For the past three decades, the digital playbook for media companies has shifted with the technology landscape. We have marched through the mass-market era of controlled distribution, the search intent era of optimizing for keywords, and the platform era of chasing feed visibility.

According to the inaugural Future Newsrooms Study 2026, a global benchmark report produced by FT Strategies and WAN-IFRA, supported by Arc XP, surveying 448 newsroom leaders across 86 countries, we have firmly entered the Community Era.

As generative AI makes generic, commodity content effortless to produce, reach alone is no longer a viable baseline for economic survival. Instead, competitive advantage has swung decisively toward what is hardest to replicate: relationships, original reporting, and building trusted networks around specific niche audiences.

To help publishing teams bridge the gap between audience-first rhetoric and daily operational reality, here is a practical operational breakdown of the study’s four core pillars – strategy, audience trust, capability & skills

1. The strategy gap: moving engagement to the heart of the business

Newsrooms are recognizing that deep audience engagement is the primary lever to unlock long-term financial sustainability. In fact, audience engagement was the most frequently selected top-three goal for 2026.

However, a significant execution gap remains: 25% of newsrooms still make daily editorial decisions purely on instinct or reactivity, and 42% operate with only loose structural alignment.

Furthermore, the data proves that editorial growth stems directly from operational discipline. Newsrooms that systematically review and discontinue low-impact initiatives are nearly twice as likely to experience budget growth compared to those that manage portfolios on an ad hoc basis (50% vs. 28%).

What your team can do:

• Diversify the strategy table: Break down the church-and-state silos. Include audience engagement and platform leaders directly in your long-term strategy and investment conversations. Structurally aligned newsrooms over-index significantly on bringing these non-traditional roles to the table.
• Implement “portfolio discipline”: Set up a formal quarterly review to audit your newsletters, verticals, and content formats. Be ruthless about killing initiatives that fail to build a loyal public so you can redirect scarce editorial resources toward high-impact journalism.
• Shift from destination-first to audience-led commissioning: Currently, 64% of newsrooms still design stories for a single primary legacy channel (like print or a homepage template) and adapt them later. Instead, adopt commissioning frameworks—potentially assisted by internal AI tools—that force editors to identify a defined user need or specific audience group before a story is assigned.

2. The audience trust gap: rethinking participation and storytelling

Trust has evolved from rigid, institutional authority into relatable, relational signals. While newsroom leaders heavily prioritize audience relationship building, their workflows tell a different story: reporters spend a staggering 38% of their week on technical production drag, but a meager 11% on post-publication work like community building and responding to reader feedback.

When it comes to distinctiveness in an abundant content ecosystem, the ‘evergreen explainer’ of the past is being disrupted. Publishing teams are pivoting toward deep background reporting (+6pp in structurally aligned newsrooms) while actively steering away from low-margin daily breaking news (-10pp).

What your team can do:

• Bring community in-house: Stop relying on volatile, algorithmic social media comment sections to house your audience network. Take inspiration from pioneers like Newpress (building algorithm-free spaces for co-creation) or the Financial Times (leveraging interactive digital forums like “Ask an Expert”) to turn passive readers into highly engaged, recurring subscribers.

• Lean into service-oriented co-creation: Consider launching a reader-initiated reporting vertical. New Zealand’s Stuff Digital launched “Solving Stuff,” an interactive project prompting readers to submit local problems for journalists to actively investigate. This approach generated massive reader investment, with average time-on-page and completion rates soaring well above site averages.
• Be candid and transparent: Build ‘Behind the Story’ formats into your editorial mix to pull back the curtain on how your journalism is sourced and verified. Relational trust relies on showing your audience your journalistic motivations and methods.

3. The capability gap: shifting AI from efficiency to strategic maturity

Publishers are widely trapped in a Level 1 AI maturity mindset: 42% use time savings as their primary KPI for AI success, focusing strictly on automating existing administrative tasks like transcription or copyediting.

However, the biggest barriers holding back AI integration are people-based rather than technical, namely skills gaps (61%) and cultural skepticism (52%). Crucially, the study found that 57% of organizations do not have explicit AI representation in the newsroom, which directly correlates to the lowest literacy and adoption rates.

What your team can do:

• Embed AI roles directly in editorial: Do not leave technology procurement solely to isolated corporate IT or CTO functions. Move your tech budget closer to production by placing editor-coders, hybrid technologists, or dedicated newsroom engineers directly within your reporting desks. High AI usage and literacy jump dramatically (to 46%) when technical leads are embedded in the newsroom.
• Modernize backend metadata: Your AI tools are only as powerful as your archive. Publishing teams that systematically structure and tag their content assets with robust metadata report exponentially higher levels of successful AI integration and content retrievability.
• Reframe the AI conversation: Move beyond generic, mandatory tool-click training. Adopt a strategy like Bonnier News, which ran voluntary, playful workshops focusing on demystifying what AI fundamentally is and cannot do. This organically transforms open-minded early adopters into internal ambassadors who win over newsroom skeptics by proving how technology frees up capacity to do more investigative work.

4. The skills gap: transitioning from generalists to sharper specialists

Confidence in the future readiness of editorial talent drops sharply when media leaders look three years ahead. To thrive in a visually and technically demanding landscape, the industry is transitioning from broad generalism to a tightly bundled set of hybrid skills.

The primary skills priorities identified for future readiness include tech-enabled journalism (e.g., open-source intelligence, AI prompting), audience data fluency, and production expertise (short-form video editing, visual design). Yet, 61% of newsrooms still provide no formal training for these vital new competencies.

What your team can do:

• Formally define hybrid reporting profiles: Modern reporting roles require a multi-disciplinary approach. Audit your hiring pipeline to look for cross-functional profiles, such as Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) reporters who combine coding with investigative craft, or “Podcast Correspondents” capable of owning a niche category across written text, audio recording, and visual presentation end-to-end.
• Invest heavily in creator-like on-camera training: 41% of newsrooms want to upskill existing staff into multi-platform visual creators, yet 68% of them offer no formal video or presentation coaching. If your strategy relies on launching visual content on TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram, you must systematically allocate budget to presentation, vocal coaching, and platform algorithm fluency.
• Evolve compensation models to retain niche talent: Because audience affinity is increasingly shifting from legacy institutional corporate brands to recognizable individual personalities, media companies must rethink retention. A dominant 78% of media executives agree that alternative payment structures, such as bespoke revenue shares, hybrid contracts, or performance-linked bonuses, are becoming essential to protect and incentivize your most prominent, community-driving journalists.

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Download the full Future Newsrooms Study 2026 report from FT Strategies here.

The post Navigating the community era: key takeaways from the 2026 Future Newsrooms Study appeared first on Audiencers.

In a world of falling traffic, trust and the increasing use of AI, building relationships with readers is more important than ever. It’s the difference between a fly-by and a loyal, returning user who interacts meaningfully, feels a sense of belonging with your brand, who advocates for you and brings in new audiences.

