🎉 Relaunching The German Review 🎉

Dear Reader,

This summer has been a busy one on a private level. After having two children together, my partner and I decided to take the plunge and say “until death do us part” (or, more accurately, “ja” – the only required word at a German registry office). I also entered the fifth decade of my life this month. And after 12 years in Berlin, I’m in the middle of a move out of the German capital (more on that later).

On the professional level, I’ve also been using the pause in publications to prepare a relaunch of this newsletter. You might notice a few small changes like a new logo, but there are some bigger ones too that I’m excited to share with you.

Most importantly, I’m being joined by a second team member. Rachel Stern has already written two articles (here and here) for The German Review, and she is now coming on board on a much more regular basis. Starting this week, we are going to be alternating the writing of the newsletter.

I am delighted that Rachel is joining me: with her wry sense of humour I’ve now doubt that she will contribute articles that keep you informed in German current affairs will also giving you the odd chuckle. I’ve known her for several years and can reveal that, if there’s one thing she knows even better than German politics, it’s where to sniff out the best hummus in Berlin. If you’re lucky, she might reveal some of her best kept secrets.

Adding Rachel’s voice to The German Review is going to enhance it in several ways. Most importantly, it means that readers will benefit from two perspectives on the events shaping Germany. Especially since so much of the newsletter’s readership is based in North America, Rachel’s upbringing in California is going to provide you with much more nuance on the German–US relationship than I am able to.

Secondly, bringing Rachel on board means the newsletter should fulfil a promise I’ve occasionally failed to keep. Combining The German Review with other work commitments (and parental ones!) has meant I haven’t always been as consistent as I’d like to be in sending it out. From now on (unless something dramatic happens), it will appear in your inbox at the same time every week: the free newsletter will be sent out every Wednesday at midday CET, and the members-only newsletter will land on Saturdays at the same time.

The format is also going to change somewhat. The Wednesday newsletter will keep you up to date on all the important news events of the week. While it might evolve over time, the idea is to give you a really comprehensive look at what is going on, what the media are saying about it, and what politicians are promising to do. The Saturday edition will be an opinion piece, column, or interview in the style of The German Review of old.

Another big change is that I’m going to experiment with selling advertising space in the free newsletter. Having run The German Review for several years now, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to combine a subscription model with advertising revenue to make it financially sustainable. What I don’t want to do is sell sponsorships. When I started out as a journalist, there was a strict separation between advertising and editorial. In my opinion, the sponsorships that are so popular in the newsletter space blur those lines in an unhealthy way. Advertising space in this newsletter won’t be an endorsement — either by us of the product being plugged, or by the advertiser of us and our political views. It will be purely transactional and based (hopefully) on matching companies with our niche readership.

I’ve never sold advertising spots before, so I’m interested to see how things progress. If any reader has leads or would like to advertise their own products, I’ve shared more information here. If you’re interested in running ads on The German Review, you can contact us at ads@thegermanreview.de

Nonetheless, subscriptions are the best known antidote to click bait yet to be invented. They will remain the cornerstone of our independent business model!

If you value thoughtful, well-researched journalism and want to help it thrive, consider subscribing. It takes less than three minutes, costs just 65 cents a week for the first year, and makes a real difference. More subscribers mean we can invest more time, expand coverage, and keep this project growing.

You can join here:

Looking forward to leading you through the undergrowth of German politics in the year ahead,

Jörg Luyken

Editor, The German Review