The German publishing company Echo Medien GmbH modernizes its editorial system with MILENIUM and QUAY
In total, 100 journalists have benefitted from working with the same solution as the rest of their colleagues in the VRM group, coordinating agendas and editorial resources in order to obtain the maximum synergy with the same interface.
The German publishing group VRM (Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main) has attained a greater regional presence following the purchaser of the German media company Echo Medien GmbH at the start of this year. This undoubtedly heralds the start of a new phase typified by the setting in motion of an ambitious technological renewal plan aimed at harmonising the workflows of the different Echo Medien offices located in the south of the Hesse region, the parent company of the group being in Mainz.
At the heart of this project is the MILENIUM editorial solution produced by the international company Protecmedia, which offers advanced functions for the design of collaborative workflows, constituted by titles and offices located in different places.
In total, 100 journalists have benefitted from working with the same solution as the rest of their colleagues in the VRM group, coordinating agendas and editorial resources in order to obtain the maximum synergy with the same interface.
The first phase, which began at the beginning of Spring and ended last May, involved creating eight new types of publications and defining their respective designs within the new MILENIUM work environment; in addition, the planning and training required by the implementation of this solution was completed. All of the foregoing formed part of an ambitious objective by the new owners of Echo Medien: a quick start up which allowed the editorial production of its publications in record time. Among these, of particular note was the main title, Darmstädter Echo, with 5 editions, as well as various weekly supplements, 18 different editions of free advertising newspapers, special supplements and magazines published at different intervals.
Shortly after starting the first internal training sessions, last June saw the publication of the first edition of its advertising publications. This was followed by more specific training aimed, amongst others, at the journalists of the main newspaper, Darmstädter Echo, which made possible a rapid change to the MILENIUM work environment at the beginning of July. In addition, this training was taken advantage of in order to centralise all of the work of the more general sections from VRM’s headquarters in Mainz. Throughout this training process, of paramount importance were the involvement of the editorial team, the training strategy designed being favoured by VRM’s prior knowledge of the MILENIUM solution and the fact that a team of technicians from VRM, led by Reinhard Küchler, were entrusted with the design and start up, supported at all times by Protecmedia.
In total, in less than ten weeks it was possible to carry out 18 training sessions with the participation of 100 journalists. In various half-day sessions training was given in the form of seven different modules, corresponding to the MILENIUM editorial system and the different tools used by VRM’s team of journalists for the preparation of news stories, including Protecmedia’s solution for the management of multimedia editorial assets, QUAY.
In the words of VRM’s management’s spokesman, Hans Georg Schnucker, “This acquisition helps to give the region of Darmstadt and surrounding areas an independent journalistic voice, offering its employees better perspectives. Given the challenge of the growing digitalisation of the media, the cooperation agreements between different regional media companies make it possible to guarantee the ability to innovate and be competitive, and to ensure quality journalism, in the future.”
The Rhein Main editorial group (VRM), whose headquarters are in the city of Mainz, is one of the most important traditional regional publication groups in Germany, with a sphere of influence that covers the Rin-Meno region. Among other publications, it edits the Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz, Wiesbadener Kurier and Gießener Anzeiger newspapers and, following the purchaser of the German company Echo Medien, it has expanded its sphere of influence to the Hesse region through its most important publication, Darstädter Echo. This means that it now reaches practically one million readers.
This important German publishing group has a digital audience of about 1.25 million individual users and is considered to be one of the most important and influential media companies in Germany. From its respective headquarters in Mainz and Darmstadt it also runs an important print centre located in Rüsselsheim.