An opportunity to approach international media outlets arises for young journalists all over Europe and its neighbouring countries: In the context of the 20th edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities, the young journalists of the Youth4Regions visited the bureau of Politico - a newspaper covering international politics. The two journalists Wilhelmine Preussen and Tristan Fiedler guided the participants of the programme through the office of Politico and gave them insight into the newspaper and their work life.
There the young journalists of the programme could discuss with the already established journalists and thus learn more about the work field and get an understanding of their work. The newspaper started in 2007 as an American start-up and has expanded since then - they now have different locations in the United States, Berlin, London, Brussels, and Paris, which allows them to cover international politics. Around a hundred journalists actively write only for the newspaper in Europe with many more correspondents covering European politics.
“We have around three million unique readers every month, who are eight times more interested in politics than the average reader” explains Tristan Fiedler. He continues to say that the newspaper is mainly subscribed to by businesses and by professionals since the subscription fee is too high for personal use. Its focus is not only on daily politics but it’s also mainly on legislative information and it consists of detailed news - making it for “a detailed niche of readers”, as journalist Wilhelmine Preussen calls it. It gives details about the new different laws and explains everything about them.
Wilhelmine Preussen expresses that “Politico is known for being a neutral news outlet. It regularly features articles where journalists state their opinions but it remains a mainly unbiased newspaper.” Politico was bought in 2021 by the German publisher Axel Springer SE - one of Europe’s largest newspaper publishers. The two journalists Preussen and Fiedler both are trainees at Politico for the Axel Springer SE, as they told in the presentation of the newspaper.
The office of Politico houses a lot of different teams that make up the newspaper and they all have different beats, for example, health, mobility, or industrial funding. The young journalists continued to see the office of the breaking news, events, and the playbook. The latter is one of the most read sections of Politico - Preussen states that it has around 100 thousand monthly readers, which makes up the most important section of the newspaper.
At last, the young journalists visited the new podcast studio of Politico. There the newsroom coordinator guided the journalists through the recording room, where Politico’s podcasts “EU Confidential” and “Westminster Insider” are being recorded.
Politico, the newspaper famous for its analysis of behind-the-scenes politics, lets aspiring journalists get an impression of the day-to-day work life in the media outlet. Thus the young journalists could see the different teams working in their fields and they could learn more about it by asking the team members arising questions. Even though it was only possible to get a short visit of less than an hour, it made it possible for the participants of the Youth4Regions programme to get to know more about the work and the possibilities as a journalist at Politico.
By Eneida Beshaj
Edited by Irene Barahona
