Der Spiegel, one of Germany’s most influential newspapers, has a long tradition of publishing prescient work that taps into cultural zeitgeists. Its best-selling books have a broad range of themes, including police violence and systemic racism.

In 1957, journalist Hans Magnus Enzensberger wrote a critical essay called Die Sprache des Spiegels, or “The Language of Der Spiegel,” in which he criticized the magazine’s use of language as a “pretended objectivity.” Wolf Schneider, an eminent German-language stylist and editor, later panned the publication for its reliance on jargon and slang.

Despite those criticisms, Der Spiegel’s reputation as a trusted source of information and reporting remains high. Its early reports and serials about the Reichstag fire, for example, have become staples of the historiography of the Nazi era. And, the magazine has a reputation for hiring some of Germany’s most talented feature writers.

That reputation paved the way for a number of bestselling titles, including Ta-Nehisi Coates’s 2014 National Book Award-winning novel "Between the World and Me" and Piper Kerman's prison memoir "Orange Is the New Black," which is now a Netflix series.

But a recent decision by the company that runs Der Spiegel to rebrand its paperback list as a SPIEGEL bestseller has raised questions about its impartiality. It has added a monetary incentive to its recommendations by licensing the SPIEGEL logos to publishers, which can make it difficult for readers to determine whether they can trust the rankings.

This is a major step for an organization that has always been viewed as a conservative, anti-immigration voice and whose editorial independence has sometimes been challenged. The decision is also part of a broader effort by the publisher to streamline its publishing lines, following the merger between Penguin and Random House in 2013.

It’s not the first time that a Spiegel book has entered the German bestseller list. In 2013, Ragnar Rmsdottir’s crime thriller Dimma ranked fifth on the publication’s paperback list, and Drungi made it into the top ten earlier this year. But Mistur, the final instalment of Ragnar’s trilogy, which stars policewoman Hulda Hermannsdottir, reached number three last week.

And it’s a big deal for a book that reaches the top tier of the German bestseller list, because it marks a major accomplishment in a market where most books never make it to the front page.

The list, which has been published annually since 1947, is determined by a panel of non-sales-based jury members. The panel members use a ranking algorithm that takes into account such factors as reviews, ratings and other measures of popularity.

The resulting list, which now has a branding with the SPIEGEL logo, is an indication of how important Der Spiegel is to the German public. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. The move adds a monetary incentive, which may disincentivize the publisher from choosing quality works. It could also lead to a decrease in the quality of Spiegel’s list, which had been a valuable resource for consumers before the change.