Preview: MEDIATECH HUB Conference

Journalism, AI and Tomorrow’s Newsroom

Thousands of articles, published fully automatically in one election night. Germany’s first Director of AI at SPIEGEL Group on what breaks when AI becomes the layer between journalism and its audiences. And a debate on whether "AI-generated" can become a quality label.
Behind all of this sits a bigger question: what is journalism’s place in a world where AI is reshaping both how news is made and how it reaches people? Our programme partners Media Innovation Center Babelsberg (MIZ) and GenKI4Media bring the experts and the evidence to #MTHCON26 on SEP 29.
AI is changing journalism for the second time in a decade. Platforms reshaped how news travelled and who controlled its reach. Now generative AI is going further, and making the questions of independence and visibility even more urgent.

Presented by Media Innovation Center Babelsberg (MIZ), the Journalism & Tech track explores what that means in practice.

INTRODUCING: THE SESSIONS
Horizon Stage – September 29

The Agent Layer: Finding Journalism’s Place in the AI Ecosystem

Soon, most of the entities accessing journalism won’t be people. Ole Reissmann, Germany’s first Director of AI at SPIEGEL Group, examines what it takes for newsrooms to show up in the emerging agent layer, and what breaks structurally when AI sits between media organisations and their audiences.

Adapt or Resist? Journalism Between Platform Power and AI

Platform power challenged media independence. Algorithms competed with editorial judgement. Reach outweighed relevance. Now generative AI is driving the next transformation. The panel asks:
✔️ What lessons from the platform era remain applicable?
✔️ Will smarter strategies and stronger regulation do the job, or does journalism need entirely new approaches?
✔️ Can the AI layer be an opportunity for journalism to reposition itself as a trusted source?
Join Rebecca Ciesielski, Ole Reissmann and moderator Nhi Le for the debate.

INTRODUCING: THE SPEAKERS

OLE REISSMANN is the first Director of AI at SPIEGEL Group, working on how one of Germany’s most-read news organisations puts AI to work in strategy, transformation and product development. He has spent his career building at the intersection of journalism and technology.

REBECCA CIESIELSKI is a reporter at the AI + Automation Lab of Bayerischer Rundfunk, specialising in algorithmic accountability. Her investigations examine how AI, algorithms and automated systems shape society and the people within it.

NHI LE is a journalist, moderator and author whose work focuses on social policy and digital media culture. In 2019, ZEIT listed her as one of the 100 most important young East Germans; in 2021, Medium Magazin included her in its Top 30 under 30 journalists in Germany.

INTRODUCING: THE SESSIONS

Horizon Stage – September 29

How to publish 5,000 articles in one election night

In his keynote, Markus Knall (Editor-in-Chief and Director Content, IPPEN.MEDIA) takes stock of where AI adoption in news production stands today and shares his vision: publishing thousands of articles fully automatically on election night, without compromising on quality. The next step, he argues, is not the automation of processes, but the automation of quality.
“AI-generated” as the new “Made in Germany”?

Knall’s bold vision goes straight into debate:
✔️ How can quality be ensured when future AI models increasingly train on AI-generated content?
✔️ With search no longer reliably driving traffic, what strategies are actually working?

Join Alexandra Borchardt, Ulrike Langer, Jürgen Geuter and Markus Knall as they examine what AI-assisted content creation means for quality, trust and the people still doing the editorial work.
And that is not all: project partners from the GenKI4Media consortium present their latest use cases in four live talks, hands-on demonstrations and a workshop, showing what generative AI tools for media look like when put to work. More details to follow soon.

INTRODUCING: THE SPEAKERS

MARKUS KNALL is Editor-in-Chief and Director Content at IPPEN.MEDIA, where he has been at the forefront of AI adoption in German digital publishing. As a prominent advocate for local journalism, he initiated the cross-industry Local Journalism Day #näherdran.

ALEXANDRA BORCHARDT is a senior journalist, researcher and advisor with a background spanning major newsrooms, academia and policy. She is a former Managing Editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung and a Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute at Oxford.

JÜRGEN GEUTER is Research Director at ART+COM, working on the conceptualization, implementation and testing of new technologies in the context of spatial new media. As a writer and sociotechnologist, he focuses on the intersection of technology, society and politics.

ULRIKE LANGER is a German-American journalist specialising in media innovation and AI. She writes the weekly bilingual newsletter News Machines / News Maschinen and covers the industry as US correspondent for Kress Pro.