"Brand" is too often delegated to marketing and forgotten by the rest of the organization. At Content Convention (ConCon) Mainz 2025, our CEO Christian Hanke and Johannes Vogel (CPRO at stern) shared why this siloed thinking is a critical mistake for modern media.
Relaunching an iconic brand like stern taught us that relevance isn't just a goal—it’s a team sport. In an era where misinformation threatens democracy, building a strong, credible media brand requires radical collaboration between editorial and product teams.
Three Lessons from the stern Relaunch:
A Shared Language: Use frameworks like the "credible narrative space" to align editorial, product, and brand decisions at the same table.
Radical Precision: Multi-brand environments require distinct entry points for different user archetypes. Relevance comes from curated, structured content.
Loyalty Takes Time: stern doubled its subscriptions this year, but staying relevant is a continuous effort.
Additionally, our colleague Daniel Geyer led a masterclass on AI-driven community moderation for Tagesschau, showcasing smart ways to reduce hate speech and enable constructive discussion.
Relevance is an Ongoing Process Building a digital brand that people truly value—and are willing to pay for—is a constant evolution. Our partnership with stern didn't end with a relaunch; it grows with every new subscriber and every new insight at the intersection of editorial and product. As we work together toward the goal of 100,000 subscribers by 2026, we will continue to share what it takes to keep a legacy brand relevant in a digitized world.
