Mr. Supino's guilty conscience

Investigative non-governmental organizations (NGOs) regularly receive more or less serious "offers" from companies in the crosshairs for a non-binding "dialogue. The goal of such an exchange, which is often supposedly in the interest of both sides, is always stated as being "the joint search for a solution" to the problem that has been denounced. Yet for PR professionals, dialogue offensives have long been part of the repertoire for communicative "damage control" of a tarnished corporate image. NGOs, whose core business is uncovering grievances and representing minorities, and which therefore gratefully decline such invitations, are just as regularly accused by business representatives of being incapable of dialog and of painting the black.

Constructive pressure

Dialogue-skeptical NGOs are under similar "pressure to construct" these days as the crisis-ridden fourth power in the state. As is well known, their mantra is "only bad news is good news. The inherent negativism, even cynicism, of this attitude has always made heads turn, both inside and outside the editorial offices. With Ulrik Haagerup, head of news at the Danish state broadcaster, the advocates of "constructive journalism," which is also supposed to point out possible solutions to social, ecological or political problems, have a new spokesman. The latter recently presented his steep theses to some leading Swiss media and told the Tages-Anzeiger that he is "primarily concerned with news journalism. He attributes his stations' current ratings successes to "less tabloid reporting and more socially relevant topics." So far, so banal.

Substance-free scandalization

More revealing is the title of the interview: "We show extremes too often. So it's not just the displacement of unagitated normality and solution orientation by ever more garish superlatives and substance-free scandalization that is being lamented. Haagerup also notes the much more important connection between the quantity and quality of our everyday news supply. Those who report ever faster and (also for this reason) ever more, become ever shallower in substance and ever shriller in tone. This negative reinforcement is conditioned and controlled by an attention and media economy that applies nowhere more mercilessly than on the Internet. In short: Before Donald Trump reigns, the Donald Trump principle that characterizes online journalism reigns. Here, too, the causality is evident.

Market compulsion for quick turnaround

The question remains why, of all Swiss publishers and editors-in-chief, Messrs. Supino and Strehle have ordered their flagship to translate this crude constructive concept into real stories. Probably because the thoroughly quality-conscious duo suffers from the apparent market compulsion to turn fast and hopes for some moral relief from its Monday "anti-depressants in article form" (NZZ).

With this journalistic sale of indulgences, Tamedia wants to buy its way out of a few of the sins that notoriously underfunded editorial departments inevitably commit in their hunt for clicks and clients. For Ringier, beating the bush is just as much a part of the business model as the NZZ's turned up nose at the sensational press. Between these poles, Tamedia continues to search for its identity and attitude.

Slow Journalism

A more constructive and sustainable approach than "contributions to tackling social, economic, political or ecological problems" that disappear into a corner of shame would be "slow journalism. This rightly starts from the premise that less material and speed in digital journalism brings more substance and relevance.

"Less is more" would be an ideal successor to the long-outdated corporate motto "Content for people," wouldn't it, Mr. Supino?

Oliver Classen is media spokesman for the development policy organization Berne Declaration. Previously, he worked as a media journalist.

This column appeared in the Werbewoche print edition 17/2015 of September 18, 2015.