Tagesthemen

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Ulrich Wickert reports on Wikipedia

Anne Will presenting the Tagesthemen

Next to ZDF's heute journal, Tagesthemen is Germany's prime daily television news magazine, presented by journalists Anne Will and Tom Buhrow. Second only to the 20:00 Tagesschau ("Daily View") Tagesthemen ("Daily Issues") is the most important newscast of the ARD. It is clearly different in style and content from Tagesschau and is broadcast Monday through Thursday at 22:15 and Saturday and Sunday at varying times. The Tagesthemen broadcasts are led by a host; for some time Anne Will and Ulrich Wickert have alternated in this role. On September 1, 2006, Tom Buhrow replaced Wickert.

In January of 1978, Tagesthemen replaced the late edition of Tagesschau, which had prevailed until then. The broadcast lasts a half hour on weekdays; it is shorter on Saturday and Sunday.

In contrast to Tagesschau, which provides only a simple news overview, Tagesthemen is designed to also provide the viewer with supplementary information, context and background. The usual four to five editorial contributions concern - in content and theme – the events of the day.

A daily news summary is undertaken by the Tagesschau editorial staff. Since 2002, the weather report is no longer in the scope of the news summary, but rather is presented on Tagesthemen in affiliation with the private weather service Meteomedia AG (Proprietor: Jörg Kachelmann - German language article de:Jörg Kachelmann).

Tagesthemen's market share sank with the opening of media competition in Germany; nevertheless, it still lies today at about 12% - this amounts to about 2.5 million viewers per broadcast. Tagesthemen is one of the largest opinion builders in Germany.

[edit] Hosts

Since October 1, 1985, Tagesthemen, like Tagesschau, has been presented by various hosts. Ever since, the first and the second host alternate the presentation weekly.

The hosts write the text themselves. Also, these are not read exclusively from paper, which gives the presentation a much looser style than Tagesschau. Since the Tagesthemen hosts are not restricted to simply reading the daily dispatches, they can develop a vital, personal style compared to their colleagues at Tagesschau, although they are still required to be neutral and objective.

Ulrich Wickert was replaced on September 1, 2006 with Washington D.C. bureau chief Tom Buhrow.