It’s a strategy that many publishers are already benefiting from.

This article shares a few of these case studies, diving into what’s working, sharing lessons to take away and articles to dive in deeper.

1. The New York Times: reporters in the comments

The New York Times recently turned comments into an editorial product to develop relationships with readers and enhance the perceived expertise and trust in journalists.

What’s working

A new “Join the Conversation” section of The New York Times was launched earlier in 2026, creating a discussion dedicated space for Times readers and reporters.

• On the article page, a featured comment modal directs readers toward the conversation window, which includes a refreshed layout and reader profile icons
• On some articles, Times reporters have shared thread-style breakdowns of their story and reporting process, adding context for readers who jump straight to the comments. These summaries, along with new inline headshots, build on the “enhanced bylines” introduced in 2023, which were aimed at highlighting journalists’ work

• Conversations are led by a direct question, followed by a comment from one of The Times’ journalists.

• The best contributions are highlighted and surfaced

This strategy helps conversations to feel valuable, and participation feels meaningful. Instead of noise, comments become an extension of the journalism.

What you should steal from The New York Times’ model

• Reframe comments as an editorial space, designed for quality over scale
• Lead the discussion with a direct question and a trusted voice
• Involve journalists directly in the conversations, ideally with a tag (think X’s blue tick), text or photo to highlight their position

Dive deeper into The New York Times’ model

• The New York Times is becoming subscription infrastructure for other publishers
• The New York Times dynamic paywall model, analyzed

2. Financial Times: loyalty isn’t built by speaking louder, it’s built by speaking with

Communities are built on trust, and for FT, this sits at the center of the brand. What’s more, it’s specifically recognized as a business driver. 58% of subscribers chose the FT specifically because they needed a reliable news source they could trust. To sustain it, they must strike a balance between trust in what they say, through quality and credibility of journalism, and trust in what they do, through the experience delivered at every touch point.

What’s working

Commenting has been a significant part of FT’s community-building efforts, especially as those who read the comments are 11x more engaged than those that don’t, and commenters themselves are 46x more engaged than those that don’t read or write comments.

• Community guidelines are easy to find and understand
• AI-powered moderation is being used to bring up the moderation baseline, re-trained off human comments, with humans still kept in the loop
• Editorially-reviewed AI-generated question encourage readers to join the conversation and be more thoughtful in their commenting

• A live Q&A feature, designed to encourage broader participation and lift conversation into the story

The team have also worked hard to cultivate “evangelical” communities, creating spaces for “authentic” and “nerdy” interactions that go beyond standard corporate communication.

The FT Alphaville section for instance has developed a core of evangelical fans by maintaining an authentic tone that appeals to readers on a personal level.

• It’s free to read
• Journalists engage directly with readers
• It doesn’t feel corporate or that the tone is being moderated
• You can meet the journalists in real life at small, unashamedly nerdy events!

These micro-communities focus on specific niches where belonging forms most naturally.

To deepen this advocacy, the FT also launched the Trusted Voices marketing pilot in 2025.

• Personal branding: By elevating individual writers and creating personal brands, the FT encourages readers to defend and promote specific journalists, which in turn reinforces their loyalty to the parent publication.
• Broadening inclusivity: Initiatives to make the FT feel less like a “gendered entity” (moving from 80% male in 2016 to 92% non-gendered perception in 2025) have been essential in making more people feel they belong, thus empowering a more diverse group of advocates.

What you should steal from FT’s model

• Move beyond engagement metrics towards trust, belonging and advocacy
• Use AI to reduce resources needed on moderation, but keep humans in the loop in the right places to build relationships with readers
• Consider building, or making use of existing, external, micro-communities that focus on specific niches – this is where belonging builds most naturally

Dive deeper into FT’s strategy

• Smarter discussions thanks to AI-generated talking points
• Building and serving communities with Ryan Y. Kellett, Financial Times and THECITY

3. Der Spiegel: from comments to conversations

The team at Der Spiegel found that whilst commenting was a huge part of their audience engagement strategy, conversations on a single topic were happening in multiple places across the site, diluting the potential value of this feature.

What’s working

The solution: a debating product inside of their website

• Qualitative research found that users associate trust and safety with these conversations when they happen under the DER SPIEGEL branding, so clear branding and a custom design ensures audiences feel confident that they’re in a safe space
• No possibility of “disliking” a comment, only liking

• They decided against real-name commenting after research that suggested users wouldn’t feel comfortable with this. They also have an account verification process, even for free members
• The feature is promoted in subscriber onboarding to increase regular usage amongst subscribers.
• And debates are integrated into editorial content and vice versa to encourage recirculation. Notice the high visibility of premium (S+) content here to promote the value of subscription.

Mexico’s Milenio has done something similar but with video content, fostering deep discussions on everyday life topics (Mexican lifestyle and social topics).

What you should steal from Der Spiegel’s model

• Test new, innovative formats to maximize the value of community engagement and encourage more guided interaction
• Integrate community features into the registration and subscription funnel
• Even if the community isn’t commenting at the end of articles, link community to content to encourage recirculation and continued engagement

Dive deeper into Der Spiegel’s strategy

• Going further with interactive engagement: introducing the debating feature
• Audience Research: identifying Key Engagement Drivers at DER SPIEGEL

4. The Times: reader-led journalism

The leading publishers have created an eco-system where readers fuel journalism that then fuels reader conversations, and so on. This is exactly what they’ve established at The Times & Sunday Times in the UK.

What’s working

After seeing conversations spark from a certain topic or article in the comments section, The Times’ Reader Comment Journalists reply directly to readers or set up interviews to dive deeper into the topic, with the goal of creating reader-led articles.

“Reader-led articles give a direct voice to our readers, but it also improves our journalism! The piece on the right below came from a call-out at the bottom of an article that got an amazing response from people telling us about how they beat their diagnoses. We ran it as a story and it really humanized the journalism. The other piece came from the simple idea of asking why people were running the London marathon. It pulled very touching stories together, and you could see in the comments section how positive the reaction was. These reader-led articles often bring yet more valued conversation within the community.” – Peter Jackson, Reader Comment Editor at The Times and Sunday Times

Live Q&As with journalists are another important engagement tool to directly connect The Time’s readers and writers.

The Times works with polls and embedded carousels to elevate comments, and they also feature reader contributions in their journalism, such as “Reader’s recipe”. This has a positive impact on the brand, and highlights how The Times’ values its readers.

