Our colleague Robb Montgomery from Visual Editors interviewed German-based KircherBurkhardt founder Lucas Kircher, who discusses change management for today’s publication companies.

- Kircher holds that publishing companies are traditionally unaccustomed to major change
- “Publishing companies never had to cope with general company change. They changed little bits and pieces of the culture, or the technical [aspects], but they never thought about the whole company."

- The future of the industry is uncertain so the modifications publication companies must make in order to weather the changes can’t be piece meal
- “Nobody knows what we have to do in this industry in the next 5 years. We need orgs…that can react with change much more quickly than publishing companies can now. That means you have to invent a new culture, which means you have to set up an industrial grade change process that’s being monitored and steered by professionals.”

- The change process must be a top-down, holistic one that avoids in-house conflicts between editors and management
- “We need to set it up as a strategic top level process, with the top being the management, not only the editor. Often, and especially in Germany, there is a divide between management and editors. Editors are responsible for content, management for numbers and circulation. In general we have to change the whole picture.”

- The change process requires recruiting the right types of people in order to achieve a desired company culture
-“I think we have to think about: what is the environment, what could be the product, how must the organization look, and what kind of people have to work there to accomplish that [goal]? That could lead to big changes in staffing and in education of staff.”

Listen to the interview by clicking below.

Source: Visual Editors