In Germany, most readers do not pay for news, but a few strategies could change that: at least, that’s the conclusion of the study “Navigating German News: topics, formats and willingness to pay,” published by FT Strategies at the end of 2025.

According to the study, based on a sample of 1,957 participants representative of the German population (49% women, 50% men, and 26% under 35), a clear paradox emerges: while German readers are very attached to traditional sources of information, the majority of them (59%) do not pay for news.

By filtering their relationship to the financing of news, the study distinguishes between subscribers (41%), The On-The-Fencers (29%), and The Maybe-Next-Timers (30%). The 29% representing the On-The-Fencers are the most interesting – they support the idea that media should be funded by its readers, even though they don’t yet pay. 

Mapping topics based on their value/revenue

TLDR: The number of page views doesn’t necessarily equate to conversions, and audiences are less inclined to pay for certain types of content.

Despite the fact that the most viewed topics are not necessarily those that interest subscribers the most, such as politics or current affairs, there is still a willingness to pay. To better identify this, the study maps the popularity of topics against the revenue they can generate.

We can see 4 categories emerge that might inform content & product strategies:

• Paid-for-niche: Topics that are low popularity/high willingness to pay which signals a B2B opportunity or a niche vertical for engaged audiences 
• Experimental niche: Topics that are low popularity/low willingness to pay which signals high commodification of this type of news. Highly differentiated coverage is the only way to cut through the noise
• Paid-for-mass market: Topics that are high popularity/high willingness to pay signalling an obvious first-mover advantage where brands can reap benefits for becoming known to be the go-to source
• Experimental mass market: Topics that are high popularity/low willingness to pay signalling their importance as ‘service journalism’ stories to put in-front of the paywall

Contrary to assumptions, the most viewed topics are not necessarily those that generate the most subscriptions: topics related to politics are those that interest participants the most (55%), but few of them (14%) are willing to pay to view them.

On the other hand, certain mainstream topics, which are more likely to be funded by readers, should likely be blocked by paywalls to encourage conversion. For example, 21% of participants are willing to pay for sports and 16% for climate-related topics.

The same is true for niche topics that are particularly likely to attract subscriptions, such as fashion and beauty (23%) and finance (16%).

Finding the right format

TLDR: Short videos, breaking news and in-depth text stories are the preferred formats, but younger generations shift towards audio & long video content, and the format should ultimately be adapted to the content itself.

In addition, media outlets wishing to generate subscriptions for this content must adapt to the formats favored by their audiences, which differ according to age: the majority of participants prefer long-form written content (81%, rising to 84% among subscribers), while those under 35 prefer long videos (76%) and podcasts (78%). 

Some German media outlets have already grown their audience by adapting to these habits:

• Bild, which offered 12-15% of its content behind paywalls in early 2024, has developed long-form content reserved for subscribers and has become the German newspaper with the most subscribers (over 700,000).
• Die Zeit has developed 27 podcasts, some of which are accessible with a specific podcast subscription, including “Was Jetz?” (What now?) and “Rhonzeimer,” which are among the most listened to podcasts in the country.

It is by adapting the format to the subject matter that media outlets can distinguish themselves and convert the undecided. 

Certain uses stand out:

• The short format is valued for topics related to business, finance, fashion, beauty, and trends.
• The long format is more suited to topics related to science, nature, technology, and sports.
• Visual storytelling and data visualization make topics related to science, nature, and technology more concrete.

In terms of emerging formats and content opportunities, participants are most interested in solution-based, positive stories, while video documentaries offer a potential new way to engage audiences. 

Balancing AI and the human touch

TDLR: AI provides an immediately adapted user experience, but maintaining the human element through contact with journalists can help build subscriber loyalty.

A large proportion of participants would like to see AI developed to improve the user experience. In addition to the ability to summarize and translate, other more interactive features stand out, such as searching for and selecting the most relevant articles (44% of subscribers and on-the-fencers) and the question-and-answer function (37% of young people and 31% of subscribers). 

However, the study also suggests the importance of maintaining a human connection with journalists for discussion or moderation, as some media outlets have implemented in recent years:

• Der Spiegel has set up a discussion tool reserved for subscribers, in which journalists sort, select, and sometimes publish certain comments in the print edition.
• After Welt journalists increased the number of responses to user comments under their articles, the number of departures due to a lack of “community” decreased between 2022 and 2023.

Conclusion

To convert readers into subscribers, German media outlets should therefore:

• Optimize their paywall strategy, differentiating between the most viewed topics and those that generate the most subscriptions.
• Provide information in different formats depending on the topic, giving subscribers the choice between long-form written articles, short podcasts, and long videos on platforms.
• Create a strong user experience by combining artificial intelligence with contact with editorial journalists.

The post Navigating subscriptions in Germany: topics, formats and willingness to pay appeared first on Audiencers.

One of Europe’s largest publishers is bundling hiking apps, e-books and masterclasses alongside its journalism. Matthijs van de Peppel, Group B2C Strategy Director at Mediahuis, explains the strategy — and what the data is showing.

TL;DR
-> Mediahuis has built an 'essential subscription' bundling journalism with hiking apps, e-books, masterclasses and the New York Times

-> The bundle is structured around three layers — Inform, Guide and Enable — tailored by brand rather than by individual subscriber

-> Its 777 strategy aims for 70% of operational margins to be from digital by 2030, using the bundle to drive both volume growth and tier migration

-> 170,000 subscribers activated RouteYou; activated users show 26.5% lower churn, and subscribers log in 2.4–3.0 times per month on average

Key lessons: 
-> Stay within one degree of separation from journalism
-> Services that require a bigger conceptual leap tend not to stick

When Mediahuis added RouteYou, a Belgian hiking and cycling app, to more than a million digital subscriptions, it was a signal that something more fundamental was shifting. The Western European publisher, with titles spanning the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and Germany, had been quietly building what it calls the ‘essential subscription’: a bundle that wraps news, practical service content and standalone apps into a single offering. 

The goal is 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.