What you should steal from The Times’ model

• Make use of reader comments to fuel journalism
• Consider strategies that help readers feel part of your brand and connected to journalists
• Use polls, quiz’s and Q&As to establish 2-way interaction

Dive deeper into The Times’ strategy

• Developing community beyond commenting, with The Telegraph and The Times

5. Other publisher relationship-building strategies of note

• The Globe & Mail’s live Q&As with journalists, call-outs and reader-led content
• The Economist’s Substack experiment: “Off the charts” is a newsletter on Substack, designed to engage new audiences who are already on this platform
• Digital Spy’s forums

• WIRED’s subscription re-launch, which now focuses heavily on community-building, in particular with their exclusive, subscriber-only newsletters, each with a writer at the forefront

• Handelsblatt Circles: lessons on community from Chief Growth Officer Jan Kleibrink
• Village Media have launched “Spaces” their own chatting platform, for users to connect with others based on topics of interest or joining in on conversations

> Daily Maverick built a database of contactable readers and their expertise

> The Guardian US meets underrepresented communities where they are

And the article you HAVE to read if you’re moving towards community-building: Why the most valuable newsroom KPI is no longer reach but belonging

The post Steal this strategy: examples of publishers building relationships with readers (and how to replicate them) appeared first on Audiencers.

Broadsheet, Australia’s leading cultural publisher, is embarking on a bold new chapter. Founded 16 years ago, the brand has become synonymous with the best in food, drink, fashion, and design across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. Now, they’re taking their successful model to London whilst also moving towards a reader revenue strategy.

We sat down with Nick Shelton, Founder & Publisher of Broadsheet, and Ross Wilmot, Director of Reader Revenue, to discuss their international expansion strategy and the development of a subscription revenue stream, layered on top of their advertising model.

A consistent lens for diverse markets

For Broadsheet, the move from Australia to London is built on a repeatable editorial framework. Nick Shelton describes Broadsheet’s core product not as a list of recommendations, but as a specific lens that can be applied to any global city.

“The way we think about Broadsheet editorially is that it’s a framework,” Nick explains. “What you see through that lens differs depending on the city, but the values of the lens itself – quality, celebration, and curation – remain constant.”

Rather than relying on local intuition alone, Broadsheet uses this framework to solve a universal problem for urban audiences: the paradox of choice. By applying the same rigorous standards in London that they do across Australia, they maintain brand integrity while respecting local nuances. This city-agnostic strategy allows the brand to:

• Curate rather than catalog: Instead of exhaustive listings, they use a highly curated approach where they “don’t write about things we don’t like.”
• Prioritize the premium enthusiast: By maintaining high editorial standards, they attract a specific high-value audience cohort regardless of geography.
• Operationalize local reporting: By treating London as just another “market” within a proven system, they can scale quickly without reinventing their brand identity.

“We learned this lesson in Australia long ago,” Nick notes. “Sydney and Melbourne are fundamentally different markets with different behaviors. Going into London wasn’t about having expectations of what the city would look like; it was about reporting on it through that consistent, high-definition lens.”

Engagement: the common thread between ads and subscriptions

One of the biggest challenges in the publishing industry today is the perceived conflict between advertising and subscription revenue. Broadsheet, however, sees these models as complementary, with engagement being the common thread. 

“We’re not a traffic-based model, we don’t sell programmatic advertising. It’s not about more people equals more money; it’s about the depth of engagement. And we’ve long had the muscle and mindset in the business of engagement. The better engaged the audience, the better we do as a business, something that applies across both advertising and subscription revenue goals.” 

In short: by focusing on engagement, everybody wins. 

Ross, Director of Reader Revenue at Broadsheet, who recently joined Broadsheet after working at a legacy media publication, explained that by moving even a small subset of their flyby audience into a medium-engaged cohort, they see an exponential increase in page views, the currency of traditional commercial models. This approach is useful for showing teams the clear benefit of engagement to the advertising side of the business while simultaneously building a base for subscriptions.

Whilst they measure a collection of engagement metrics, focused very much on quality over scale, frequency is their most important, north star metric. 

The five pillars of a successful subscription strategy

Broadsheet’s transition to reader revenue is built on five key pillars, as outlined by Ross:

• An audience-centric approach: A laser focus on the most engaged readers, understanding their motivations, pain points, and what adds value to their lives.
• Compelling value proposition: Ensuring the subscription product addresses the needs of engaged readers. Initial research at Broadsheet showed that their readers would be prepared to pay for high-quality content, but that it needed to be combined with unique experiences like exhibition tickets, and perks like free coffee as well as tools to help them curate their Broadsheet experience.
• Cross-departmental alliance: Moving beyond a traditional marketing-led view of subscriptions to ensure buy-in across the entire business, from editorial to product, data, and CRM. At Broadsheet, they already had established ‘Squads’ associated to 90-day, one-year and three-year goals, so when moving to subscription, a new audience monetization squad was formed.
• Culture of test and learn: Continuous experimentation with subscriber journeys, funnels, pricing, and offers to drive sustainable growth.
• End-to-end lifecycle marketing: Delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time, supported by a robust data infrastructure and access to the right platforms.

“There are of course many other aspects to consider, but in my opinion, these 5 are the ones that move the dial the furthest”

Building a value exchange through registration

A crucial component of Broadsheet’s reader revenue model is the registration wall. Launched in Australia in December 2025, a few months before their subscription model, the registration wall has already outperformed industry benchmarks: 

Specifically, a conversion rate (% of unique visitors who encountered the reg wall and converted) of 5.5% on the registration wall, compared to the industry benchmark of 3-5%.

“Registration serves us on several different levels,” Ross says. “It gives us the ability to communicate more directly with our most engaged audience, gather insights into their needs, and personalize their experience. And of course, it helps us reduce the reliance on third party platforms for our audience, which is going to be more and more crucial.”

Crucially, the registration wall introduces a clear value exchange on the site. “Previously, people were completely free to browse the site as they wished,” Ross explains. “The registration wall helps set the tone for the eventual introduction of a paywall, ensuring it’s not a shock when certain content becomes paid.”

Registration has also built confidence internally ahead of their paywall launch

“The insights from our research proved that there was definitely an appetite to pay as long as it’s the right proposition and that a subscription adds significant value to an individual’s life. And that’s where we’ve been focused on these three aspects of the subscription proposition, the content being the inspiration, the experiential side of things, and the utility aspects as well, pulling all those different ingredients together.”

Nick added that, ultimately, the team believed in the strength of their brand. 

“We’ve been running this for 16 years. We know we have a strong brand. We know we create a product worth paying for. So let’s do it. Having a reg wall in place was valuable for validating our assumptions on conversion rates through the steps in the funnel. We exceeded every single one of those assumptions. Of course, more people provide data for registration than handing over a credit card, but we consistently exceeded benchmarks since the launch, so we didn’t feel we needed to wait around for subscription. We just had to go for it, with confidence.”

London: building a cultural footprint, Australia: Broadsheet digital subscription

Currently, Broadsheet’s London operation is focused on audience acquisition and brand awareness. Before switching on monetization features, they are busy establishing themselves as the ultimate London city guide.

