Topics & Speakers
The European Publishing Congress will take place in June 2024 in Vienna. Media managers, editors-in-chief, designers and digital experts from Europe's best publishing companies present their strategies and discuss the future of the media industry.
Ladina Heimgartner
Head Global Media Ringier and CEO "Blick" Group Switzerland
Keynote
The train we must not miss
In her keynote speech at the opening of the European Publishing Congress 2023, Ladina Heimgartner explains how AI will change journalism, the media and society. Ladina Heimgartner is Head Global Media at Ringier and CEO of the "Blick" Group in Switzerland.
Oliver Markert BurdaForward Germany
Case
AI Tuesday at BurdaForward
Artificial intelligence has long had an impact on BurdaForward's everyday business. One fixed point is the AI Tuesday. Every Tuesday, 100 to 150 employees meet to exchange ideas on AI. The latest developments and best cases are presented. 15 news cases are currently being worked on at BurdaForward and more are being added every week. Many threads come together at Oliver Markert, whose role can best be described as a disruptor. In Vienna, he will report on BurdaForward's experiences with AI and where it is being used.
Matthias Friedrich
Head of Strategic Technology Innovation Funke Germany
Case
3D worlds in local journalism
Is it possible to present journalism in 3D mode? In its Innovation Lab, the German Funke Group has developed exciting models for making journalism a three-dimensional experience for several German cities. During a virtual walk through a city, locally and spatially related news appear. They are also testing the use of it for criminal cases or complex topics that are very important to young adults in particular. "The goal is to reach a different audience than has been possible so far with typical publishing products, and to convey journalistic content with a much greater intensity and complexity," says Matthias Friedrich. But the same tool can also be used internally for the editorial team. To provide a quick overview of the current news situation, messages are fed into the virtual city. In this way, the editorial team can get a quick overview of what is going on and then decide which story to write. Matthias Friedrich explains in Vienna what possibilities this project offers internally and externally and how FUNKE wants to address young people with it. As Head of Strategic Technology Innovation, Friedrich has been responsible for the development of innovative and partly experimental solutions and the necessary knowledge transfer within FUNKE Mediengruppe since 2019.
GerBen van 't Hek
Editor-in-Chief Mediahuis Nederland
Case
Mobile first journalism: We are developing the new standard
2023 will be a key year for Mediahuis Nederland. In recent years, the company has already attracted attention with an impressive paid content strategy. Now editor-in-chief and project manager GerBen van 't Hek is changing all production processes. "85 per cent of our readers use us with their mobile phones, but we produce for desktop readers," explains GerBen van 't Hek. He is now changing that consistently. From photos to headlines and texts - everything is optimised for mobile phone use. "Mobile phone first" is the new approach. A second major project is intended to massively increase growth. 65 percent of readers currently come directly to individual detail pages via Google and Facebook. And that's usually the end of the story. How can readers be brought to another page and thus double the number of hits? GerBen van 't Hek presents his plans and the first results in Vienna. He also reports on the further development of his paid content strategy.
Verena Krawarik Innovation Management Unit APA Austria
Strategy
Why ChatGPT is good for journalism
Machine-generated reports have long been daily business at the Austria Press Agency (APA), for example during elections - but so far strictly rule-based, with maximum editorial control of the output. Twitterbots, newsletters and internal message suggestions are also automated in this way. Now, with GPT, Bard and Co., a new generation of "content automats" is just around the corner. Can they become game-changing for journalism? What do these models achieve, where are the opportunities, where are the "red lines"? Verena Krawarik from the Innovation Management Unit explains how the Austrian news agency is positioning itself.
Ramón Kadel
Chief of Service "handwerk magazin" Germany
Case
What does ChatGPT mean for trade media?
Ramón Kadel is the head of "handwerk magazin" at Holzmann Medien in Germany. He sees ChatGPT as a great opportunity for trade media. On the one hand, it opens up new business models in the form of even more service offers. On the other hand, it will save a lot of time, especially for smaller editorial teams. And more than daily media, Chat GPT will give trade media a boost in credibility and reliability. Ramón Kadel is convinced of this. Kadel will explain in Vienna how he is already embedding artificial intelligence and ChatGPT in his editorial work and what plans he still has.