Around 60% of Mediahuis subscribers are now digital, but operational margins on those subscriptions remain lower than on print. The essential subscription is the mechanism for closing that gap, by making the digital offering more compelling and driving subscribers towards the fuller, higher-priced tier.

The three-layer framework

The essential subscription is built around three layers:

• Inform covers the journalism itself, shifting towards depth and away from commoditised news, including what Mediahuis calls ‘signature journalism’: research-led, context-driven reporting that is genuinely core to each brand and not easily replicated elsewhere. Mediahuis runs ‘signature journalism weeks’ to identify what each title does best, redirect resources accordingly, and is shifting from text-only to audio and video as standard practice.
• Guide covers service journalism — restaurant recommendations and personal finance advice — which digital surfaces far more effectively than print.
• Enable is the newest territory: services that let subscribers act directly on what they have read. RouteYou was the first enabling service added to the bundle in 2023.

For instance, a subscriber reads about a hiking trail and can now open an app and navigate it. They can read a book review and, as part of their subscription, download it; subscribers in the Netherlands and Belgium receive one e-book per month.

“Stay close to your brand. Stay close to your journalism. Because then it makes sense to the subscriber.”

Brand-by-brand, not subscriber-by-subscriber

Rather than personalising the bundle for individual subscribers, Mediahuis has built different bundles for different brands:

• The New York Times partnership sits alongside the premium titles — NRC in the Netherlands, De Standaard in Belgium, and the Luxembourg brands — where an internationally minded readership sees a natural connection.
• E-books are offered more broadly, with selections varying by brand.
• RouteYou has been rolled out for all titles, but is particularly successful in regional and Belgian brands with strong outdoor and weekend-lifestyle content, where a survey of more than 10,000 subscribers had already shown that 24% wanted a hiking and biking app as part of their bundle.

“Different bundles work better for different brands,’ van de Peppel explains. ‘We try to tailor it really around the brand and make those choices which make sense to the brand.“

The RouteYou acquisition

RouteYou is a Belgian company used by more than 15 million outdoor enthusiasts, with its strongest presence in the Netherlands and Belgium. Since the Mediahuis acquisition in 2023, coverage has expanded into the Irish, Luxembourg, and German markets, where the publisher’s titles already have deep roots. It competes in the same space as Strava, but with a distinctly local character and established relationships with regional tourism boards.

Mediahuis’s regional titles had long published hiking and biking content, especially in weekend editions, 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. ‘It’s a strong connection with the editorial rooms,’ van de Peppel says. “You can really make a direct connection between the content and then going out and doing something with it.’

The acquisition was not conceived purely as a bundle enhancement — Mediahuis bought a standalone business, intending to develop both sides of the business. Since then, investment in a native app and an expanded RouteYou team has driven +98% growth in standalone subscribers in 2025. 

When RouteYou access was extended to over a million Mediahuis subscribers, it immediately dwarfed the app’s existing standalone user base. Those who came through the news bundle were subscribing to journalism; the outdoor features are a welcome addition rather than the draw.

What the numbers show

The activation numbers tell part of the story. The retention numbers tell the more important one. Mediahuis tracks whether subscribers who have activated RouteYou behave differently from those who have not, and they do. 

Over a 12-week period, subscribers who had activated RouteYou were significantly more likely to remain subscribers at the end. For every 100 who had not activated, 4 had churned. For every 100 who had, fewer than 3 had churned. At the scale Mediahuis operates, that difference compounds quickly.

The perception data reinforces this. 

• Among all Mediahuis subscribers, around 52% consider RouteYou a valuable addition. 
• Among those who have actually used it, that figure rises to 82%. 

The gap between the two numbers is the central challenge: the product works, but only once subscribers try it. Getting them to that first experience is where most of the activation effort goes. Mediahuis offered exclusive webinars to help subscribers get started; 12% of readers attended, and 54% of those participants were already Mediahuis readers who engaged with the outdoor content in their titles.

Sustained usage backs up the initial activation picture. Active users log in 2.4 to 3.0 times per month on average, with 15% opening the app at least once a week, numbers that predictably spike in the spring and summer hiking season. In total, 49% of eligible Mediahuis subscribers used RouteYou at least once in the past year.

Mediahuis has been drawing lessons from the New York Times, whose bundle is a well-documented case study in how added services drive both retention and revenue per subscriber. ‘They see strong effects on retention and ARPU when people start using more services, van de Peppel says. “We are seeing the same thing, which is really encouraging.’

The 777 strategy

The essential subscription is the commercial engine behind Mediahuis’s 777 strategy: shifting 70% of operational margins to digital by 2030. Currently, the balance runs roughly the other way, at around 60% print and 40% digital.

Van de Peppel frames the mechanism plainly: it works on both Q and P, quantity and price. A more compelling subscription drives digital subscriber growth. And because most additional services are only available in the full premium subscription — not the basic tier — the bundle creates structural upward pressure on ARPU. The full subscription costs roughly twice as much as the basic tier, and as the bundle becomes more valuable, more subscribers opt for the full tier, either at sign-up or by upgrading.

‘We also see a shift from the basic subscription to the full subscription,’ van de Peppel explains. ‘Which in the end means they pay a higher price. We increase value, but of course, the value coming back is also higher.’ Volume growth and tier migration together are designed to get digital subscriptions generating the margins that print once did, and within a seven-year window.

Advice for publishers considering a similar path

Van de Peppel’s guiding principle is staying within ‘one degree of separation’ from core journalism, adding only services that connect naturally with what the newsroom already produces:

• The New York Times partnership works because Mediahuis titles already cover international affairs.
• E-books work because those titles are already reviewing books.
• RouteYou works because brands have always written about the outdoors — and the data already showed subscribers wanted it.

Where the connection has to be invented, it tends not to stick. Van de Peppel’s advice to other publishers is simple: don’t stray too far from what your newsroom already does well.

The lesson he returns to most on RouteYou is editorial embrace. Newsrooms are independent — there is no guarantee journalists will link content to the app. Where they do, the activation numbers bear it out: Belgium, with the strongest editorial collaboration, hit nearly 30% activation, compared with a portfolio average of 1 in 5. The success of RouteYou’s adoption really depends on editorial collaboration.

