The former editor-in-chief of the German political weekly Der Spiegel has announced plans for a new weekly magazine. Stefan Aust, 63, is one of Germany's most influential journalists - he headed Der Spiegel from 1994 until 2008, when he was ousted from the office due to his supposed lack of innovation. He is the author of several books, including The Baader-Meinhof Complex, which was made into a successful film last year.
Aust, a postwar expert, revealed his plans during the launch of Hans Kundnani's book, Utopia or Auschwitz: Germany's 1968 generation and the Holocaust, in London. The journalist talked confidently about the project, which is obviously in a very concrete test phase. He described the new magazine he is working on as a mix of the German weeklies Der Stern and Der Spiegel, and professed to have been inspired by the Guardian, which he reads daily. On Monday it was revealed that the longtime political editor of Der Spiegel, Caroline Schmidt, is joining Aust's company, Agenda Media. Last month Christian Krug, former editor-in-chief of Max, also joined the company, which is currently developing new media projects for German WAZ-Gruppe.
Plans for the new magazine, which Aust said wryly would be "more independent than Der Spiegel", will be finalised at the beginning of next year. It is likely to be launched with a rather small circulation. While the former editor-in-chief didn't mention anything about its online-version, but a media convergence combining it with documentary DVDs might be discussed - he has a long journalistic history in television.
The announcement came at an interesting time for the German publishing industry, which is seeing Aust's competition weakened by falling advertising revenue.
