The “Trump bump” isn’t just for news publishers in the United States.

Last fall, four European news publishers sweetened their subscription deals by offering complimentary access to The New York Times, with the idea that their readers might want more expansive U.S. election coverage. Premium subscribers to news outlets like El País (Spain), Politiken (Denmark), the Irish Times (Ireland), and Corriere della Sera (Italy) can also get The New York Times, The Athletic, Wirecutter, NYT Cooking, and NYT Games.

With the election over, new deals are still rolling out in other parts of Europe. NRC, one of the newspapers of record in the Netherlands, announced its New York Times bundle on March 12. Its basic digital subscription with The New York Times is about €130 ($142 at €1.09 to the dollar) for a year. Belgium’s De Standaard, which shares a parent company with NRC, gave full New York Times access to its current subscribers at no extra cost on January 12. A De Staandard subscription costs €90 ($98) for a year.

The partnerships are intended to be mutually beneficial. The European publications add a perk for their subscribers, while The New York Times gets access to new international readers, making headway in its 2022 vision to “become the essential subscription for every curious, English-speaking person seeking to understand and engage with the world.”

“As a leading global news organization, we’ve been engaging with international news publishers to offer their subscribers digital access to all of The New York Times,” Andy Wright, Times SVP and head of global enterprise subscriptions, told me. “While this is a relatively new initiative that’s evolved over the past year, we’re encouraged to learn that publishers are seeing signs of success. The Times sees this as an opportunity to provide an international news audience with our independent journalism and we’re looking forward to continuing growing this program with other select publishers.”

The Times has these deals with more than 20 publishers, a Times spokesperson said. The paper aims to have 15 million subscribers by 2027. By the end of last year it had 11.4 million paid subscribers, 10.82 million of whom were digital-only. Around half of those digital-only subscribers subscribed to bundles or multiple products, and international subscribers accounted for more than 20% of digital-only subscriptions.

The European publications I talked to hope to attract readers to their annual premium subscription options with the Times deals, which aren’t available to monthly subscribers.

El País, for example, launched a premium subscription tier in February 2024. Typically priced at €180 ($196) per year, the premium subscription includes all the perks of a basic subscription (€144 per year), along with extra features like access to paid newsletters, reduced advertising, and unlimited access for two users. In October, El País offered full New York Times access to any basic subscribers in Spain and Latin America who upgraded to premium. The bundle is also available to new paid subscribers for a discounted price in the first year.

“In this election year in the United States, in which Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are vying for the White House, at a critical time and international context marked by conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, El País offers its readers the most comprehensive and comprehensive political and international information thanks to this strong alliance,” El País said at the time.

In five months, more than 5,000 El País subscribers have activated New York Times accounts through the deal, according to Luis Baena Reig, chief marketing officer of Prisa Media, the publication’s parent company. The partnership is El País’s first with an English-language news outlet, though it has offered bundled subscriptions with other Latin American news outlets in the past, like La Tercera in Chile.

“We originally thought English would be a significant barrier, but we’re seeing a linear growth in the rate of code redemption,” Baena told me over email. “The American presidential elections had a catalytic effect on the demand and redemption of these codes, but interest remains latent and demand continues to grow linearly. In terms of engagement, the figures are also quite high. For example, the number of pageviews by subscribers who redeemed these codes in the NYT is similar to the number of page views they receive in El País.”

El País ended 2024 with 391,600 digital–only subscribers, up from 374,000 in the third quarter. In total, it has 404,000 paid print and digital subscribers. Baena said users’ interest in The New York Times bundles means that other bundles could be part of El País’s subscription strategy in the future.

“There’s no reason to think this shouldn’t work in most markets where subscription-based payment is already well advanced,” Baena said.

Like El Pais, The Irish Times wanted to promote its annual premium subscription. It had offered a New York Times bundle in 2018. Irish Times head of subscriptions Aoife O’Connor said The Times reached out again last April to pitch a similar deal, framed around the presidential election and the possibility of a second Trump administration.

The Irish Times ran a limited-time offer in October and November that would give annual premium subscribers access to the Irish Times and The New York Times for €190 ($206). The online and offline campaign was called “take a bigger bite” and featured a bitten apple, alluding to New York City’s nickname, the Big Apple.

“There is strong interest among our readers in the U.S. perspective on global events, particularly through the Times’ arts coverage, puzzles, and NYT Cooking,” O’Connor said. “These offerings significantly enhance the overall value for our subscribers without diluting The Irish Times’ own coverage or product suite.”

O’Connor declined to share specific numbers about how many subscribers took advantage of the deal. But she said 70% of subscribers who signed up are actively using their Times subscriptions and that the Irish Times surpassed its subscription goal for this deal by 32%.

In Denmark, daily newspaper Politiken offers full access to The New York Times for two years to its annual digital-only subscribers. Editor-in-chief Christian Jensen said the Times’s sales team visited Politiken in September, and talks of a bundle partnership began then.

Users who pay monthly for digital access and the e-newspaper aren’t eligible for the Times deal. During the U.S. election season, Politiken offered users access to both publications for 99 Danish Krone ($14 at DKK 6.84 to the dollar) for the first six months, and DKK 339 ($50) thereafter. Jensen declined to provide subscription numbers, but said 30% of Politiken subscribers had activated their Times accounts within the first two weeks of the sale.

The current offer on Politiken’s subscription page for a New York Times bundle is DKK 999 ($145) for 12 months.

“Our core audience consists of well-educated, urban, digitally savvy Danes with a strong international outlook and particular interest in American affairs,” Jensen said. “The remarkable response to our New York Times bundle in its first month has only reinforced this understanding of our readership.”