Jörg Schönenborn (61) will join the "Tagesthemen" team in the middle of this year. As announced by NDR, he will host the news program for the first time on Monday, July 6, 2026. Schönenborn's move to "Tagesthemen" has been known for several months. He will strengthen the existing hosting team of Ingo Zamperoni (52) and Jessy Wellmer (46). Julia-Niharika Sen (59) and Susanne Stichler (56) will also continue to be part of the news program's hosting team.
Jörg Schönenborn speaks of "important resource"
In a statement, Schönenborn explains: "'Die tagesthemen' offers the chance every day to provide orientation in a world that is not only difficult to understand, but often also difficult to bear. I am proud to contribute to this in the future as part of a great team. Because comprehensible news is an important resource for our democratic society."
Marcus Bornheim, First Editor-in-Chief of ARD-aktuell, says about the new "Tagesthemen" host: "Jörg Schönenborn stands for credibility and reliability in German television journalism." He has "earned the trust of television audiences over decades".
Schönenborn had been WDR Program Director for over ten years. He is now giving up this position. However, he will continue his duties as election analyst and host of the ARD Press Club.
More than 40 years at WDR
Schönenborn has held numerous positions at WDR over the past four decades. During his journalism and political science studies, he trained at the station in Cologne from 1985 to 1986. After several years as a freelance contributor, he rose to become a radio editor at the Wuppertal studio. From 1992, he reported for "Tagesschau" and "Tagesthemen" for the first time and worked as North Rhine-Westphalia correspondent on the programs until 1997. In 2002, he became Editor-in-Chief of WDR Television. In 2014, he took over the position of Program Director for Television. In 2019, his responsibility expanded cross-media to include information, fiction, and entertainment.
