scoopcamp 2024

Hamburg publisher conference scoopcamp a complete success with 130 participants

• This year's conference focussed on the question of financing journalism
• Around 130 experts from the publishing industry discussed the future of the industry at scoopcamp 2024
• Dr Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media, presents the scoop Award 2024 to "Lage der Nation"

Hamburg, 12 September 2024 - The 16th scoopcamp was once again a complete success with almost 130 participants. As in the previous year, the conference took place at SPACE, the innovation and community space of nextMedia.Hamburg, in Hamburg's HafenCity.

The panels, keynote speeches and fireside chats were curated by nextMedia.Hamburg and a board of eleven leading media companies. The experts who enriched the scoopcamp with their input were not only to be found on stage - they discussed their experiences and backgrounds with participants in open themed rooms.

Nina Klaß, Head of nextMedia.Hamburg, emphasised the current importance of the conference right at the start of the 16th scoopcamp. "Never has penetrating the truth been so important and so difficult at the same time. That's why it's so important to us that journalism works. And that's why the scoopcamp exists," says Klaß.

"Lage der Nation" receives the scoop award

Dr Carsten Brosda, Hamburg's Senator for Culture and Media, used the presentation of the scoop Award to honour the achievements of this year's award winners Philip Banse and Ulf Buermeyer. In his laudatory speech, Brosda emphasised how well the two had succeeded in combining added social value with a wide reach: "Die Lage der Nation is characterised by a combination of journalistic expertise, in-depth analyses, comprehensibility and transparency. Current events are analysed in depth and communicated in a very accessible way. Philip Banse and Ulf Buermeyer thus show how journalistic core competences can be successfully translated into new media environments and thus become even more attractive."

After the award ceremony, the two podcast hosts provided exciting insights into the inner workings of their successful project in an interview with Dr Nina Klaß. In addition to the story of how it came about, they also talked about the values that Buermeyer and Banse represent with their work: "We are clearly committed to democracy and upholding human rights, that is our baseline." At the same time, they called journalism to account: it too must ask itself what its own values are and how it can live up to them.

Digital strategies: paid content and journalism on social media

Content creator and journalist Fabian Grischkat then opened the conference with a keynote speech on the working methods of "newsfluencers". Grischkat explained how journalism can work on social media and gave specific tips for content creation.

Johannes Vogel (Stern, Geo, Capital) and Johannes Hauner (Süddeutsche Zeitung) joined Christoph Zimmer (Der Spiegel) on their panel to discuss developments in paid content strategies over the last ten years. In their conversation, they emphasised the growing importance of data analyses, especially with regard to the management of existing subscribers.

MOPO publisher Arist von Harpe provided exciting insights into a current transformation process in the Fireside Chat with Cordula Schmitz (Hamburger Abendblatt). Von Harpe spoke openly about the transformation of the Hamburger Morgenpost from a daily to a weekly newspaper and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the changeover.

New opportunities through AI

Laura Seiffe (ZEIT Verlagsgruppe) and Holger Volland (brand eins) spoke in their panel about how traditional publishers can already utilise artificial intelligence for their own benefit. Seiffe gave exciting insights into ZEIT's AI strategy and discussed how smaller publishers can also find their way with AI.

In the subsequent discussion with Bianca Voigt (Zeit Online), Katja Fleischmann (dpa) provided insights into the work of DRIVE, Europe's largest collaborative data project, in which more than 30 regional publishers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are participating. Intelligent tools are being developed here on the basis of countless pieces of data to help editorial teams make their work more efficient and their articles even more attractive.

Learning from other industries and new technologies

The "Beyond News" topic area focussed on new applications and technologies. Imke Becker (Zeit Online) spoke with Michael Lenz (InnoGames) about what publishers can learn from the gaming industry when it comes to monetising their own content. Roja Kunze (Der Spiegel) gave an insight into Spiegel Debatte as an alternative to the classic commentary section. They have given up quantity for quality and made the right decision, explained Kunze. The last Fireside Chat of the day was held by Björn Staschen (TheNewSocial.de) and Sebastian Lasse (Fediverse). They focussed on the Fediverse social networks and why they should be considered as an alternative to established giants such as Instagram, X or TikTok, especially by media companies.

About the scoopcamp:
The scoopcamp is the conference for the journalism of the future. Every year since 2009, nextMedia.Hamburg has invited more than 150
experts, decision-makers and innovators from the media industry to discuss trends and current topics in journalism.
journalism. As an innovation conference, the scoopcamp is an exclusive platform where the future of journalism is not only discussed, but
journalism is not only discussed, but actively driven forward by industry players. Further information on the
event at www.scoopcamp.de.

About nextMedia.Hamburg:
nextMedia.Hamburg is the first point of contact and innovation support for Hamburg's media and digital industry.
Its aim is to expand Hamburg's leading position as a media and digital centre. To this end, the initiative promotes
programmes, events and content to promote sustainable business models at the interface between content and technology.
of content and technology. nextMedia.Hamburg is supported by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and is part of the
Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft. Further information on the initiative can be found at www.nextmedia-hamburg.de.