While London is about growth, Australia is the testing ground for the brand’s most ambitious move yet: Broadsheet digital subscription. Launched just days ago (April 2026), this membership program represents the official transition from a free-to-read model to a premium value exchange.

Ross highlights that early data from Australia has been “very strong,” already exceeding industry benchmarks for conversion. The model isn’t just about a hard paywall but rather an integrated experience:

• Exclusive experiences: Members get early access to ‘Readers’ Preview’ dinners at the city’s hottest new restaurants
• Perks and rewards: The program includes ‘The Vault’ (high-value giveaways) and daily rewards like free coffee or discounts at local partners
• Journalism access: Unlimited access to Broadsheet’s trusted journalism for A$1/week

The current content access model is a static meter, where audiences have access to a set number of articles per month before being asked to register and then subscribe, but the goal is to move towards a dynamic model adapted to a reader’s level of engagement via Poool.

What’s next?

Of course, the launch is just the beginning! Ross shared that the team is already focusing on:

• Identifying optimisation opportunities that exist within their key conversion journeys and subscription checkout funnel
• Leveraging those insights to inform a cross-departmental working group focused on CRO, building a roadmap of experimentation and executing
• Introducing new forums to share actionable insights with editorial: what content is driving conversion (last click and participation) and engagement to inform content and commissioning strategy; identifying opportunities to potentially convert a higher proportion of readers below the superfan engagement cohort 
• Building CRM muscle through talent acquisition and data engineering: unlocking capabilities within their Customer Engagement Platform (Braze) and Customer Orchestration Platform (Poool) to become more personalised and dynamic across owned channels 
• Building further value into the subscription proposition through product development of utility tools

The post From Melbourne to London: how Broadsheet is scaling culture and reader revenue appeared first on Audiencers.

The line between subscription and membership is blurring, but that doesn’t mean membership is just subscription with a different name.

Subscription is a transaction. Membership is a relationship.

It’s the difference between “Pay to access content” and “Support something you care about, and be part of it”

To help you build a successful membership model, this article shares 4 publisher case studies, with strategies to steal from each. One of these publishers, The Guardian, would likely say they have a supporter model over membership, but the strategies built around conversion are very membership-like, meaning there’s still plenty to take away from their success.

1. The Guardian: turning readers into supporters

The Guardian’s journalism is free to access for everyone. But even without a paywall, over 1 million readers support them on a recurring basis.

What’s working

Although there are some concrete benefits to supporting The Guardian (such as exclusive newsletters, less ads and access to their app), supporters aren’t paying for access, they’re supporting and participating in The Guardian’s mission. It’s this emotional layer that’s paying off.

Messaging around gaining support is built around the 10 ‘supporter motivations’:

1. Editorial independence  
2. Protect the free press  
3. Investigative journalism  
4. Trustworthy, factual, high quality  
5. Holds power to account  
6. Open for all, no paywall  
7. International perspective 
8. Financial challenges in media  
9. Better understand world events  
10. It’s only fair to pay

These are then integrated into homepage banners, end-of-article ‘epics’ and emailing, where messaging is continuously tested, iterated and updated, often making use of current news events:

Every public-facing module is reviewed by an editorial eye to ensure the tone is a seamless extension of the journalism, not a jarring commercial break. This plays an important role in building relationships with readers.

In the US, this year-round messaging and UX testing helps to inform the team for their annual end-of-year campaign, running from early November, through Giving Tuesday and on to midnight on December 31st, the most critical window in their financial calendar.

In their most recent EOY campaign (2025), the final numbers were staggering: 

• Total raised: $3.1 million in liquid cash by Dec 31st (exceeding their $3M goal).
• Lifetime Value (LTV): The estimated total value of the campaign (including recurring commitments) is $8.6 million
• Year-on-year growth: This represents an 83% increase in campaign value compared to the 2023 “standard” year (because a presidential election year – as 2024 was – is usually an outlier).

What you should steal from The Guardian’s model

• Understand reader motivations for supporting or subscribing to you
• Continuously test messaging and offers, integrating supporter motivations
• Experiment with innovative ‘asks’, like The Guardian’s article count
• Bring the reader onboard with your mission, so they really see that their support is valuable to you

Dive deeper into The Guardian’s model

• The Guardian: reader revenue growth & proposition development
• Behind The Guardian’s record-breaking US End of Year campaign
• Relaunching The Guardian app: changing reader habits means we must also evolve

2. The Kyiv Independent: humanizing the newsroom

The Kyiv Independent is a young, English-language media, launched in a context of war, who has transformed from a 18-person startup into a globally recognized authority with over 27,000 paying members and 3 million monthly readers.

What’s working

The team has successfully built a mission-driven membership model with a community of supporters around a shared cause. Part of this success is thanks to building trust with their audience, something that is done between people, meaning they work hard to humanize their newsroom.

Instead of hiding behind a corporate brand, the Kyiv Independent puts its journalists at the center of its marketing:

• They don’t shy away from talking about themselves: their work, almost never say no to interviews, a lot of commentaries and opinion articles…
• Marketing communications are built around journalists and their personalities

• Membership is a community, not a transaction. It’s not a key to a locked door, but a way to keep information free for everyone
• Communication is always transparent, giving a glimpse into the behind the scenes and creating visible experts through personality-led journalism

However the team doesn’t shy away from campaigns asking for support. Countdowns to reach their target, birthday campaigns, country-specific campaigns… these have been a vital part of their growth strategy, creating urgency but with purpose and identity.

What you should steal from The Kyiv Independent’s model

• Be openly transparent on your funding, editorial choices, impact…
• Translate what you stand for, and what would be lost without you in messaging
• Bring the newsroom along with you, putting them front and center in marketing campaigns
• Build channels for journalists and readers to connect, whether that be through Q&As, reader-led articles or discord communities
• Ensure supporters are valued as individuals whilst also helping them feel part of something bigger

Dive deeper into The Kyiv Independent’s model

• How The Kyiv Independent is growing membership through relationship-building
• Inside The Kyiv Independent’s membership model

3. Condé Nast: building a premium membership layer

Condé Nast already had strong brands and a mature subscription model, but wanted to build belonging amongst their most loyal audiences. The team therefore created a ‘Membership’ tier that sits above subscription.

What’s working

This new membership layer represents a fundamental pivot from serving passive recipients to active participants. 

This clearly differentiates it from subscription.

Whilst their traditional subscription represents a scale/volume tier…

• Audience: Broadly focused on volume
• Value Exchange: One-way (passive recipient absorbing content)
• Goal: Volume and scale-based value – content for scale

…Membership is the niche, high-value tier

• Audience: Caters to a very specific segment of the audience.
• Value Exchange: Two-way. Members are active participants contributing data, feedback, and engagement. They expect to belong to a community.
• Goal: Engagement and high retention, not volume – content is focused on the funnel.

