NURIO wants to lead people back to fact-based journalism. The platform operates at the interface between social responsibility and the modern working world and offers employees easy access to quality media.
The idea for NURIO was born on an ordinary weekday in Hamburg's Schanzenviertel district, somewhere between lunch break and political frustration. The founders Heiner and Sebastian were discussing the social mood, the increase in polarization and the growing difficulty of finding reliable information. A question arose from this conversation: "How do we get people away from social media and back to high-quality, editorial journalism?" The answer: with a platform that makes quality journalism easily accessible.
What began as an idea quickly became a project and eventually the start-up NURIO. Heiner and Sebastian were soon joined by Marco and Torsten. All four knew each other from their time at New Work SE and all brought different skills to the table: Expertise from HR solutions, technical knowledge, sales know-how and experience with agile product development. With NURIO, they are pursuing the goal of reducing the spread of disinformation, promoting information diversity and thus reducing polarization in the long term. "By offering a platform that supports transparency and diversity in reporting," explains Sebastian, "we are making a contribution to democratic discourse."
Here you can find more information about the start-up incubator Media Lift.
To the program
NURIO is an employer benefit for high-quality journalism - comparable to JobRad for bicycles. Companies offer their employees tax-free access to quality news and thus strengthen both their employer brand and the informed social discourse.
But NURIO is much more than a digital tool in the fight against disinformation. The platform pursues a dual objective: it aims to strengthen democratic opinion-forming and offer companies an innovative opportunity to position their employer brand responsibly. The founders are convinced that those who assume social responsibility today not only gain trust, but also become more attractive in the competition for talent. NURIO quickly found its niche where employers and employees meet. The principle is reminiscent of well-known benefits such as JobRad, only for the head instead of the bike. "We offer a platform that companies can use to give their employees uncomplicated access to high-quality news content as part of monthly, tax-free allowances," explains co-founder Sebastian. The idea of using journalistic quality as an employer benefit is based on the founding team's practical experience with HR solutions and employer branding. "Easy access to quality media as an employer benefit" is how NURIO sums up its claim.
But how exactly does NURIO work? Sebastian explains: "Companies set an individual budget on NURIO for each employee. Employees then choose which quality news subscriptions they would like to receive via the platform." Whether a national daily newspaper, specialist magazine or international news service, NURIO bundles the variety of editorial content. As soon as the selection has been made, NURIO takes care of the entire process. The platform sets up the subscriptions directly with the respective publishers and provides employees with a personal voucher code. They can use this to activate their subscription. Billing is handled by the respective publisher. The special advantage: "NURIO bundles the individual invoices for all subscriptions per employer and forwards them for tax-optimized billing," says Sebastian. A simple, flexible system that makes journalistic quality accessible and is aimed specifically at medium-sized to large companies in Germany.
The first steps have already been taken for this project: NURIO has successfully presented the product-brand fit and implemented the minimum viable product (MVP). The next step is now market entry. "We are integrating all relevant key media to prepare for the go-live," explains Sebastian. The focus is on acquiring customers who want to set an example for an informed society and the strengthening of democracy in Germany.
