Two members of DRIVE, a collaboration of German and Austrian regional publishers, are working together to activate their local communities on the future of the North Sea.

In a presentation at INMA’s recent Media Innovation Week, DRIVE Product Manager Katja Fleischmann explained how newsrooms at Nordsee-Zeitung and Ostfriesen-Zeitung are becoming more relevant to a younger audience by collaborating on inspiring stories and positive news.

Joined by her colleague Daniel Noglik, a reporter at ZGO Zeitungsgruppe Ostfriesland (Germany), the pair highlighted the benefits of this collaboration, including efficiency gains through sharing work across newsrooms.

Collaboration across the region

The DRIVE initiative has shown that consumers want more positive news, solution-oriented stories and articles that help readers to understand complex issues. But this in-depth coverage comes at a cost: up to seven times more than producing a more traditional “updating” story, suggested Fleischmann.

The need for more constructive journalism has led to “Future North Sea” — a specific project within DRIVE. Publishers Ostfriesen-Zeitung and Nordsee-Zeitung are working together through a digital shared-desk that focuses on future topics of importance to local communities on the North Sea coastline. The collaboration aims to increase journalism that has local as well as cross-regional and cross-border relevance.

The project team uses a simple Google spreadsheet to enter topics, video, and audio that could be inspiring for people all over the North coast. “We use biweekly meetings to discuss the wins of the last two weeks and topics for next two weeks,” Noglik explained.

Stories resulting from the collaboration are shared between publishers, appearing in both newspapers. The project will launch editorial and topic pages in October to further enhance visibility. The benefit is twofold: higher efficiency due to a greater workforce across two newsrooms and access to greater expertise.

The collaboration has shown that local and regional articles are linked to increased readership and longer sessions on the Web site. For the reader, it equals more and better researched content for the same money.

Activating a younger audience

Data from the DRIVE initiative show editors focus on news items that update the reader, whereas the audience want stories that inspire. The key to becoming more relevant to a younger audience is publishing the content they want: “We have to translate the stories to readers’ realities and lives,” Fleischmann said.

The “Future North Sea” Project was born out of this need to engage local communities especially younger generations. The project targets youth involvement through collaboration with two local schools. Journalists have consulted with students to determine the topics they are most interested in: jobs, climate change, events, and respect.

It may come as no surprise that students’ preferred mediums are short videos and podcasts. As a result, the project will soon launch new joint products, including a podcast and newsletter.

News media and the future of the North Sea

The future of the North Sea offers great opportunities as well as risks for people living in the region. “We need a link between these people and regional publishers,” Fleischmann said. “We need more positive news, more solution-oriented stories, and more news that helps understand complex topics.” 

At the heart of the project lies an opportunity for editorial teams to reposition themselves to address local topics in a larger context. Topics of interest in the region include the future of the fishing industry, overtourism, and renewable energy. “It’s challenging. That’s why the news rooms and publishers have to collaborate on different levels,” Fleischmann said.

Thanks to the “Future North Sea” Project, the newsrooms have been able to cover stories they would have otherwise missed without the collaboration.

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