Gruner + Jahr (part of RTL Deutschland) worked with the Google News Initiative (GNI) from 2023 through 2024 to create an internal AI community within the organisation that would move the company toward embracing technological change. Google News Initiatives Strategic Partner Manager Marco Rodriguez Varela sat down with RTL Senior Vice President of Product and Brands Sarah Schüle to discuss the project and how it has transformed the company as a whole. AI technology empowered employees and the internal AI community fostered knowledge sharing.The cultural shift towards agility with AI is expected to drive creation and innovation within the company.

Marco: Tell us about the challenges you were facing as a company that led you to work with the Google News Initiative.

Sarah: Over the last several years, we had to transform because of major changes in the media landscape around the way content is produced, consumed, and distributed. The whole business model had to change. With RTL Deutschland, we have a strong partner at our side who helps us face these challenges and supports our transformation.

Then AI came along, and we all felt like our transformation needs were suddenly even greater. We knew that the best way to adapt to change is to be really agile in how teams work, and we needed to find a way to extend this openness to change the company as a whole. First, we had to convince everyone that change is good; then, we had to get people to learn how to work with this new technology, to not fear that it would take their jobs, and to integrate it into our day-to-day work.

Marco: What was your reason for engaging in GenAI specifically for this project?

Sarah: GenAI is new enough that even our more technically-savvy employees had a lot to learn. With GenAI, everyone can be a content creator, so everyone around us has the tools available to us as a media company. So, for us, the challenge was not only to become more efficient in the way we work but to find out how we can adapt faster to changes because we see that these changes are here to stay.

Marco: Tell us about the AI community you created.

Sarah: We built this internal community as a platform for sharing knowledge and best practices. There were different tracks on things like ethical AI use, AI content creation, and improving workflows through automation. Everyone in the AI community came together to learn, and that is really what has transformed us into a more agile company. It was okay that you weren't an expert in AI because we had a trusted circle within the company that was excited to give updates, to teach, and to help you implement AI. I think that, for many employees, it was the first time they worked on cross-departmental teams. GenAI was a vehicle for getting to this agile company structure.

Marco: What will be the impact on your readers?

Sarah: While the AI community itself isn’t visible to our end users, what we aim to do is maintain our high-quality content creation. We are convinced that you need people to do that. There are areas where GenAI tools can help, such as making it easier for us to create content by supporting things like administrative tasks, research, and content personalization. With an openness to new kinds of product development features, a company can create products that are even cooler for the end user than they are today. It's really a cultural change within the company that’s providing an opportunity for more creation and innovation.

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Founded in 1965, Gruner + Jahr is home to over 500 magazines and digital products, among them BRIGITTE, GALA, and Chefkoch. The publishing house joined with RTL Deutschland in 2022 to form Germany's leading entertainment company. In recent years, they have reshaped established brands and cultivated new business models to evolve with the ever-changing media landscape.