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Newsreaders Get on Their Feet

DW staff (tkw)April 18, 2005

The lazy days of German news reading are over. As part of an image overhaul, public broadcaster ARD has announced plans to pull the chairs from under its newscasters' butts.

https://p.dw.com/p/6Wfp
German newsreaders are to start showing a bit of legImage: dpa/ARD aktuell

As a dull gong heralds the start of the national 8 o'clock news, better known as "Tagesschau," information addicts across the country settle down to the familiar sight of Germany's best-known newscasters perched at their desks delivering the day's bad tidings. It's a staid sight which is soon to become yesterday's news.

Some time later this year newsreaders on both the Tagesschau and its in-depth sister show, "Tagesthemen," will do their job from a specially designed stool.

Tagesschau-Moderator Claus-Erich Boetzkes
Time to do away with the traditional ARD lookImage: dpa

The construction, which is reported to be back-friendly, can be adjusted to meet the differing needs of its leggy and less leggy users.

It's an all new look, which follows the progressive example of broadcasters such as CNN and the BBC. But what will Germans, who are not renowned for embracing change, make of it?

Perhaps they will be won over by the benefits of this daring act of de-institutionalization, for the stool promises to deliver better intonation and improved body language.