Rainer Esser: How to turn a failing newspaper into a digital powerhouse

AI: The Art of the Interview

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What if the path out of media’s crisis is play, not panic? We sit down with author and journalist Malte Herwig to unpack how Rainer Esser took Germany’s stuffy weekly, Die Zeit, and turned it into a modern, multi-platform powerhouse—without gutting the newsroom. Instead of chasing shortcuts, Esser built a “dolphin culture” where curiosity is the norm, failure is data, and investment in journalists drives sustainable growth.
We explore the leadership choices that mattered: expanding the editorial team sixfold, quadrupling revenue, and betting early on podcasts that led to 20 million monthly downloads and paid subscriptions. You’ll hear how a candid understanding of readers powered disciplined brand extensions—from magazines and e-learning to travel and yes, limited-edition watches—while staying true to quality and intellectual curiosity. We also get into the tough stuff: working with big tech on pragmatic terms, prioritizing digital subscriptions as the königsweg, and holding the line on editorial independence and data control.
Then we zoom into AI with a clear-eyed lens. Malte explains how Die Zeit’s AskZeit („Fragen Sie Zeit Online“) tool uses retrieval-augmented generation to answer questions from a fact-checked archive with full citations—an approach that builds trust instead of eroding it. We dig into concrete workflows that help reporters reclaim hours—transcription, research synthesis, angle generation—while keeping human judgment at the center. If you lead a local newsroom or a lean team, you’ll get a practical playbook for adopting AI incrementally, measuring outcomes, and protecting core values. The takeaway is simple and bold: stay curious, experiment in public, show your work, and keep asking whether each tool helps you serve your audience better.
If this conversation sparks ideas, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a quick review—what’s the one experiment you’ll try this week?

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פרקים

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Leadership That Welcomes Failure (00:01:01)

3. From Deficit To Growth (00:03:26)

4. Building Dolphin Culture (00:06:06)

5. Podcasts As A Test Bed (00:08:35)

6. Brand Extensions With Discipline (00:11:15)

7. Navigating Big Tech On Their Terms (00:13:51)

8. AI As Human Amplifier (00:15:50)

9. Trust, Transparency, And RAG (00:19:06)

10. Servant Leadership In Action (00:22:02)