"Our democracy grows from the local"

Tobias Koch/KAS

Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert welcomed around 100 guests to the Academy of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation

Tobias Koch/KAS

This year's keynote speech was given by Stefan Evers, Mayor and Senator for Finance of Berlin

Tobias Koch/KAS

Jury spokesperson Jana Klameth honoured the 2023 competition year

Tobias Koch/KAS

The special prize for volunteer projects went to Elena Everding from Göttinger Tageblatt

Tobias Koch/KAS

The Landshuter Zeitung editorial team was awarded 3rd prize

Tobias Koch/KAS

The 2nd prize went to Stephan Steinlein, deputy editor-in-chief of the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper

Tobias Koch/KAS

The Tagesspiegel's Innovation Lab was delighted to win first prize for its ‘Interactive School Series’

In his opening speech, the Chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and former President of the German Bundestag, Prof Dr Norbert Lammert, referred to the increasing economic problems facing local journalism in particular: falling advertising revenues, declining subscribers, falling circulations, mergers of editorial offices. These developments showed "that we have to say goodbye to familiar ways of thinking and acting." Many observers would therefore also lament a "general loss of quality". However, this year's award winners impressively demonstrate that there can be no talk of a "general loss of quality". "Farewells are usually premature efforts," emphasised Lammert.
This year's keynote speech was given by the Mayor and Senator for Finance of Berlin, Stefan Evers. He emphasised that the flood of information is constantly increasing. The challenge for politicians and the media alike is "to deal with this in such a way that people are given guidance. We have the same task in different roles: to contribute to the formation of public opinion." Many people lose sight of what is happening on their own doorstep. Showing this is a central role of local journalism. Because: "Our democracy grows from the local." Local journalists are "advocates for citizens" and therefore also strengthen social cohesion. 

This requires good journalistic craftsmanship, which all four award winners have demonstrated.

A variety of topics as big as life itself

The jury spokesperson, Jana Klameth, then honoured the 2023 award winners. 297 entries were submitted in total, including 51 for the trainee competition. She emphasised that the jury's decision was not easy this year either. The variety of topics of the entries submitted was as great as life itself: "As different as the topics were, the criteria for the evaluation were the same: Did the newspapers, did the authors succeed in arousing reader interest? In other words, did they take the reader's perspective? Did they talk to those affected and not just about them? Is the topic close to the people? Did the editorial team stay on top of the problems? Did it make itself the readers' advocate? Was the writing outstanding?"

Klameth particularly praised the applications for the trainee award: "The work was impressive in terms of both quantity and quality - which gives us hope that there will continue to be intelligent, knowledgeable and in-depth local journalism in the future.
that there will continue to be clever, knowledgeable and in-depth local journalism in the future." Elena Everding from Göttinger Tageblatt received the special prize for trainee projects for her report "The martyrdom of a doctoral student" about the abuse of power at universities. For the jury, "an absolutely impressive piece of research at a very high level. A story that is clearly told and emotionally moving at the same time."
The third prize went to the Landshuter Zeitung for its comprehensive and varied reporting on the historical spectacle "Landshut Wedding". "You don't see such comprehensive, original and creative coverage of festivities in regional newspapers every day," said the jury, "this is local reporting in the best sense of the word."
The second prize-winner is the Hamburger Abendblatt with the documentary "A year at police station 38", for which deputy editor-in-chief Stephan Steinlein repeatedly accompanied a Hamburg police team at work over a period of months. The jury praised "both the reporter's perseverance and his ability to build up the necessary relationship of trust with the police officers."

Telling stories with facts and figures

The Tagesspiegel was honoured with the first prize for its "Interactive School Series". Eight journalists from the Tagesspiegel Innovation Lab collected and analysed data from 588 Berlin schools. On the basis of this extensive data analysis, the editorial team succeeded in highlighting the current topic throughout Germany using specific examples from Berlin. At the same time, the results were the starting point for major research stories and analyses. In its statement, the jury honoured: "The series is an outstanding example of how an acute social problem can be presented on the basis of a huge amount of data and how to get to the actual problems and consequences and how to use data and facts to tell stories." Tagesspiegel editor-in-chief Lorenz Maroldt emphasised how helpful data is for journalistic work: "You get out of the emotional realm; you can prove things." Data journalism is not the future, but the present.