Van de Peppel’s target is for at least 70% of digital subscribers to regularly use at least one additional service, weekly or monthly. ‘We launched a lot last year. This year, we won’t launch as much. We will focus on what we have and really make it work.’

The post The essential subscription: how Mediahuis is bundling beyond journalism appeared first on Audiencers.

Poool, the leading dynamic journey builder (owner of Audiencers), is proud to announce that we have signed a definitive agreement with Darwin CX to provide publishers with a unified, end-to-end subscription platform for media companies.

By combining Poool’s front-end expertise with Darwin CX’s back-end capabilities, the two together make a powerful single reader revenue platform, built specifically to help publishers manage engagement, conversion, and retention in print and digital, subscriptions and donations.

What does this mean for Audiencers and this community? 

We're accelerating our mission further than ever!
> More operational case studies, insights from industry experts and benchmarks than ever, to help you make more informed decisions
> The industry leading B2B community to connect you with fellow publishing professionals facing similar challenges as yourself
> New tools and directories to equip your teams with everything they need to succeed

End-to-end subscription management

Historically, publishers have had to manage the subscriber journey through fragmented tools. This partnership solves that challenge by merging two essential sides of the subscription lifecycle, adding a layer of insights and expertise to help media teams make informed decisions and act on them.

-> The Front-End (Poool): Targeted experience on-site and on-app, including engagement (newsletters, app downloads), conversion (dynamic paywalls, registration walls), and retention (onboarding, cancellation flows).

-> The Back-End (Darwin CX): Everything behind the scenes to manage and grow revenue, including subscription management (billing, renewals, fulfillment), authentication, a centralized user database, and advanced analytics and reporting.

-> The Expertise (Audiencers): Proven strategies, industry benchmarks and actionable data from leading publishers worldwide, powered by a community of >15,000 digital publishing professionals sharing their daily challenges and figuring out, together, how to better engage, convert and retain their audiences.

Together, this integration offers publishers a single platform to manage all direct reader revenue, whether through subscriptions, donations, print, or digital, with total control over the reader experience at every stage.

“We built Poool to give media teams full autonomy over their audience strategy. Engagement, conversion, retention, without depending on developers. Over the years, we realized the market needed more, a unified platform, from the first page view to subscriber renewal. That’s exactly what we’re building with Darwin CX. A complete platform, combined with the benchmarks and expertise from Audiencers, so that media companies are truly autonomous in piloting their subscription strategy. Media companies don’t need more tools. They need less, more autonomy and real expertise. That’s what we are offering here.” Maxime Moné, CEO, Poool 

More than just a tool

In addition to the technology, the partnership leverages Audiencers, the leading B2B media and community already gathering 15,000 media professionals, to support them in better engaging, converting and retaining their audiences. This brings an unmatched layer of value to the platform, offering industry benchmarks, directories, and best practices to go further in their reader revenue model.

“Audiencers is accelerating its mission to help media professionals thrive by bringing them together at a greater scale, sharing what actually works to reclaim audience relationships, and equipping teams with practical intelligence, benchmarks and new tools to make better decisions.“ Marion Wyss, Publisher, Audiencers

All Poool and Darwin CX clients now have an Audiencers’ subscription included in their license. If you haven’t yet activated your access, please contact your account manager for more details. If you are already an Audiencers subscriber, you will continue to enjoy full access to all content and community features as before.

What does this mean for Poool and Darwin CX clients?

For existing Poool clients, the current setup remains unchanged, but you will gain immediate access to new capabilities from Darwin CX and an expanded roadmap for future innovation.

Darwin CX clients will gain access to Poool’s suite of engagement and conversion tools, leading to stronger growth capabilities and a more unified product experience. Not to mention full access to Audiencers’ content and community.

For those evaluating new solutions, this partnership offers a single integrated platform that replaces the need for multiple disparate tools, resulting in faster deployment and better performance across the entire subscriber funnel. For more information, book a demo with our team.

About Poool

Poool is a conversion and retention platform trusted by over 250 media companies across 25+ countries, including L’Équipe, Le Parisien, Irish News, The Kyiv Independent, and Hello!/Hola.

About Darwin CX

Darwin CX is a subscription management platform for publishers, membership organizations, and media companies. Headquartered in Toronto with offices in New York, Hamburg, and Northampton, Darwin CX serves 185+ customers managing over 25 million subscribers worldwide. 

Contact information: 

-> To hear more about how you can benefit from Poool x Darwin CX’s all-in-one reader revenue platform, contact hello@poool.fr

-> If you have any questions related to Audiencers, contact team@audiencers.com 

The post Darwin CX and Poool unite to build end-to-end subscription platform for publishers appeared first on Audiencers.

This article summarizes the session presented by Maxime Moné (CEO of Poool) and Virginie Clève (founder of Largow, a consulting agency) at the Audiencers Festival Paris on September 16, 2025. Together, they explored the question of “SEO & Paywalls: how can you combine audience and subscriptions in the age of AI?”

This presentation summarized in 5 points: 

- Choosing the paywall type (super hard/hard/soft) should be a strategic decision, not a technical one: each option has a different impact on visibility, content protection, and subscription conversion.

- Anticipate AI: allowing Google to read your content also means opening the door to ChatGPT or Perplexity; blocking Google risks a drop in SEO.

- Secure markup, and calibrate text before the paywall to prevent content leakage and find the balance between SEO (≥ 800 characters) and conversion.

- Adopt a hybrid blocking model: adjust the level of openness according to the value, lifespan, and type of content, rather than a single rule.

- Don't confuse protection with growth: blocking AI protects your content, but only a strong brand and a clear offering will create subscribers.

A lively presentation, Maxime and Virginie gave a candid overview of the current situation. SEO, paywalls, and now artificial intelligence are intertwined in a complex balancing act, where every decision influences visibility, conversion, and content protection.

