From serious content to cat movies to playful approaches to serious topics - Watson offers a wide range. Not every journalist is convinced by Hansi Voigt's concept of "good online journalism". He is. But his approach of constructive dialog and a practiced culture of error is finding great resonance - in the Watson community, user numbers and also among employees. "I give my employees a lot of trust, and they take on a lot of responsibility. At the same time, I also try to be forgiving when someone makes a mistake," says Voigt, describing his work attitude. Rather, he would be angry at those who always do the same thing without making a mistake. "Carefully trying something out is my focus, because you learn the most from mistakes," Voigts says of his leadership attitude. In the end, admitting to a mistake is no great art, and it is easy to correct and make transparent, especially in the digital world.
Not every area of his staff is in Voigt's own area of expertise. All the more surprising, therefore, is his attitude of letting the teams work very independently. He is well aware of how much overview and influence could slip out of his hands in the process. "Inventions are usually the result of random thoughts; innovations are rarely created in tight structures," he explains. If you want to create an innovative climate, this is usually also connected with a certain loss of control that you have to accept, he says. Voigt also likes to communicate his culture of failure to the outside world. "I said from the beginning: You will be able to watch us make mistakes," he adds. But this is only bad if you don't learn from it. Apart from that, such an error culture has nothing to do with a lack of diligence - even if you work very precisely, you still make mistakes. One should honestly admit that. "That's also what makes us, we don't cover up our mistakes," says Voigt.
Watson stays on
Even in the stairwell of the editorial office, the sounds of ping-pong echo out to the visitor. Two employees are playing a game of mini ping-pong on a folding table, incredibly fast and concentrated. Relaxed, they stroll back to work, where table to table the news team, reporters, community & marketing, sports and cat film managers turn to their work with motivation. The prospective intern, who arrives punctually for her interview, is only noticed minutes later. Hansi Voigt is not yet there, but appears inconspicuously in the room five minutes late, at the same time makes a quick effort at the reception, makes a coffee and then sits down comfortably in the meeting room. He doesn't seem to feel any pressure. That's not entirely the case, however. "We are all very motivated," he continues. "Besides, the entire team is following a tight business plan," says Voigt. But the start of the year has been successful. The monthly traffic targets have been exceeded, and commercially the site is clearly on target. Voigt admits: "We are still making losses. But the profit targets are clearly set for the end of 2018/2019, and then slowly move into the black." Sales are rising steadily. However, it is still important to continue building reader attention in order to commercialize these clicks and visits. "At Watson, the banner and especially the native ad development looks very good," Voigt says confidently. In terms of traffic, around 300 new people are currently downloading the Watson app every day.
However, Watson's development has not been without hitches: "We had to adjust some of the planning after the second year; as expected, the initial project turned into a marathon. Now, in the third year, we can draw on our own experience and have realistic targets. The aim must be to exceed current expectations and to use this scope for even faster growth. We are now slowly getting into this mechanism.
Just as important to him as the error culture Voigt likes to communicate is a playful approach, even to sometimes serious topics: "For example, you can pack an incredible amount of information into a quiz on the enforcement initiative. When you then play the quiz, you absorb this information and at the same time you can still check yourself for your own false prejudices." Behind this is the principle that every child learns fastest when playing and that the reader also wants to be entertained for a change. According to Voigt, some journalist colleagues should loosen up a bit: "Even the New York Times has a crossword puzzle. Every newspaper has a comic page or some other so-called page 12." In addition, "A journalist is not a teacher," Voigt clarifies, "our daily newspapers are teeming with tragic news. You can also try to illuminate a positive perspective on many topics instead of always lamenting that everything was better in the past."
Talent-free to manager
"I've been very lucky in my life so far," says Voigt, describing his career. By that he means not only the luck of finding the right working environment for him in each case, but above all "being able to work with the right people. He doesn't like to set up a project all by himself, but he has always found other madmen who want to try something out. As a result, Voigt's life so far has seen a number of startups. "A lot of it has turned out well," he emphasizes.
Voigt is no loner. "I'm insanely happy to be part of a team," he affirms, "but certainly loud to a good degree." He is primarily concerned with creating something together, with a new approach. Voigt is happy to talk about his new leadership philosophy in the creation of Watson. "We were awarded the money without ever drawing a classic organizational chart," he says confidently. He describes Watson as a living organism, interconnected and networked, constantly changing. For example, his head of app development is also the head of digital - the marketing department and community editorial team are combined in a single department - so that the community can also be seen as a marketing tool, and the sales team works closely with the editorial team. Voigt does not see a problem here. The dividing lines today are no longer straight as an arrow, but curved, but they are not blurred and are always transparent.
This organism, as Voigt calls Watson, accomplishes a lot in the group, is thus very innovative and has its finger on the pulse of interaction. "Moderating these group processes is something that probably still suits me," Voigt sums up somewhat too modestly. Voigt discovered his managerial side early on - but less as a talent than as a way out of his actual career aspirations. As a teenager, for example, he wanted to be a footballer. "I could play soccer pretty well, until I grew so insanely," he says, describing the shattering of his first childhood dream. His next career aspiration was photographer. But I didn't really have the talent," Voigt says with a sneer. After that, he tried his musical side as a drummer, but had to realize that he was not good enough to stand up to his demands. But Voigt was probably not quite as talentless as he describes himself - rather, he was demanding: "I'm just reasonably ambitious. Not being as good as I'd like would be embarrassing." That attitude led him to manage a band instead of playing along. He even started his own record label in Newcastle, England, and traveled the world with a female duo. In the end, it turned out that he preferred to organize and feed and manage an organism. A positive development, as he knows in retrospect: "I would always have liked to have a clear artistic talent. Today, however, I'm very glad that I had to find another way."
As a former journalist, Voigt still enjoys writing himself - but unfortunately this is usually only possible in his spare time. On the other hand, Voigt can now think of writing projects: "I'd like to write a book someday," he says enthusiastically. He has already decided what it will be about: media change. Whether it will be an analysis or a work of fiction, however, remains to be seen.
In favor of the new
Watson has just used up the first 20 million francs, and further investments have been made. Voigt himself speaks of good user numbers, of fulfilled expectations in the commercial figures as well - but managing such a major project could give the impression that its editor-in-chief is under a bit more pressure. However, Hansi Voigt sits in his chair more like Mister Easy-Peasy himself - not arrogant or underemployed, but also not at all stressed. Of course, he also works mostly in his free time - "at least that's what my partner would say," he quips. But he doesn't seem to be under pressure. He is too convinced of the news portal's success, too honestly enthusiastic about it. He takes the fact that the chief editors and management also had to cut part of his own salary at the end of last year more lightly than the departure of some employees. "That was very hard - especially also because you couldn't blame the individuals. Although they've all been rehired somewhere already, too. Watson is a good stay on the resume," he adds. However, the fact that he had to let some employees go last year would have been for the sake of the continuity of the whole thing, Voigt says. His explanations sound a bit utilitarian, but also a bit fatalistic - just like Voigt's journalistic career from Cash to the Observer, from 20 Minuten to Watson. Hansi Voigt doesn't see himself as a philosopher: "I just like to do something new and enjoy change," says Voigt succinctly, "because just wanting to preserve something so that nothing changes is the wrong way to go about it."
Ursina mason
