The CUE publishing platform and digital asset management system will fuel production, publishing, and re-use of digital quality content at VRM, one of the largest regional media groups in Germany.
The German media company VRM, located in Mainz, recently decided on the CUE publishing platform and digital asset management (DAM) system from Stibo DX as the central technology in its newsrooms. The CUE platform will make it easier for VRM’s journalists and editors to produce, publish, and re-use content across a wide array of media and platforms.
At the same time, CUE's DAM-capabilities will make it possible to consolidate, catalog, find and re-use content more efficiently across the entire media group. Furthermore, it will make it easier to track the exact usage of licensed content and assets.
Spend more time creating quality content
By selling around 285,000 daily newspapers, such as Allgemeine Zeitung, Wiesbadener Kurier, Darmstädter Echo, Gießener Anzeiger and Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung, VRM is one of the largest regional media companies in Germany, reaching more than a million print readers in the Rhein Main area and in Central Hessen.
In addition, VRM reaches 2.5 million unique users with its online portals across the group and has more than 680,000 social media followers. Furthermore, VRM is a key partner in local and regional communities, for instance by initiating various social engagements and participating in numerous other enterprises.
"During the last couple of years, it has become apparent that we needed to change our structure and workflows to ensure a more efficient shift of focus from print towards digital," says Julia Lumma, Head of Content Development at VRM.
"We chose CUE, as we expect the platform to help us achieve this goal. Also, we want to enable our editorial team to spend more time creating quality content for our readers in a user-friendly and modern digital environment instead of having to work with numerous time-consuming systems", she explains.
A milestone in the digital strategy
The implementation of CUE is a project of strategic importance to VRM.
"We are pleased to have reached another elementary milestone in our digital strategy with Stibo DX's publishing platform by investing in forward-looking, modern technology. At the same time, we will use the opportunity to rethink how to implement processes and working methods successfully," says Joachim Liebler, CEO of the VRM.
"To us – and to many other companies in the media business – it is vital to rethink revenue streams and attract subscribers to our digital platforms. We initiated this journey well before 2020. But the COVID-19 crisis underscored the need to accelerate. We expect the CUE platform to be the right solution to support the process going forward," Joachim Liebler adds.
Efficient cloud-based solution
VRM's CUE installation will be hosted in Stibo DX's cloud in an AWS environment. This maximizes uptime and stability while eliminating the need for VRM to administrate, service, and maintain hardware and clouds themselves. Furthermore, Frankfurt's regional Amazon data center is close by, ensuring swift response and very low latency.
Dan Korsgaard, CEO of Stibo DX, adds: "VRM has high ambitions within the digital space. We look forward to supporting VRM in their efforts to become a digital-first media company."
