Dr. Helge Fuhst

Helge Fuhst is a media manager, journalist, and presenter. Since March 2026, he has headed Axel Springer's PREMIUM Group, which includes the journalistic brands POLITICO, WELT, and Business Insider. As chairman of the editorial board and editor-in-chief of the WELT Group, his responsibilities include WELT TV, welt.de, and the newspapers WELT and WELT am Sonntag. All brands also include newsletters, podcasts, and events. Previously, he headed ARD's tagesthemen from 2019 to 2026 and also shaped the program as a presenter; as deputy editor-in-chief of ARD-aktuell, he was also responsible for the entire tagesschau brand. Under his leadership, tagesthemen was further developed in terms of content and structure – with extended broadcasting time, new reporting formats, and stronger economic and cultural coverage. In 2023, the editorial team was awarded the German Television Prize for its live broadcast from Ukraine in the first months of the war. Previously, Fuhst was program director of the event and documentary channel phoenix, owned by ARD and ZDF. There, he expanded European reporting in particular. At WDR, he served as deputy director general, among other positions. He began his journalistic career at NDR, with stints as a producer at the ARD foreign studio in Washington and as an intern at NBC News. He studied political science and history at the University of Cologne.

Fuhst began his journalistic career at NDR, with positions as a producer at ARD's Washington bureau and as an intern at NBC News. He studied political science and history at Leibniz University Hannover, completed a semester abroad at American University, and earned his doctorate at Chemnitz University of Technology on the polarization of the United States during Barack Obama's presidency. Fuhst has been an honorary professor at Macromedia University since 2024.

Fuhst has been a member of the board of the Friends of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe since 2022 and a member of the jury for the RIAS Media Prize for Transatlantic Reporting since 2016. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Sir Greene Foundation in Hanover, which promotes journalistic research projects.