Case Study: Axel Springer achieves scalable, API-driven mobile news delivery with Contentful

Contentful helps Axel Springer reinvent news on the go

Axel Springer Ideas Ventures (IDEAS) built Kompakt, a mobile news app of micro-stories aimed at busy commuters, but faced a major publishing challenge: how to deliver hundreds of structured story cards daily to iOS and Android apps via a reliable, scalable API. Traditional CMS platforms lacked robust API support and building a custom content delivery service in the project’s tight timeframe was impractical.

IDEAS adopted Contentful, which provided a template-free platform, fast API/CDN delivery and a structured editor that separated content from presentation, letting editors focus on stories and developers iterate quickly. The result: a two-month build, significant editorial efficiency (300–500 cards produced daily), smooth multi-platform delivery, App of the Year recognition in 2014, and reduced technical overhead and costs.

The Axel Springer

Christian Chyzyk

CTO for strategic product development