Some media have short memories.

How briefly, is shown by the excitement that the Bild newspaper spread on Tuesday with the report that Claus Kleber was giving up the moderation of “heute journal” at the end of the year and was retiring.

"ZDF shock: News anchor Claus Kleber throws 'heute-journal'", made RTL.de out of it and indulged in drama: "ZDF is losing face," it said.

It works "almost like a curse that the public broadcasters are currently subject to".

Michael Hanfeld

responsible editor for features online and "media".

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    In addition to Kleber's retirement, this meant the change from Jan Hofer and Pinar Atalay to - RTL, and from Linda Zervakis to Pro Sieben.

    But there is nothing dramatic about it.

    The younger moderators have simply been poached by the private broadcasters.

    Jan Hofer and Claus Kleber have reached retirement age - as did the “today” presenter Petra Gerster, who said goodbye from the screen.

    The fact that Claus Kleber is leaving at the end of the year is not only not a sensation, it is less than news.

    Because actually he would have been gone earlier if, as the German Press Agency reported at the beginning of September last year, the deputy editor-in-chief and head of the main news department, Bettina Schausten, had not asked him for a six-month extension of his contract.

    Kleber, said Bettina Schausten at the time, agreed to her request “to stay until the end of next year”. So until the end of 2021. Now the ZDF announces dryly about the personnel: “Claus Kleber will be on duty for 'heute journal' until the end of the year. A further extension was not up for discussion. You will be informed about his successor in due course. ”Kleber will certainly still be able to read reviews of his work in due course. He has been presenting the news on ZDF for eighteen years, initially not only being a moderator, but also editor-in-chief. In 2007 he was discussed as a possible “Spiegel” editor-in-chief.

    Then he negotiated a contract as a freelancer with ZDF with an annual salary of allegedly almost half a million euros, which is only exceeded at the public broadcaster by the contract with talk show host Markus Lanz, which is reportedly a seven-figure Annual amount is. Not even private broadcasters can bid that. Kleber himself took the pseudo message from the “ZDF shock” on Twitter with humor. He posted an article in which it was said that he moderated the “heute journal” - “since 2003 years”. In a second post he handwritten a "felt" in front of the number.