Photo: Michael Bahlo/dpa
“She was a bit overwhelmed,” said Kathrin Vernau after her election as the new WDR director on Thursday afternoon. You can take that from her – because the outcome of the election was by no means certain beforehand. Vernau competed against high-profile media people such as WDR program director Jörg Schönenborn and the second editor-in-chief of “ARD-aktuell” Helge Fuhs.
What ultimately convinced the majority of council members to use Vernau? The 51-year-old’s most obvious difference from both her predecessor, Tom Buhrow, and her failed competitors is that she is not a journalist. Instead, she earned a doctorate in economics and then pursued a career in administration. Vernau was chancellor, i.e. head of administration, at the universities of Ulm and Hamburg for a few years. In 2014, she was given the position of administrative director at WDR, which she has held to this day – only interrupted by a one-year period as interim director of the RBB, where she was supposed to ensure order after the financial scandals surrounding ex-director Patricia Schlesinger. She succeeded in this – which is why she is now apparently considered capable of steering the fortunes of WDR from the top position.
As part of the public broadcaster, the West German broadcasting company is also in crisis: fewer and fewer young people are interested in classic television and radio, and instead (international) streaming offers are gaining in popularity. The WDR had therefore explicitly requested “courage to change” in its job advertisement. Vernau was the most vocal in favor of this of all the candidates admitted to the election. From January 1, 2025, she has to show that she is serious.
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