''Der Spiegel (online)'' is a German

news website An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical. Going online created more opportunities for newspa ...

. Before the renaming in January 2020, the website's name was ''Spiegel Online'' (short ''SPON''). It was founded in 1994 as the online offshoot of the German news magazine, ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'', with a staff of journalists working independently of the magazine. Today, it is the most frequently quoted online media product in Germany. ''Spiegel Online International'', a section featuring articles translated into English, was launched in autumn 2004. In 2019, its editorial office was merged with the one of the printed Spiegel and in 2020, the website was renamed accordingly.

Company and editorial staff

The news website ''Der Spiegel (online)'' is run by Der Spiegel GmbH & Co. KG (formerly Spiegel Online GmbH & Co. KG), itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Spiegel-Verlag. The editorial offices of the news website and the print magazine ''

'' were separate operations, that had their own offices, authors and content until January 2020. Now, content for both media is created by a shared editorial team. ''Der Spiegel (online)'' has a record of profitability. Regular staff includes 150 people in the

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

headquarters, complemented by

freelancers ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance ...

, and domestic and international news bureaus. In the German capital,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, 15 correspondents cover the German federal government, political parties, corporations and artists. The

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

and

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

offices have one correspondent each. There are journalists based in Washington, D.C., New York, London, Moscow, New Delhi and Istanbul. The online news staff also receives support from ''Der Spiegel'' magazine's network of correspondents in Germany and abroad. The site also uses content from news agencies such as AFP, AP, dpa and

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...

. Wolfgang Büchner was editor-in-chief of ''Der Spiegel'' and ''Der Spiegel (online)'' from September 2013 to December 2014. Büchner's former deputies, Florian Harms and Barbara Hans, headed ''Der Spiegel (online)'' after Büchner left the company. On 13 January 2015, Harms was appointed sole editor-in-chief. After Florian Harms had to leave the company on 6 December 2016, Barbara Hans was promoted to editor-in-chief.

History

Online journalism pioneer

The news website first went up on 25 October 1994 under the name ''Spiegel Online'', making it the first online presence of an established news magazine, one day before the ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' site. ''Spiegel Online'' started as a service on

CompuServe CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the world – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the oth ...

.Bönisch, Julia. Meinungsführer oder Populärmedium? Das journalistische Profil von Spiegel Online. Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2006. The web domain spiegel.de was established one year later. ''Spiegel Online''s content initially consisted of hand-picked articles from the print magazine. As early as 1995, however, original content first appeared in a section called "Scanner", which was only available online. In the following year, ''Spiegel Online'' was relaunched and commenced featuring breaking news as well.

Rebranding in 2020

In 2019, its editorial office was merged with the printed ''Der Spiegel''. In January 2020, the website was rebranded, now using the same media brand as the printed format.

Popularity

Currently, ''Der Spiegel (online)'' is included in the top 30 most-visited websites in Germany. It is among the five widest-reaching news website in Germany.

References

External links

News website ''Der Spiegel (online)''

International part of the website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spiegel Online 1994 establishments in Germany Der Spiegel German-language websites German news websites Magazines established in 1994 Magazines published in Hamburg