To be launched at the end of October 2024, the new stern.de website and Stern+ app were announced in a recent business update from Gregor Peter Schmitz, Chairman of the Editorial Board of Stern, and Johannes Vogel, Chief Product & Revenue Officer. Stern, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2023, is committed to quality journalism and stands for emotions, quality photography, reports, analyses and entertainment. The digital expansion of Stern was announced as part of the reorganisation of RTL Deutschland’s publishing business in February 2023.

The first step will be the launch of a Minimal Lovable Product (MLP) – a first version of the website and app that will enable users to visualise the development process over the past seven months. In addition to structural and visual changes, Stern+ includes even more content from partner brands Geo and Capital, alongside more video and multimedia content from RTL News. “This launch is just the beginning,” emphasises Steffi Dobmeier, Head of Digital & Editorial Development at Stern, “because we will continue to develop Stern’s digital products.”

“Well tell stories that move Germany,” – with this motto, Stern strengthened its journalistic offering last year to position itself more clearly and gain new appeal and relevance across all media genres. The digital products will emphasise and further strengthen this proposition. The decision to reposition Stern digitally as a successful paid content business model, focusing on paid content and high-quality advertising, was made in summer 2023. Following the appointment of Johannes Vogel as Chief Product & Revenue Officer for Stern, Geo and Capital, parts of the technical infrastructure were replaced, the editorial team was restructured, the digital brands were developed and new digital products were created.

Gregor Peter Schmitz, Chairman of the Editorial Board of Stern, says: “We are recharging this promise with stories every day. We are up to date, but clearly set our own course. We discuss without pointing fingers. We entertain and now, we can also show our visual strength – which has long been familiar in the printed magazine – digitally. We have already become more relevant, and Stern is recognised strongly. We can see this in the citation rankings, where we have shot up significantly in the past year, and we notice this in our print reach measurement, where we recently overtook Der Spiegel several times.”

Johannes Vogel, Chief Product & Revenue Officer for RTL News brands Stern, Geo, Capital and Stern+, says: “We put the user experience at the centre of our concept. Our aim is to offer a paid service for all those looking for well-structured, up-to-date news, alongside great background stories, interviews and reports, opulent images and exciting audio and video content. By conducting qualitative interviews, we were able to understand what our users would change about the current products. We are now systematically expanding the integration of the three brands by integrating articles from Geo and Capital into Stern and the new ‘Discover’ section of the Stern+ app – thus securing an essential competitive advantage.”

Users can expect stunning visuals, user-centric features and a clear navigation structure from the new digital products. Behind the scenes, a new technical infrastructure for login, checkout and digital subscription management went live for stern.de in July 2024 – and has already led to a significant increase in subscription conversion. The replacement of the existing paywall, which will use AI tools to optimise and automate the offer of different subscription models, will begin at the end of 2024. Further purchase models will be designed and tested in 2025, and the first gamification and bundle offers will be available – including special upgrade offers for RTL+ customers.

In the editorial department, the previous separation between print and digital no longer exists. “We work together on Stern,” explains Gregor Peter Schmitz, “regardless of the channels where our content is played out.” For the Product & Revenue division, this means interdisciplinary teams will continuously develop the various products from the website to apps, newsletters, audio offerings and other sub-products in the future. “We are increasingly focusing on digital success,” continues Gregor Peter Schmitz, “and with the support of AI, we are looking closer at figures and usage data, to see how our content can best reach the right target groups.”