For the bright minds of the future

Students in Prof. Kühne’s “News of Today” course (Time-Based Media program) successfully participated in the challenge organized by ekipa and the FAZ. The task was to combine the FAZ’s commitment to high-quality print journalism with the possibilities offered by digital channels. So far, the FAZ’s products have reached only a small portion of students. To change this and become the primary source for the bright minds of the future, the FAZ, together with ekipa, launched a competition. In the first round, over 30 teams from various universities submitted ideas and concepts. These were evaluated by a panel of experts, and eight teams were selected to advance to the next round. Among these eight teams were four from Prof. Kühne’s course—which in itself was a great success. The concepts were further refined and tested in the course. Key questions included: How should a digital news channel be designed to reach young people? How do you address the major challenges of the attention economy? Can—or should—news be fun? January 24, 2019, was the big day of the presentation: the eight finalists presented their concepts at Goethe University in front of a large audience and a panel of experts. Here, too, the teams from Mainz University of Applied Sciences made a strong impression. The jury was particularly impressed by the high creative quality and the coherence of the concepts. As a result, the “5x5” team took 3rd place and the “Skape” team took 1st place! Both teams received prize money and, most importantly, the opportunity to further develop their concepts in collaboration with the FAZ and bring them to market.