Individual journalism, shared infrastructure: What local and regional publishers are building together with nitro

Every publisher builds the same thing, each on its own

I’ve been building technology for publishers for almost 20 years, first in technical management at Axel Springer, then together with Stephan Heck at Purple. Today, more than 600 brands run on our platform. And one observation has stayed with me the whole time: many publishing houses are building exactly the same thing in parallel.

One example every newsroom knows is the newsroom inbox. Press releases from clubs, local authorities and the police, letters to the editor, event listings, copy from freelancers: everything lands in one inbox and someone has to sort it every day. Almost every publisher has now built its own solution for this or is planning one.

Andreas Müller, who was editor-in-chief of Schwäbische Zeitung for many years and now heads our consulting team, knows the downside. In some houses, systems were customised for so long that even the vendor no longer recognised them. With a lot of effort, a lot of staff and the result that the in-house build had to be run in-house as well.

Martin Wilhelm, Managing Director of Heidenheimer Zeitung, summed it up at our customer event, Purple Connect 2026: new developments cost a lot of money and readers don’t care how small a publisher is. His answer: cooperation, partnerships and nitro.

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Individual journalism, shared infrastructure

This is exactly where nitro comes in. What concerns everyone is shared, so that every newsroom gets stronger in what makes it unique. Purple is the technology, nitro is the community of publishers who use and develop it together.

For publishers, this means that development costs are carried by many houses, not by one alone. Brand, newsroom and closeness to their own customers remain entirely with each publisher.

nitro is made up of four building blocks:

• Community: Exchange at every level of a publishing house, from management and the newsroom to IT and product. Online and on site, moderated by Purple.
• Technology: Purple as a shared, modular AI publishing platform and the foundation for lower costs.
• Solutions: AI workflows, integrations and templates, developed once and available to everyone.
• Sharing: Sharing data, content and insights. A data room for benchmarks and content sharing with clear rules are currently being set up.

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What has happened since December 2025

Since December 2025, there have been seven nitro events. 23 local publishers took part on site and 11 are already working on our platform. Our five Fast Track webinars on AI workflows, Digital Edition, print automation, planning and nitro itself attracted 522 participants in total. To be honest, we’re quite proud of that.

We learnt the most at the on-site workshops. In March, we held our AI Lab at Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung. Their use cases became an AI playbook for local and regional publishers, with use cases, workflows and a 90-day plan for introducing AI in your own house. In October, we met editors-in-chief in Berlin to discuss where cooperation brings the most benefit.

We’re taking two things away from these months. First, exchange needs a result: every format ends with something concrete that participants can take home. Second, everyone involved belongs at the table. Andreas puts it like this, from his time as editor-in-chief: in the digital age, the newsroom is no longer the sun that everything revolves around. Without management, IT and product, every transformation falls short of its potential.

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Built once, used by everyone

The most important part of nitro is its solutions: things we develop together once and that every publisher on the platform can then use. They are tested, activated in a few minutes and can be adapted to each house’s brand and processes. The only requirement, where needed, is an account with partners from our third-party network.

These solutions have already been created as part of nitro:

• Automated mail inbox: An AI workflow recognises whether an email is a press release, a letter to the editor, an event listing or copy from a freelancer. It adds metadata such as place and time and files everything in a structured way in the editorial system. Nobody has to look after the inbox itself any more.
• Reporter app with AI workflow: Reporters record their notes on site, add photos and videos and a draft article is waiting in the editorial system. This is my favourite example, because it brings newsrooms closer to their region again. The app is currently being tested by the first publishers.
• Engagently integration: Comments and debates on web and app, with usage data going straight into Purple Analytics. The managing director of ferret go, the company behind Engagently, is Kevin Kallenbach, formerly Head of Sales at Purple. So the lines of communication are short.
• CleverPush integration: Push notifications go out directly from the editorial system, with AI suggesting the title and text.
• Templates: a News Master template for website and app and an e-paper template, both quickly adapted to your own brand. This is a big step: instead of building apps and websites from scratch for every house, we develop proven features once and only adopt the content and design of each brand. Our COO Adrian Gronwald showed how this modular approach works at Purple Connect 2026. A template for magazines is next.

For all AI workflows, the rule is: AI creates the draft, the newsroom decides. Nothing is published without approval.

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Who decides what gets built?

Publishers have a say in what comes next. That’s what the Roadmap Council is for: roughly once a quarter, platform members vote on which solutions and platform features we develop in the following months. Currently on the list are, among other things, a fully automated digital edition generated from print data, an analytics module with an AI assistant and planning at story level.

Purple is both provider and moderator. We’re a technology company and of course we want publishers to use our platform. That’s exactly why it matters to us that nobody is locked in with nitro: participation is non-binding, the technology is modular and anyone who wants to leave can do so.

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Why nitro won’t stop at local publishers

At Purple Connect 2026, our customer event in early November, nitro came up in many conversations. The question that pleased me most: how can I join?

Ken Fouhy, Editor-in-Chief of VDI nachrichten, said something else on the panel. Publishers had seen each other as competitors for decades, and they could no longer afford to. And what nitro offers local and regional publishers is something B2B and specialist publishers now need too.

This feedback didn’t only come from Ken. Many of our B2B publishing customers gave us very clear feedback. That’s why there will soon be a first nitro community meeting for B2B and specialist publishers. We’ll announce the date shortly. For me, this shows that the principle works wherever many houses face the same tasks.

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How to get involved

Joining nitro is free and non-binding. There are three levels:

• Community (requirement: none, free registration): community meetings and workshop results, free online events, on-site workshops for a fee
• Platform (requirement: Purple modules in use): all events free of charge, shared solutions, sharing of data, insights and models, a vote in the Roadmap Council
• Strategy (requirement: by invitation): developing and shaping the platform, extra roadmap credits, C-level meetings

By the way, you’re already a platform member with individual Purple modules, for example just our e-paper. I explicitly want to encourage every customer to actually use their vote in the Roadmap Council and get involved.

The next three community events take place online on Tuesdays at 11 am CET and are held in German:

• 24 November, press inbox: press releases from clubs, local authorities and the police sorted automatically before the newsroom even opens the inbox (Fast Track, for newsroom and IT)
• 1 December, Liquid Content: good journalism where readers read, watch and listen today (Fast Track, for the newsroom)
• 15 December, Purple AI Analytics: metrics beyond the click and concrete recommendations on what you can change (Deep Dive, for newsroom, product and management)

You can register at purplepublish.com/en/nitro-anmeldung. You’ll then receive invitations to the next three community events. Would you like to talk to me first but don’t have my email address? Write to me here and your message will be forwarded to me directly.