How to create effective organizational design for newspapers transitioning into the digital world

Swantje Dake, Joachim Schwendenwein and Matthias Klein

Chapter 22 in Cases in Organization Development and Change, 2026, pp 212-223 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Major Focus of the Case: This case study describes the successful transformation from print to digital of a large newspaper publishing house, the longstanding Stuttgarter Zeitungsgruppe, headquartered in southern Germany. The company publishes two flagship newspapers: the Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten (both first published under license from the American military government after WWII). The editorial team of the publishing house shifted from a traditional hierarchical, section-oriented structure to one based on self-organized, topical teams. The project was called “Regional Mediahouse 2.0” and was only the beginning of an ongoing change process. The case study highlights the shortcomings of the traditional print business model in a digital world, outlines the differing characteristics of the digital business model, as well as the necessity to cater to both models in parallel during the transformation, describes key challenges of the transition for leadership and the topical teams; and explores how working with two external consultants helped address these challenges, with particular emphasis on their role in guiding leadership and the topical teams. In this case, we will shift between the narrative voice of the two co-authors, Swantje representing the Stuttgarter Zeitungsgruppe and Joachim representing the external OD consultants.

Keywords: Transformation; New operating model; New business model; Dynamic action learning; Inter-group team building; Generative change; Building high performance organizations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035340965
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