The lunchtime magazine (Mima) the ARD is to be produced by MDR in Leipzig from next year. In a statement, the broadcaster’s director, Karola Wille, wrote that the directors of ARD and program director Christine Strobl “expressly welcome and support our offer.” With the takeover of the RBB, the MDR also wants to expand the Mima-Broadcast time from currently one hour to more than 100 minutes, which is at the expense of the ARD buffets could go, which the SWR produces. For the MDR, which also has the tabloid magazine in the first program in the afternoon explosive delivers, it is therefore also about a significant gain in importance in the ARD – for the broadcaster and for the “realities of life in our regions”, as Wille wrote.
The lunchtime magazine put ARD and ZDF in weekly rotation. As can be learned from circles familiar with the matter, the ARD Mima could in future consist of an extended team of regional magazine broadcasts MDR at 2 respectively MDR at 4 arise out. It is already clear that the ARDMima will change significantly compared to the current production, which RBB is broadcasting from the ZDF capital city studio in Zollernhof. The editorial concept as well as finances, personnel and technology will now be clarified in a “creative living process” (Wille) – also in conversation with ZDF.
The Mima does not cost the RBB much more than the lawyers in the Schlesinger case
The employees who do this are now left behind lunchtime magazine since 2017 at RBB produce and offer ambitious capital city journalism there. A total of up to 100 employees, including a core team of around 40 people, work for the RBB Mima. The concept of joint use of the studio with ZDF also meets all the criteria for better cooperation between the two public service systems, which is now being demanded everywhere by politicians.
Nevertheless, the RBB director Katrin Vernau, who wants to save 49 million euros in the station by the end of 2024 to ensure liquidity, Mima at disposal. According to the station, the magazine costs almost 2.7 million euros a year, including fees, according to its own statements from last autumn. For comparison: the legal fees for the processing of the Schlesinger scandal, which has by no means been completed According to his own statements, Vernau cannot stopbecause they did not commission the compliance investigation, now amount to RBB to around 1.9 million. While Vernau’s plan for the “reorientation” of the station initially only mentioned that the RBB Mima can no longer finance it on their own, it has become increasingly clear in recent weeks what is going on. Almost two weeks ago, Vernau explained at a works meeting that she thought it was hopeless to discuss joint financing of the capital city broadcaster with the other ARD broadcasters.mimas to talk – the only conceivable alternative to handing in the shipment.
At the end of March, the RBB had already canceled the use of the Zollernhof at the end of the year. At the time, ZDF regretted that ZDF and RBB had shown over the past five years “how to set up an efficient joint production infrastructure”. On the news of the change to MDR one reacted cautiously in Mainz on Wednesday: Talks would now be started with the MDR, it was only said.
The MDR is clearly the winner of the RBB crisis
It is all the more surprising that the RBB, when asked about the consequences for the Mima-Employees at the station don’t want to know anything yet: “We don’t yet have any reliable information about the specific future of the Mima looks,” said the RBB press office on Wednesday on request. Therefore, no statements will be made about the Mima– Make employees of the RBB.
Both the RBB and the MDR are about to change directors. New elections will take place at RBB in the summer – Katrin Vernau was elected for a year in the middle of the Schlesinger crisis last fall. After twelve years in office, Karola Wille hands over the management of the MDR to her previous administrative director Ralf Ludwig in November. With the surcharge Mima she has once again won land for her broadcaster, in whose transmission area Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia many politicians who tend to be critical of broadcasting contributions have to be convinced of the value of public broadcasting.
The MDR is clearly the winner of the RBB crisis. If the change is not nonsense from a financial point of view, the MDR answers vaguely on request: “The promise of profitability given as part of the ARD structural reform for the ARD lunchtime magazine until 2028” would also be kept in the event of a change.