1) Three types of paywalls… from an SEO perspective

Virginie pointed out that in SEO, paywalls fall into three main categories:

• Super hard: Google is treated as a non-subscriber, with no access to paid content. Examples: Les Échos, L’Équipe.
• Hard: Google is considered a subscriber, so it can crawl all content (e.g., Ouest-France and Le Canard Enchaîné).
• Soft: the majority of the market (~80% of sites)—paid content is visually hidden but remains present in the code, accessible to robots… and to any resourceful user.

Problem: in most newsrooms, this choice is not made by marketing management but by developers or SEO specialists, despite this being a highly strategic decision. “We can no longer treat the type of paywall as a technical parameter,” insists Virginie.

2) Why AI is changing everything

Before the advent of generative AI, a bypassable paywall was no big deal: crafty users were in the minority and subscriber growth continued. Today, it’s a different story. AI such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Meta AI can query Google via SERP API and reconstruct all or part of the paid content, without compensation for publishers.

The result: if you consider Google as a subscriber (hard or soft paywall), you are indirectly leaving your content open to AI. But if you close the door completely (super hard), you penalize your SEO. This is an unprecedented dilemma that requires careful consideration and discussion among teams.

Another new development: since August 28, 2025, Google has officially recommended that soft paywalls no longer be used. The search engine wants to avoid indexing paid content by mistake, particularly due to new AI features such as AI Overviews and Gemini. In short: a clear line must now be drawn between free and paid content.

3) Hidden SEO risks in your pages

Structured markup: in the NewsArticle or ArticleBody format, you should never insert the entire paid text in plain text. Otherwise, any AI tool or scraper can extract it and republish it elsewhere.

The same problem applies to machine translations: Google Translate can host media pages that are translated and laid out identically, but without tracking or advertising. This is simply a case of value capture.

The text before the paywall: Google considers that below 800 characters, a page is “thin content,” and below 1,200 characters, it is of average quality. On the other hand, the more you give, the less you convert. Each media outlet must therefore find its balance between SEO and conversion—ideally through A/B testing.

4) Hybridization, the future standard for paywalls

However, the solution is not to close everything off. Max and Virginie advocate a hybrid blocking strategy: adjusting the level of protection according to the value and lifespan of the content. For example, temporarily opening a news article, then closing it once its peak visibility has passed. Some publishers, such as Ouest-France, are already experimenting with engines capable of automatically arbitrating between free and paid content.

At the same time, other avenues are emerging: technical solutions such as Cloudflare or Akamai (access control, pay-per-crawl), or collective approaches (via GESTE, the Alliance, or joint legal action). But they all rely on one principle: this issue must be addressed across the board—product, SEO, subscriptions, and tech all around the same table.

5) Blocking is not enough to convert

Maxime Moné reminded us: “Users don’t subscribe just to access content. They subscribe for a brand, an experience, a promise.” Work on paywalls and AI is vital for the sovereignty and value of the media, but it will never replace editorial content, trust, and product quality.

The post Paywalls & SEO in the AI era appeared first on Audiencers.

The Next Gen News Report 2 (NGN2), a collaboration between FT Strategies, Medill Knight Lab, and the Google News Initiative, provides a roadmap for news organizations to reach younger audiences. The core of the report is the 7 Modes of Engagement, which distinguishes how "next gen" consumers (ages 18-25+) discover, consume, and share news.

To reach the next generation of news consumers, publishers must stop thinking about “the audience” as a monolith and start designing for specific “modes” of behavior. The second Next Gen News report reveals that younger consumers are not passive; they are active “information curators” who cycle through seven distinct mindsets.

Let’s breakdown the 7 Modes of Engagement and uncover how you can win in them.

1. The “Sift” Modes: how news is discovered

In sift modes, users filter through their chosen information environments to separate news from noise. 

Across all markets studied, the report finds that young consumers actively curate their information ecosystems, seeking to reduce the daily mental load from sifting through endless content. Consumers intentionally mold their environment to refine and filter the news sources they encounter.

Observing this shaping process in the field showcases how sifting is richer than originally thought, now defined through three distinct modes of news discovery: 

Mode 1: Scroll

 The vibe: passively encountering news whilst browsing social feeds
 The energy: engagement is often spontaneous and fleeting, shaped by the emerging news producers they follow and platform algorithms.
 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

How to win at Scroll mode:

• Post consistently and predictably 
• Balance the tone to make news entertaining without trivializing serious events
• Develop repeatable storytelling templates.

Case Study: Local News International. Using “Dave,” a recurring character who plays the role of the viewer, they use skits and satire to cover complex news in 40 seconds. By using a consistent personality and humor, they stop the scroll and build a recognizable brand identity without formal news constraints.

Mode 2: Seek

 The vibe: actively looking for information on a specific event or topic
 The energy: a highly intentional mode of engagement, where consumers look for efficient, information-rich content that delivers depth and relevance without distraction
 The strategy: anticipate information needs and make depth accessible without friction, ensuring that credibility, clarity and efficiency guide every interaction.

How to win at Seek mode

• Guide discovery
• Deliver curated briefings
• Offer live formats that capitalize on immediate interest.
• Create seamless, intelligent discovery experiences (such as Ask FT or Ask The Post)
• Design intuitive interfaces within owned and operated platforms
• Provide high utility & control, such as personalization and tailored formats based on preferences, such as listening or watching

Case study: Particle News. Using AI, Particle gives readers the option of discplaying a news story in 6 different ways, including the 5 Ws, opposite takes on the same story or “Explain like I’m 5”

Mode 3: Subscribe

 The vibe: receiving news from trusted, curated sources (newsletters, podcasts, SMS) they have deliberately chosen
 The energy: people expect timely, important or novel updates from sources whose judgement they rely on and do not want to miss
 The strategy: timely, important or novel updates from reliable sources

How to win at Subscribe

• Sync with daily habits: design delivery around audience routines and preferences, not output cycle, and consider offering personalized delivery
• Make subscribe content dense and easy to complete
• Standardize the skeleton for instant scanning
• Keep it short, but provide options to go deeper

Case Study: The Edinburgh Minute. Short paragraphs, plain language, softer tone in the introduction. A long list of key stories, each with two sentences max, along with an emoji to introduce the topic, and a follow-up link.

