The daily newspaper started its Table Stakes project with the aim of accelerating its digital transformation and leveraging its 10th-year anniversary event to increase its digital subscriber count. When the news agenda disrupted their roadmap, L’Opinion’s Table Stakes team quickly identified a new focus audience: people who want to make the most of their last 15–20 years of working life.

Aiming to refresh its brand image and attract more male readers, the Hungarian publisher used its participation in Table Stakes Europe to start working on new types of automotive content, particularly around service and explanatory journalism. Success in this area has helped to build momentum for other experiments in the newsroom, from other focus audiences such as Wine and Tech, to a pilot around content monetisation.

An important goal for Our Media during its participation in Table Stakes Europe was to start moving away from being viewed as a conservative medium towards being seen as a fresh, modern one in order to reach younger people. The publisher also wanted to increase engagement with its audiences by producing more high quality content. A key metric was to track the amount of time that their audiences spent with content.

The German publisher’s second year in Table Stakes Europe allowed it to spread the audiences-first approach further in the newsroom, build on its existing audience-focused products and launch new projects.

Change and transformation are inevitable for publishers when the threat is huge. But for Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), there was no threat – at least in terms of digital subscriptions. Germany’s biggest quality daily newspaper had already undergone profound changes in recent years – and was able to increase its subscriber base month after month – already before it joined Table Stakes Europe.

2023-04-25. “We want to create emotional touchpoints that not only strengthen the loyalty of our existing readers to our brand but also engage with new audiences who have not yet experienced our platform, allowing them to form a positive first impression through one of our verticals,” says Bettina Widmer, of Switzerland’s Blick Group.

2022-12-08. The UK publisher’s newsletter “Brummie Muslims” features a mix of content from lifestyle to food tips and political news aimed at the diverse Muslim community living in the West Midlands region. Its success has generated numerous learnings about audience engagement, and has opened the door for other possible newsletters for different communities.

2022-12-08. During its participation in the Table Stakes Europe programme, the Tribune de Genève team identified several audiences they could better target. One of these is very specific to its geographical area, namely cross-border commuters, a large group of Swiss and French people who live and work between Geneva and neighbouring France.

2022-12-08. Started as an online community for mothers (and fathers!) living in the Birmingham area, the Brummie Mummies network engages local families through a newsletter, a podcast and on social media.

Rheinische Post is a large and influential media group in the Rhineland, in the west of Germany, a regional giant. Their flagship title started its Table Stakes Europe, audience-centric journey with “Willkommen, Baby!”, a cluster of digital content targeted at parents-to-be. It was a game-changer, and nudged the publisher forward in its digital transformation. Here is how.