SPIEGEL Verlag
Multi-Website Relaunch
Most of the websites within the SPIEGEL Group have been migrated to TYPO3. To ensure that the SPIEGEL IT team can optimally manage and further develop these websites, a coaching initiative was launched with TYPO3 experts from sitegeist.
The SPIEGEL Group
The SPIEGEL Group is one of Germany’s most respected media companies. Alongside SPIEGEL ONLINE and the news magazine DER SPIEGEL, the publishing group includes a wide range of other journalistic print and digital products.
The publisher is currently undergoing the largest structural change in the company's history: the two major editorial departments are being merged into a single team for both online and print. At the same time, the SPIEGEL Group is establishing a new, unified brand identity.
Based on the associated design system, sitegeist has supported the SPIEGEL publishing house since 2018 in the conceptualization and implementation of a series of corporate websites. The content management system of choice is TYPO3. The strategic goal is to develop all of the group's smaller websites on a unified platform. This aims to save resources in developing functionality, maintaining infrastructure, and training editors. In the long term, all of these tasks should be handled in-house. For special technical requirements or staffing shortages, external service providers will still be engaged.
TYPO3-Coaching
The first step was to get to know the SPIEGEL IT employees responsible for TYPO3 and to develop a coaching roadmap:
- Overview of the TYPO3 universe
- Joint discussion and creation of a unified but flexibly expandable TYPO3-based platform
- Conveying the concepts behind TYPO3 through specific use cases
- Concept development, requirements analysis, and timeline planning for the first joint project
- Iterative development from one coaching session to the next
Here, SPIEGEL benefited from sitegeist’s extensive project experience. We didn’t teach theoretical knowledge, but instead developed pragmatic solutions for real-world applications. Our approach was heavily based on TYPO3 community best practices and our own project experience. We evaluated risks together and developed viable solutions with SPIEGEL’s team.
Various collaboration methods were used depending on the task:
- Live coding by the coach
- Live coding by a SPIEGEL employee
- Pair programming
- Code reviews via merge requests
- Coworking
Depending on the subject area, different experts from sitegeist were brought into the coaching sessions. As a result, SPIEGEL’s team gained insights not only into TYPO3 but also into frontend workflows and server administration.
A key component of the coaching was working with isolated frontend components and the living style guide. In close collaboration with SPIEGEL employees, we refined workflows and solutions already used at sitegeist and created a new TYPO3 tool for building living style guides. Significant parts of the development were sponsored by SPIEGEL. The resulting Fluid Styleguide has since been released by sitegeist as an open-source extension and is now available for the broader TYPO3 community:
Highlights
- Unified, modern, flexible, and expandable TYPO3 platform
- Existing websites (e.g., SPIEGEL Group)
- New projects (e.g., SPIEGEL Ed)
- Coordination with the design team
- Coordination with the infrastructure team
- Coordination with internal clients (e.g., editor training)
- Components and living style guide
- Goal: automation and standardization
- Focus on what matters: target audiences and content
Looking Beyond TYPO3
Coaching with sitegeist went far beyond just TYPO3. Among other things, we collaborated with SPIEGEL’s infrastructure team to create a cloud-based hosting solution for the TYPO3 projects. The coaching was not a one-way street—knowledge transfer occurred in both directions.
Together with SPIEGEL, we critically examined existing structures and processes and worked to optimize them. We supported both the conceptualization of websites and operational project management, participating in client meetings and helping to establish project plans and milestones. We also maintained close coordination with the SPIEGEL design team to translate the new brand identity into frontend components and the living style guide.
Conclusion and Outlook
Through intensive collaboration in coaching sessions and regular strategic meetings, SPIEGEL and sitegeist have become true partners on equal footing. Pioneering decisions for upcoming projects are often discussed and made jointly. In each project, we sit in the same boat, looking together for the best and most pragmatic solutions.
After much foundational work and the successful completion of two projects, we now feel well prepared to tackle the upcoming projects on the established platform.
We look forward to many more successful collaborations with the SPIEGEL publishing house.