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2. The “Consumption” Modes: how news is processed

In consumption modes, users have chosen to explore a subject, topic or piece of content more deeply.

Audiences are more likely to engage further when a story feels personally relevant, emotionally resonant or sparks their curiosity. How they first encounter that story does not dictate what happens next. Differing motivations shape how individuals choose to go deeper, whether by verifying facts, exploring context, or interpreting different perspectives.

The 2025 findings reinforce the three modes we previously identified that capture how audiences engage more deeply with the news once they move beyond sifting. These modes are:

Mode 4: Substantiate

 The vibe: verifying if a story is true or finding the "raw" facts.
 The energy: an individual has found a piece of information and wants to quickly and credibly confirm it
 The strategy: create content that is promptly delivered after a breaking news event, focusing on main claims and facts, with simple, clear and digestible evidence at its core

How to win at Substantiate mode:

• Meet your users where they are
• Prioritize accuracy and relevance over speed or volume
• Push information directly to audiences
• Lead with facts
• Create quick, easily digestible formats 
• Show your working: stitch primary source materials into the content and show the process

Case Study: UnderTheDeskNews. They often presents sources behind the presenter, such as maps of military facilities, to promote substantiation. These successful news producers clearly annotate from where information has come using overlays on videos or references in text, and they include links in captions and bios

Mode 5: Study

 The vibe: going deep to master a topic of personal or professional interest
 The energy: a desire to learn, upskill and be inspired. For some, Study mode is a pleasant distraction
 The strategy: producers can create long-form, information-dense content that has high-production value to keep engagement high, while showcasing their lived experience as a means to draw users into the story.

How to win at Study mode:

• Bring the story to life through immersion.
• Show interest
• Open with the motive, not just the topic
• Use mini-brands or shows as a creative sandbox
• Start with a learning goal to orient the audience and prime attention
• Favor evergreen or under-explored themes
• Build concepts progressively and go deep
• Bring it to life: gather original evidence, showcase it in original ways and develop a signature form

Case study: HowTown. 15-plus-minute long-form videos that have clear chapter markers and distill key information while allowing users to easily go back or skip specific sections.

Mode 6: sensemake

 The vibe: looking for context to understand why a story matters and what to think about it
 The energy: exploring different viewpoints to form opinions. This mode is driven by curiosity and a desire for co-learning spaces
 The strategy: create spaces that invite perspective and transparency, helping audiences process disagreement and find orientation amid uncertainty

How to win at Sensemake mode:

• Create open conversations 
• Create open spaces for honest conversation where producers and audiences can think aloud
• Clearly disclose your intention, bias or viewpoint
• Orient and include the audience: vary show formats to deepen engagement and reach audiences across information needs
• Use livestreams to transform news into a shared, real-time act
• Use satire wisely (it should stimulate critical thinking): build recurring inside jokes to make complex topics feel approachable and foster a sense of belonging

Case Study: Morning Brew. Always linking to the original business story to anchor it to one company and how it’s being covered. Satire is created through the use of props, funny captions and over-the-top personas or characters.

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3. The “Social” Mode: how news is shared

Mode 7: Socialize

 The vibe: sharing news to connect with others, express identity, or start a conversation. Sharing news is less a discrete consumption habit and more of a long-term relational action to be considered in its own context.
 The energy: there is no more valued, trusted source than friends and family, and often these connections help cut through content overwhelm.
 The strategy: build for sharing!

How to win the Social mode:

• Make sharing a “product feature” that makes the action effortless for readers
• Create content that people want to send to their peers
• Leading news producers tell human stories
• Consider using memes to condense meaning and inject humor

The takeaway for publishers

The “Next Gen” consumer is suffering from information overwhelm. To win, publishers must transition from being “content factories” to “mode-specific service providers.” Whether it’s winning the first two seconds of a Scroll or providing the deep-dive tools for Study, success in 2026 and beyond depends on meeting the audience exactly where they are.

The post Beyond the feed: mastering the 7 modes of next gen news engagement appeared first on Audiencers.

If you feel like the “easy” wins in digital subscriptions have vanished, you’re not alone, and the data finally backs you up. The WAN-IFRA World Press Trends Outlook 2025-2026 report reveals an industry at an interesting, if slightly daunting, crossroads.

While the narrative for years has been “digital or bust,” we are now entering a “print + digital + other” paradigm. Digital revenues currently account for 31% of publisher income, but growth has noticeably stalled, nearly matching last year’s figures.

For us at Audiencers, this isn’t a sign to retreat. It’s a signal that the “one size fits all” subscription model is officially broken, that you need to keep innovating, giving audiences more flexibility than ever, whilst building relationships that last.

WAN-IFRA’s Trends Outlook 2026: Subscriptions by the numbers

The shift toward digital continues, but the pace is cooling. 

Unlike predictions about print decline over the past years, it remains resilient, and the largest single revenue source. 

However, the gap with other income sources is narrowing. Digital circulation now represents 14% of revenue, while income from other activities (events being the greatest part of this, followed by B2B services & e-commerce) lies at an average of 25.4%.

As for reader revenue in particular: 

• Digital circulation has grown: from 9% in 2021 to 14% in 2025, a 55.6% increase in under five years
• The adoption gap is closing: 58.5% of news organizations now offer digital subscriptions, a number that jumps to 72.9% in developed markets
• The “Ceiling” effect?: The report suggests that “growth has leveled off and looks to have hit a ceiling… publishers have already signed up many of those prepared to pay” making further acquisition increasingly difficult in a tight economic climate

At Audiencers, we’re less convinced that this “ceiling” has been hit.

In either case, there are some key strategies, many highlighted in the report and across Audiencers, to put in place to combat this “leveled off growth” through a focus towards a more sophisticated and diversified model.

1. Bundling & Family Plans

We’ve seen a significant shift toward high-value bundles over the past few years, combining both national and international brands to reduce the need for a user to pay for multiple subscriptions. 

