Growing Together – second [stei tu:nd] media conference

At the start of the conference, Peter Fellinger, CEO and founder of jambit GmbH, and Franz Haßlberger, Head of Business Division Media, welcomed approx. 300 participants. They opened the conference with questions on successful collaboration, setting collaboration as the content roadmap for the rest of the day. How has the pandemic changed our work? How do we accept learnings and establish an open and positive culture for managers and other employees? How do software developers as well as media companies manage these new challenges?

Jobst Benthues & Julien Nissenbaum from Redseven Entertainment presented innovative entertainment formats. Products that offer a real campfire feeling are in demand. For example, roadshows with new interaction possibilities and new ways to bring a concert directly in your cozy living room.

In addition to the stage, there was also a lively digital discussion in the live chat, moderated by jambitee Robert Kowalski. The audience was interested in the question of how journalism and data engineering work together. Carmen Heger empathized the topics of coaching and knowledge transfer here. The main thing is to gain the ability to evaluate the newly developed systems. Journalist colleagues must be introduced slowly and also coached in this area. In addition to the livestreams, guests were also able to experience exciting video-on-demand presentations, such as those by Daphne Flieger from ZDF Digitale Medienproduktion GmbH. She inspired participants with her talk "CM back stronger – how we are reclaiming the comment columns".

Madeleine Bublies, Head of Product at MHS Digital, showed how important an effective yet cautious change process is for a diversified media company. Not only organizationally, but also in terms of software architecture: 15 newspapers are part of the media company's complex IT architecture. Bublies relies on interdisciplinary teams and change management to acquire new customers. The company does not just model the sales funnel as an idea on paper, but also organizationally. When it comes to cooperation between product management and editorial staff, he says, it is important not to "invade Gaul like the Romans," but rather to lend a helping hand to the specialist departments. Although mechanisms and marketing strategies from e-commerce can be transferred to the editorial business, it is ultimately the content that counts. For example, a topic has reach and pay aspects that have to be weighed against each other. In his presentation, Nico Wilfer, Chief Product Officer Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, impressively showed how F.A.Z. converts reach into leads and subscriptions and what role technology plays in this. In this way, F.A.Z. wants to reach its readership where they are on the move, and digitally at that. For some time now, the media company's Product and Sales departments have been working toward the common goal of reaching around 300,000 digital subscriptions by 2025.

The event was rounded off by a coffee table, wherboth CEOs and founders, Markus Hartinger and Peter Fellinger, served all participants on-site the characteristic jambit coffee. Media companies that are now doing well in the pandemic did their homework a long time ago, said Susanne Aigner: "It works so well now because we built up workflows and processes beforehand that also work well remotely. We are now drawing on this treasure." Marion von Nell, VP Business & People Strategy at Joyn, called for organization-developing departments like HR to leave the "ivory tower" and get close to operations. For her, core competencies of ideal employees are: "Cool head, warm heart, working hands". Susanne Aigner and Nico Wilfer emphasized that skills such as general cleverness, a service mindset, quick comprehension, and communication are much more important than classic training or university degrees.