6 steps regional publisher Schwäbisch Media has taken for a successful digital transformation

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In the fast-paced world of modern news, where many people get their updates through social networks or exclusively on mobile devices, is the future of regional publishers bleak?

Kurt Sabathil, managing director, Schwäbisch Media, believes there is no reason local news organisations can't thrive in a digital landscape, as long as they are prepared to try new things and invest in their business.

"The German newspaper industry lost 26 per cent of its subscribers between 2000 and 2015," he said, speaking at the Word Publishing Expo in Vienna today (10 October).

"So what do you do? You can either panic and sell your business to a larger company; do nothing, where the chances of you being out of business in a couple of years are high; or you start to fight, and that is what we have tried to do over the last few years."

Schwäbisch Media, covering the South of Germany, encompasses a variety of news brands, from newspaper Schwäbische Zeitung to regional television and radio stations, as well as a website and mobile applications. The organisation aims to reach a wide audience but is specifically targeting millennials to help grow its brands.

To shape its future as a profitable organisation, Schwäbisch Media has focused on improving six aspects of its business, a strategy which Sabathil recommended to other local publishers.

1) Build a strong brand

"If you don't do this, you don't have a chance to survive," he said.

"It's important to show your audience you are more than just one source of news – more than just a newspaper, a website or an app."

2) Attract and retain talent

"You won't get the best employees if people think you are in a dying industry. Create a successful employee brand which takes care of its staff," he said.

The publisher built a new office building in 2012, designed to be an environment of "innovation, communication and engagement" with open spaces and collaboration areas, which has helped to attract younger people looking for modern employers. According to Sabathil, half of Schwäbisch Media's staff are under 30.

The publisher also built a video portal for blue-collar trainees, developed a business website for young professionals and hopes to engage millennials by holding digital conferences for them.

Sabathil explained that attracting young journalists to regional publishers will help the news organisations come up with innovative, new ideas that are based on an informed understanding of how young readers think.

3) Invest in quality journalism

Since 2008, the publisher has tried to invest more into the quality of its editorial output, hiring more journalists and expanding its digital products to include an e-paper app, and another that updates with new stories and videos 17 hours a day.

"I'm a fan of paid content in the long run, not advertising," he said.

"We have more than 14,000 subscribers and they pay between €6.99 (£6.30) and €20.99 (£18.91) a month. And after installing a metered paywall in May 2014, we have over 100,000 registered users."

Since charging readers to access stories online, the publisher has seen an increase of more than six million Euros in additional income.

4) Focus on the audience

In former times, the publisher had a vertical structure in which employees would only work within one area, say for TV, digital or magazines, but it now encourages staff to work across media to produce stories that better fit their audience's requirements.

The publisher even developed a cross-media agency to better match their readers' needs, such as ensuring that topics were covered across all their platforms, and included elements such as job listings and classified advertising, for which the organisation has seen a rise of 10.4 per cent in revenue in the last ten years.

5) Build up know-how in new technologies

"We have seen from Google and Facebook that data is the new oil. You need it for product optimisation, user needs analysis, personalised marketing, advertising effectiveness and automation," he said.

"It is not enough to just have IT specialists – you need people like data specialists, programmers and social media marketeers to adjust to new environments."

Sabathil emphasised the importance of working with other publishers to share knowledge, training and even reporters as a way of improving the staff's knowledge of new technologies.

Schwäbisch Media has invested heavily in IT in an effort to standardise newsroom tools. And with access to new printing technology, as well as simple and flexible IT systems, it has also successfully reduced the costs of producing its newspapers.

6) Add new ventures to the portfolio

"If you don't try new things, you don't have a chance of new growth. There is still lots of potential for regional publishers," he said.

Sabathil told delegates that trying new business activities will likely prompt an increase in revenue. The publisher's "cash cows" are magazines, community papers and radio, but Schwäbisch Media has also been experimenting with new services over that last 10 years such as leaflet distribution and mail services, as well as new digital avenues including subscriptions and a digital marketplace.

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