In a time when streaming video has become a preferred way of consuming content, news organisations are looking for ways to create community through their own use of video.

Documentaries are driving engagement for services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, so can news publishers benefit from it, too? 

Augsburger Allgemeine in Augsburg, Germany, wanted to introduce new forms of storytelling to its audiences using audio and video. So, it launched a local video documentary series to complement and diversify its hyper-local content.

The Augsburger Allgemeine Original project was designed to increase reach and engagement and sustain it. The goal is to use this engagement to boost reader loyalty and grow digital subscriptions. 

Creating a new series

To launch a new series, the company brought together members of the editor-in-chief team, the digital editorial team, and from pd next, its innovation unit. The pilot project was billed as a co-production between Augsburger Allgemeine and pd next.

The five-person project team crafted a series that told the stories of the people who make up the fabric of the local community. The subject matter is intentionally focused on issues and original stories that surprise the audience, inspire them, and potentially turn them into loyal brand ambassadors and friends. 

The productions are posted on the Augsburger Allgemeine Web site and highlighted in the daily newspaper, podcast, and social media channels. Since July 2021, it has released four mini-series featuring hyper-local content.

The first documentary series, 88 Cents and Three Prayers — One Day in the Fuggerei, was a four-part series inside the social housing community Fuggereiin Augsburg. The community, which houses only Catholics, celebrated its 500^th anniversary in 2021 and the documentary provided a rare look inside the community and showed why the people love it so much. 

Tapping into the true crime fascination, the two-part documentary series Tracing the Murder of an Augsburg Policeman looked at the 10-year-old case of a slain officer, including interviews with a reporter and police officer who remembered the night of the shooting and the investigation that followed.

 On a lighter note, Over the Roofs of Augsburg went inside Hotel Dorint, the highest building in Augsburg that serves as the city’s unofficial symbol. The only skyscraper in Augsburg turned 50 in 2022, and this four-part series offered exclusive peeks inside the luxury suites and the hidden 18^th floor. 

For its most recent production, Augsburger Allgemeine released Mensch, Maxstraße, which took viewers on a tour of Maximilianstraße, Augsburg’s most famous boulevard lined with pubs, churches, antique shops, clubs, and restaurants. The documentary took viewers on a rare, behind-the-scenes tour of the well-known street.     

For this production, Augsburger Allgemeine held an exclusive event for subscribers, which featured the documentary being screened at a movie theatre. In addition to being able to talk with the series’ creators, subscribers were invited to make suggestions for future documentary topics.  

Reaching new subscribers

Audiences responded positively to the documentary format, and 100,000 readers saw content from Augsburger Allgemeine Original productions in their daily newspapers.

The productions were seen more than 100,000 times on the Web site, and 160,000 views of the free Augsburger Allgemeine Original videos were seen on social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. (Augsburger Allgemeine makes about half its videos available for free on these social channels, making the other half exclusive to digital subscribers.) 

The series also brought another 130 subscribers to the company, who signed on and bought subscriptions to see the exclusive documentary videos.

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