Heute Journal

Heute Journal (roughly Today's Journal) is a tv news programme broadcast on ZDF, a national German television network.

The programme first aired 2 January 1978 as a late weekday evening 20 minute program. Originally, it was broadcast at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and at 10 p.m. on Fridays. It has been broadcast at 9:45 p.m. since 1 January 1984. In 1991, the running time of the programnme was extended to 30 minutes. 15-minute editions were added on Saturdays (in 1992) and Sundays (in 2000). The running time of the programme is sometimes extended to one hour, to cover special events or particularly important stories.

In contrast to Heute, its early evening counterpart, Heute Journal provides in-depth coverage of the news, usually with detailed background information and interviews with politicians, business leaders, experts, and other key people. There is also a daily report from the and a weather forecast. Wolf von Lojewski, a former presenter and managing editor of the programme, says that while heute will report that a particular politician has resigned, Heute Journal will also provide detailed analysis on the reasons for the resignation.

The show is comparable to Tagesthemen broadcast on Das Erste. The programmes' audience is sometimes higher than that of heute.

Initially, the program programme's opening sequence showed the anchors, with a clock overlay and a ticker with headlines of the day. The ticker sound effect was Morse code for "heute".

The programme moved to a new (virtual) studio in 2009 and a new opening sequence was added at the same time. The camera pans towards the anchors while graphics related to the day's stories are seen in the background.

As of 19 February 2011, a darker background is used than for other heute news programmes. Instead of a 2D world map in the background, five globes are shown. At the start of the sequence, headlines appear in the foreground, followed by an introduction, and finally zoom to the presenters or sometimes cut to news footage.

As of 25 June 2007, the program is broadcast in 16:9. It is available as a video or audio podcast.

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