Top-notch content for the local region

Carsten (C): Thank you very much for taking the time for this interview. Let's start right away: Who is VMM MEDIENAGENTUR? Can you give us a brief introduction?

Markus Ableitner (MA): You’re welcome! VMM MEDIENAGENTUR celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2024; it all began in 1994 in the computer press sector. Today, VMM is a wholly owned subsidiary of the German newspaper “Augsburger Allgemeine”. VMM specializes in corporate communications in the local region – for associations, tourism professionals and the regional economy. The portfolio ranges from content and graphics creation for high-quality magazines to digital offerings such as social media, websites and video.

C: What does VMM produce with vjoon K4? What kind of publications do you produce?

MA: We produce a wide range of content with K4. Our core products in the print sector are magazines from the business sector, such as IHK magazines for Bavarian Swabia, Mainfranken, Coburg, Brandenburg and Neubrandenburg  (IHK = Chamber of Commerce and Industry). Other clients include Stadtwerke Augsburg with a customer magazine and a sustainability report. In addition, VMM designs special newspaper supplements for the “Augsburger Allgemeine”, such as “Future Week”, and will soon be producing a magazine for the University Hospital of Augsburg. The most recent additions are a tenant newspaper and an employee magazine for a municipal housing company in Munich.

C: How long has VMM been working with K4?

MA: We have been using K4 since 2006, when this step [editor's note: the use of an editorial system] was necessary when we produced “bayernsport”, the weekly(!) association magazine for the Bavarian State Sports Association. Every Monday was the deadline, 52 pages, 48 issues per year, published until 2019 – that was only possible with vjoon K4. The introduction of K4 was a significant step for us and made our production process much easier.

C: Which role does vjoon partner mainblau play in your K4 project?

MA: mainblau is our central partner for the implementation and adaptation of K4 to our specific requirements. Not only did they support us during the implementation, but they also continue to provide us with straightforward consulting services to help us integrate new features and AI tools and optimize our workflow. Many thanks at this point to Steffen Scherrer and Florian Bläsing.

C: How many people are in the VMM team and what roles are there in the workflow?

MA: We fully integrate editorial, graphic design, proofreading, and translation agencies into our workflow. VMM’s in-house editorial team consists of about eight people, and our graphic design team has seven members. In addition, we have a pool of “regular” freelancers who are seamlessly connected via K4. And last but not least, many of our clients are connected via InCopy Clients and collaborate directly on the project, completely eliminating the need for tedious PDF corrections and the like. K4 enables all team members to collaborate seamlessly and efficiently regardless of their location, which streamlines the entire workflow and makes it faster.

C: What specific problem does K4 solve?

MA: A major problem was the production bottleneck shortly before the deadline. Thanks to K4, it suddenly became possible to produce simultaneously and also utilize fully automated processes. While graphic designers are working on graphic design tasks, the content can already be edited or proofread. Tasks no longer had to be handled all at once but could be completed according to a rights- and roles-based approach. As a result, deadlines were no longer at risk, and production reliability was greatly enhanced for everyone involved in the process.

C: Can you name any measurable KPIs that you have achieved with vjoon K4?

MA: Definitely! By using K4, we were able to shorten the production cycle of our publications by up to 40 percent – this was already the case for the previously mentioned publication “bayernsport”. Employees and customers were happy, as a massive amount of overtime was saved on the deadline day. The centralized management of content and efficient coordination between the teams also reduced the error rate and further increased the quality of our products.

C: What do you like most about K4?

MA: Never again PDF corrections, K4 makes it possible. We also particularly appreciate the flexibility of K4 when it comes to modifying the workflow for the respective customer, because in corporate publishing, customers have very different workflows. This can be quickly adapted to the respective requirements via an easy-to-use workflow editor.

C: What are the future plans for K4 and the cooperation with vjoon?

MA: We plan to further enhance the integration of K4 and implement new features that optimize our digital workflows – for example, through the integration of AI. We’ve just automated our proofreading process using the AI-based solution Textshine.

The K4 XTD [Editor’s note: K4 External Task Dispatcher] is particularly helpful here, as it can automatically outsource various tasks to third-party systems. In this case, it ensures that texts are automatically transferred to Textshine at a specific point in the workflow for review and proofreading, and then returned to K4 as corrected versions once the necessary processing is complete. This allows us to easily automate routine manual tasks using AI and K4 XTD, saving us a tremendous amount of time and effort.

Ultimately, our goal is always to continuously improve production efficiency while increasing flexibility in content creation. In collaboration with vjoon, mainblau, and Textshine, we aim to continue on this successful path.

C: Thank you very much for the interview and we look forward to continuing our successful cooperation.