The Austrian state-funded news publisher closed its printed paper during the Table Stakes Europe programme and overhauled its website and newsroom and used audience-focused experiments to test different formats of telling stories. The key goal: to reinvent public service journalism in Austria by moving away from the legacy of centuries-old print notifications to the boundless opportunities of deploying digitally-delivered news and information needed by Austrian audiences to make their lives better.

During its participation in Table Stakes Europe, Grupo Joly’s digital team made a firm commitment to establish and encourage new habits in the newsroom by restructuring teams and improving processes. Thanks to the work done over these months, which has included new approaches to the use of data, holding meetings and the creation of internal playbooks, the company has a firm plan for approaching the future of digital media based on ongoing innovation and adaptation and, above all, without losing sight of the focus on specific audiences.

The Finnish local newspaper overhauled its entire newsroom based on lessons learned from successful audience-focused experiments. The key objective: to better engage new, younger digital subscribers. “Everything we do, every day, should only be things that support our goals. We have tried to build a structure that forces us to do that,” said
Jyrki Utriainen, Karjalainen’s Managing Editor.

The French-language publisher has recently overhauled its website and updated its newsroom operations to support its digital transformation process. The renewed digital channels and streamlined newsroom workflows gave them a huge push with digital subscriptions.

Vocento’s lifestyle and health section Vivir was hit hard by the pandemic. But moving away from print-centred workflows and adopting a digital-first mindset allowed the group to boost traffic, turning it into a success that can serve as a model for other sections.

Table Stakes Europe allowed the French publisher to streamline collaboration between the newsroom and other departments of the company, and provided structure to clarify governance in the newsroom. Over the course of the programme, Les Echos also made significant progress with segmenting and serving specific content to its target audiences, including female readers and the start-up ecosystem.

Le Parisien was the largest company in the first round of Table Stakes Europe with a newsroom of 440 journalists. The print newspaper is still by far the largest revenue generator for Le Parisien (90% of the revenue). However, with a steady annual decline in print paid circulation, the newspaper needs to gain 200,000 digital-only subscribers to offset the print decline and sustain its editorial ambitions.

Südkurier is a regional daily newspaper based in Constance in the south of Germany. The paper is published six times a week, and has a circulation of around 115,000 copies. There are 11 local editions and 15 local offices. Part of the larger media company Pressedruck, Südkurier has around 700 employees, about 100 of whom work in editorial.