“Cutting costs with more efficient processes”

The media industry is facing a wide range of challenges. It has to contend with declining advertising revenues and print circulations while also keeping up with growing online competition. In a nutshell, the industry is under pressure from costs and is under pressure to innovate. There have been disruptive changes to its business models, mainly due to digitalization.

But new technological possibilities also provide media companies new opportunities by allowing them to optimize and standardize corporate processes already in place. We have already worked with a number of publishers to increase their efficiency by up to 30 percent, giving media companies a lean, agile structure in the long term and ultimately making them better prepared for the future.

Processes at publishing companies have often evolved with time, meaning that they are frequently outdated. The use of new technologies, however, gives publishers the opportunity to fully digitalize processes in marketing, advertising sales, production or elsewhere, letting them do business more efficiently and cost effectively.

For example, we recently centralized the planning process for the special editions of a newspaper at one media company. We optimized the publishing system to speed up the exchange of information, thereby facilitating collaboration and cooperation. As a result, we were able to shorten the planning process from six days to two.

The first step, of course, is to describe the business processes already in place and analyze them to determine the status quo. Here, we at Lufthansa Industry Solutions take a special process consulting approach that differs significantly from conventional benchmarking based on people and their performance. As a result, the approach focuses less on looking at figures, which often do not correctly reflect the problems. Instead, in our area of expertise, we have used a database to develop a reference process as a benchmark. Our many years of experience in the industry are also reflected in this process.

Using this best-in-class model, media companies can then work with us to take a look at where their own processes measure up to the standard and where there is potential for improvement. Then, and only then, do we develop a concept with them and implement targeted projects. This, by the way, is also one of the advantages Lufthansa Industry Solutions offers when it comes to process consulting: not only do we analyze the situation and develop concepts, we also partner up with our clients to implement the measures. Agile and lean processes then let media companies pursue innovative approaches that enable them to successfully offer their customers new services.