23 November 2023

Author: Mette Tulin

Inspirational Tour 2023 successfully kicked off – returning as a physical event in 2024

Get a recap of the Inspirational Tour 2023. On 23 November 2023, we gathered 62 participants representing 47 media organisations across Europe.

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The Vitec Visiolink Inspirational Tour 2023 – here’s a recap

The Vitec Visiolink Inspirational Tour 2023 was held virtually on 23 November 2023 and gathered 62 participants representing 47 media organisations across Europe for a day of knowledge-sharing.

Three speakers from FUNKE, ZGO Zeitungsgruppe Ostfriesland, and STEP Network gave presentations and shared their knowledge and hands-on experiences of digital publishing.

Here's a recap of the three speakers and their presentations.  

How the ePaper contributes to FUNKE's digital sustainability strategy

Kevin Tarun
Head of Sales FUNKE Thüringen

In this case study, Kevin Tarun shared insights about FUNKE’s learning when it comes to digital transformation, especially in rural areas. 

FUNKE has partially shut down some of its print newspapers in an area where it has been uneconomical for them to distribute print newspapers. Here, the company converted print readers to ePaper readers by force, meaning that the subscribers no longer had the option to get the print newspaper delivered. Instead, they would get the ePaper.

Kevin Tarun also shared how FUNKE in general promotes the ePaper and converts print readers to digital readers. Leaflets, on-site events, evening events, digital trainings, and vouchers for adult education courses on digital devices were among FUNKE's inspiring initiatives. 

Navigating the digital horizon: Unveiling the potential of data-driven publishing and automated content

Dennis Vesti Brorsen
Data & Intelligence Director

Dennis shared his knowledge with data-driven publishing at STEP Network, a subsidiary of one of Denmark’s largest media companies, JFM. First, Dennis took us through JFM’s data maturity journey and how the media company when from having ‘a lot of different truths of data’ and making decisions on gut feelings to a strong, unified data foundation with the use of machine learning and AI. 

We got a deep dive into two cases: Automated content and personalized news recommendations. 
The first case showed us how JFM uses automated content, also called robot journalism, by feeding data to editorial robots to write articles. This way, JFM can publish around 400.000 robot articles yearly.  

In the other case, JFM has been trying to go from publishing news in ‘one size fits all’ to ‘a personalized news experience in your size’. The company has managed to do this by creating its own AI model called Newscast. 

ZGO Zeitungsgruppe Ostfriesland's One App Strategy

Philip Thiemann
Chief Digital Officer (CDO)

Philip Thiemann presented ZGO Zeitungsgruppe Ostfriesland‘s (ZGO) innovative One App Strategy. With over a year of successful implementation, ZGO has seamlessly merged the ePaper universe and Live News universe into a single, hybrid app.

The products ePaper and Live News are different, and therefore, their users and target audiences are partially different as well. Philip Thiemann shared with us how ZGO structured their subscription models to give customers access to both ePaper and Live News in the ZGO apps. This allows ZGO to cross-promote content.

A major benefit of cross-promoting is that customers are introduced to new products: An ePaper customer is introduced to Live News and vice versa. Therefore, a One App Strategy can help convert more customers to new products and change habits.

 

The Inspirational Tour 2024 returns as a physical event

We look forward to gathering media companies across Europe for a day of knowledge-sharing and networking at the upcoming Inspirational Tour 2024, taking place on Tuesday 8 October. The location will be announced later. We'll keep you updated here on our website and other communication channels.

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If you have any questions about the Vitec Visiolink Inspirational Tour, feel free to contact Mette Tulin, Marketing Specialist, at Mette.Tulin@vitecsoftware.com.