DRIVE Whitepaper on the Digital Future of Local Newspapers

To ensure comprehensive local journalism remains viable in the future, newspaper publishers must develop new digital offerings to engage the younger generation. This requires not only new journalistic formats but also the extensive use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence, as well as cross-publisher collaboration.

Rethinking Local Journalism

According to the authors’ assessments, publishers face the challenge of fundamentally rethinking the concept of local journalism—taking inspiration from social media and streaming platforms to meet the preferences of target audiences. The report recommends broad adoption of technologies in content production and highlights the importance of maintaining local presence and strengthening personal customer relationships.

Membership Model Instead of Customer Relationships

The whitepaper highlights successful concepts for local journalism from the USA, Scandinavia, Belgium, and the Netherlands, bundling recommendations for business models, new technologies, and newsroom and publishing organization innovations.

“The publishing industry has made great strides in its digital transformation. By utilizing new technologies such as AI, aligning their offerings with the needs of their audience, and embracing expanded collaborations, publishers can now take the next major step in their development,” says Dr. Christoph Mayer, Partner at Highberg.

“In light of the risks of disinformation and fake news, local journalism has a major opportunity to establish itself as a trusted source for younger generations, even becoming a cornerstone for their understanding of the world around them,” adds Meinolf Ellers, Director of Strategic Corporate Development at dpa.

 

The day after – local newspapers without print

The full white paper is available to download for free:

About DRIVE

DRIVE was founded in 2020 by the German Press Agency (dpa) and the management consultancy Highberg (formerly Schickler) to support regional publishers in digital transformation through the combined use of data analytics and AI algorithms. To date, around 30 publishers from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have joined the project.

Contact

Katja Fleischmann (dpa/DRIVE, E-mail: katja.fleischmann@dpa-info.com)
Meinolf Ellers (dpa/DRIVE, E-mail: meinolf.ellers@dpa.com)
Christoph Mayer (Highberg/DRIVE, E-mail: christoph.mayer@highberg.com)