Case 6: New Business Models for Heise Medien: Heading for the Digital Transformation

Case Synopsis

The Heise Media Group, a family-owned company, dates back to
1949. In its early days, the company specialized in telephone directories and
other reference books, but it added magazines to its product offerings in 1977.
Today, third-generation Ansgar Heise is still a top-level executive, and Dr.
Alfons Schräder is the general manager. Under their guidance, the company has
diversified into both fiction and nonfiction publications in print and digital.

 

The firm is particularly
strong in publications about technology, and it is perhaps not surprising that
Heise was an early adopter of digital publishing methods. The firm’s magazine c’t is the most subscribed-to IT
magazine in Europe, and a team of 70 experts working in a test lab ensure that unbiased,
up-to-date information is published on the magazine’s pages. The editors also
developed heise online, which is one
of the top online IT and technology news outlets. The company’s other product
offerings include business-to-business services and events, such as conferences
and webcasts.

For the past several
decades, publishing industry experts have been predicting the demise of print
media, and in fact, statistics show decreases in magazine subscriptions and
advertising. Although print isn’t obsolete yet, publishers like Heise have had
to develop new strategies for attracting younger customers who are accustomed
to doing everything—including accessing content—online. One of the debates in
the industry, however, is how to monetize the content that is delivered
digitally. In an age when most content is free, will consumers be willing to
pay for digital content in the same way they once paid for print content? Johannes
Endres, editor-in-chief of the magazine c’t
and heise online, believes they will
since the value of the content remains the same, even though the delivery
method has changed. Heise’s main competitors—CHIP Communications GmbH, Computer
Bild Digital GmbH, IDG Communications GmbH, and golem.de—all face the same
dilemmas.

Heise is now in need of a
revised business model that can accommodate the many shifts in the publishing
industry, where decreasing revenues from print products need to be replaced by
new sources, such as paid digital content, online advertising, corporate
publishing, market research, and other business-to-business services.

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