This focus on belonging is reflected in their metrics, measuring loyalty and engagement over volume. The most critical metrics include ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), Renewal Rate, Recency (how recently they engaged), and Feature Engagement (which features are “stickiest”).

What should you steal from Condé Nast’s strategy?

• Don’t be scared of putting membership and subscriptions alongside each other, but make sure to clearly differentiate them
• Membership means moving beyond access to an elevated experience. For high-value tiers, Condé Nast commits to a white-glove treatment. This involves building dedicated membership teams trained to provide high-touch service. At industry events, these teams are equipped with “face sheets” to know members by name and be aware of their recent professional achievements, fostering genuine, human-to-human relationships instead of brand-to-consumer transactions.
• Measure membership differently – belonging and advocacy aren’t easy to define, but they definitely go beyond traditional engagement
• Segmentation matters: one size of subscription tier doesn’t fit all, and you’re potentially leaving money (and advocates) on the table by not creating a higher tier for them

Dive deeper into Condé Nast’s model

• When is a subscriber more than a subscriber? How Condé Nast is evolving its audience strategy with membership
• How Condé Nast is growing the “happy middle” of the audience funnel

4. Daily Maverick: involving members in journalism

The South African publisher, Daily Maverick, is an outstanding example of a successful membership model.

What’s working

One of their unique strategies that’s contributing to this success is a growing database of contactable “Insiders” (Daily Maverick members), providing expertise on every topic imaginable.

“You’re part of this community – it’s more than just a subscription and we need your help. We don’t know everything and there are experts amongst you. Be a part of Daily Maverick, share your expertise.”

Via a 3-step survey in the email onboarding series, Daily Maverick asked Insiders for their name, email address, phone number, job and other areas of expertise, their ‘superpower’ as it became known internally.

By sharing these details, an Insider could be contacted by the Daily Maverick team to participate in their journalism, provide expertise on a certain topic or even be invited to join a panel session at one of their events. 

It’s an impressive way of making a member feel like they’re directly supporting and involved in your journalism.

According to the reader revenue team, every newsroom should be looking for this sense of belonging, the feeling of being proud to be “a Daily Maverick reader”. And this “superpower” strategy, where community members are put at the centre of journalism, will help achieve exactly this, ensuring Insiders are a part of Daily Maverick.

What you should steal from Daily Maverick’s model

• Give readers opportunities to be involved in your work, whether than be through this form of database, commenting, debates or call-outs. Membership becomes real when people can do something, not just support something.
• Create direct channels between readers and journalists
• Build this into your value proposition – it’s a benefit for members, not just for your membership model

Dive deeper into Daily Maverick’s model

• Learning from Membership models: Daily Maverick’s superpower database
• Boosting membership conversion at Maverick Insider with FAQs

The post Steal this strategy: 4 membership models succeeding for publishers (and how to learn from them) appeared first on Audiencers.

The Norwegian group Amedia started with a troubling observation: its publications had more subscribers over the age of 80 than under the age of 40. To break this deadlock, their team tested a radical approach in two local newsrooms: tailoring editorial content exclusively to the behaviors of readers under 40. The result: a product deemed more relevant for all generations and, at one of its publications, Romerikes Blad, a 30% increase in the under-40 demographic over nine months.

How can you attract younger subscribers when daily analytics tools constantly push you to optimize content for your existing audience? The solution proposed by the Norwegian group is less about marketing and more about editorial strategy. It’s based on a simple idea: an editorial team eventually becomes very good at serving the audience that dominates its analytics dashboards. And at Amedia, that audience was too old to ensure the renewal of its subscriber base.

Janne Rygh, editorial content developer at Amedia, outlined this new strategy at the INMA Subscription Summit in Toronto.

This article summarized in 5 points

• The Norwegian group Amedia had more subscribers over the age of 80 than subscribers under the age of 40
• Rygh explained that the group’s dashboards naturally steered editorial teams toward the expectations of the majority audience, which was older
• To correct this bias, Amedia made 90% of its subscribers invisible in its management tools and isolated the metrics for those under 40
• This refocusing has shifted editorial priorities and improved both the overall readership and the share of young readers
• At Romerikes Blad, one of the titles tested, the under-40 segment grew by 30% in nine months

More subscribers over 80 than under 40

It’s worth reiterating the starting point: Amedia is not a group lagging behind in digital. It’s Norway’s largest newspaper publisher, with 110 newspapers, 20 partner newspapers, 2 million daily readers, and 580,000 100% digital subscribers. By the end of 2023, their subscriber base stood at 684,000, with over 68% being digital subscribers, and nearly 90% of subscribers reading content digitally.

The post Amedia ignored older subscribers to attract younger ones appeared first on Audiencers.

Audience segmentation is more than a technical exercise, it is a critical strategic driver for any modern media organization. In a landscape where generalist appeal is fading, dividing your audience into distinct groups based on shared characteristics allows you to move beyond guessing and start delivering real value.

At Audiencers’ Festival in Hamburg on March 3rd 2026, subscription consultant Selma Stern shared her recommendations for mastering audience segmentation to maximize the value of each reader.

Why prioritize segmentation?

Segmentation can be mind-bogglingly complex and wildly impactful.

The word comes from biology, where it refers to the process of cell division from a fertilized egg to a full organism. In business, it refers to identifying the constituent parts of a whole – ideally, a set of mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive groups of customers. It can’t be perfect by definition, but even an imperfect segmentation can massively improve your bottom line.

At its core, segmentation addresses three fundamental business needs:

• Stickier content: By clearly defining  Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs), newsrooms learn not just what to write about, but how to speak to their readers so the content truly resonates. If you replicate your ICPs as agents and train your newsroom to use them, you can get endless customer feedback at any time of the day.
• Smarter monetisation: Without segmentation, a dynamic paywall is only based on recency and frequency – which is fine, but does not capture your full market potential. . With it, you are “fishing where the fish are,” targeting the right users at the right time.
• Better marketing: Different segments live on different channels and respond to unique triggers. Segmentation tells you exactly where to find your users and helps advertising brands connect with theirs.

Choose your lens:

To build a complete picture of a user, like “Amanda, 40, VP of Marketing,” organizations can look through several analytical lenses:

Segmentation type	Focus/use case	Signal examples
Behavioral	UX Optimization	>5 visits per month, scroll depth, newsletter opens
Needs-based	Product Development	Prefers summaries, explainers, or opinion pieces
Value-based	Revenue Optimization	LTV, subscription tier, payment history
Technographic	Paywall Optimization	Device type (Mobile vs. Desktop), OS, Referral (LinkedIn vs. Facebook)
Demographic	Ad Sales / Strategy	Age cohort, geography, seniority

> Spektrum’s evolution of audience segmentation and testing

Five tips for succeeding in segmentation

1 – Hire strong analytics: This is the “single most important lever.” You need talent that can bridge the gap between high-level business strategy and deep data modeling.

