Staff meeting at Deutsche Welle: “What is the management doing?”

The Deutsche Welle (DW) staff meeting on Wednesday lasted 120 minutes and was attended by almost 1,800 employees. There is a lot at stake with the German foreign broadcaster when it comes to its future. After the task planning for 2022 to 2025, which became known on Friday, there will be budget reallocations, savings in the program and job cuts. According to management, the cuts must be tackled now so that a deficit assumed for 2024 can be absorbed and the digital transformation can continue.

What makes the action necessary

The management, which according to the participants was much better prepared than on Friday, tried to convince the employees of the necessity of the measures with a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation. It was recognizable that far-reaching news was not communicated, but that it was communicated better. According to participants, the management has emphasized several times that the savings are not for qualitative reasons, but exclusively for strategic reasons. However, it was criticized that specific questions from the station leadership, represented in its entirety by director Peter Limbourg and four directors, about other potential savings remained unanswered. Mood? Still tense, but no longer influenced by the emotionality that prevailed on Friday.

According to the medium-term financial planning, the 2023 wave will have funds of 406 million euros, the increase of six million compared to 2022 is considered special financing, which is why 2024 is again calculated at 400 million euros. For the coming year, the wave will have to screw down by 20 million euros under its own steam. For quite a few, this is where the criticism begins: the DW management led the wave with their eyes wide open to the undercoverage, the corresponding countermeasures were introduced too late and then too late.

An employee reported that the projection of the financial situation for the coming years was presented in a virtual management meeting on May 17, 2021. According to this, a deficit of between 17 and 27 million euros is predicted for 2024. The impending underfunding has been known for a long time. Instead of reacting at an early stage with the involvement of the workforce and employees and postponing investments, the management continued to spend money. In the employee meeting, a comparison was made with the private sector, where such behavior would be tantamount to delaying insolvency.

The fact is that since Peter Limbourg took office in 2013, the international broadcaster has recorded an increase in income of 120 million euros. Tax-financed Deutsche Welle was on course for growth, applauded by the federal government and supported by large parts of the Bundestag. The true German wave should finally be able to keep up with global players like CNN, BCC, Russia Today. Foreign studios (now six) and correspondents’ offices (currently eight) have been established – these figures are also a point of criticism in the assembly. The number of employees at the Bonn and Berlin locations grew to 3,400 people, half permanent and half freelance.

Who knew what and when and who counteracted it? The station leadership insists on timely action, the forecast for 2024 had already been commissioned by the management in December 2022 in the sense of “Be prepared”. In fact, the wave does not yet have a budget for 2024, as the benchmark decision for the federal budget has been postponed. The person responsible, Claudia Roth, the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media, does not yet know what resources she will be able to dispose of.

At the meeting, it became clear that the wave should not insist on being able to remedy its underfunding with additional tax funds. Program director Nadja Scholz had previously made it clear in meetings with various departments that the announced job cuts would not be reversed even if the federal government, contrary to expectations, provided more money and the deficit was lower.

75 percent of the budget for staff

Speaking of job cuts. 75 percent of the budget for the wave goes to personnel expenses and 25 percent to the program. When it comes to personnel costs, fees make up 38 percent. This is where the ax goes in. A DW spokesman names 120 affected positions, others speak of 300 affected colleagues with regard to part-time employment. In any case, the individual directorates are now required to implement the savings targets.

Another staff meeting is scheduled for March 31st. The staff representatives will invite – and deliberately overlook the top broadcasters. And for quite a few in the workforce, the question remains unanswered, as it was written on one slide: “What is management doing for the colleagues affected?”

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