Mediengruppe Bayern

1. The Challenge: Too many systems, too little time

Mediengruppe Bayern, a leading German newspaper publisher, faced a significant operational challenge. Through the years, they have acquired several local newspapers, which left them with a digital infrastructure composed of five distinct and isolated Content Management Systems (CMS). These left editors forced to navigate up to five different platforms every day to publish content, resulting in wasted time, inconsistent workflows, and inefficiency.

This wasn’t made easier by the sheer volume of content published at Mediengruppe Bayern. The company processes approximately 25,000 new articles every month, an amount that was simply unmanageable with their existing, disconnected systems. They needed a much more sustainable, organized platform capable of supporting both their current structure as well as future growth.

2. Turning five systems into one with Ibexa DXP

To solve this challenge, Mediengruppe Bayern made a strategic decision to consolidate its entire digital infrastructure onto a single, scalable platform: Ibexa Digital Experience Platform (DXP).

The goal was not only to centralize their content but also to implement a modern architecture that could deliver content efficiently to their many domains as well as their news apps, including PNP News, DK News, and MZ News, through Ibexa. This transformation would empower their teams to focus on content and journalism, not complex technology.

3. Key improvements

The implementation of Ibexa DXP was a game-changer, introducing several key features that directly addressed their core challenges of efficiency and scalability.

A. Simplifying the editorial workflow

The new system was designed to improve the day-to-day lives of the editors by automating manual tasks and simplifying complex processes.

- Keep editors in their familiar surroundings: Since editors were already navigating too many systems, the last thing they needed was to learn to use yet another tool. That’s why the new workflow separated the online and offline editorial duties. Instead of forcing all editors of the 8,500 employees to use the DXP, Ibexa integrated seamlessly with the print editors' existing system via a custom API. This means content is automatically ingested into Ibexa DXP, while only a dedicated team of 20 (20 news editors, 40 total with online sales and product managers) online editors works directly within the DXP. This allows editors to remain in their familiar surroundings while ensuring all content is centralized.

- Write once, publish anywhere: One of the most significant efficiency gains came from Ibexa's ability to reuse content across multiple platforms. Using the platform's "location" feature, editors can publish a single article and reuse it across very different content universes. With Mediengruppe Bayern running almost 40 newspapers, this saves hours of duplication work. 

With Ibexa, one change in the backend instantly shows up across 6 different domains. This eliminates the need for manual content duplication while ensuring consistency, making the lives of our editors so much easier

Mathias Adam
Product Owner, Mediengruppe Bayern 

 

- Automatic content prioritization: To handle the immense content volume, the team implemented a clever automation system using a custom "priority" field. This field allows the system to automatically place new articles where they are most relevant, freeing editors from the manual task of sorting every single article. For example, a Priority 1 article is automatically featured as a main headline, while a Priority 7 article is relegated to a local news ticker. This automation ensures that content is always correctly positioned, even with thousands of new articles flowing in.

- Dynamic Page Building: Ibexa DXP's customizable Page Builder provides editors with the flexibility to quickly adapt their digital frontends without any coding knowledge. For a breaking news event, an editor can change a homepage layout from a single-article highlight to a four-highlight display in approximately one minute. This is crucial for a news organization that needs to respond to events in real time.

B. Long-term scalability: Building a platform for the future

Beyond daily efficiency, the Ibexa DXP provides a robust technical foundation designed to handle even more publications going forward.

- One unified platform: Goodbye to the mess of 5 CMSs. Today, the entire system is simplified, making it easier to manage and scale a constantly growing number of domains and news apps. Right now, the platform's massive repository holds 2.2 million articles and 2.9 million images, proving its ability to scale.

- Performance under pressure: Mediengruppe Bayern built a resilient infrastructure to handle extreme traffic. Using Fastly caching and Akamai CDN, the system is built to stay stable even when traffic surges 30–40x higher during election nights.

- Built to connect: With an API-first approach, the DXP plugs into other core systems like their own Single Sign-On (SSO). This ensures data security and flexibility, allowing them to connect with any future services they may need, without being tied to a single vendor.

Key takeaways