• News Corp brought together three of its best-known publications in October 2025, enabling subscribers of The Australian to also be able to access The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal
• A number of European publishers (Politiken in Denmark, El País in Spain, Italy’s Corriere della Sera and The Irish Times in Ireland) have partnered with The New York Times to offer subscribers access to the NYT’s suite of content
• Le Figaro worked to reduce password sharing, both by limiting simultaneous sessions and developing alternative sharing options, such as Family Packs: “A subscriber to one of these two packages now has the possibility to link 2 to 4 user accounts to their subscription.”

But don’t overcomplicate – as Subscrybe’s Morten Suhr Hansen puts it, “over recent years, many subscription businesses have added layer upon layer: products, pricing models, campaigns, systems, and channels. In 2026, the ability to simplify becomes a competitive advantage. Companies that do not have a clear value proposition, a strong understanding of their core customer segments, and clarity on their key value drivers will struggle – regardless of how much AI they implement.”

> Gain clarity on your purpose with this workshop

> And perfect your value proposition with these 2 frameworks

2. The dynamic paywall

One-size-fits-all is (finally) being left behind for dynamic acquisition models that adapt experiences to a reader’s profile or context. Solutions like Poool, used to put these dynamic strategies in place, are more accessible than ever, built for marketing teams to have autonomy from tech.

What can you adapt to?

• Level of engagement
• Source of traffic
• User status (anonymous, registered, ex-subscriber…)
• Content type / topic
• User location

What can you adapt?

• The type of wall: registration wall, paywall…
• How “tough” the wall is: closable, anti-scroll, full-page, partial-block
• The messaging on the wall
• Introductory offers or pricing proposed
• Currency

A few examples:

• ELLE Magazine’s contextual paywalls, adapted messaging and design to the content type, increased conversion rates by 20%
• Jeune Afrique doubled conversion rates by adapting the paywall messaging and pricing to a user’s level of engagement and location 

3. Flexibility and an end to “locking in” 

A successful retention model isn’t one that prevents readers from leaving. It’s one where audiences are saved before they even consider cancelling, where unsubscription isn’t the end of the relationship, where alternative, more flexible options exist, and where we accept that people will come and go. Ending the relationship badly doesn’t do us any favors (in fact, it only reduces trust and potentially helps prevent acquisition due to bad past experiences).

What should you do instead?

• Pause functionality as a standard: the ability to pause a subscription instead of canceling permanently is an extremely effective retention mechanism. French publisher Le Monde already has this in place

• Easy cancellation is the new retention strategy: simple unsubscription is a necessary foundation for building trust, improving CX, and ultimately turning your pool of ex-subscribers into your biggest future growth opportunity. This is exactly what Nat Geo Kids is proving. 

4. Subscriptions as relationships, not contracts

The lines between transactional “subscriptions” and missionary “memberships” are blurring. By developing a community, publishers add an emotional layer to the relationship, making readers more likely to remain loyal and participate thoughtfully.

• Condé Nast has created a “Membership” tier that sits above subscription to build belonging amongst their most loyal audiences. The value exchange here is two-way: members are active participants contributing data, feedback, and engagement. They expect to belong to a community. And the strategy is paying off: a member has an LTV (Lifetime Value) up to 50 times higher than a subscriber, amongst other benefits listed below
• The South African publisher Daily Maverick is perhaps the poster child for these types of membership models, with 40% of its revenues generated by member-driven support. Styli Charalambous, Daily Maverick’s co-founder and CEO told Pugpig in late-2024 that “after three years, 85% of people who start as a member are still there.”
• At The Kyiv Independent, membership means that journalism remains free. With a membership, a reader can support from $5-$100 a month, getting a few benefits in exchange, which have of course evolved over the years. With members based around the world, they’ve worked hard to bring members together, such as through a community map. 
• A variety of publishers are creating “clubs” for subscribers, such as DIE ZEIT‘s “Friends of Zeit”, Handelsblatt‘s Circles, The Economist Insider, amongst plenty others.

5. Innovative acquisition channels 

Just like revenue streams, acquisition channels are being diversified to reduce reliance on the traditional funnel.

• Referrals at Zetland: Tav Klitgaard, Group CEO and Co-founder, shared how important referrals are for them.

“At Zetland, we have for several years focused on leveraging existing members for acquisition. This is by far the most meaningful way for us to grow, because it builds stronger relationships with both the new members who join through personal recommendations and the existing members who help spread the word about a service that makes a difference in their own lives.

The “contracts” generated by our member-get-member campaigns are far stronger than any ad could ever be.“

• Daily Maverick tackles low conversion rates with a targeted Q&A mailer, significantly enhancing member acquisition and engagement. The initiative addresses the gap between interest and action, providing detailed answers to potential members’ questions, which has led to a notable increase in conversions
• The Times & Sunday Times has been testing an open weekends each year as a way of offering non-subscribers a chance to discover the premium content they have on offer

• Whilst Daily Maverick tested the opposite, proving the importance of their work and helping to finance it

• And learning from other industries such as ecommerce businesses who have abandoned shopping cart notices. The below example from Texas Monthly

> Fancy being inspired by 45 acquisition channel ideas? Well you can, just here.

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“Other sources” as the new core?

Perhaps the most shocking finding is the rise of “Other Sources” (events, content services, etc.). This bucket now makes up 25.4% of revenues, almost doubling since 2021.

Events continue to be the main area of activity in this area, with 32.2% of respondents identifying them as an important revenue source, followed by B2B services content and partnerships with platforms (both 16.1%), according to WAN-IFRA’s report.

The secret to building these alternative revenue strategies well? Understanding audience needs, building streams around this and continuously innovating to serve evolving needs.

Panos Sarlanis, Co-founder of IamExpat Media, spoke about this at our 2024 Festival in London. 

The question they kept asking: “What essential needs can we solve with new products or services?”

