Jul 19, 2024
The transformation of the Hamburger Morgenpost with AI and digital technologies
Arist von Harpe, Publisher and Managing Director of Hamburger Morgenpost (MOPO), and Peter Dyllick-Brenzinger, Head of Product and Engineering at Purple, are guests on the Media Voices Podcast. Together with host Chris Sutcliffe, they talk about the successful restructuring of MOPO from a daily to a weekly newspaper through the use of modern digital technologies and the digital publishing platform Purple.
Arist von Harpe and Peter Dyllick-Brenzinger talk about the details of MOPO's restructured business model in the Media Voices podcast. The changeover from a daily to a weekly newspaper took place in April this year and is already showing positive results. In the interview, publisher and managing director Arist von Harpe shares his experiences and the challenges he had to overcome after taking over the regional newspaper in 2020, as well as the three steps taken in the restructuring process. Another focus of the conversation is the digital publishing platform Purple with its integrated AI features, which MOPO uses for its digital content. Arist von Harpe reveals more about how MOPO uses AI in its daily editorial work and how the technology helps to increase efficiency. He provides insights into how Purple is used as a "complete package" along the entire production chain and could potentially also be the right solution for other medium-sized publishers. Peter Dyllick-Brenzinger explains how Purple supports the digital transformation of newspapers and which trends and developments are relevant in AI-supported journalism.
Arist von Harpe took over MOPO from the DuMont media group in 2020. He has been working in digital media since 2011. Arist von Harpe began his professional career as a publisher with the purchase of MOPO.
Peter Dyllick-Brenzinger is an expert in AI applications in publishing and editorial product development at . He has more than seven years of professional experience in this field and has been Head of Product and Engineering at Purple for almost two and a half years.
What you can expect in the podcast:
- The strategic conversion of MOPO from a daily to a weekly newspaper
- Use of Purple's AI features to increase efficiency in the editorial department
- Insights into the three phases of business model restructuring using Purple
- Purple supports MOPO along the entire production chain
- Trends and significance of AI-supported journalism for the future
Would you like to learn more about the digital transformation of Hamburger Morgenpost and the role of AI in this process? Listen to the episode of the Media Voices podcast now and stay up to date with the latest trends in publishing.
Introduction
Chris: "Welcome to the special Media Voices Conversations episode in partnership with Purple, one of Europe's leading AI-powered digital publishing platform. When Arist von Harpe took over Hamburger Morgenpost (MOPO) only a few years ago, it was a newspaper in need of further digital transition. In this episode, we are going to talk about how Hamburger Morgenpost went from a daily to a weekly newspaper while also embracing AI technologies to re-engineer their entire business model."
Acquisition of MOPO
Arist : "Well, actually I joined pretty late into the media industry. So you can actually call me a newbie because, I mean I've worked in digital media since 2011 after leaving Boston Consulting Group, so it was basically social media advertisement and all that and then I jumped into real media as I would call it when I took over the MOPO in 2020. At the same time, so much has changed again since 2020. And I think it was around the 8th of March and less than two weeks later, we had the first lockdown here. At that time, our business was mainly relying on physical newspaper sales and not subscription-based, but in a tabloid at a news stand. Then no one goes out, no one buys the newspapers, and no one needs to advertise. So that was really killing all revenues at that time."
Digital transformation
Arist: "In terms of digital journalism, we started quite early with our news website in 1995. When I took over MOPO in 2020, it was already quite large in terms of reach but had taken this road of very clickbaity content. The brand wasn't technically strong; I mean strong in that sense that people were accessing mobile directly which I find extremely important. The quality of the newspaper didn't relate to the quality of the online news offering."
Collaboration with Purple
Peter: "We are trying to build products that can find the volume to make it a really desirable part of that brand. One of the things we are investing in is digital editions, especially in Germany, to move to a proper digital product. We want to have a product that has the journalistic creation according to the newspaper, but also something that is feasible in digital."
Challenges and Solutions
Arist: "The quality of the newspaper did not fully relate to the quality of the online news offering. And that's something that some people in the industry sometimes still think. You know, well, that's the real journalism and online journalism that something you know, that's not so good. That's getting less and less. There was this one dimension. Quality wasn't really good. This was not something you want to show. Also they were not really earning money with it. There was no paid content, everything was for free and advertising was done in a very professional way. Those two points were actually the main two things that we addressed in the past 4 years, together with Purple. I think we did this very successfully because at the same time our print circulation went down. We have been losing about 20% every year because we increased the prices but in the end if 10% revenue goes away every year and if that revenue makes 70% of the overall business you have a problem. So digital always had to compensate that."
Future Perspectives
Arist: "For us, AI is positive because the world is now flooded with bad information. The thing is, we have this brand, we stand for making reliable news for people living in Hamburg, with all the things that are happening here, good stories, bad stories etc.. It's super crucial that that image is not damaged. You have this tool and want to find the balance between efficiency gains and at the same time never compromise on quality towards the reader. We see many more opportunities to get more efficient and even be more active. Doing more things."