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Operations

How to analyze your subscription data
Today it's all about data. I probably don't need to explain to you how important it is for subscription success, but data is often still a specialist topic that many people…
Meta’s news ban on Canada – a chance to strengthen Radio-Canada
Written by Christophe Cluzel and Catherine Léger from Radio-Canada. Christophe, Radio-Canada's Senior Director of Marketing Strategies, guides the teams in acquiring and retaining audiences, while Catherine, Senior Head of Digital…
What is a dynamic paywall?
If you're in the media business, likelihood is you already know what a paywall is. It blocks content and asks a reader to pay to subscribe in order to gain…
Newsletter landing page: 9 essentials for a successful acquisition strategy
I've subscribed to over 2,000 newsletters over the last few years. Most of them had terrible landing pages, but a few were excellent. What sets them apart? They focus on…
State of the mobile publishing market report 2024
Media businesses are facing their most difficult moment ever, Politico and Axios co-founder Jim VanderHei recently said as he ticked off challenges in audience acquisition and monetization. To compete, publishers…
L’Équipe: limiting churn when increasing the price from a highly discounted subscription offer
Romain Lhote, CMO of L’Équipe, spoke at The Audiencers’ Festival about their retention strategy whilst increasing their subscription offer price.
Developing community beyond commenting, with The Telegraph and The Times
Reader-led journalism, live Q&As, polls… how British publishers are developing subscriber engagement through community
Stand out with an onboarding pack: How The Economist increased new subscriber engagement by 3.5%
The context Educating subscribers about their entitlements is critical for successful onboarding. One effective method is to send subscribers a targeted email welcome series. However, inboxes are becoming more crowded…

Registration

A single account across Switzerland: how OneLog is changing the registration game for digital publishers and readers
OneLog is the joint login service for the Swiss Digital Alliance – the federation of the largest Swiss media companies and publishing houses. The single login enables publishers to offer…
How to reduce paywall frustration
Conversion is all about balancing frustration & engagement – here’s 6 strategies to help you find this balance.
The first-party data strategy to increase ARPU for digital publishers
Practical implementations that move users through the funnel from anonymous, to newsletter subscriber, registered member, and finally to an engaged member who is ready to subscribe.
Engagement data & conversion strategies to increase revenue
Quantify user’s loyalty journey, monetize conversion events and adapt user experiences to increase reader revenue
Registration wall: benchmarking publishers’ account creation journey
We're all aware by now of the value of registration for collecting first-party data, boosting engagement and personalizing the user experience, not to mention supporting both ad and subscription revenue…
The Washington Post’s attention to detail: 12 things you can learn from their strategy
Nearly 150 years after it first launched as a news publication, The Washington Post is one of the top news brands in the world. And, since its sale to Jeff…
Building the optimal registration journey
Registration is a valuable model for digital publishers at any level of maturity or revenue model: …
The 5 Rs of digital transformation: how Ringier is shaping the long-term success of its media titles
Relevance, Reputation, Reach, Revenue and Resilience – the KPIs that are leading Ringier titles to a sustainable digital future

Inspiration from publishers around the world

Newsletter Walls: How a French publisher is innovating to increase its subscriber base
This French print and digital news publisher has developed a unique engagement strategy involving newsletter inscriptions and registration walls to boost ARPU and de-anonymize audiences. 
The Wall Street Journal: how to develop long term relationships with young audiences
The Audiencers' Festival at The New York Times Building on March 15th brought together 150 digital publishing professionals to discuss everything from audience research to newsletters, engaging young audiences and…
Audience research at The Atlantic: The questions that data can’t answer
Exclusive interview with Gina Bulla, executive director of audience research at The Atlantic
Retention, engagement & subscriber-only newsletters: lessons to learn from the experts at WAN-IFRA’s Digital Media Europe
From LADbible group and Die Zeit, to The New York Times and The Mill, what did the experts have to share at WAN-IFRA’s event?
How we introduced group subscriptions to The Atlantic
From the early days of market research homing in on a target audience to finding ways to incorporate user feedback throughout the development cycle, the goal was “seamless.” For years, The Atlantic has…
The Atlantic: bringing more value to readers and subscribers through our mobile app
"Our products are better when informed by the people who use them" The Audiencers' Festival at The New York Times Building on March 15th brought together 150 digital publishing professionals…
A Spirit of Generosity: How The Atlantic team collaborates to launch features like article gifting
At The Atlantic, we pride ourselves in fostering an environment that abides by a guiding principle: a spirit of generosity, or, in other words, “a natural disposition in each colleague toward…
7 lessons for publishers from 7 different subscription businesses
Learn from other subscription businesses to increase engagement, conversion and retention

