Digital transformation is never finished, and for regional publishers it presents a particular challenge. In a recent Forward Publishing webinar, Michael Greuel, a member of the editorial board at Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, shared how his organization is approaching that challenge, using the example of five newsrooms across eight locations serving around two million people.
Transformation Is a Continuous Process
“The days when you had to reinvent yourself every five or ten years are long gone.” For Michael Greuel, digital transformation can feel like rolling a boulder uphill: new challenges emerge every day, with no finish line in sight. That makes cultural change all the more important—not simply introducing new tools, but fostering a genuine willingness to embrace change across the organization.
At Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the goal is to ensure that all newsrooms move forward at roughly the same pace. This is a deliberate strategy, as the regional newsrooms are the ones serving the publisher’s core audiences.
Lessons Learned Along the Way
Greuel is candid about the organization’s mistakes. Headquarters, he admits, often assumed that new processes and expectations had already been adopted in the regional newsrooms, leaving both sides frustrated. “We failed to communicate properly—to explain what we were trying to achieve and bring people along with us.”
There was also little enthusiasm for KPIs, audience data, and analytics in the regional newsrooms—not because editors were indifferent, but because many felt they were expected to make sense of the data on their own. Unclear decision-making processes and inconsistent communication created uncertainty that ultimately showed up in the results.
Turning Principles into Practice
Working closely with the regional newsrooms, the publisher established a set of shared principles:
- Digital subscriptions are the primary growth market.
- Younger audiences can largely only be reached through digital channels.
- Digital publishing comes first, with print following.
- Every transformation initiative is also a communication initiative.
These principles were translated into concrete measures:
- Weekly digital meetings for editorial leaders
- Placements at headquarters for regional editors
- Reduced print responsibilities to free up time for digital work
- Simpler dashboards and clearer communication channels
- A central support team for distribution, SEO, and training
o support this transformation, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger selected Livingdocs, a partner on the Forward Publishing platform, as its editorial system because it “makes our work considerably more efficient.” The objective is straightforward: “We want production tasks to take up as little time as possible.”
According to Greuel, successful transformation requires leaders to combine empathy with determination. “You can’t give people the impression that everything they achieved over the past years was worthless. At the same time, you have to establish the new priorities in everyday work with persistence.”
Learn more about Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger Medien: https://ksta-medien.de/
