You're reading The Audiencers' newsletter #61 sent out on April 16th, 2025. To receive future newsletters straight to your inbox every two weeks, sign up here.
Don’t forget to reserve your spot to The Audiencers’ Festival in London!
> Our full-day Festival on June 24th features speakers from Reuters, BBC, Toronto Star, Business Insider, Conde Nast & more, covering everything from user needs & newsletters to pricing & AI in a reader revenue model. Reserve your spot here!
> We also have a retention workshop (free entry) on Monday 23rd in the afternoon, with a special guest and unique speed dating sessions to learn from others in the room. It’s here if you’d like to join!
In today’s newsletter:
- 🔗 Links links links – to add to your reading list
- 5 essentials when A/B testing: lessons from Reuters’ newsletter team
- The ultimate list of case studies to inspire: if you’re going to bookmark one article on The Audiencers, it’s this one!
- How to empower everyone in your organisation to drive meaningful innovation: a guide & template
- How to write for the paywall: the example of BILD
5 essentials when A/B testing from Reuters’ newsletter team
TL;DR: testing shouldn’t be complicated to see meaningful results. Reuters’ Elaine Piniat and Judith Langowski share their recommendations.
1. Focus on your goal
Every newsletter should serve a purpose, whether that is to drive revenue (ads or subscriptions), traffic, loyalty/retention, etc. Identify the result(s) that you’re trying to achieve and focus your a/b testing efforts on that.
2. Sell your idea and build on the results
Some ideas are more involved and require significant changes or additional resources. You need to justify the change and work required. That’s where a/b testing comes in. It’s less of a commitment and more of an opportunity to show if the change is worth it.
3. Keep it simple
Ideas don’t have to be extravagant to matter. The smallest change can move the needle, and a series of simple a/b tests can have lasting impact.
4. Learn from your peers
The best ideas come from peers. It’s important that the media industry works together by sharing best practices and learnings.
“Last year, at The Audiencers’ Festival, a peer from the Washington Post shared that they saw an increase in clicks after removing descriptions from list-centric newsletters. This was also confirmed by former colleagues at Newsday. We a/b tested this in three of our automated newsletters at Reuters, and increased CTR by an average of 59%.”
5. Listen to your readers
“For the relaunch of our flagship newsletter, the Daily Briefing, we had an iterative process that involved prototype-building, surveying the audience, and reflecting regularly whether the changes were successful. Now, two years since we relaunched, it remains one of our most successful newsletters, with consistently high open and click rates.”
> The full article is definitely worth a read
If you’re going to bookmark one article on The Audiencers, it should be this one!
Introducing the ultimate list of case studies to inspire your reader revenue model, categorized by topic and sorted by media brand, this article is here when you’re looking for a bit of inspiration!
For example, if you’re working on retention, you should check out:
🇫🇷 L’Équipe -> Strategies applied to limit churn amongst readers moving from a low-cost trial offer to the regular price
🇨🇦 Toronto Star -> Ensuring subscribers are signed up to the newsletter
🇩🇪 DER SPIEGEL -> Identifying key engagement drivers to use in onboarding and subscriber engagement strategies
🇺🇸 Hearst US -> Understanding subscriber loyalty and churn risk
> The full list is here, covering everything from metrics & data, apps and newsletters to support models, engaging young readers and AI.
How to empower everyone in your organisation to drive meaningful innovation
Media organizations are missing high-leverage ideas.
Why? Because they’re failing to adequately listen to staff.
In his first *official* article as part of The Audiencers’ team (!!!) Khalil A. Cassimally shares his powerful solution:
Don’t just collect staff ideas. Work with them to socialise the entire process – from generation to deployment.
Khalil’s design sprint template gives staff visibility and agency throughout the design thinking process, delivering three core benefits:
1️⃣ Alignment and focus. Creates shared understanding of objectives and approaches.
2️⃣ A repeatable system. Transforms abstract concepts into structured strategic requirements.
3️⃣ Collaborative empowerment. Motivates staff and ensures equitable participation.
> Definitely one to spend time reading and working through
Writing for the paywall
Writing for a paywalled article shouldn’t be the same as for a free one.
BILD is a brilliant example, where journalists’ storytelling leads into the paywall, providing a teaser-style ending that encourages a reader to subscribe to read on.
📺 It’s more of a TV series synopsis than the first few lines of an article.
📑 Or an executive summary from a report.
Both of which have the goal of encouraging us to continue reading/watching
Eric Le Braz talked about this in one of the first articles on The Audiencers, suggesting that we need to move away from the inverted pyramid to instead writing more like an hourglass
But publishers like BILD are taking this to the next level and actually writing two separate pieces – an article, like normal, available to subscribers, and a teaser version for non-subscribers.
It’s very smart.
*webpage translated from German by Google
Recommendations to add to your reading list
- Data to Decisions: How AI is Transforming Digital Product Management
- Former Substack creators say they’re earning more on new platforms that offer larger shares of subscription revenue
- Schibsted gives young audiences what they want: transparency on editorial decisions
See you in two weeks for the next newsletter,
Madeleine