2 – Make it cross-functional: Segmentation is a “Left Brain + Right Brain” exercise. Editorial, product, marketing, and data teams must own the model together; no single department can succeed in a silo.

3 – Quantify benefits early: You must build a business case or risk losing organizational priority. Use “Napkin Math” to show the potential uplift: for example, if a newsletter with a defined audience grows twice as fast as a vague one, what could the vague one be worth with a properly defined audience?

4 – Remember the customer: Segments should feel like people, not rows in a spreadsheet. Give them names like “Jane, the CMO” or “Joe, the Sales Lead.” Talk to them, build agents around their profiles, and ask, “Would Jane actually read this?”.

5 – Keep it simple (but useful): Aim for 4–6 mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive (MECE) segments. If your team can’t name the segments from memory, your model is too complex and will fail to be actionable. Even if your goal is to build a dynamic paywall algo – lose (human) control of complexity, and you won’t know what’s working, which means you won’t be able to adjust next time the world changes.

Real-world impact: fewer paywalls, more subscription revenue

A US publisher’s journey from a rigid freemium model to smart segmentation highlights the power of behavioral data. They discovered that just 1% of traffic drove 25% of conversions.

By analyzing attributes, they found that newsletter click-throughs and direct repeat traffic were high-value, while Facebook and Android traffic converted at near-zero rates. By stopping the paywall for near-zero segments and doubling down on high-value behavioral and technographic signals, they achieved:

• A 2x increase in conversion rate.
• 50% fewer paywall exposures, leading to a better user experience for the same number of new subscribers.

Did this publisher get it completely, fully right? Absolutely not. But the model was a dramatic improvement over the simplistic frequency and recency model they were using before.

As statistician George Box famously said: “All models are wrong, but some are useful”. Be pragmatic—start with the data you have, build empathy for your readers, and iterate until your segments drive measurable growth.

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You're reading The Audiencers' newsletter #85 sent out on March 18th, 2026. To receive future newsletters straight to your inbox every two weeks, sign up here.

2 weeks already since Hamburg and the article summaries are coming in hot!

The topic of the day was relationship-building in its two forms – ensuring readers feel valued as individuals (through dynamic strategies, targeted offers and personalization) and helping them feel part of something bigger (with communities and conversation elements). By combining the two, publishers can combat many of the challenges being faced by the industry today, including falling traffic, threats of AI and subscription saturation. 

For Festival attendees, Audiencers’ Subscribers and Poool clients, you can catch up with the slides here.

In today’s newsletter: 

• (from Hamburg) Behind The Kyiv Independent’s 20K community success
• Bundling beyond journalism: interview with Mediahuis’ Group B2C Strategy Directorabout their “essential” subscription, bundling hiking apps, e-books and masterclasses alongside its journalism
• (from Hamburg) How Sweden’s NTM Media has grown their young subscriber base: 500% increase in the past year!
• Links to add to your reading list

Behind The Kyiv Independent’s 20K community success

The Kyiv Independent has grown to over 20,000 members and achieved a churn rate of just 1.64%, all without using a paywall…

Membership Growth Manager, Yana Zhuryk, shared the “how” at Audiencers’ Festival in Hamburg last week: 

1. A community philosophy
The core hook is that their journalism is free for everyone. Instead of selling access to content, they sell belonging. Membership is framed as a ‘way in’ to a mission-driven community, which has proven far more powerful for loyalty than a transactional subscription.

2. Human connection
The newsroom prioritises direct communication with individual audience members.
> The team maintains a Discord community for real-time engagement and commits to answering member emails within 24 hours
> Visible experts: field reporters like Francis Farrell are the “faces” of the brand, appearing in trench-side YouTube videos and personal newsletters that provide a “behind the scenes” look at reporting under fire
> A polished, promotional email marketing campaign was pitted against a personal, storytelling email written by a team member. The personal version drove 3x more conversions and saw significantly higher open and click-through rates

3. Innovative engagement tools
> The community map: members can literally place themselves on a global map, seeing the connection to like-minded supporters worldwide
> Participatory content: through their “Our readers’ questions” series, members can submit questions that the editorial team then answers in dedicated articles.

This continued focus on trust and relationships is paying off!
> A churn rate of 1.8% (compared to an industry average of ~3.6%)
> LTV: members stay for years, not months, because the relationship is emotional, not transactional
> Global reach: 95% of their paying members live outside Ukraine, proving that niche local stories can have massive global revenue potential if the relationship building is right

Full article on Audiencers

Mediahuis is bundling beyond news

Mediahuis has built an ‘essential subscription’,  bundling journalism with apps, e-books, masterclasses, the New York Times and… hiking!

The goal: to solve a genuine consumer problem, making a digital subscription valuable enough that subscribers use it daily, not just when news breaks.

Journalism remains the core, but the strategy rests on the belief that Mediahuis can offer subscribers more value beyond it.

-> The bundle is structured around three layers:

Inform: covers the journalism itself, shifting towards depth and away from commoditized news

Guide: covers service journalism, such as restaurant recommendations and personal finance advice

Enable: services that let subscribers act directly on what they have read. RouteYou, a service for outdoor enthusiasts that competes in the same space as Strava, was the first enabling service added to the bundle in 2023.

-> The addition of RouteYou has been a game changer in making the brand’s bundle usable. Mediahuis had long published hiking and biking content, but the next step was always missing: readers could learn about a trail, but had nowhere to go from there. Now, a QR code in the article links directly to the route in the RouteYou app.

-> This focus on usability pays off. Subscribers who activated RouteYou show 26.5% lower churn. 

For Matthijs van de Peppel, Group B2C Strategy Director, the guiding principle for this kind of diverse bundle is to stay within‘one degree of separation’ from your core journalism, adding only services that connect naturally with what the newsroom already produces

> Read our full interview with Matthijs on Audiencers

How Sweden’s NTM Media has grown their young subscriber base by 500%

TLDR: They made it free! (but of course, it’s more strategic than just that!)

First, before even thinking about pricing, a total shift in editorial focus, relationship-building, and commercial offering.

Reporters were encouraged to write specifically for a 30-year-old target audience and provided with the tools to track this, and reporters were turned into local “influencers” on Instagram and TikTok

3⃣ clear offerings were developed based on age group:
-> 18-25 year olds: Free, including access to the website and app, with one session per user
-> 25-29 year olds: 50% off, including access to the website and app, with one session per user, plus membership discounts
-> 30 year olds: Full price, all of the above plus multiple sessions per user

 A “foolproof” age verification system 

The signup process was designed to be rigorous enough to ensure data integrity while providing a smooth transition to paid status. Although NTM acknowledged the six-step process was longer than they ideally liked, it served two critical strategic functions: foolproof age verification (through social security number collection) and long-term billing preparation (users are required to provide credit card or billing information upfront).

