This is the weekend edition of TheMarioBlog. The next blog post is Monday, June 25.

The new and more engaging sudkurier.de digital remake is here. Take a look:

For me, returning to beautiful Lake Konstanz, in southern Germany, and a frisbee throw away from the Swiss border, was a homecoming of sorts. I had already worked with this regional major player twice before, both times with redesigns of the print product.

This time was different. It all began with an email from Matthias Kiechle, director of digital operations, inviting me to share ideas with them as they prepare to embark on a project of major proportions.

The briefing was ambitious and I admit that I read it several times to make sure it was something we at Garcia Media could tackle within the timeframe proposed.

The project was baptized SHIFT and it was a proper title, since this project involved plenty of shifting of ideas, of work habits, of story flow, of content strategy. If this was going to be a success, everyone had to do some shifting, which they all did. Here you see me in one of the final workshops of the project, presenting the new concepts to the newsroom:

The briefing

Highlights of the briefing included the following provocative questions:

–is the strategic orientation of SÜDKURIER Online right?

–does it make sense to bring the website closer to the newspaper-brand?

–are the concepts for sales-funnel, conversion-optimization and paid content coherent?

–is our content-strategy right?

–does the story map seem complete and well-structured?

The issue of branding: An important part of this project was to

achieve a goal that was clear from the start. How could we transfer the feeling of quality journalism that is so a part of the Sudkurier DNA in print to its online/digital offerings?

The issue of user experience and interaction: Most important also, how to increase engagement. The goal here– to: increase activity und loyality of our users, increase conversions, inspire users.

The workshops

We decided from the start that the most logical system for us to accomplish our goals would be via workshops in house. Our art director for in this project, Andy Rossback, and I conducted more than a dozen workshops, sometimes via Skype conferencing, approaching all the topics above, but also making sure that once we knew what we were going to do and had wire frames that could be turned into finished designs, that we would train all journalists in the new ways of telling stories.

The workshops dealt with the state of the media today, how we get information in the digital age, the best of user experience, and, most importantly, how to tell stories digitally, as in linear storytelling, something that the journalists at Sudkurier took to immediately with great results. Soon after our first workshop, already the first stories created specifically for digital began to appear.

The process

We began with several prototypes of how we envisioned that the new suedkurier.com could be, as you see here:

The team settled for this look and feel, which was also presented to readers.

The Persona concept

While we were busy working on wireframes and creating a look and feel, the editors were busy with the execution of the so called Persona concept, which was based on getting down to the details and profiles of who the Sudkurier audience was.

With Persona, the editors would identify a man reader in two or three versions: male young and educated, middle aged and with less education, young woman and mother of little children, or mature woman with children away from home. WE would review each of the profiles and study how these particular readers would approach Sudkurier.de and at what time and for what purpose.

„We took two of the created and validated personas, and for four months we created dozens of stories especially for them in the local editorial team of Konstanz. We also tried to focus most of the other stories on their needs. The results? Overwhelming, both in the increase of reach, user engagement and conversions.“

Sebastian Pantel, Head of Editorial Team Online

Linear storytelling

I am delighted to see how the Sudkurier team has taken to the new genre of digital storytelling for mobile, as we can see on the stories here:

— www.suedkurier.de/9307608: A visual story about how rescuers simulated a catastrophe in a tunnel.

– www.suedkurier.de/9288111: A visual story about a 99-year-old boat that turned into a swimming bar.

– www.suedkurier.de/9754982: A photo-story about a man remembering the 1968-movement in Konstanz 50 years ago.

We conducted several hands on workshops, like this one here, to familiarize journalists with new styles of digital storytelling, with emphasis on linear storytelling for mobile.

Notice that in a typical linear storytelling workshop we would have the journalists sketch their story concept in a storyboard format, using paper and Post It stickies.

The reactions

According to Günter Ackermann, managing editor, overall the reactions so far are favorable:

“This looks like a professional newspaper for which one is willing to pay. That’s what we wanted.”

Introducing the new look

Take a look at this segment on the first day of the newly transformed website:

https://www.suedkurier.de/services/community/Die-neue-SUEDKURIER-Website-Ein-Wegweiser;art773796,9768429

The essentials

Type: Mainly used Franklin across the site, which is the main face in the print edition. Body is set in PT Serif, available from Google.

The home page

Mobile.

Article page, one of several configurations.

Mobile article:

Section pages highlight with portraits of the writers who cover that region. Minimal color palette: mostly grays, champagne and Sudkurier famous blue. Red kickers add some newsy feel.

Andy explains the next feature:

One feature we added, dubbed The Handshake Box, by the team. We move all call to actions into one central box on the page, instead of many different modules on the site requesting your attention. Overtime, deeper personalization will grow in these areas of the site which are placed on a champagne colored background. Our system is to use champagne when the paper is speaking directly to its readers, i.e., recommending a newsletter, or an opinion article, or just telling them the most important stories of the day in their region. In the long term, this box will serve different options depending on whether the reader is logged in, subscribed, celebrating their birthday, etc. It better helps focus the users attention at first on entering the funnel and eventually becoming a subscriber.

The print edition

Today’s front page of Sudkurier’s print edition:

The team

Our Garcia Media team for this project consisted of Andy Rossback, chief art director and user experience expert, with our team in Buenos Aires, senior art directors Paula Ripoll and Rodrigo Fino.

Here is how Andy summarized the experience:

“The Sudkurier team was such a pleasure to work with. They are detail-oriented and forward-thinking. True innovators. Their new site and subscription model advances them near the front of the lineup among German newspapers. Well-executed, strategic, personalized.”

From Sudkurier internal team: