Case Study: Süddeutsche Zeitung sparks newsroom change with Smartocto's baseline report

Süddeutsche Zeitung uses Smartocto to analyze 20,000+ articles and boost subscriptions

Süddeutsche Zeitung, a major German publication with 500 journalists, sought concrete evidence to prove the value of its user needs approach and to convince hesitant managers. The large newsroom needed to analyze over 20,000 articles but found manual tagging too time-consuming, leading them to partner with Smartocto for its baseline report service.

Smartocto's baseline report provided a clear analysis of the newsroom's output, revealing that 84% of content was fact or context-driven and uncovering audience interest in unexpected topics. This sparked strategic changes, including a debate on performance metrics and the separation of content sections for better analysis. The insights directly led to successful, data-informed content experiments, such as an economics essay that generated a significant number of new online subscriptions. Smartocto's report prompted broader strategic reflection and provided the momentum for ongoing newsroom optimization.

Süddeutsche Zeitung