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DPG Media
Few companies reach as many people in Flanders on a daily basis as DPG Media. Whether you’re listening to Q-Music in the car, scrolling through HLN on your break, or watching VTM in the evening, there’s a good chance you’re indirectly encountering work created by an Axxes consultant at DPG Media.
Every day, thousands of people at DPG Media work to deliver compelling stories and new insights. Alongside journalists and program makers, IT professionals support them behind the scenes. For example, Geert Van Wauwe has been a Software Engineer at DPG Media for more than six years.
The culture is somewhat atypical; you’re really expected to speak up. Just putting on a headset and coding isn’t how we work. In that respect, there’s a strong alignment with how Axxes operates.
“DPG Media is a very flat organization. We don’t operate by seniority or hierarchy. People take on different tasks but are simply called Software Engineers. Of course, we also have Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Architects, and a Manager,” says Geert.
That flat IT culture makes everyone highly approachable. “At the same time, the technology stack is more standardized, enabling the team to deliver even more value. The culture is somewhat atypical; you’re really expected to speak up. Just putting on a headset and coding isn’t how we work. In that respect, there’s a strong alignment with how Axxes operates.”
The Digital Transformation
More than 600 people work in IT at DPG Media, covering a wide range of services from systems administration to innovations such as VTM GO. “Together with about 40 colleagues, I’m in the Editorial team. We work for the written press, which has been evolving from print to digital for years. That matters, because printed newspapers and magazines won’t be around forever. You have to invest in IT and develop a long-term vision. If you cling only to print, you won’t be relevant in a few years.” says Geert.
It’s not just the format that’s changing; the content is, too. “In the past, articles were primarily based on major news agencies. Now we can source news via social media or perform data analysis. This opens up opportunities to create new types of articles and offer new online experiences.”
DPG Media is also unique in its scale, with dozens of titles at home and abroad. “That scale advantage is quite rare. We’re therefore exploring technology that can help us share content more effectively.”
After the acquisition, we managed to migrate the site to a future-proof, more secure system without any downtime. At the same time, we cleaned up all the data. I’ve been in IT for a while, and I find it very impressive that we were able to do this in just six months.
The Editorial Bot
One of the innovations Geert and his team work on is the website alarmeringen.nl. “This Dutch platform began as a hobby project and was acquired by DPG Media in 2022. Through the site, which attracts more than 2.5 million unique visitors per month, people can track Dutch emergency services in real time. Our newsrooms monitor the site to catch major incidents, like traffic accidents or fires. After the acquisition, we managed to migrate the site to a future-proof, more secure system without any downtime. At the same time, we cleaned up all the data. It was a lot of work because DPG Media maintains very high standards. I’ve been in IT for a while, and I find it very impressive that we were able to do this in just six months.”
Another innovation is the editorial bot, which aggregates local news and information such as weather or sports updates. “There’s a lot of potential for automation here, because there’s more news than there are regional journalists. For example, we can scrape a municipality’s website or an energy provider’s site to report on power outages. Similarly, we’re developing an internal notification system that can preselect items for regional journalists across DPG Media’s newsrooms in Belgium and the Netherlands. By scraping sources and identifying what’s relevant, we can better support regional and local editorial teams.”
The perfect match
Most of these experiments start very small but can then scale significantly across the media group’s more than 5,000 employees. “It’s important that our experiments reach critical mass as quickly as possible, because then we’re given more time internally to develop them. Our editorial bot has a great deal of potential: over time, it might enable the production of more than half of local articles. The impact of the notification system may be even greater: it allows us to efficiently process news from smaller places that editors would otherwise never get to.
Four Axxes consultants are working on this, among others, and they ensured the tool flawlessly completed a major migration to DPG Media’s standards. That’s quite impressive.”
In this case, Axxes provided junior profiles, but we had complete confidence. Rightly so, as it turns out, because our productivity has tripled. They were the missing puzzle pieces we needed, and I expect even more productivity gains over time.
Sixteen Axxes IT professionals work at DPG Media. “DPG Media outsources part of its IT, but few organizations match us so well in terms of culture and expertise as Axxes,” says Geert. “For my department, they initially presented nine candidates, from which we selected four. In this case, they were junior profiles, but we had complete confidence. Rightly so, as it turns out, because our productivity has tripled. They were the missing puzzle pieces we needed, and I expect even more productivity gains over time.”
