Fit for the future
The Axel Springer Akademie is the new and expanded School of Journalism of the Axel Springer AG, Europe¹s largest and most successful news media publishing house. "The academy is to become the best institution for journalistic training in Germany, extending across the entire media spectrum," says the chairman of the board, Dr Mathias Döpfner. "But it is also our think tank. The academy is an investment in the power and speed of innovation, in creative talent and the quality of our media."
The academy focuses on four areas:
- training of young journalists,
- extended career training for editors,
- a workshop for journalists and
- a think tank for the publishing house.
The vocational training for young journalists is at the heart of the academy. It thereby continues the tradition of the AS School of Journalism, which was first founded in 1989. Over the course of two years, small groups of students attend intensive courses, which are taught by renowned professors and journalists. Subjects include investigation and writing, page design and production, and ethics in the media. Thus, the students learn the trade of print journalism, with particular emphasis on the teaching of modern cross-media journalism.
The classroom is a modern integrated newsroom which includes video and sound broadcasting studios. For the second half of the first year, all students gain work experience in print and digital media at WELT ONLINE and WELT KOMPAKT. The Axel Springer Akademie is thus the world¹s first journalism school or company training centre to run a daily newspaper.
The curriculum includes the Studium Generale, a weekly lecture series on current affairs. Lecturers are experts in their fiels and include German chancelor Angela Merkel and Imre Kertész, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature.
Students complete their training in the editorial offices of the house, where they gain insight into all departments and into the general methods of operation at a large publisher like AS. Upon receiving their diplomas, they go on to their jobs prepared for all the challenges of modern journalism.
Admission to the programme is highly competitive. Out of a pool of several hundred applicants, 120 candidates are interviewed each year. Only 38 are awarded a place in the academy, which provides them with a work contract and an apprentice salary.
Apart from educating students and editors already employed by AS, the academy awards the Axel Springer Prize for Young Journalists, the most important such award in the German media.
The academy is conceived to provide a forum for ideas. It is in charge of the development of new AS products and concepts in close collaboration with editorial staff.
The media industry is currently experiencing a radical change. The market place, the way people use media outlets, are subject to fundamental changes. It is the aim of the Axel Springer Akademie to recognise new trends in journalism, to play an active role in shaping trends and to push and profit from innovation.