The US media brand Politico is launching a German-language newsletter about Berlin's political scene.
The free email newsletter "Berlin Playbook" is due to be published for the first time on Monday, marking Politico's long expected entry into the market in Germany.
The brand was founded in the United States in 2007 and has since expanded in Europe, with Politico offerings from London, Paris and Brussels.
The journalists report on in-depth political and policy topics.
In 2021, Germany's Axel Springer media group bought the US media group Politico - the largest corporate takeover in Springer's history.
Journalist Gordon Repinski heads the editorial team in Berlin, which is based in the landmark gold-coloured Axel Springer high-rise building.
In an interview with dpa, the 46-year-old said, "Politico is unique in one respect: It has a global network of reporters."
There is the team in Berlin, which started with some 10 people and is set to grow further, as well as the network of over 500 reporters worldwide.
"That's also the idea behind Politico and the Playbook: to bring knowledge from Brussels, London, Paris and Washington to Germany," Repinski said.
It is also about making politics more understandable for a global audience, he added.
"Thanks to our network, we can do this better than others," said Repinski.
The organization did not disclose any investments or sales targets when asked. When asked whether there are plans to cooperate with the Springer brands Die Welt and Bild in terms of content, Repinski said, "There is no formal cooperation."
The "Playbook" newsletter is published Mondays to Fridays, and there were more than 10,000 registrations before the launch.
Repinski said other products "will follow in the course of the year."
These include paid newsletters, which will focus on the US elections or the European elections, for example.
A podcast is to follow in the first half of the year. A printed German-language newspaper from Politico - there is a weekly English-language edition - is not planned, Repinski said.
In Germany, the range of subscription newsletters for more specialized target groups has grown in recent years.
Media companies such as Gabor Steingart's Media Pioneer and Sebastian Turner's Table Media are active in the German market. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung broadsheet launched a weekly expert briefing on the digital economy in autumn. The Süddeutsche Zeitung broadsheet entered the segment in November.
Commenting on the competitive situation in the specialist briefing business, Repinski said that 2024 is the ideal year to start because there is more focus on international topics than ever before.
Repinski himself comes from Media Pioneer, in which Springer also holds shares. When asked why he left Pioneer, the journalist said: "I didn't leave Pioneer, I went to Politico. I've been following the brand for years and consider it to be the absolute pacesetter for political reporting."