SZ’s Fight to Stay Relevant: Traditional Journalism in a Modern World

As a class we were very lucky to experience a visit from a journalist at Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ). The visit was extremely insightful and told us how traditional journalism is adapting to a time where social media ad AI is changing reader habits and providing news.

SZ was founded on October 1945, shortly after WW2, with its first edition printed using a stamp used for Hitler’s biography, which the American had repurposed to launch a democratic press. Today, the paper still covers everything from German politics to culture, sports, and opinion pieces. Yet, nobody really reads the whole entire paper, they tend to treat it like a book, reading different topics that interest them most. 

What makes SZ different, Felix explained, is that every article is written by a named author. Unlike agencies like Bloomberg, this gives their work individuality, context, and perspective. It’s not just about delivering facts, it is more about offering thoughtful storytelling, which I think is so important and creates a sense of trust for the public.

We must remember that newspapers are businesses in the end, what is important then is not as important in todays digital age, in which adapting to can be a challenge. Back in political moments, newspapers used be the only way people would receive information but they now compete with Twitter and TikTok. News is everywhere online and often free so this makes it hard to encourage readers to pay for news. They now have to keep themselves relevant through different ways to encourage people to pay for the service, so they tend to keep themselves relevant through advertising, it could cost 90,000 for an advert to take up the whole page!!, it even used to cost way more then this. There is a worry that printed papers may disappear entirely in the next 10–20 years. Page 18 used to be big in the German market, this is a page where people could put their own ad in the newspaper, perhaps connecting with people, or using it as a way to sublet apartments, but this is now done on the internet.

Covid 19 opened up a lot of political angles and was the foundation more news all over the world. Social media use increased hugely during the pandemic, as you could no longer get the paper as easy. and remote work changed traditional newsroom collaboration, as they could no longer come together and debate about different topics. AI tools are now used, more so by younger journalists.

To survive newspapers are exploring new ways to bring in revenue beyond subscriptions, like, software tools or games, just as The New York Times has done with Wordle. Journalists are also urged to bring something new to the table, like reporting that adds depth and insight rather than repeating what’s already known.

This visit provided valuable insights into the current state of journalism. I was surprised that SZ doesn’t make greater use of AI, but considering the older average age of their workforce, it does make sense. I do think they could explore more sustainable practices, such as using recycled paper. The lack of diversity in their newsroom was also something that Felix also acknowledged as a problem, as sometimes it can be impossible to fully emerge yourself in a situation like a refugee crisis, unless you have experienced this crisis first hand, so because of this they have limited perspectives in their reporting. The meeting also highlighted the connection between social media, online news consumption, public trust, and democracy. I believe it’s important that we don’t rely just on one single source or turn to platforms like TikTok for news. Instead, we should look at reputable sources like SZ to stay informed and critically engaged.