One Year of Publix: Our First Impact Report Is Here.
After our first full year of operations as Germany's first house for journalism and the public, we look back and take stock: What impact does Publix have? Were we able to deliver on the promise of becoming a place that strengthens journalistic and civil society work while also enabling innovation and spreading it more widely? To find out, we asked the people who bring Publix to life: our residents and fellows, project partners, and funders share what is taking shape within our walls.
In September 2024, after seven years of planning and construction, we opened Publix as a house for journalism and the public. Since then, we have been operating our nearly 4,000-square-meter building in Berlin-Neukölln, which houses offices and workspaces, audio and video studios, event spaces, a guesthouse, and a public canteen. Our mission: to strengthen journalism and civil society, because an informed public is the foundation of our democracy.
In this impact report, we look back on our first full year of operation and take stock: What impact does Publix have? What common thread runs through our diverse activities? Were we able to deliver on the promise of becoming a place that strengthens journalistic and civil society work while also enabling innovation and spreading it more widely? An open house for the city's community and our neighbors, and at the same time a network partner for deep, substantive exchange across borders?
A democratic public sphere is built by people who take responsibility. In this report, some of our roughly 30 in-house residents speak — the organizations that work in the building every day — alongside project partners, fellows, and funders. Their experiences and perspectives paint a picture in which the power of the shared responsibility so many actors bear for our democratic spaces of debate and information is already clearly visible — in Neukölln and beyond.
Four key areas of impact are emerging: strengthening public-interest journalism, building technological literacy, fostering social cohesion, and developing media and news literacy among children and young people.
This report is both a record of where we stand and an invitation to become part of Publix yourself. Enjoy reading!
