Media Needs ‘Self-Critical Reflection’ After Years of Negative Trump Coverage, Axel Springer CEO Says

Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner said media organizations need to engage in “self-critical reflection” about why they missed Donald Trump’s electoral success, and that “years of predictably beating” on Trump was “not very exciting, not very surprising.”

“We need to focus on kind of unpredictable, open-ended outcomes of curiosity-based investigation,” Döpfner told Semafor media editor Max Tani. “If media are polarizing — one are in the left camp and others are in the right camp — and you basically know before what they are going to publish or broadcast, how their views are going to be, then I think people get annoyed about it.”

“I truly think we need a kind of self-critical reflection of what we did wrong, why we got it wrong so often, why we have been kind of perceived as part of the political elites in some of the camps, and what we can now do in order to restore the trust,” he added

Döpfner, who leads the parent company of Politico and Business Insider among others, spoke on Wednesday at Semafor’s “Restoring Trust in Media” summit, a media conference focused on how news executives and personalities are navigating an industry battling abysmal trust levels.

Other speakers include Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray, “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie and Knight Foundation CEO Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, among others.

Döpfner’s appearance came hours after he met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles at the White House, where the two had an introductory meeting, an Axel Springer spokesperson confirmed. The meeting came less than a week after the German publishing conglomerate joined a consortium of investors seeking to purchase the Telegraph, a conservative British newspaper.

Döpfner declined to address either topic, saying about the Wiles meeting that he wanted to keep the conversation private.

Axel Springer’s suite of U.S. properties includes Politico and Business Insider, both of which have seen transformations in recent years. Politico last month laid off 3% of its staff and offered buyouts to several newsroom divisions ahead of John Harris’ transition from global editor in chief to chairman, setting off a search for a new top editor. The outlet also said on Tuesday it would expand to Australia later this year.

Business Insider has also been one of the most prominent outlets to embrace generative AI platforms, drawing some criticism for letting it write stories wholesale. Editor-in-Chief Jamie Heller and CEO Barbara Peng also oversaw a 21% cut to staff last year, the third round of layoffs in as many years.

Döpfner has reportedly expressed interest in buying CNN and Bloomberg Media if they became available.

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