This “opt-out” model allows for a frictionless transition to a paid tier once the user turns 25 (30% opt-in conversion rate so far)

The most surprising outcome from this strategy was how easily and rapidly this attracted completely new readers. 88% of the new readers had no earlier customer relationship with NTM’s brands.

> Full article on Audiencers from our recent Hamburg Festival

> And the brilliant Thomas Baekdal made a free-to-paid projection calculator based on the NTM data that you can play around with to see how this strategy will pay off ()

Links to add to your reading list

• Big moves in the UK media industry
  • dmg media has launched UK’s first-of-its-kind subscription bundle, bringing together Daily Mail+, The i Paper, and New Scientist
  • Axel Springer announces agreement to acquire Telegraph Media Group
  • Reach announces 15,000 subscribers months after launching premium tier for readers
• How the Financial Times’ registration strategy transformed anonymous reach into recurring revenue

See you in 2 weeks for the next newsletter,

Madeleine

The post #85. Mediahuis’ essential subscription bundle appeared first on Audiencers.

You're reading The Audiencers' newsletter #84 sent out on March 4th, 2026. To receive future newsletters straight to your inbox every two weeks, sign up here.

I send out this newsletter every 2 weeks, and I promise you EVERY time it falls on a week when we have a Festival But so excited to share articles from our time in Hamburg!

But so many great subscription success stories coming in at the moment. Plenty in today’s newsletter: 

• Lessons on breaking the subscription plateau from Forum Communications’ Chief Revenue Officer 
• For many, subscriptions are rising even as traffic shrinks
• Behind The Guardian’s record-breaking end-of-year campaign 
• Links to add to your reading list (including a debate on whether the NYT is still a news company…)

Lessons on breaking the subscription plateau from Forum Communications

Don’t overlook the subscriber acquisition goldmine that is archived content !

As publishers, we tend to obsess over today’s headlines.

At Forum Communications, they decided to looked at 30+ day-old content.

Stephanie Schroeder, Chief Revenue Officer, told me that when they checked Google Analytics, they discovered that ~10% of page-views were on articles older than 30 days.

And unlike homepage traffic, this content is typically accessed via search, social and direct links, which means users are actively seeking out this content.

> High intent = high propensity

So they tested hard paywalling 30+ day-old articles.

The results:
> Conversion rate doubled compared to standard paywalls
> 15–20% of all subscription conversions now come from archived content walls

(and no, they didn’t notice any negative SEO impacts as a result of this change!)

> This is just 1 of the many small tweaks that have culminated to having a big impact on helping Forum Communications to break the subscription plateau

-> Find more lessons in our full interview with Stephanie on Audiencers

For many, subscriptions are rising even as traffic shrinks

This ^^^^ is important news for publishers and your strategy

Despite traffic falling (according to various research, including Reuters Institute)…

> Irish Times journalism is now fully funded by subscribers

> The Atlantic now has “well over 1.4 million subscriptions”

> Daily Mail has seen huge success since launching their subs offer – they “raced past a quarter of a million subscribers” last March

> At The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, growth isn’t just continuing, it’s speeding up

The future of media, and the survival of journalism isn’t about page views, but relationships.

Behind The Guardian’s record-breaking US End of Year campaign

The Guardian’s end-of-year support campaign, running from early November, through Giving Tuesday and on to midnight on December 31st, is the most critical window in their financial calendar.
 
And their 2025 EOY campaign surpassed expectations:

• $3.1M total raised in cash (beating the $3M goal).
• $8.6M lifetime value including recurring gifts.
• An 83% increase in value over the 2023 baseline

So what were the secrets behind this success? 

> Phasing, using lessons built up through the year:

• The campaign isn’t a single burst of energy but a carefully choreographed sequence that leverages cultural and political moments.
• For instance, the campaign starts early, in November, launching on the anniversary of Trump’s 2024 victory to lean into the “defense of the free press” mission)

> Test & optimize in real time: 

• While traditional A/B testing is the industry standard, it’s often too slow for the “winner-takes-all” windows of Giving Tuesday or New Year’s Eve. To combat this, the Guardian team uses multi-armed bandit testing to optimize messaging in real-time

> Deeply root the campaign in the newsroom: 

• Georgia Warren, US Executive Editor and VP, Reader and Supporter Strategy at The Guardian, serves as a bridge between journalists and commercial teams.
• Every public-facing module is reviewed by an editorial eye to ensure the tone is a seamless extension of the journalism, not a jarring commercial break

> Find my full chat with Georgia on Audiencers

Links to add to your reading list

• Digiday’s article mentioned above is worth a read: Subscriptions are rising at big news publishers – even as traffic shrinks
• How South Africa’s Daily Maverick keeps fine-tuning its membership programme
• Is The New York Times still a news company? This graph caused some debates (but don’t forget how news is still part of the bundle!)

See you in 2 weeks for the next newsletter,

Madeleine

The post #84. Behind The Guardian’s $3.1M end-of-year campaign appeared first on Audiencers.

You're reading The Audiencers' newsletter #83 sent out on February 18th, 2026. To receive future newsletters straight to your inbox every two weeks, sign up here.

Hope you’re doing well! I never know what to put in these intros , the important stuff is always below, so let’s just dive in: 

In today’s newsletter:

• Profitable by 2026: the business logic behind Le Monde in English
• New “Directory of Consultants”
• A “free” area? New (/old) strategy for hard walled media
• Building resilience with registration
• Links to add to your reading list

Profitable by 2026: the business logic behind Le Monde in English

The ‘Holy Grail’ for many non-English publishers is breaking into the US market, where they can reach a large audience with high propensity to subscribe. And with the rise of increasingly impressive AI translations, this now seems simpler than ever.

For France’s Le Monde, it’s helped turn a high-cost dream into a soon-to-be-profitable reality

But as Director of Diversification Arnaud Aubron highlights, it’s not as simple as just copy & translate…

> AI is the enabler, not the editor – Le Monde uses a triple-check workflow including native-speaking journalists 

> The goal isn’t to replace the likes of the NYT but to become a complementary source with an EU perspective

> Contrary to the ‘AI replaces humans’ narrative, AI hasn’t killed jobs, but made the project viable. It actually allowed Le Monde to hire 10 permanent journalists who wouldn’t have been hired otherwise.

 The verdict: whilst AI does remove the technical barrier to entry, it doesn’t solve the cultural barrier. You can’t just translate and hope for the best, you have to offer a unique lens that readers can’t get elsewhere.

> Le Monde in English has clearly done things well, and is now on track to be profitable in 2026! Find the full interview on Audiencers

New Directory of consultants 

In need of an expert consultant to support you in achieving all your reader revenue goals? Look no further! Audiencers is here to help;)

A directory specifically for media brands

Segmented via key areas of expertise and language

A link to contact them via LinkedIn for more info

Supporting publishers and independent consultants alike

Check it out here

If you’re a consultant not on the list, submit your profile using the button in the top right hand corner!
If you’ve already submitted your profile but haven’t yet claimed it, find your page and click “claim this profile”. We’ll approve it and you’ll have full editing access (cool right!)

