“Progress vs. Motion”: Aleksander Kutela of Ringier Axel Springer Polska stressed that new innovative projects need to be given enough time and energy before you can judge their success.
“Whenever we have a new project, it’s very important to do it with a certain scale, with a certain intensity, to really start to see the results.”
“It’s a bit like with water you want to transform from liquid to steam. It’s not enough to heat it up. You need to reach a certain temperature, 100 degrees Celsius. It’s the same with innovation: you need to reach a certain critical mass to really see the results.”
Why Le Monde has grown its newsroom by 80 percent since 2010
Le Monde decided in 2010 to start expanding its newsroom, which has grown from 310 to 560 journalists. Louis Dreyfus explained why the publisher took this potentially risky step – and whether others should follow suit.
“I don’t know if Le Monde is an exception, or an example to follow. But if you are a quality media, you need to invest in journalism. It was a huge bet at the time, but I’m not sure there is another option for quality brands.”
“I think our major challenge is the question of trust. We need to make sure that we invest in a trustworthy relationship with readers. And one of the main pillar of this relationship is the number of journalists and the quality of their working environment.”
“When I hear some CEOs saying that they will replace journalists with AI, I think it’s a big mistake. We must not forget that if people are paying for content, it’s because of the journalists behind the content.”
Experiments that can be scaled up
DIE ZEIT has created a culture that favours quick, cheap experiments that can be scaled up if successful. Dr. Rainer Esser noted that the ownership of a company may have a big impact on how it approaches experimentation and long-term planning.
“When you are listed on the stock exchange, or you have an owner who wants big money as quickly as possible, it can be difficult to build a culture of well-being and gradual improvements.”
“We are part of a family group. It’s a different approach. They have always trusted that I do the very best for the well-being of the company, so my range of liberty is much bigger.”
Make the tools easy to use
Hearst Newspapers aims to provide its journalists with tools that can be distributed across the organisation, matching the needs of its journalists. Patty Michalski said the key is to work with product teams and make the tools easy to use.
“We want no frictions between what a newsroom wants and has ambitions to do, and being able to get to that spot.”
“When we innovate, we might go quickly and build something special, but then also think about how we build it for sustained use for newsrooms.”