It’s News to Me
By 
In a time when newspapers are struggling to stay relevant—and alive—European publisher Axel Springer is making news with its use of the Apple iPhone 3G. A recent release at www.apple.com highlighted just how the German-based firm utilized iPhone technology to the benefits of employees and readers alike.
“Apple is the new IT standard for Axel Springer,” says Michael Zurheide, senior manager Axel Springer Media Systems. “iPhone is a great mobile device that increases productivity in the enterprise. Moving to iPhone has been a positive change that has helped the company shift to digital information.”
For employees, the iPhone has turned into a mobile office, providing push email and calendar as well as business information. Writers are able to track the latest news on the wire from iPhone’s Safari app and keep up with their sources and competition alike. On the management level, the iPhone is being used to track sales and revenue data.
Readers are also benefiting with digitization of popular news content such as soccer scores (or football if you’re continental). Notes Hans-Christian Pahlig, team lead for the BILD Newspaper Production Systems at Axel Springer, “Our BILD newspaper is very famous for its sports section. So we have with “Mein Klub” (My club) a mobile application that keeps readers up-to-date with the soccer schedule — it looks great on iPhone. Having an overview of soccer on iPhone is a big benefit for our readers.”
