“We expect everyone to be open to change—starting with the CEO!”

Cord Brandes, Head of Human Resources at Landwirtschaftsverlag Münster in conversation with the media service Kress

“Right now we have to do everything at once: prepare employees for the massive changes in the media sector and spark their enthusiasm to take on the challenge. We have to make ourselves attractive in the competition for the best employees, and we also have to change job profiles when they are no longer viable for the future,” is how Cord Brandes, Head of Human Resources of the Landwirtschaftsverlag Münster corporate group and member of the management board, describes the area of tension media companies are facing during transformation in his conversation with the media service Kress.

The greatest challenge is to initiate the necessary changes, to clearly communicate what is necessary, and to win employees’ understanding. “We expect a fundamental willingness to change from everyone – starting with the managing directors,” is how Brandes outlines the basic attitude. Seven areas of focus are particularly important to Landwirtschaftsverlag on this path:

1. Organise cross-title work: Until the end of last year, Landwirtschaftsverlag was organised in a very title-focused way. Each major title had its own editorial team and its own publishing and media sales managers. We are now bundling the core processes across titles, thereby improving journalistic excellence and leveraging synergy and competence effects.
2. Explain and bring employees along: Uncertainty and demotivation arise above all when colleagues do not know why the company is acting the way it does. That is why we explain the changes in a comprehensive and comprehensible way, place the transformation in the broader economic context, and, wherever possible, develop the changes together with the employees.
3. Empower managers: Editors-in-chief, department heads, and team leaders are under particular pressure in times of change. They are role models. Employees look to them for guidance. To ensure they live up to this role-model function, we train them regularly, especially the younger, less experienced managers.
4. Adjust workflows: Efficiencies often lie in processes. In many cases, there are long-established, well-functioning workflows that no longer meet today’s requirements. Landwirtschaftsverlag has therefore hired a full-time process manager who, with his outside perspective, helps to improve workflows and eliminate unnecessary time-wasters.
5. Ensure fair pay: Those who demand a lot must also pay appropriately. Landwirtschaftsverlag always strives for a good balance between salary development and economic reality. The goal is to enable salary development in the future that exceeds the general rate of inflation.
6. Use AI consistently: AI helps media companies to simplify and automate workflows, for example in research, layout, image editing, and proofreading. The initial fascination has long since turned into concrete projects; many things are already part of everyday life, and additional fields of work will be added in the coming years. At the same time, one thing remains clear: AI does not replace the core essence of journalistic work – contextualising, evaluating, and commenting. That is and remains the essence of journalistic work.
7. Promote an open culture of discussion and debate: The more media channels need to be served, the broader the range of skills employees must bring. In the future we will need digital experts and traditional media managers who, together, grapple with finding the right path, develop new offerings, discontinue products that are no longer in demand – always for the benefit of our customers. This works best when there is an open culture of discussion.

You can read the full article in Kress Pro, issue 1/2026.