Prof. Alexandra Borchardt, Ph.D, is a senior journalist, leadership professor, media consultant and Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. She supports local and regional newsrooms with digital transformation as a coach for Wan-Ifra’s Table Stakes Europe project and co-led the Journalism Innovators Program at Hamburg Media School until July 2023. She is a member of the Board of the Constructive Foundation in Aarhus, the Advisory Board of the M100 Sanssoucis Colloquium, the advisory board of Wiener Zeitung, and of the Committee for Editorial Independence at Czech publishing house Economia. Alexandra is the lead author of two consecutive EBU News Reports: “Climate Journalism That Works – Between Knowledge and Impact“, published by the European Broadcasting Union in 2023, and “What’s Next? Public Service Journalism in the Age of Distraction, Opinion, and Information Abundance” published in November 2021. At the Council of Europe she served as an expert and rapporteur on the Committee on Freedom of Expression and Digital Technologies and was Vice Chair on the Expert Committee on Quality Journalism in the Digital Age.
As a Director of Leadership Programmes at the Reuters Institute in Oxford, Alexandra developed and led Executive Education programs, including the seminar series “Leading Newsroom Change” and “Future Leaders in News”. Prior to this she was managing editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), Germany’s leading quality daily.
Alexandra’s main focus is digital transformation and how it impacts the media, democracy, the workplace and human behavior. She teaches “Leadership and Strategy in the 21st Century” at TU Munich as a honorary professor, gives lectures and talks and is a columnist with Medieninsider. She is the author of Mehr Wahrheit wagen – Warum die Demokratie einen starken Journalismus braucht (Dare more truth – Why democracy needs strong journalism), Dudenverlag 2020, and Mensch 4.0 – Frei bleiben in einer digitalen Welt (Freedom in a digital world), Random House 2018.
In her twelve years at Süddeutsche Zeitung she held several functions in the politics and business sections. She was also founding editor of Süddeutsche’s Plan W, an award winning quarterly magazine for women and business. In her reporting she has focused on internet and democracy and the future of work. In 2015 she published Das Internet zwischen Diktatur und Anarchie: Zehn Thesen zur Demokratisierung der digitalen Welt (The Internet between Dictatorship and Anarchy: Ten Assertions about Democracy in the Digital World), Süddeutsche Zeitung Edition Streitschrift. Before joining SZ she worked for Financial Times Deutschland and Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Alexandra holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Tulane University, New Orleans (1994), and in 2013 completed a Programme for Management Development at IESE Business School, Barcelona. She lives outside of Munich with her husband and two children.