Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster, has named its first ever woman director-general in more than seven decades since establishment in 1953.
Barbara Massing takes over on October 1 from Peter Limbourg, who has been at the helm for 12 years, serving two terms of six years each.
Massing has been with the broadcaster since 2006 and was the managing director for Business Administration before her elevation on June 20. She joined the DW management ranks in 2014, the agency said in a statement on Friday.
Karl Justen, the chair of the DW Broadcasting Council and its selection committee, said the incoming boss “brings not only top-tier leadership and journalistic experience but also the strategic foresight needed to position Deutsche Welle for long-term success in a challenging global media environment.”
After her appointment, Massing said fact-based journalism was DW’s “most valuable asset and it is more important now in times of AI-manipulated content and disinformation, than it has ever been.”
According to the German public media house that broadcasts in 32 languages, Massing has focused on digital transformation, organisational culture and sustainability.
She is taking over at a time media houses are facing tougher times than before over the emergence of various ways of consuming news, giving bosses sleepless nights over strategic directions amid cut-throat competition in a space of rising disinformation and misinformation.
DW’s boss is picked through a secret ballot by its Broadcasting Council for a term of six years, but one is eligible for a re-election should two-thirds of the top organ endorse the incumbent.
The broadcaster that provides news across radio, online, and TV media, reaching more than 320 million users weekly, has about 4,000 workers from 140 countries.
