Josef Depenbrock
Josef Depenbrock (born November 1, 1961 in Ahaus ) is a German journalist . Until March 2009 he was editor-in-chief of the Berliner Zeitung and chairman of the management board of BV Deutsche Zeitungsholding , the then administrative body of the Berliner Verlag .
Professional background
Depenbrock was a volunteer for the Westfälische Nachrichten in Münster from 1983 to 1985 and was the local editor of this newspaper until 1990. Until 1991 he worked as the production editor of the Hamburg edition of BILD and then went to the Berliner Kurier in the wake of the former Bild Hamburg boss Wieland Sandmann , where he became head of production and service . From 1993 to 2000 Depenbrock was editor-in-chief of the capital investment and sales magazine Cash and from 2000 to 2006 editor-in-chief and managing director of Hamburger Morgenpost .
2006 editor-in-chief of the Berliner Zeitung
In May 2006 he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Berliner Zeitung by the investor group of the British David Montgomery . Their editorial team took a public position against this appeal, since Depenbrock, in addition to his position as editor-in-chief, is also active in the management of BV Deutsche Zeitungsholding , where it represents the editorial interests of the group. The editorial staff of the Berliner Zeitung see this as an amalgamation that endangers “editorial independence”. Therefore, on May 30, 2006, the Berliner Zeitung appeared as a twelve-page emergency edition . Although Depenbrock declared that the Berliner Zeitung would continue to dedicate itself to quality journalism, there were numerous voices in the public who feared that the journalistic and entrepreneurial background of the new editor-in-chief and management member would lead to a tabloidization of the capital newspaper, which is primarily aimed at short-term profit skimming .
2007 Acquisition of shares in Cash
In July 2007, the journalist Depenbrock became the major shareholder of his former employer Cash : he acquired 504,558 shares in the company, which corresponds to a stake of 22.6 percent. According to the online information service finanzen.net , Depenbrock regards the investment as a long-term commitment. In November 2007 the management board of cash.medien AG applied to the responsible local court to include Depenbrock on the supervisory board . Depenbrock told the trade journal Werben & Sell that he wanted to increase his stake in the company to a box stake of 25 percent.
On February 18, 2008, Depenbrock announced in accordance with Section 21 I of the Securities Trading Act that its share of voting rights in cash.medien had exceeded the threshold of 25% and on that day was 27.85% (683,467 voting rights).
Chairman of the BV management board
From August 2007 Depenbrock was chairman of the management board of BV Deutsche Zeitungsholding and managing director of the Berlin publishing house . He kept his editor- in- chief at the Berliner Zeitung.
In October 2007, Die Welt reported that Depenbrock had to explain itself to the editorial board because the committee felt that the editorial statute stipulated a clear separation of publisher and editorial staff. In November 2007, Depenbrock announced that he would keep his position as managing director of the publishing house. The editorial committee of the Berliner Zeitung complained against it in March 2008 and was supported, among other things, by the German Association of Journalists . The lawsuit was unsuccessful.
The unmasking of two employees of the Berliner Zeitung as Stasi IMs in March 2008 led to further tensions between the editorial team and editor-in-chief Depenbrock. In an article in the Berliner Zeitung on April 1, 2008, he announced an investigation. One will “check every single journalist in this editorial team and also sift through the files of the Birthler authority if possible”. The study was to be carried out by scientists from the Free University of Berlin and the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) . After the scientists at Freie Universität Berlin canceled their participation on April 5, 2008, he announced that a three-person team under Johannes Weberling would conduct the investigation, which met resistance in parts of the editorial team.
In February 2008 the crisis of the Berliner Zeitung came to a head again when Depenbrock admitted after a conversation with David Montgomery to the editors that the new return targets for 2008 were between 18 and 20 percent. At the end of June 2008, Depenbrock announced the cancellation of 200 of the 900 positions at BV Deutsche Zeitungsholding, including around 40 at the Berliner Zeitung.
After the BV was sold to M. DuMont Schauberg at the beginning of 2009, Depenbrock was released from his posts in the editorial and management of the Berliner Zeitung .
further activities
Depenbrock is the publisher of the quarterly magazine " AZUR Das Kreuzfahrtmagazin " (based in Hamburg) since 2007 .
Web links
- Josef Depenbrock in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Jakobs: Something shimmers in the twilight. In: sueddeutsche.de . May 17, 2010, accessed October 13, 2018 .
- ↑ Constanze von Bullion: Hour of Trial. In: sueddeutsche.de . May 10, 2010, accessed October 13, 2018 .
- ↑ http://www.ftd.de/karriere-management/management/:personalien-josef-depenbrock-kuehler-statthalter/377043.html ( Memento from July 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.azur.de/impressum
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Depenbrock, Josef |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 1, 1961 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ahaus |