While news organisations must adapt to the rapidly evolving digital landscape to stay competitive, Scholl notes that many Austrian news organisations still lack a robust digital business model and are at different stages of digital maturity.

“Not having a digital infrastructure is still a root problem for many, but it’s also about the challenges people working in newsrooms face every day, like harmonising workflows of print and digital production and keeping pace with digital speed while remaining valid and relevant,” says Scholl.

In 2023 and 2024, APA and GNI collaborated on the FT Strategies North Star Foundation Programme and AI Foundation Lab to support news publishers with their digital transformation. The goal was to drive long-term sustainability by helping publishers adapt their business models and products to evolving consumption patterns while leveraging emerging technologies like AI.

Cross-functional teams from 11 media publishers from across Austria and Germany participated in the five-day programme hosted by APA, focusing on digital transformation, workflows, and content monetisation. Participants defined their own North Star goals, a plan for implementation, and ways to measure their performance.

“There’s a lot of hype around AI and common digital dystopia fears,” says Scholl. “What was remarkable about The North Star programme was that it helped people cut through the noise and focus on ambitious, yet achievable goals for creating an AI strategy in just a few days.”

In addition, APA hosted two industry conferences for over 700 participants, focusing on media literacy for young people, among other topics. “APA is always looking ahead to the future of news media and how we can support the next generation,” says APA Head of Innovation Verena Krawarik.

Another focus for APA was data journalism. “Data journalism holds a lot of promise for journalism in the digital ecosystem and has emerged as a powerful tool for fact-based, scalable storytelling that reduces reliance on PR-driven news,” says Scholl. Yet she notes that many news organisations aren’t leveraging data journalism because the field requires specialised expertise.

To make data journalism accessible to all Austrian newsrooms, APA collaborated with GNI on two projects: Data4Content and Signals.

Data4Content is a data hub that’s integrated into APA’s distribution platform and provides regional and national news outlets with tools and data sets, starting with collections on climate change and the 2024 Austrian elections. The initiative has been a major business success, driving revenue for APA and attracting over 200 active newsroom users.

Signals works by enabling newsrooms to track trending topics across the internet and social media, helping journalists spot relevant stories early on, make data-driven decisions, and optimise their reporting strategies.

Signals also empowers news providers, like APA, to track how and where their own content is being used in other news outlets, offering valuable insights into their impact and reach. Though still in beta, the tool is already showing great potential, with APA continuously refining Signals based on user feedback.

“The GNI partnership has enabled us to develop tools like Data4Content and Signals that address the needs of real newsrooms in a rapidly evolving digital landscape,” says Scholl. “It has also strengthened our efforts to advance our goal of creating a trustworthy digital infrastructure, becoming a hub for knowledge, and a gateway to international innovation for the news media.”