On the demise of Julian Reichelt

Dear Reader,

Perhaps you’ve heard already. The “most powerful newsroom editor in Europe” lost his job this week after the New York Times published details of an internal investigation at the Axel Springer Verlag.

The man in question is Julian Reichelt, the now former editor-in-chief of Germany’s notorious national tabloid, Bild Zeitung.

Back in March the Axel Springer Verlag, which owns the Bild and Die Welt titles, announced that it was conducting an investigation into complaints of sexual misconduct against the Bild boss. But within a couple of weeks Reichelt was told to apologize for ‘hurt caused’ and things went back to normal.

Thanks to the NYT, we now know the investigation found far more damning testimony than Axel Springer let on. Female journalists described how their career chances were often dependent on whether they were prepared to sleep with the boss. There is only one conclusion to be drawn: Axel Springer saw Reichelt as too-good-to-fire and initially swept the allegations …