AXA Winterthur launches its own newsroom

AXA Winterthur's twelve-strong communications department is now serving media professionals, the public and employees from its own newsroom in the new Winterthur Superblock. Thomas Hügli, Head of Communications and Sustainability at AXA Winterthur: "The digital transformation of the media world and the insurance industry means that communication needs are constantly changing. With the newsroom approach, we can meet the increased demands for topicality, relevance and dialog more quickly and efficiently, while at the same time better managing the communications that are thus becoming more demanding."

Constant comparison with up-to-dateness

A central element of the working method in the AXA Newsroom is a constant comparison between short- and medium-term communication planning and the current news situation, according to a statement by the Swiss insurer. If necessary, the company overrides its own agenda to take advantage of short-term opportunities and get involved in ongoing debates. "Active corporate communications is successful when the content we want to convey corresponds to the public's current interest and brings a new perspective to the discussion," explains Lorenz Heinzer, who heads the newsroom together with his deputy Nicole Horbelt, Head Media Relations.

Integrated organization with focus on storytelling

At the same time as opening the new control center for all external and internal communications activities, the department is completely reorganizing itself: Whereas in the past the focus was classically on target groups, the emphasis is now on thematic and media expertise - and thus on storytelling that is geared to user interests and the latest news of the day, across all channels.

Instead of media spokespersons and specialists for employee communications, topic and channel managers work in AXA's newsroom. The topic managers are responsible for the networked communication of their dossier to all target groups, be it the media, employees or the public. The task of the channel managers is to watch over the mix of topics in the respective channel and to constantly develop it further. "With these job descriptions, we are taking into account the development that the differences between the various target groups are dwindling, but at the same time the demands on the relevance and quality of the content as well as the user-friendliness of the channels are increasing strongly," says Lorenz Heinzer.

"AXA Blog" as a central channel for all target groups

A new channel is the "AXA Blog"which is being launched at the same time as the Newsroom and takes a look behind the scenes at AXA Winterthur, for example with claims reports, agency and employee portraits, or service articles. Until now, such stories have been told primarily in internal communications. With the corporate blog, the newsroom team wants to make the AXA world increasingly accessible to the public as well as to employees.

Platform for the social media generation

"Due to the change in the media, classic media work tends to lose importance in corporate communications," explains Head of Newsroom Lorenz Heinzer. The service for journalists will continue to be a central task of his team and will even be expanded with a redesigned media newsroom at axa.ch/medien. However, more and more people are finding out information mainly via social media and thus media in which it is not media professionals but the users themselves who generate the content. "Thus, according to "Yearbook 2015 Quality of the Media"According to a study by the Research Institute for Public Spheres and Society at the University of Zurich (Fög), 56 percent of young adults now say they "never" pick up a subscription newspaper. If we want to reach this target group as well, we have to be able to publish our own articles and videos and carry them on the social networks. For this we need a platform like the AXA Blog."

Share, comment, tweet

Much emphasis is therefore placed on the sharing options in the "AXA Blog". In the mobile version you can link to Whats App chats. The editorial team in the newsroom also attaches great importance to interaction with readers: all articles can be commented on by users. "The fact that it succeeds in entering into a dialog with users and triggering a reaction will certainly be one of the success factors of the Newsroom approach in corporate communications," says Thomas Hügli, Head of Communications and Sustainability. Accordingly, the AXA Newsroom can of course also be found on Twitter: @AXACH_Media.