Mattia Bütikofer
Head of Social Media "20 Minuten" Switzerland
Case
The key to the young target group: The social media first strategy of "20 Minuten"
In the previous year alone, "20 Minuten" published around 2,700 short videos on Tiktok. The strategic goal is simple and difficult at the same time: to successfully address the young target groups. "When we do a story, we already have to consider during the planning stage whether and how social media-compatible short videos are possible for it," says Mattia Bütikofer. He is head of social media at "20 Minuten" and is partly responsible for the fact that content production is now being rethought. Video, especially short video, is no longer at the end but at the very front of the production chain. Mattia Bütikofer presents the findings of the Social Media First strategy and the further plans in Vienna.
Andreas Arntzen
CEO Wort & Bild Verlag Germany
Strategy
Why AI is significantly changing our job profiles
"Job advertisements for media jobs will look different in the future, we will need different profiles in the environment of AI," says Andreas Arntzen. The CEO of Wort & Bild Verlag in Germany wants to focus less on specialist knowledge and more on curiosity and passion for new things when selecting personnel in the future. "Learning will have a much higher relevance in the company and thus also change the corporate culture," says Arntzen. He has meanwhile equipped his top 30 in the company with ChatGPT Pro so that the executives deal with the topic personally. Wort & Bild Verlag specialises in the topic of health and reaches more than 25 million people with it every month. When Arntzen took over in 2016, there was almost exclusively analogue business and not a single shareholding. Since then, the company has undergone an impressive transformation process. At the gala evening, he will be awarded "Media Manager of the Year".
Heiko Weigelt
Chief Information Officer Funke Germany
Case
AI and layout: The personalised e-paper as a goal
The Funke Group in Essen produces 150 local editions every day with twelve newspaper titles. Up to 4,000 articles are created daily in the various editorial offices. With the use of artificial intelligence, these articles can in future be automatically placed in a wide variety of layouts. This project pursues two approaches. On the one hand, new, fully automated media offers are to be created without further manual effort in order to offer existing subscribers additional thematic products, for example in the subject areas of family or sport. But this AI project enables much more, namely a completely individualised e-paper. Every subscriber could thus receive his or her own digital daily newspaper. Details from Heiko Weigelt, who as Chief Information Officer has been responsible for IT at FUNKE Mediengruppe since 2019 and is driving the digitalisation of the media group with FUNKE Technology.
Norbert Küpper
Newspaper Designer Germany
Europe's most important media trends
The newspaper as an elite product
In-depth information used to be the speciality of weekly newspapers. In the meantime, daily newspapers, but above all regional newspapers, are increasingly occupying this field in Germany. On the other hand, weekly newspapers with their digital editions have long since ventured into the daily business, so that the previous boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred. In the Benelux countries and in Scandinavia, the focus is even more on visual journalism than before. One has the impression that readers with a higher education who are well established professionally are being addressed here. So the newspaper is increasingly seen as an elite product. On the Iberian Peninsula, on the other hand, infographics are used surprisingly intensively. This has become a tradition that even serious regional newspapers make intensive use of. It is interesting to note that in the meantime, infographics and data journalistic projects are also part of the daily business in the online services of these media. So there is no question of a decline in creativity in Europe. The opposite is the case. Details from Norbert Küpper, newspaper designer in Germany and founder of the European Newspaper Award.
Cecile Schneider
Cécile Schneider Head of Product AI + Automation Lab Bayerischer Rundfunk Germany
Case
How AI and content automation can arrive at the media house
With the AI + Automation Lab, Bayerischer Rundfunk has established an interdisciplinary team of journalists, programmers and product developers that has been using machine learning and other forms of automation for investigative research and journalistic products since 2020. Cécile Schneider gives an insight into the team's work, how it integrates products and prototypes in-house and thus also solves larger digital challenges for BR. Cécile Schneider is Head of Product at the AI + Automation Lab Bayerischer Rundfunk, ARD.
Managing Editor Trond Olav Skrunes Bergens Tidende Norway
European Regional Newspaper of the Year
The transformation of the printed newspaper in a shrinking market
"Bergens Tidende" is one of Norway's largest daily newspapers. It is published in tabloid format seven days a week. It has a circulation of about 35,000 copies and employs 60 editors, 8 photographers and 9 layouters. What is immediately striking about this newspaper is the clear order: Big stories are at the beginning of a section. They run over the entire double page and always have a single large picture. Normal section pages have much smaller pictures. In this way, readers are automatically guided through the newspaper: They recognise the important topics by the hierarchy in the layout. "Bergens Tidende" always looks generous. Working with white space is deeply rooted in this editorial office. Managing Editor Trond Olav Skrunes explains how the printed newspaper is changing in a shrinking market. Here is a look at the award-winning pages of "Bergens Tidende".
