RBB director Ulrike Demmer: The reform only begins with the salary

2023-09-01 16:47:07

Opinion Public Service Broadcasting

The real reform of ARD and ZDF only begins with salaries

As of: 4:47 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes

Since September 1st in office: RBB director Ulrike Demmer

Source: Christian Ditsch/epd-bild/picture alliance

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Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg has a new director. When Ulrike Demmer takes office, the main concern is her salary, which is lower than that of her predecessors. The decisive factor is not what the boss earns, but whether she runs the institution in the interests of the contributors.

Ulrike Demmer, the new artistic director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, was in the same situation as an ordinary worker who had to wait a long time for his promised contract. The former journalist Demmer was only able to sign the document one day before she took up her duties.

There had previously been delays on the RBB board of directors, which, however, were not explained in detail. Accuracy comes before speed, the head of the board of directors remarked – which is never wrong as a motto, but given the more than two months that have passed since Demmer’s election, it sounds a bit difficult.

But that’s not what it’s about, it’s about the amount of Ulrike Demmer’s basic salary that has now been negotiated of 220,000 euros per year. A significant reduction compared to the well over 300,000 euros basic salary plus bonuses that went to her predecessor Patricia Schlesinger, as well as compared to the salary of the interim director Katrin Vernau, which was 295,000 euros. The Top earners of the ARD is WDR director Tom Buhrow (413,000 euros), followed by SWR boss Kai Gniffke, the current ARD chairman, with just under 380,000 euros.

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The clear minus for the post of RBB director has primarily to do with the allegations and revelations about Patricia Schlesinger’s directorship, but also with the precarious economic situation of the ARD broadcaster, which Vernau certified, on the brink of a financial abyss to stand. That’s why you have to save heavily. This background alone justifies a reduction in the salary previously paid.

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In addition, director salaries are always a big issue when it comes to the general state of public broadcasting. The remuneration is taken as evidence that something is going wrong, especially at ARD. In fact, the directors’ salaries are very high – although the second and third levels of the hierarchy also pay salaries that are sometimes well above the level of public service, for example.

RBB enters new territory

A reassessment of directors’ salaries must therefore firstly be combined with a fundamental reform of salary structures in public service broadcasting. The RBB has also broken new ground here because the previous pension commitment for directors does not apply to Demmer, she is paid a subsidy for a private pension.

Secondly, however, the debate about remuneration that has been going on for years – which almost never does without the rather obsessive point that these are higher than the Chancellor’s salary – should not be a substitute for a real reform debate. It’s pretty easy to talk about other people’s income, often without knowing their actual performance, workload and responsibility. A substantial debate about a reform that is urgently needed requires more background knowledge – and is also more strenuous.

Shortly before: contract signing on August 31 with Ulrike Demmer and Benjamin Ehlers, the chairman of the RBB board of directors

Source: Claudius Pflug/obs/rbb

But are top executives who receive a comparatively high salary, but who are willing to boldly reform a bloated and sometimes inefficient organizational structure, no better than top executives who are introduced right from the start with the fact that they – relative to their predecessors – start with a bargain salary? It depends on the inner motivation to want to change something in the institutions – and at this altitude it doesn’t always have anything to do with the salary. The cut in the RBB salary therefore has primarily a symbolic meaning.

That is why the focus must now again be on what the directors and their staff are really doing to help to truly reform public service broadcasting. The specifications must come from media policy – ​​but implementation in the spirit of the public broadcaster’s mandate is the responsibility of the broadcasters themselves. The performance of the directors is to be evaluated against this implementation.