Interview with Andreas Müller, CEO Medienhaus Aachen

Read the original interview in German here.

A brief warm-up question: I have a problem with the term 'Table Stakes'. For me, it fails to evoke any associations. How is it for you? What does the term mean to you?

"It is the same with me. At first I had to google the term. And at the conference in Glasgow, where the project was presented, I had to be persuaded to participate in the session. By the time I left the session I knew what it was about. Moreover, Doug Smith [the inventor of and most important coach for Table Stakes] had convinced me. A very experienced coach, he convinced me by using charts that, despite having being produced in a very poor quality, something highly untypical for a consultant, had a very strong content.

Today, I would say that 'Tables Stakes is like Weight Watchers for Paid Content'. It is a special form of coaching, a type of group therapy for persons responsible for paid content. I mean this only positively. It is a major compliment for Doug Smith, who is highly experienced and in every respect a professional and focused coach.

Like many colleagues, in the last years I have participated in trips to the USA or  Scandinavia. I have attended congresses and listened to many presentations. Of all the measures initiated by our associations and industry organisations, Table Stakes has been the best by far. It enables an exchange of views with peers, publishers from other countries who are in a very similar situation. Not Scandinavian companies that are miles ahead of us and not the New York Times that also cannot be the benchmark for our Aachen newspapers."

That is a very strong recommendation.  Could you also imagine any circumstances under which you would advise against participation in the programme?

"Yes,  I can. Namely if the participation is not sufficiently serious. Table Stakes only makes sense if you genuinely believe that the industry can still be saved. And that this is possible with digital products and paid content. The programme participants must be able to get things done. They must be the decision-makers themselves or colleagues in whom I invest the authority to implement measures. Otherwise it makes no sense."

With how many colleagues did you participate in the programme? How costly was it?

There were only two of us at the first meeting, my assistant who manages many in-house projects, and myself. Five of us attended the second meeting. And these five continue to constitute our core team who take part in all meetings and carry the project into the organisation. Our core team came together once weekly to agree a mutual strategy. That always took about one hour. And we prepared the four meetings with the other Table Stakes participants in own workshops. These were half-day, or occasionally full-day events. The meetings themselves took place in Paris, Lisbon and London. Due to Corona, the fourth meeting was an online only event. Besides travel costs, we spent no money."

Can you summarise the benefits participation in Table Stakes brought to you?

"Many good impulses to take a radical approach to the challenges facing us. A 'Just Do It' mentality. With his very clever follow-up enquiries, Doug Smith repeatedly steered us in the right direction. He made it very clear to us how important it is to make all measures quantifiable. Each publisher had to define for itself its so-called 'Challenges', therefore clearly defined objectives. In our case, for example, we want to double our number of Web-only digital subscribers by the end of this year. We set out from 1,264, so we aim to reach 2,528. At present we are at 2,034, and I am confident that we will reach our target.

One way of getting there is via our restaurant team. We recognised – as a result of a tip given by a Scottish project participant – that reporting about new restaurants is a subject that really interests the readers. We use it to attract subscribers. In the past, we used to regard such articles more as a way to sell advertising space. Now we use it to make our products measurably more attractive for the readers."

One of Doug Smith's principles is: 'Stop Doing Things'. What have you stopped doing?

"We compiled a list, an entire A4-sized page, of subjects and typical articles that we no longer want to report about in our newspaper. Shooting club festivals, honoring of sportsmen and women, awarding of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, all are topics that we bring in our free newspapers, but no longer in the daily newspaper. This has freed-up capacities that we can use to produce longer, more in-depth articles."

And what did you start with? 'Rigorous Start Doing' is another Doug Smith principle.

"I can take the example of our business newsletter to clearly illustrate this. As a product it was discussed and ready to go, and we had said 'we will launch it when our automated marketing is operable, when we distribute the mails in an automated process and the  opening rates, etc., can be measured'. But Doug Smith says, 'Why wait? You have  the mail addresses, you have already sent out emails, so why wait any longer? Do it now!' And he kept pushing for this until we did it. Start with simple means, don't wait for the big SAP solution, that is an important principle of Table Stakes."

A recommendation of Table Stakes is to appoint 'Mini-Publishers', colleagues given a wide scope of responsibility to develop and market products for target audiences. Do you now have Mini-Publishers and if so, how is this reflected in the organisational chart? On business cards? On salary slips?

"Yes, we have this arrangement for our restaurant reporting. There we have added a small team to process these contents for online presentation and create cross-links. We want to use this to attract subscribers. We don't have an organisational chart, nor is there any indication of this task on business cards. That is our restaurant team, in the same way as we have a business team. These teams have the responsibility, they report  to a wider circle, there is someone who is in charge. They organise themselves, they have the task: 'just do it!'. But we took the deliberate decision not to embed it in a firm structure, as it can always emerge that something doesn't work and then you have a structure that it is difficult to dissolve."

In conclusion, a little test. Doug Smith names concrete things that must be done, namely "the Seven Table Stakes". We haven't talked about this at all. Can you name me the 7 Table Stakes?

"In principle, yes. I cannot cite them by heart here and now. But they are on display on the wall in my meeting room and in all conference rooms."

Keyword 'conclusion'. The organised programme is coming to an end now, or more precisely after the final meeting in October. Is Table Stakes over for you then?

"I don't believe that it simply comes to an end. For one thing, a genuinely friendly contact has developed between the publishers. Although it requires a major effort to maintain it across borders, to arrange to meet again to exchange views and opinions. But everyone regrets that it will now soon be over.

Doug Smith says: 'I have shown you how it works. If you continue along this path, you will reach your objective. You must just bear in mind that everything you do must be measurable. You need concrete challenges that are achievable and must orient yourselves accordingly."

Interview from Markus Schöberl, pv digest