, he was professor for journalism at the Free University of Berlin. As a journalist he wrote for Neue Zürcher Zeitung and other daily and weekly newspapers. He is a member of the advisory board of Message since 1999.

Rainer Stadler is media editor for Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), with an academic background in philosophy, French literature and linguistics. He joined NZZ in 1989, and is responsible for media politics, media journalism and media ethics, mainly at the national desk and the supplement “Medien”. In 2008, he received the Zurich Journalist’s Award for his work.

Dieter Wild had been a staff member of Der Spiegel for fourty years. Among other positions, he worked as Paris correspondent, head of the foreign department, and deputy editor-in-chief. He is also a member of the advisory board of Message.