Conversion

Why people don’t pay for news: findings from a study and lessons for publishers
Price, access to free content, commitment & technical issues were the 4 qualitative reasons why people don’t pay for news
Paywalled content: Rethink Your Premium Icons
It seems like a good idea to have an icon on paywalled content – but what if we’ve been doing it wrong? Some publishers have started flipping the logic
#27. Does personalization come with risk?
You're reading The Audiencers' newsletter #27, sent out on November 29th, 2023. To receive future newsletters straight to your inbox every two weeks, sign up here. The Audiencers' World Tour…
#7. Turning the customer care center into a source of insights at Bonnier, increase conversion rates by +46% & inspiration to maximize on-article engagement
You're reading The Audiencers' newsletter #7, sent out on February 8th, 2023. To receive future newsletters straight to your inbox every two weeks, sign up here. "Re-invest in quality journalism,…
How Ekstra Bladet increases subscriber acquisition without interfering with ad revenue or compromising on page views
Discover how Denmark’s largest media publishing company are using pop-ups to employ a diversified revenue model
4 things to learn from Süddeutsche Zeitung’s digital transformation
Transformation is a process, not a state, developing multiple revenue pillars, and other lessons to learn from Süddeutsche Zeitung’s subscription model
Newsletter Walls: How a French publisher is innovating to increase its subscriber base
This French print and digital news publisher has developed a unique engagement strategy involving newsletter inscriptions and registration walls to boost ARPU and de-anonymize audiences. 
Takeaways from INMA’s town hall, the world’s largest annual event covering news media subscriptions
From FT Strategies’ advice for setting up an effective framework for a subscription model, to case studies about experimentations from the Irish Times and audience diversification at the Hamburger Tageblatt,…

Subscription

Engagement data & conversion strategies to increase revenue
Quantify user’s loyalty journey, monetize conversion events and adapt user experiences to increase reader revenue
Forget focusing on paywall types, it’s time to put your audience first 
Instead of trying to find the ‘best paywall model’, look at your audience, segment them into engagement groups and present each group with an adapted journey that’s most likely to…
How publishers are using A/B testing to optimize conversion rates
3 examples of A/B testing – what you can test, what you should define before a test and what can you learn from these examples to apply to your own…
How to reduce the risks of launching a subscription strategy
How can you launch a subscription strategy without putting your traffic, SEO, advertising revenue and your reader’s view at risk?
The New York Times dynamic paywall model, analyzed
Registration as a soft conversion step, developing numerous levers for value creation and not worrying too much about bypassing are just some of the strategies you can apply to your…
Newsletter Walls: How a French publisher is innovating to increase its subscriber base
This French print and digital news publisher has developed a unique engagement strategy involving newsletter inscriptions and registration walls to boost ARPU and de-anonymize audiences. 
Paywall visibility rate: the essential KPI you should be tracking in your subscription strategy
Tracking and optimizing both premium content visibility and paywall visibility rate will help move users through the funnel towards subscribing in the future.
Subscription Conversions: Finding the balance between frustration and engagement
Too much frustration and a user leaves your site to find content elsewhere. Leave too much content open and you may well increase engagement but this won’t increase your revenues. So…

Retention

How we measure audience engagement at DER SPIEGEL
By focusing on delivering a meaningful and relevant experience to our readers, DER SPIEGEL has built a loyal and engaged community of subscribers who actively seek out our brand and…
How the experts do brand publishing: when digital marketers launch their own media
We speak to a digital marketing expert on how they successfully launched a media to support their brand.
Ask the experts: how can you make newsletters valuable in a reader revenue model?
Newsletter best practices from industry experts to ensure your newsletter supports your reader revenue strategy
The New York Times dynamic paywall model, analyzed
Registration as a soft conversion step, developing numerous levers for value creation and not worrying too much about bypassing are just some of the strategies you can apply to your…
NZZ: How do you inspire people in the first 100 days?
100 days. During this time, you have to convince new users that your subscription is worthwhile for them. One of the latest guests on my Subscribe Now podcast has been…
#16. What explains subscription conversion success?
You're reading The Audiencers' newsletter #16, sent out on June 14th, 2023. To receive future newsletters straight to your inbox every two weeks, sign up here. In The Audiencers' Newsletter #16:…
3 clicks to cancel: the new legislations that are forcing publishers to rethink their subscriber unsubscription journey
French regulators have recently announced a new click-to-cancel law – what does this mean for publishers?