"Let's omit all the old technology," was the decision of the publishing couple Friedrich, the new owners of the Berliner Zeitung. The agile publishing solution at Neue Zürcher Zeitung convinced them after a worldwide scan of the technology options. This has been in use at Switzerland's oldest newspaper since 2017. Behind it are the start-up company Livingdocs and the software company Netcetera. With the lean technology components of "Forward Publishing", they implemented an initial package that inspires both editorial staff and readers, because it runs intuitively and quickly.

"It was fast," explains Aljoscha Brell, head of Berliner Newsroom GmbH. "Normally, such conversion projects take one year to design and two years to implement. Thanks to the Swiss product developers and implementation partners, we were able to launch the website, a redesign and the entire production system in record time on 8 November and roll out the native apps around two weeks later.”

Digital Transformation

"Forward Publishing" is a complete solution for media houses and publishers that can be installed and rolled out within a few weeks. Netcetera teamed up with CMS manufacturer Livingdocs in January after having developed various publishing products together for the NZZ media group and other large publishers. The "Forward Publishing" package is modular, digital and supports the mobile-first approach.

Fresh Look

"The current layout now looks tidy - the old page was static and unsorted in comparison. We can now highlight key topics and vary the design with elements. Everything is just much more coherent than before, which was constantly taken into account during development," explains Julia Grass, Head of Social Media at Berliner Zeitung. "They really excelled our expectations," praises Brell. "The main thing is that the team commits itself and can make quick decisions. Thanks to the Swiss who were responsible for the project, we managed to achieve such good quality in such a short time".