Elisabeth Oberndorfer is a journalist, digital consultant and speaker with years of experience in managing teams and projects. After graduating from fashion school, she pursued a career in journalism at the University of Salzburg. She took a break from her job as a local news reporter to do an internship in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2005. Elisabeth joined derStandard.at, one of Austria’s most visited news websites, in 2006 as an online editor and reporter. Her stories on politics and education have been picked up by the Austria Press Agency as well as national TV and other media outlets several times. Taking a break from journalism, she mastered the arts of digital advertising, social media, SEO and web projects at the international agency Draftfcb Partners.
Elisabeth was hired as a Deputy-Editor-in-Chief by trade press publishing house Werbeplanung.at, to which she has been contributing to since 2009. She was responsible for redesigning the website and reaching new audiences. During her time at Werbeplanung.at, she managed to double on-site traffic and newsletter subscriptions. In early 2013, Elisabeth decided to move back to San Francisco to serve as a Silicon Valley reporter for Austrian and German media, covering topics ranging from tech, media to health trends. Further, she’s working on journalism projects that will prove that high quality content is a business model, after all.
In 2014, Elisabeth launched Fillmore, a German online magazine dedicated to business, innovation and lifestyle, aiming to bridge the gap between Silicon Valley and Europe. Besides running Fillmore, she continued reporting for international publications such as Wired Germany, t3n, Gründerszene, NZZ Österreich and others. After her father’s sudden death in 2016, she took over his business as interim CEO and closed down the company in 2017.
In 2017, she helped Addendum, a media startup funded by Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, get off the ground. As managing editor, Elisabeth was responsible for launching Addendum’s website, creating an editorial workflow and growing the website’s traffic and newsletter audience. As head of digital products, she launched and created other digital formats and storytelling projects such as podcasts and audio content.
Two and a half years later Elisabeth was hit by the entrepreneurial bug again and decided to start her own business and make use of the experience she gained over the last 15 years. She now helps media and content publishers find the right audience, create digital products and bridge the gap between journalism, tech and product.
Simultaneously, Elisabeth launched Smart Casual, a business and tech newsletter, to empower her audience to learn more about the business world and make smarter decisions. Subscribe here!
Having started and shut down businesses before, Elisabeth has a very hands-on, pragmatic approach to her work: Resourceful with what’s already there, lean and open workflows and measurable results.
In recent years, Elisabeth has also done public speaking engagements and lectures about innovation and the future of media. She has received speaking and vocal training by Austrian actress and TV/Radio host Barbara Fleißner. Frustrated with so many female digital professionals being stuck in their mid-career, she co-founded the platform Digitalista, which received several awards for supporting women.