Weekend Editor Han Ceelen und Art Director Merel Buijs Het Financieele Dagblad Niederlande
European Newspaper of the Year Judges' Special Recognition
Spectacular covers, highly creative interior, text and image on an equal footing
Weekend editions of newspapers continue to be in vogue. They fulfil the readers' need for relaxation. "Het Financieele Dagblad" has therefore given its Saturday newspaper a new look and introduced "Voor.kennis". This supplement reflects the conviction that print is alive. "Voor.kennis" is stapled and printed in bleed, which is unique for a newspaper. This reduces the gap between a newspaper and a magazine. The full-bleed printing technique offers the design team great opportunities for spectacular covers and creative design possibilities in the inner section. The editorial team invests in young photographers, works with more than 20 international illustrators and is supported by its own infographics team that realises big data-driven productions on a weekly basis. Text and image are on an equal footing at "Voor.kennis". "Het Financieele Dagblad" has a total of 115,000 subscribers and an editorial staff of 100 journalists. The design team consists of 20 graphic designers, infographics, digital designers and picture editors. The concept of Voor.kennis is presented by Weekend Editor Han Ceelen and Art Director Merel Buijs. Here is a look at the award-winning pages of "Voor.kennis".
Editor-in-chief Barbara Loop und Editor-at-large Jacqueline Krause-Blouin Annabelle Schweiz
European Magazine of the Year
Which page strategy secures the future of a women's magazine?
For many decades, the Swiss "Annabelle" has impressed with outstanding reports and clever lifestyle journalism that is far removed from the classic cliché of a women's magazine. Nice and clever, you could say casually, the way the narrow boundaries of this type of magazine are broken here. But how do you keep an 85-year-old title relevant, how do you get around the dominance of social media and how much can you expect of your readership as a mainstream medium? How brave, how political, can you be when you are a lifestyle title and at the same time dependent on the advertising market? Is this perhaps even the compulsory approach to secure the future? The new editor-in-chief Barbara Loop and the former editor-in-chief and current editor-at-large Jacqueline Krause-Blouin talk about the successes and failures of their paper's strategy.
Beatriz de Zúñiga, Head, Jesús Trelis, Director of Arts and New Narratives Department, Las Provincias Spain
European Local Newspaper of the Year
Local journalism at the highest visual level
There are few local media in Europe that play in this design league. „Las Provincias“ in Valencia not only delivers news. The Spanish editorial staff presents visual journalism that is rarely seen and can hardly be improved upon. Sample pages are the absolute exception in this layout. Most of the content is served individually on its own typographic silver platter, illustrated by excellent photos or infographics. This is achieved with 51 editors, 5 photographers and 5 layouters. „Las Provincias“ is published in tabloid format with a circulation of 8,000 copies. Jesús Trelis, the head of the newspaper, and Beatriz de Zúñiga, the head of the art and new narratives department, present their concept in Vienna. Here is a look at the award-winning pages of "Las Provincias".
Annette Milz Publisher "Medium Magazin" Germany, Clemens Pig Managing Director APA Austria
Panel discussion
What does AI mean for our society and what responsibility does the media bear?
Are we asleep like last time with social media or are we even becoming first movers? A panel discussion chaired by Annette Milz. On the panel are Clemens Pig, APA, Christoph Mayer, Schickler, Bettina Billerbeck, Madame, and Tilman Aretz, ntv.de.
Creative Director Jörgen Oosterwaal und Art Director Arne Depuydt De Morgen Belgien
European National Newspaper of the Year
The daily newspaper for young people
In terms of content and design, "De Morgen" is made for a young target group. This is reflected in a varied front page, a magazine-like layout and the double-page picture of the day. Through various daily supplements, the Belgian newspaper sets its own content priorities that stand out from the general news flow. "De Morgen" shows how unconventional content can be combined with a distinctive layout. The newspaper is published in tabloid format and has a circulation of around 55,000 copies. It employs 50 editors, five photographers and ten layouters. "De Morgen" has been named Europe's best national daily newspaper in 2023. Creative Director Jörgen Oosterwaal and Art Director Arne Depuydt present their concept in Vienna. Here's a look at the award-winning pages of "De Morgen".
Anja Burri Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Head of Politics NZZ am Sonntag Switzerland
European Weekly Newspaper of the Year