Niiu - Newsmaker 2009

niiu founders Wanja Oberhoff and Hendrik Tiedemann, Photo: (C) niiu

Traffic was slow. One of the men leaned against a column and lit a cigarette.

In a small office down the street, another journalism experiment was under way, but there was no time for cigarette breaks. A sign at the entrance explained why: “The world’s first individualized daily newspaper is being created here.

This is the headquarters of “niiu,” a Berlin startup launched by Wanja Oberhoff, 23, and Hendrik Tiedemann, 27. The company is founded on a big idea - and a big coincidence.

The idea is that people will be willing to pay for an individualized compilation of the day’s news offered in a traditional newspaper format. Niiu readers build their own newspapers based on pages from 17 major dailies and scores of Web sites.

The coincidence? Oberhoff and Tiedemann were each working on this idea separately until a mutual friend introduced them.

“We were both careful at first and thought, ‘Oh, don’t tell the other guy too much,’” Oberhoff said. But the defenses soon fell, and the two young entrepreneurs decided to team up.

Caught in the Web

Niiu readers choose ahead of time which pages they would like to see from which newspaper – for example, page 1 of the “New York Times” and page 3 of the “Frankfurter Rundschau.” The customers also set criteria for the Web content they would like to receive. Specialized software that was developed for niiu is used to put it all together overnight, and a new printing press churns out scores of different copies. The result is a personalized newspaper, hand-delivered every day in Berlin.

Oberhoff and Tiedemann are gambling that they can lure young people who get their news online into paying €1,80 (€1,20 for students) each day for niiu. The duo initially considered delivering their bundled news offerings electronically. But their research among young people showed that most would still prefer to get their news on paper, Oberhoff said.

Not everyone believes it can work.

“This is a brave attempt and also an interesting attempt, no question. But I’m skeptical that it can succeed,” said media researcher Horst Röper, who runs the Dortmund-based Formatt-Institut.

It is difficult getting Germans with newspaper subscriptions to switch to new publications, Röper said. Meanwhile, young people who do not subscribe to a paper will be hard to sway from their online addiction, he said.

“They’re spoiled from a business perspective because they’ve grown accustomed to a culture of ‘free,’” Röper said.

Oberhoff and Tiedemann are not revealing their circulation, but say their goal is to reach 5,000 within six months. Advertisers have seized on the opportunity for targeted marketing. BMW recently ran full-page advertisements for a week. Each addressed the reader by name.

Not a vacation

The first edition of niiu was published Nov. 16, after two and half years of feverish work.

The journey began when a mutual friend connected the partners on Sylt, a popular North Sea island where Oberhoff was living and Tiedemann was vacationing. When it became clear they were both working on a similar concept, the duo decided to team up.

This was no holiday, though. The obstacles ranged from finding a printing press to organizing delivery. One of the biggest challenges was persuading newspapers to share their content. Oberhoff recalled how officials at Germany’s largest newspaper publisher, Axel Springer, pointed out problems with advertising and delivery. The duo worked out the kinks and came back to the publisher. This time Springer signed on. Once a couple of major papers had joined the project, others were willing to follow, Oberhoff said.

Tiedemann put up all the money for the venture, an investment the partners said was in the high six figures.

The partners invested not just money, but lots of time and energy, said Sven Ripsas, a Berlin School of Law and Economics professor who provided guidance.

“They have a great deal of persistence, which is what an entrepreneur needs,” Ripsas said.“But on the other hand, you can’t be stubborn.”

The two were willing to learn from mistakes and adapt their business plan, Ripsas said.

Oberhoff paused for a long moment when asked whether either one of the partners could have pulled the project off alone. Then he said, decisively: “I don’t think it would have been possible.”

Besides having complementary skills – Oberhoff is more the salesman, while Tiedemann is strong on operations – they kept each other motivated, Oberhoff said.

“It was always clear that we weren’t going to give up. We were going to do it,” he said.

Berlin School of Law and Economics