• This led to the launch of directories, helping users find trusted professionals, from tax advisors and language schools to English-speaking dentists, lawyers and career coaches. These have become a significant part of IamExpat’s business model.
• Recognizing the challenges of finding accommodation and employment in new countries, IamExpat also launched a housing platform (aggregating rental properties from partners) and a job board specifically tailored for their international and multilingual audience. 

These “classifieds”—directories, housing, and job boards—now account for a considerable part of their revenue. Directories contribute the most, and this highlights the high value and conversion rate of these specialized services that focus on user needs.

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The direction is clear: To succeed in 2026, you can’t rely on content access alone. Publishers should build an ecosystem with the audience at the center, where subscription is the gateway to a community, not just a library of text.

The post The state of play: What WAN-IFRA’s Trends Outlook 2026 says for your subscription model appeared first on Audiencers.

John Rahim is founder of The Media Stack, a newsletter delivering in-depth analysis of the advertising, media, and marketing technology sectors, with a focus on emerging trends in AI and monetization.

In this article, John shares his interview with Joshi Herrmann, founder of The Mill, a UK-based digital publisher known for its award-winning, high-quality local news newsletters. They discuss what an "overwhelmingly reader-driven" revenue strategy means for their business:
-> Cities are chosen based on having the right person to pioneer the launch. Herrmann looks for someone who loves their city and believes in narrative journalism
-> Funds, when needed, have been from individuals who care about journalism, not firms with processes and exit timelines
-> The company has a model that prioritizes readers over traffic and quality over volume

Joshi Herrmann launched The Mill in 2020 with a simple bet: people would pay for proper local journalism if you actually gave them proper local journalism. Four years later, he’s got around 13,000 paying subscribers across six cities and is proving that the UK’s regional newspaper groups have been getting it wrong for two decades.

The Manchester Evening News was publishing stories about Piers Morgan. The Liverpool Echo was chasing whatever TV drama was trending that week. Across Britain’s major cities, regional newspapers that once employed hundreds of journalists and broke real stories had become traffic farms covered in programmatic ads, churning out whatever might get clicks.

“The executives in charge of these amazing media companies were trashing these brands so comprehensively and letting down local readers in the process,” Herrmann says. “That annoyed me, but it also felt like an opportunity to prove that they were doing it wrong.”

Trading ads for readers

“In local news in the UK, there had been a focus on advertising revenue rather than subscription revenue for a long time.” “The switch to digital had fundamentally been a switch from making most of your money in print from advertising to making most of your money from advertising in a digital setting. And I was aware that wasn’t working as a model.”

Go to any regional newspaper website, and you’d see the result. Dozens of stories that had nothing to do with the city. Websites plastered with terrible ads. Content designed purely to drive traffic volume rather than serve readers.

“If I thought that was an insane situation for a high-quality local newspaper,” Herrmann says, “then I knew that lots of other people would agree with me.”

Lockdown launch

The timing was accidental. Herrmann had been in the Czech Republic, planning to write a book about his family and the Holocaust. The pandemic killed that plan and he ended up back in the UK helping his sister and spending time in the garden and wondering what to do next.

By 2020, the infrastructure was in place to try something different. Substack had shown individual creators could build businesses charging for content. Tony Mecia was running a successful local business newsletter on the platform in Charlotte, North Carolina called The Charlotte Ledger.

“I thought, well, it is a different market, he’s operating in a much more affluent area than Manchester—but this might be worth a go.”

Herrmann had no money for a big team. That constraint became an advantage. He’d launch a newsletter, keep costs low, and focus on quality over volume. He set the price at roughly double what most Substack newsletters charged, betting readers would value proper local journalism enough to pay for it.

They did.

The numbers

Mill Media now operates in Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Birmingham, London, and Glasgow. About 175,000 people are on free email lists. 13,000 paying subscribers.

The original Mill in Manchester has 4,000 paying subscribers. The Sheffield Tribune has 3,000. Liverpool Post has 2,000. Newer titles are growing.

Revenue is overwhelmingly reader-driven. Advertising accounts for about 5% – high-quality sponsorships with the FT, Royal Horticultural Society, and Manchester Museum. Herrmann wants to grow that to maybe 20% for diversification, but the core model stays reader-funded.

“If you’re reader-funded, your incentive is to give quality to those readers,” he says. “We’ve got to maintain that.”

The company moved from Substack to Ghost, cutting platform costs to less than a fifth of what they had been paying while gaining greater control over design. “It’s a lot cheaper… it allows us to experiment.”

How to pick a city

There’s no spreadsheet. Herrmann doesn’t analyse demographics or run market sizing models. He looks for someone who loves their city and believes in narrative journalism.

“The most important determinant is the person in the city who wants to do it.”

The Bell in Glasgow happened because Robbie Armstrong got in touch, they met for a drink, and Herrmann recognised someone with encyclopaedic knowledge of the city and genuine passion for quality work. “At the beginning, when it’s difficult, and it’s a real battle, and you have almost no money, and it’s a real risk, you need that first person who is a pioneering person.”

Cities with universities help. Strong local identity distinct from London helps. But the human element matters most. “If someone came along in a city that I really loved, and I had the right person, I’d probably go for that over not the right person in a very large city.”

Individual backers, not VCs

Herrmann raised funding from people, not funds. Mark Thompson, former CEO of the New York Times and current CEO of CNN, Nick Johnston from Axios and Investor Turi Munthe.

They’re individuals who care about journalism, not firms with processes and exit timelines.

“The conversations I had with those people were no different from the conversation I’ve had with other journalists”, Herrmann says. “Someone who cares about journalism asks a bunch of questions for 45 minutes, and then I say at the end, would you throw in a bit of cash?”

They provide advice when Herrmann asks for it. They don’t interfere with editorial. “Fundamentally, you can take all the advice you want, but you have to go with your gut. The mistakes are mine, and the decisions are mine.” The investors share Herrmann’s view that journalism must be commercially sustainable.

“The only genuine solution to the journalism problems that we have is via commercial sustainability.”

City by city profitability

Each city aims to break even within two to three years. Manchester and Sheffield are already profitable. Liverpool and Birmingham should hit profitability this year. London by year’s end. Glasgow early next year.