P.s. As a team of just 2, we might not approve changes/submissions for a few days, but don’t fret, we’ll get round to it when we can!

A “free” area? New (/old) strategy for hard walled media

We’re seeing an interesting flip in publishers’ subscription models – whilst many used to have a “premium area” with articles reserved for paying subscribers, a few are now including a “free area” on their homepage, with fully open content.

I imagine that these homepages are built specifically for non-subscribers, aiming to balance engagement with frustration whilst combatting the “subscription saturation” challenges (i.e. leaving more content open to allow middle-of-the-funnel audiences to discover the value of their content). 

Thanks Kaiden Chandler (The Ithaca Times) for sending these examples over!

Building resilience with registration

Building resilience in a privacy-first, platform-fragmented market isn’t just about subscriptions, it’s about registration…

Why move registration to the top of the agenda?

> Monetizing the “maybe” segment: In many markets, willingness to pay is low (around 10% in the UK, Spain, and Italy). Registration provides a longer runway to demonstrate value before asking for a credit card whilst increasing revenue from ads
> Counter declining ARPU: Demographic data can increase display ad rates by 45%, and registered users convert to paid subs at 3x to 40x the rate of anonymous readers
> Data resilience: With third-party cookies crumbling, first-party data is the only way to maintain effective audience targeting and personalisation

How can you succeed in registration?

> Build a high-value proposition: a convincing statement and benefits to convince a reader to pass through the registration wall

> Reduce friction with progressive profiling: collect data over time, maybe starting with just an email address and password. But only collect what you’ll use!

> Understand your “Why”: this helps you focus efforts into the right aspect of registration

> Engage immediately: onboarding registered users just as you would subscribers

In our latest article on Audiencers, we share recommendations from FT Strategies’ latest report, combined with our own registration case studies, to help you build the anonymous to known strategy needed for 2026.

Links to add to your reading list

• An audience expert’s advice for getting first-time visitors to come back within a week
• Why Aftonbladet’s readers reject AI articles – but embrace AI chatbots
• News24 curated a “Best of Investigations” series, making high-impact archive pieces free for 24 hours only. This reached 500,000 users and added 23,000 highly engaged readers to their retargeting pool for future campaigns. (from FT Strategies’ registration report)

See you in 2 weeks for the next newsletter,

Madeleine

The post #83. Le Monde in English is on track to become profitable in 2026 appeared first on Audiencers.

You're reading The Audiencers' newsletter #82 sent out on February 4th, 2026. To receive future newsletters straight to your inbox every two weeks, sign up here.

Congratulations, you survived January, the seemingly longest month of the year! 

In today’s newsletter:

• How do you get young audiences to engage? Recommendations from the second Next Gen News Report
• A new paywall trend? Promoting popular premium content in the paywall
• Locking in subscribers: how to ‘help’ readers stay without holding them prisoner 
• Links to add to your reading list

How do you get young audiences to engage?

The second Next Gen News Report from FT Strategies, Knight Lab and Google News Initiative is out, sharing a roadmap for news organizations to reach younger audiences.

According to the research, younger consumers are not passive; they are active information curators who cycle through distinct mindsets.

7⃣ To reach the next generation of news consumers, publishers must start designing for 7 specific “modes” of engagement:

The “Sift” Modes: how news is discovered

1. Scroll

The vibe: Passively encountering news whilst browsing social feeds 

The strategy: intentionally create content that feels native to the platform and find patterns that break through to capture fleeting attention in the few seconds before viewers scroll to the next post

2. Seek 

The vibe: actively looking for information on a specific event or topic

The strategy: anticipate information needs and make depth accessible without friction, ensuring that credibility, clarity and efficiency guide every interaction.

…

> Find the full list of modes, as well as recommendations and case studies to win over next gen readers on Audiencers

A new paywall trend?

I’m seeing more and more publishers adding trending premium articles into the paywall itself. It appears to be a great way to show the value of subscription:

 FAZ

South China Morning Post

(Love that they’ve included the features list and benefits too. Makes for a very concise but complete paywall)

Locking in subscribers

Ever wanted to cancel a subscription or switch products only to realize it’s too expensive, too much hassle, or just annoying? Then you’ve encountered lock-in effects.

These clever tricks help to encourage readers to stay and be a little more loyal.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you handcuff subscribers and imprison them in your offer (more than anything, it’s illegal…)

But just look at Apple vs Android, or Spotify vs Deezer or Apple Music – very few users regularly switch between them due to the effort in changing. 

So how could you build that kind of loyalty? 

> Ecosystem (compatibility)
Apple is the master here – if you own an iPhone you might also have a Mac, Airpods, an Apple Watch, iCloud, etc. Everything is seamlessly interconnected, and those who decide to switch one item often have further usage challenges after. 

In the publishing world, think of the New York Times who is slowly taking over your cooking, sports, games, news… 

What does this mean for you? Consider offering complementary products to your subscription that work together to provide greater value.

> Personalization 

After using Spotify for the best part of 10 years, it knows me (a little too) well. Moving to Apple Music now would mean starting fresh. It’s a great loyalty-builder.

What does this mean for you? Algorithms might make this time spent on personalization less valuable, but it does provide us with a welcome reminder to adapt the experience to your user and tell them that you’re doing it. 

> Strategic subscription bridges

Netflix’s Stranger Things schedule is a lock-in masterpiece. It looked like a holiday gift for fans, but was actually a calculated assault on the monthly billing cycle.

• The clever gap between the first and final episodes being released, ensuring subscribers pass a billing cycle whilst waiting for new episodes
• Strategic ‘pulses’ of releases to build buzz around the series, turning audiences into a free marketing army
• Playing a defensive strategy by releasing these episodes during the “churn danger zone” over the holidays when consumers tend to cut finances

What does this mean for you? We often make the mistake of front-loading value, delivering everything during onboarding, and treating renewals as administrative dates rather than strategic opportunities. 

-> Consider strategic “unlocks” of value just after renewal dates

-> Instead of dumping a massive feature update once a year, release updates in “pulses”

> Lennart Schneider writes more about lock-in strategies on Audiencers

Links to add to your reading list

• What WAN-IFRA’s Trends Outlook 2026 Report says for your subscription model
• Beyond the hype: Three cultural traps blocking AI adoption
• New section on Audiencers – Level Up, to help you succeed in your media career! First up: Improve how you communicate with colleagues: an AI method tested by researchers

See you in 2 weeks for the next newsletter,

Madeleine

The post #82. How to lock in subscribers without holding them prisoner appeared first on Audiencers.