Big data is powerful enough to turn everything upside down: That was the consensus of speakers at ppi Media's Open Days event in Lübeck, Germany.

About 150 publishers attended the gathering from June 22-23, with a programme of 12 speakers.

Tackling the issue of who makes the decisions about relevancy - experienced journalists relying on instinct or an analysis of how often target groups click - were Michael Steinbrecher from TU Dortmund, Ole Olsen (managing director of Digital Collections) and Manual Scheyda (product and innovation management senior vice president at ppi Media).

What needed to be discussed was whether editors would give up decision-making and responsibilities to intelligent systems and if so, which areas would be impacted.

Interest in mobile news is growing, and Francis Munywoki (right) of Kenyan publisher The Standard Group says this is also the case in this East African country where most of the people are less than 30 years old.

Chief executive of Nordwest-Medien Ulrich Gathmann was applauded for a presentation explaining how NWZ Digital has been investing in new online enterprises specialising in e-commerce, B2B and mobile technology for years. Gathmann views these investments as an opportunity for regional newspaper publishers and given the increasing pressure placed on daily newspapers recommends being courageous, taking acceptable risks and investing in other sectors.

"In these cases it is always imperative to consider both the profits and losses in your calculus and not to panic," he says. Even growth catalyst Ed Capaldi encouraged those publishers present to innovate their business models.

From Norway's Amedia, chief innovation manager Paal Nedregotten told how online readers could become a loyal market. The group's approach is to divide users into four groups and pursue a strategy to make them loyal customers. Michael Kurowski, chief information officer at Funke Mediengruppe and Rainer Wiesner, managing director of the Südkurier Medienhaus, also provided insight into hot topics and current projects in their organisations, asserting that a "one size fits all" approach cannot possibly work across media and systems where personalised content is required.

ppi chief technology officer Jan Kasten discussed intelligent solutions, with Lineup's chief executive Michael Mendoza contributing on the fruits of the two companies' partnership. In addition, Frédéric Fabre, managing director of French print service provider Rotogaronne, explained how his company uses ppi's OM portal to meet the needs of numerous commercial job customers.

Participants travelled from all over the world with Kasten and fellow managing director Norbert Ohl welcoming guests and presenters from Germany, the UK, France, Denmark, Norway, Austria, India, Kenya, the USA and the United Arab Emirates.

Next year's Open Days event will take place on June 13-14, 2016 in Kiel.

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