The team at Publix has set itself noble goals: The new building on Hermannstrasse in Neukölln is intended to strengthen quality journalism in Germany, improve diversity in the media landscape and thus strengthen democracy.
“Democracy needs independent journalism – and independent journalism can only exist in a democracy,” says Publix director Maria Exner. Among other things, Exner was editor-in-chief of “Zeit Magazin” before moving to Publix in 2022. In the future, the house should “provide impulses that reshape the role of journalism in society” and is probably unique in Europe, said Exner at a press conference on Tuesday.
But what exactly does that mean? The new building on the former cemetery site has six floors of offices and co-working spaces, as well as professional sound and video studios, event rooms and a public canteen. The top floor houses several studio apartments in which visitors and exiled journalists can be temporarily accommodated.
The new building, which cost around 25 million euros, was financed with funds from the non-profit Schöpflin Foundation. Currently, around two-thirds of the maintenance costs are financed through the museum’s own income, such as rent and events. Additional funds come from the Swiss Mercator Foundation and the Zeit Stiftung Brucerius.
© Kevin Fuchs
The tenants of the new building include non-profit media organisations such as the Recherche network, the association Reporters Without Borders and the Research platform Correctiv. There are also production companies, investigative collectives and non-governmental organizations.
“We want to connect initiatives that provide answers and not just describe the status quo,” says Maria Exner, describing the goal of the house. Tim Göbel from the Schöpflin Foundation adds: “The goal of the house is to strengthen the entire journalism ecosystem.”
This is the chocolate factory of journalism.
David Schraven, co-founder and director of the research center Correctiv
One of the great advantages of the house is that you work in the middle of a network of colleagues, says David Schraven, head of the Correctiv research center. The many encounters in the house give rise to new impulses, ideas and perspectives: “This is the chocolate factory of journalism,” said Schraven. And with a view to the Neukölln neighborhood: “We are right in the middle of things, we see what’s happening here.”
© Kevin Fuchs
That is another advantage of the new location, emphasizes Maria Exner: The building is located in the middle of “one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Germany.” In addition to organizing workshops and conferences for journalists and media professionals, Publix also wants to make offers to the public, such as a word workshop for children and young people. The ground floor and the garden behind the building are freely accessible.
Offers planned for the neighborhood
A tour of the building shows that the upper floors are anything but freely accessible: Tim Göbel speaks of a “sophisticated security concept” for the building. In addition to access codes and chip keys, this also includes emergency buttons with a direct connection to the police.
The fact that these may become necessary says a lot about the state of journalism in Germany: “Strong and independent journalism is the lifeblood of a democratic society – and this lifeblood is increasingly drying up,” says Tim Göbel.
In addition to attacks on media houses, most recently in Berlin on the Tagesspiegel buildingjournalism is also under pressure financially and due to social media. Exner speaks of “news deserts” that are threatening local journalism in particular. This is where they want to start, for example through scholarship programs. And thus help prevent the crisis in journalism from getting even worse.
