As an integration partner of Kordiam, Purple enables seamless workflows from planning to publication. Benjamin Kolb co-founded Purple almost 20 years ago and has been its CTO ever since. In this interview, he talks about the biggest challenges facing editorial teams, the role of AI automation, and why combining content planning and publishing systems creates real added value. Purple was named the best digital-first editorial system in the kress pro ranking 2024 and achieved second place overall. 

The challenge: When editorial teams have to serve more channels with fewer resources 

When you look at your publishing clients, what recurring bottlenecks do you see in editorial workflows when teams have to serve more channels but time, budget, and staff are limited? 

The biggest bottleneck is actually always the same: editorial teams today have to serve more channels than ever before, including websites, apps, e-papers, newsletters, social media, and podcasts, and each channel requires different content formats and often a different approach. This ties up enormous capacities. 

The problem with this is that I recently spoke to an editor-in-chief who said to me: “We have great journalists, but many of them spend most of their time on technical publishing tasks instead of doing what they're really good at: researching, checking sources, and organizing information. And the frustrating thing is that these repetitive tasks could have been automated long ago, often with even better quality.” That's the real tragedy: publishers are not only losing time, they are also losing good people because they are frustrated by the administrative overhead. When editors spend more time on technical distribution than on content, something is wrong. 

With limited staff and budgets, this almost inevitably leads to a decline in content quality or relevance. And for many publishers, this threatens their very existence, because quality and trust are their most important differentiators. The figures are clear: according to a study by the BDZV (Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers), 88% of publishing decision-makers are convinced that higher editorial quality leads to greater reader loyalty. This is precisely why core journalistic work must not suffer as a result of the cost of publication. 

What early signs indicate that a publishing house is doing “too much manually”? 

One clear sign is when editorial teams have to manually enter articles into multiple systems: copying and pasting between planning tools and CMS, for example. Or when metadata such as publication date, target audience, or status is maintained in different places and is never completely synchronized. Some publishers lose 20-30% of their editorial capacity just for copying and pasting, manual synchronization, and other activities that technical systems should automate. 

Another symptom is when quality control for e-papers or print has to be done manually every day because automated processes are lacking or do not run reliably. This costs time and is prone to errors. 

And finally, when a publisher has to search for a long time to answer the question “What topics are you planning for next week?” because the information is scattered across different spreadsheets, emails, or calendars. 

What Purple brings to the table: automation without losing control 

How does Purple help publishers simplify and scale their editorial processes with its headless CMS? 

Our approach is this: anything that is highly repetitive can be automated so that editorial teams can spend their time on what really matters—creating high-quality content. 

In concrete terms, this means that an article is created once and can be automatically distributed across all channels. This includes the web, apps, e-papers, newsletters, any social media channels, and print (with print integration partners). The system takes care of adapting the content to the respective format. This not only saves time but also reduces sources of error caused by multiple entries. 

Added to this are our AI capabilities. With Purple AI Workflows, publishers can automate repetitive tasks, from the automatic processing of press releases and the transcription of audio interviews to the generation of content suggestions. It is of central importance that editorial control is maintained. We rely on a dual control principle and clear approval processes so that AI-generated content is always checked by journalists before it is published. 

Our UI and UX are consistently geared toward publishing processes. Over 600 newspaper and magazine titles now work with Purple, and this feedback is continuously incorporated into our product development. 

The partnership with Kordiam: When two specialized systems achieve more than one 

From your perspective: Where do you see the added value of working with Kordiam? What gap does Kordiam fill in your offering? 

Kordiam covers the planning phase from strategic topic planning to editorial meetings to task management. This is an area that Kordiam simply covers very well. 

For publishers who need both structured planning and efficient production and distribution, the combination is ideal: Kordiam coordinates who does what and when. Purple takes care of creation and publishing. Bidirectional synchronization ensures that both systems are always up to date. 

The real added value comes when the transitions work seamlessly. When an article is released for production in Kordiam, it is already available as a draft in Purple with all its metadata. Conversely, status changes flow back from Purple to Kordiam. No manual transfer, no information gaps. 

Can you walk us through a use case of how a publisher might use Purple and Kordiam together? 

Sure, let's take a typical regional publisher with several local editions: 

Before: The editorial team plans topics in Kordiam, but as soon as an article goes into production, everything has to be transferred manually to the CMS. Titles, descriptions, deadlines, target audiences, etc. are all entered twice. If something changes, someone has to remember to update it in both places. Coordinating freelancers ties up capacity, whether through rights management or manually entering externally supplied content. 

After: The editorial team plans in Kordiam as usual. As soon as an article is assigned to a Purple channel, a draft article is automatically created in Purple Hub – with all the relevant metadata. Status changes are synchronized in both directions. If necessary, freelancers can use Kordiam upload links to deliver structured content that goes directly into the CMS without requiring full system access. The result: The editorial team saves time every day on coordination and can focus much more on content creation. 

Outlook: Three trends publishers should keep an eye on 

Which two or three trends in publishing should publishing decision-makers pay particular attention to in the coming years? 

When publishing decision-makers ask me where they should invest, I always say three things: 

1. Process automation with AI as an enabler. The figures speak for themselves: according to the latest BDZV maturity report, 96% of media companies already use generative AI. Interestingly, 57% want to use it primarily to reduce costs and increase efficiency. This shows that AI is not just a tool for content generation, because its greatest potential lies primarily in the automation of routine processes. Automatic inbox processing, transcription, metadata enrichment, format adaptations for different channels. This frees up capacity that editorial teams can use for quality journalism. 

2. Expanded business models. Successful publishers are increasingly positioning themselves as platforms, not just news providers. For regional publishers, this means regional services, events, and community functions. National media are expanding their offerings to include podcasts, newsletter subscriptions, exclusive research formats, and events. The brand becomes an anchor point for different types of content and revenue models. This requires flexible systems that can reflect this diversity. 

3. Building trust amid information overload. In a world where information is available everywhere, trust in the source becomes the decisive differentiator. Interestingly, recent studies show that young target groups are very good at distinguishing between trustworthy and less trustworthy sources. TikTok, for example, is not considered a trustworthy news source by young users. This is an opportunity for established media brands, but they also need to reach these target groups. 

How should publishers position themselves today to take advantage of these trends pragmatically without getting carried away? 

My advice is always to start by consistently removing technical hurdles without turning everything upside down at once. Take a look at what our most successful customers are doing: investing in a flexible, future-proof infrastructure that allows for gradual expansion. Work with partner solutions that are proven to work – such as the combination of Kordiam for planning and Purple for production and distribution. 

When it comes to AI, start with specific, defined use cases that quickly demonstrate added value, such as automated inbox processing or the Reporter app for external appointments. This allows editors to gain experience without having to change all processes at once. 

Purple is a future-proof complete solution for publishers. Over 600 newspaper and magazine titles in nearly 10 countries rely on the digital-first CMS for content creation and publishing. In the kress pro ranking 2024, Purple was named the best digital-first editorial system and achieved second place overall. The integration between Purple and Kordiam is already being used successfully by numerous customers. Find out how OM-Medien and Börsen-Zeitung use the combination of both systems in detailed case studies.