How DIE ZEIT achieves 90% completion rates, turning feedback into action with Typeform

For more than 80 years, Germany’s DIE ZEIT ("The Time") has kept readers informed. Originally a weekly print newspaper, it grew into one of the country's most-read news institutions. It’s known for serious, in-depth reporting and a loyal readership. 

Today, the team uses Typeform to collect reader feedback across multiple newsletters and turn it into powerful stories.

With Typeform, DIE ZEIT has:

• Deployed feedback forms across 40+ editorial newsletters
• Achieved 90%+ survey completion rates on its flagship newsletter "Was jetzt?" ("What now?")
• Saved hours weekly on manual email review, freeing editors to focus on storytelling

"We get all our reader results in a neat Typeform report that we can give to the different departments and tell them, ‘See, these people are reading the newsletters and reacting.’" - Michael Schock, Tools Manager, DIE ZEIT

Challenge: Flying blind on reader feedback 

DIE ZEIT has a highly engaged audience of readers who aren’t shy about sharing their opinions on their newsletters. And with topics spanning politics, money, family, science, and culture, there’s a lot of feedback to capture. 

The problem? DIE ZEIT had no consistent way to capture or act on that feedback.

Before Typeform, reader communication was strictly over email. Editors in every department sorted through emails manually, hunting through spam and complaints to find anything useful. 

Most feedback sat unread and never turned into stories. 

It was as painful for readers to leave feedback as it was for editors to find it. Over 70% of DIE ZEIT's digital readers consume content on mobile, so sending a link to a form in the email just didn’t work.

When reading on mobile, users had to close out of the article, open the email app, and then tap the link to submit feedback. It was too much to ask, so readers either didn’t respond or added to the inbox chaos with irrelevant emails.

Michael Schock, Editor and Tools Manager at DIE ZEIT, knew that without a scalable way to collect and organize reader responses, the editorial process would break down. His solution: Typeform

Solution: One feedback system for 40+ publications

To make collecting feedback effortless for both DIE ZEIT and its readers, the team used Typeform to standardize its process.

A shared template, reskinned for every newsletter

DIE ZEIT built a templated feedback form and embedded it directly in  all its newsletters. No closing out content. No leaving the email. Just responding in the newsletter—no matter where they view it. 

"Most people react via the form. If it's linked somewhere in the newsletter, and it says, ‘Give us your feedback here. Click this link'—people will use it, and they prefer it that way." - Michael Schock, Tools Manager, DIE ZEIT

Each form includes rating questions (1–5 stars) followed by open-ended fields for feedback, suggestions, and optional demographic information—with design customized to the corresponding newsletter's color scheme and logo.

Now, a small team of 5–8 newsletter specialists builds and manages all the forms, handing feedback off to the editorial department. This keeps quality consistent across publications without requiring every editor to know how to use Typeform. Deployment is automated, too. 

"After you've gotten at least four issues, you automatically get an email that asks, ‘Hey, how do you like this newsletter?’ If there's a lot of feedback about something it will get discussed in the bigger team meetings and potentially posted in the next newsletter." -Michael Schock, Tools Manager, DIE ZEIT

Feedback as a story pipeline

The community team—five editors whose job is to track reader sentiment—embeds short surveys in articles on the DIE ZEIT website. They ask readers to react to whatever’s in the news: financial decisions, family situations, political concerns.

The API sends responses to a spreadsheet in a format shared across departments. The team then: 

• Reviews responses
• Identifies the most compelling voices
• Routes them to the relevant editorial department

The feedback becomes a source for reported stories or shapes the editorial angle. "The community team asks these questions, and then they follow up and write the stories that come from them.” Says Michael. “But if it's a question about finances and they're not money experts, they give it to the finance department."

The "Question of the Week" that turns readers into contributors

Some of DIE ZEIT’s newsletters take feedback a step further. Editors embed a weekly poll directly in each issue. The following week, they share results and show readers how their opinions compare to the rest of the audience. The act of sharing results creates an ongoing exchange rather than a one-time survey.

Results: 90%+ completion rates and reader-first storytelling

With Typeform, editors spend less time sorting inboxes and more time writing stories. Stories shaped by feedback from those who matter most: the readers. 

DIE ZEIT’s newsletters with engagement surveys receive thousands of responses. And the form in its flagship newsletter—"Was jetzt?"—with 400,000 readers, has maintained an impressive 90% survey completion rate. 

Readers are motivated to submit feedback, because when they respond to a community survey, they often see the results in the next issue.

"I think it's an ethical choice of our publishing house. We don't see it as a one-sided conversation. Media and journalism is communication above all." - Michael Schock, Editor, DIE ZEIT

Somewhere in Germany, a reader opens their morning newsletter, answers a question about their finances, and ends up quoted in next week’s issue. That’s DIE ZEIT-style journalism, powered by Typeform. 

Harnessing reader feedback with Typeform

Want to turn your newsletter audience into an active part of your editorial process? Start with these approaches from DIE ZEIT:

• Build one feedback template and reskin it per publication—don't start from scratch each time (we’ve got hundreds of templates to help you get started)
• Automate the timing: Trigger feedback requests after readers have had enough issues to form a real opinion
• Embed weekly polls to create a running dialogue, not just a one-time survey
• Use community responses as a story sourcing pipeline, not just a satisfaction metric
• Brand your forms—readers notice the difference