As AI use cases in newsrooms become increasingly common, a recurring question arising for news organisations is how to use AI effectively for print production.

During this week’s Webinar, presented by the INMA Generative AI Initiative, members heard how news media organisations are leveraging AI to improve their print operations. Moderated by Sonali Verma, lead of the initiative, the Webinar featured Gregor Zoller, director of IT for Germany’s Medienholding Süd, and Benjamin Peetre, senior business developer for print at Bonnier News in Sweden.

“Depending on where in the world you look, even in this highly digital era, print is an incredibly important source of revenue,” Verma explained. “So this is something that every newspaper wants to get right without compromising on quality. Print production still takes up a huge amount of time and effort for many, many news brands.”

How Medienholding Süd embraced automation

Zoller shared his company’s journey to print automation by emphasising three critical elements: people, processes, and tech. Despite the evolving digital environment, the company still maintained a strong focus on print, he said, both in the minds of people and the processes in place: “This was something we saw was still very much rooted in our DNA.”   

Medienholding Süd is a regional publishing group in southwestern Germany with 10 digital news sites, three news apps, and 17 print dailies that include e-paper editions. It has 500 journalists across its newsrooms who produce content, and Zoller said that whilst the company recognised that automation could improve efficiency, there were concerns that the tradeoff would be quality, as all pages would have “a monotonous look” and not be as visually appealing as the existing print product.

“Print is a premium product where we also ask for a premium price,” Zoller said. “So this is something where we still want to have a very, very good visual quality of those pages.”

One problem facing the company was that as people left the print production team, it was increasingly difficult to find suitable replacements, Zoller said: “It was hard to find somebody who would do it, so we deemed it helpful to automate to use less staff.”

 Approaching the solution

Once Medienholding Süd decided to explore print automation, it assessed its existing infrastructure and identified areas for improvement. It implemented Sophi.io print automation, which worked in conjunction with its existing Eidosmedia Methode editorial system.

In addition to considering the technology, it had to consider how to integrate its extensive stylebook that had been developed through previous layout consolidation efforts.

“We had very clear rules as to what could happen in the print editions and what could not happen,” Zoller said. “It turned out to be a vital part in the automation journey to really understand what can be there and what cannot be there.”

The final component was to create clarity around what the new system was capable of, he said. Such expectation management was crucial “so that the organisation would understand the starting point in this whole journey.”

Running the project

Despite this being a tech-driven initiative, Zoller said the most important aspect of its implementation was culture. This included being transparent about what was happening and why, as well as clarifying expectations.

“When we entered the communication phase in the project, we always put quite a bit of energy into explaining the why. So why do we do this? What’s the reason behind it? … We just wanted to make it very tangible as to what’s the reason behind our efforts.”

Processes also had to be addressed, and Zoller said it was critical “to be very precise and very strict” about sticking to the newly defined workflows. Different workflows were created for digital creation processes and print production, with “very clear roles and very clear processes.”

The tech aspect was also new for teams.

“We tried to do quite a bit of training so that tech teams doing the project would be well prepared for this new topic,” Zoller said. Tech teams also met with vendors to understand what needed to be done and to determine the new approach.

“Of course we wanted to be quick, but also we wanted to get good quality out of it,” Zoller explained, adding that it used a three-month initial training phase with Sophie, followed by additional training three months later, concluding with a two-month refinement phase: “We just wanted to get really good results and we did that refinement to improve on the results that we were seeing.”

What they learned

Medienholding Süd’s journey to automate its print production was about far more than just implementing new technology — it was a cultural shift.

“Yes, there is tech enabling it, but it’s about culture,” Zoller said. “It’s about explaining to people why we do it. It’s about explaining that this is a future initiative and this has to happen in order to be competitive.”

Staff needed to understand that this was not simply a tech upgrade, but a fundamental change in how they worked and thought about their roles.

One of the toughest but most crucial steps was enforcing a clean break from old production habits, Zoller said. The team had to implement strict, non-negotiable rules around workflows to eliminate ambiguity.

“That’s the way it has to be because they have been used to doing it in different way for many, many years in the past,” Zoller said. “And you cannot get that out of people’s heads if you give too much flexibility around it.”

Equally important was the deliberate choice to simplify print layouts — not because the software demanded it, but because simpler layouts enabled more efficient production. Framing this as a conscious, strategic decision helped maintain team morale and focus, rather than blaming limitations on technology.

Also key to the success of this transformation was creating new, highly skilled roles — like the AI-based print producer — and empowering editorial “power users.” These individuals became in-house experts who could support colleagues and reduce the burden on the tech team.

Finally, Medienholding Süd emphasised that automating print was not just about efficiency. By streamlining this legacy process, it freed up energy and resources to invest in further innovation.

“It gives us that room for digital growth, it gives us that free space in our head to focus on the competitive advantage and that we can create around digital,” Zoller said.

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