Publications
Publications
- February 2020
- HBS Case Collection
Fake News at DER SPIEGEL (A)
By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and Tonia Labruyere
Abstract
The case discusses the strategy of DER SPIEGEL, the leading news magazine in Germany, in the aftermath of the discovery of a fake reporting scandal. It had come to light that one of DER SPIEGEL’s own reporters had falsified and made up entire articles for years, despite DER SPIEGEL’s large fact-checking departments. New editor-in-chief Steffen Klusmann and an internal investigation commission had set to work to discover the problems within DER SPIEGEL that made this failure possible and had come up with a series of recommendations for improvement. At the heart of the investigation was the question whether the scandal was the result of one bad apple or whether DER SPIEGEL had systematic failures in its control systems.
Keywords
Scandal; Management Control Systems; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Communication Strategy; Journalism and News Industry; Germany
Citation
Dey, Aiyesha, Jonas Heese, and Tonia Labruyere. "Fake News at DER SPIEGEL (A)." Harvard Business School Case 120-001, February 2020.