“I don’t expect us to be the most profitable company in the UK, but I expect us to cover our costs in our cities after a couple of years,” Herrmann says. “Otherwise, you’re creating some sort of vanity project. I’m not interested in that.”

When The Bell launched in Glasgow, journalists at traditional Scottish newspapers weren’t thrilled. They felt they were doing quality work but were stuck writing 14 stories a day to feed the traffic machine. Herrmann’s not criticising the journalists.

“It’s not the quality of the journalists. It’s not about their effort. It’s about the fact that the people who make decisions in these newsrooms have made bad strategic business decisions that have led them to a model that means these young journalists have to write 14 stories in a day.”

What works

Mill Media now employs 22 people and is growing. The company has a model that prioritises readers over traffic and quality over volume.

“We’re trying to introduce a way of people valuing high-quality local journalism in a way that hasn’t been there in the culture before,” Herrmann says. It’s not easy. It requires exceptional journalism every day, smart promotion, and relentless focus on basics. But the growth is real. From one person during lockdown to a multi-city operation, backed by media veterans and sustainable economics in each market.

Regional journalism’s problems were never about reader appetite. They focused on business models chasing the wrong revenue. Herrmann’s success is the proof. The question for Britain’s struggling regional newspaper groups isn’t whether this model works. It’s whether they have the appetite to execute it.

The post The Mill Media’s Simple Bet: Readers Pay for Quality appeared first on Audiencers.

Selma Stern is a strategic advisor helping media leaders transform their organizations for sustainable growth, drawing on 15+ years of experience in consulting and global news media. In particular, Selma bridges the gap between high-level strategy and the messy reality of execution, helping publishers fix the internal structures that hold them back.

In this article, Selma shares 5 recommendations for surviving in this gap as a subscription leader:
- Accept your real job: consensus builder, not decision maker
- Master internal storytelling
- Build cross-functional infrastructure
- Invest in human chemistry
- Give away the credit

If you are a digital subscriptions leader, you probably face a paradox every day: all the accountability, almost none of the control.

Having led subscription businesses at two US media companies, and now advising publishers on subscription growth in Europe, I see this everywhere, all the time. The head of subscriptions holds the P&L responsibility. But they rarely hold the assets—the CTO controls the dev queue, the Editor-in-Chief controls the headlines, and the CPO controls the UX. If the head of subs is lucky, they control email marketing and customer success.

If that’s you: To get anything done, you cannot just decide—you have to barter.

Because subscriptions sit at the exact intersection of business, product, editorial, and data, you are an elite player in a game of extreme cross-functional collaboration.

Here’s the playbook for surviving in that gap.

The post Alignment as an extreme sport: 5 things effective subscriptions leaders do appeared first on Audiencers.

In this article, Davide Liverino, B2B marketing leader focused on subscription revenue growth, uncovers how Netflix has used the release dates of the latest Stranger Things episodes as a strategic lock-in for their subscription model.
-> The clever gap between the first and final episodes being released, ensuring subscribers pass a billing cycle whilst waiting
-> 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

Finally, Davide shares how subscription leaders can put this to practice in their own model

Netflix’s Stranger Things schedule is a masterpiece of financial engineering. It looks like a holiday gift for fans. It is actually a calculated assault on the monthly billing cycle.

I’ve been analysing the release schedule for the final season of Stranger Things, and the dates (Nov 26, Dec 25, Dec 31) reveal a sophisticated “Subscription Bridge” strategy. By creating a 36-day window for a 30-day product, Netflix isn’t just releasing content; they are mathematically forcing a renewal event.

In this deep-dive article, I deconstruct:

• The “Subscription Bridge”: How a 6-day gap can double Lifetime Value (LTV).
• The “Pulse” Strategy: Why the binge model is dead, and what is replacing it.
• The Defensive Moat: Making use of engaging content releases during churn danger zones
• The B2B Application: How SaaS leaders can use “cliffhanger” mechanics to reduce churn during high-risk renewal periods.

This is a blueprint for anyone managing recurring revenue.

At first glance, the release schedule for the final season of Stranger Things looks like a celebration of fandom. A Thanksgiving premiere (November 26th), a Christmas special (December 25th), and a New Year’s Eve finale (December 31st). It dominates the Western holiday calendar, turning a TV show into a global cultural event.

But if you look past the nostalgia and the Demogorgons, you will see one of the most sophisticated pieces of financial engineering in the history of the streaming wars.

This schedule isn’t about artistic pacing. It is a calculated assault on the subscription model’s greatest weakness: the “transient” user who joins, binges, and cancels in 29 days.

The post Subscription Lock-In: Deconstructing Netflix’s “Stranger Things” Strategy appeared first on Audiencers.

Morten Stald is a Senior Partner at Subscrybe, the leading Scandinavian consultancy specializing in subscription. In this article, Morten shares why he thinks you need to update your subs management system, what you should do before moving forward and what you need to consider when selecting the replacement solution.

We live in a digital age. Regardless of the type of subscription you offer, you likely have numerous digital interactions with your customers. This places high demands on the system infrastructure that supports your subscription business. At the heart of that infrastructure is a ‘subscription management system‘ which essentially handles the management of your subscribers, pricing, and subscription plans, ensuring that customers are charged the right amount – every time.

But, as a media professional, you already know that. However, do you know what is expected of your media business in the near future?

We keep a close eye on what subscribers like and don’t like. And we know for a fact that subscribers are harder to satisfy than transactional customers. After all, you need a good reason for charging them every month – and you need to deliver more and more value each month, in order for them to stay.

This is why we are currently helping Nordic media companies choose the best new subscription management system for their needs. And, if you didn’t already do it, we strongly encourage you to consider it as well. Because a new media reality is here. One, where your digital capabilities must be second-to-none, if you want to retain your readers over time. As print circulation slowly declines, media companies must prepare for delivering the most value in a new digital arena. And that is hard to do, without strategic IT investments.

The post Why it’s time to update your subscription management system to accommodate consumer trends appeared first on Audiencers.