After months of development and testing, Der Spiegel launched a new audio and video podcast last summer. Shortcut looks for surprising perspectives on current topics that move people and offers shortcuts to understanding the world.

Hosts Maximilian Sepp and Regina Steffens, supported by experts from the Spiegel Group’s editorial teams, provide concise analyses in each episode from Monday to Friday.

At the beginning of this format development, we took a close look at the needs of our users. From qualitative interviews, we know that their information needs and usage are diverse. They find headlines on Instagram or via push notifications, individual facts on TikTok, and in-depth discussions on YouTube and podcasts.

Shortcut provides the background and context users need to engage in conversations in 15 to 20 minutes a day. We offer it wherever young people seek information: as a podcast on all major platforms, as a video on YouTube, in snippets on other social media platforms, and on Spiegel.de.

Overcoming news avoidance 

More and more studies are looking into the phenomenon of news avoidance: media users deliberately avoid news because they lack time, feel overwhelmed, or want to avoid adverse effects on their mood.

We wanted to know if Shortcut’s approach could help here, so we conducted surveys among the Shortcut user base during the test phase.  

We wanted to know if the relaxed, conversational atmosphere with experts made people want to engage with news again, and if the format helped them understand the world. Users rated the format as understandable and accessible, with 51% stating they otherwise sometimes avoid news deliberately.

Social media plays a supporting role

In addition, each Shortcut episode is planned to be excerpted for social platforms such as Instagram or TikTok. From the beginning, we envisioned Shortcut being tightly integrated with social media.

In this way, individual highlights from the podcast will reach users on other platforms, creating new access points for the audience.

Even young people who use Der Spiegel less frequently come into contact with the brand through Shortcut. The social media support is not just an add-on but an integral part of the success.

In recent months, we have built a dedicated 10-member team for Shortcut, closely integrated with Der Spiegel’s audio, social, and video departments. We produce Shortcut in the Berlin and Hamburg Spiegel studios, allowing fast and lean production. Der Spiegel editorial experts can present their research across multiple channels with just one studio visit.

With Shortcut, we show what modern information formats can look like. The podcast combines journalistic depth with a user-friendly presentation to reach new target groups.

By integrating audio, video, and social media, the format achieves a broad reach across multiple platforms while maintaining Spiegel’s high journalistic standards.

For example, the investigation of the influencer Immo-Tommy, which we published and discussed in two episodes, has generated more than 1 million views on YouTube and led to more than 1.2 million views for the most successful Der Spiegel clip on TikTok to date.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .