As media organizations shift from volume-based traffic to value-based reader revenue models, the challenge often lies in bridging the gap between an anonymous click and a loyal subscriber. Sadly, this isn’t like Married at First Sight… this relationship won’t be built in a day, nor with a paywall alone. It takes time, energy and a variety of formats to develop. 

Milenio, one of Mexico’s most influential news groups, has well understood this. Their answer wasn’t found in aggressive paywall tactics, but in cultivating a highly engaged community within its own ecosystem.

We spoke with Chief Reader Revenue Officer Juan Manuel Nava Madrazo about how, by strategically pivoting toward conversational tools and gamified loyalty, Milenio has successfully tripled user time-on-site and established a sustainable pipeline for its January 2026 paywall launch.

Moving beyond “social media friction”

For years, Milenio relied on Facebook for its comment sections. However, this led to audience leakage, where users were pulled away to external social platforms, and a double login friction that stifled local community growth. Worse, the lack of moderation created a toxic environment that excluded younger audiences and alienated quality readers.

“We needed to centralize data and convert anonymous readers into loyal registered users, all within our own ecosystem,” 

To reclaim its audience, Milenio replaced its social media plugin with a proprietary community engine, Logora, focused on three pillars: 

• Unified login (SSO): Eliminating friction by integrating the comment system directly with Milenio’s registration.

• Smart hybrid moderation (AI+Human): A robust moderation that drastically reduces toxicity and ensures a civil debate.
• Local identity: Total customization, including avatars specifically designed to reflect Mexican culture (e.g., Frida Kahlo), strengthening the sense of belonging.

• New editorial product (“Realidades”): Creation of a new video-debate section that fosters deep discussions on everyday life topics (Mexican lifestyle and social topics).

This ownership of the community, with attention to details that help encourage participation, is paying off across the board: 

1. Community growth

• Volume: +150% in daily comments in the first year and an additional +100% in the second year
• Engagement: Over 120,000 comments accumulated with 80–85% approval rate (vs. 60% previously) and 120,000 interactions (likes/votes)
• Quality: Users went from leaving emojis or short phrases to writing reasoned paragraphs and reading others’ opinions

2. Retention and time spent

• All Milenio users: 1 minute 48 seconds
• Registered users (non-commenting): 2 minutes 20 seconds
• Registered users using commenting: 4 minutes 40 seconds (+200% vs. average)

3. Conversion driver for registration

• 10-11% of new daily registrations come directly from the comments widget
• Between 2,000 and 2,500 new users register each month to participate in comments
• Commenting is the 4th most important registration source for the media outlet, surpassing many content sections

The new video series “Realidades” shows:

• +20% higher participation
• +10% more users writing arguments, not just voting

Gamifying loyalty: the points milenio program

A central component of Milenio’s retention strategy is Puntos Milenio, a loyalty program that rewards high-value behaviors with redeemable points.

To bring Puntos Milenio to life, 3 key elements were needed:

• The talent of the Milenio team (Development, Business, Data, etc.).
• External platforms that understood their needs
• Trust in the project

With these three elements, they had to integrate and adapt different technologies so they could coexist and function as a single system. In addition, it was essential that operations and configuration were as simple and scalable as possible.

The end user was always the focus: “someone for whom we aimed to create an easy, hassle-free experience and who clearly understands the value of staying informed through reliable journalism”.

Users aren’t aware of how they earn points in detail, to avoid cheating of the system, but internally these are built up by:

• Engaging with content: commenting, reading multiple articles, or reaching specific scroll depth targets
• Watching videos (encouraging long-form consumption)
• Referrals: sharing articles to social platforms (to bring in new potential registrants)

Although the project is still in a maturation phase, the initial results already show strong signs of impact:

• More than 2,500 users are currently participating in the program
• They have generated more than 1 Million points, mainly by reading news, playing EntrenaMentes, listening to podcasts, watching videos, and commenting on content

These points can be exchanged for tangible rewards, such as discount coupons for Starbucks, Amazon, and Google Play. Critically, subscribers to Milenio Plus receive double points for their activities, adding a layer of perceived value to the subscription itself.

Community “Lovers” as a qualified pool for subscription

Registration is widely recognised as a valuable model to launch pre-subscription. It helps to build a qualified, engaged audience of potential future subscribers, as well as providing a testing ground for conversion tactics. Mileno, however, have gone a step further by building a community around registration, ensuring these audiences are engaged enough to convert when faced with a paywall. 

Commenting is placed behind the registration wall, establishing a simple value exchange that builds engagement whilst collecting key data points. 

Using Marfeel’s scoring, Milenio identified commenters as high-value “Lovers” (70 pts vs. 10 pts for casual users). With 50% of registered users classified as lovers, this community is the prime target for the subscription revenue to come in 2026.

The post Owning the community and gamifying loyalty: Inside Milenio’s engagement strategies appeared first on Audiencers.

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.

In Fall 2025, Les Coops de l’information, a collective of six Canadian media outlets (Le Soleil, Le Droit, Le Nouvelliste, Le Quotidien, La Tribune, and La Voix de l’Est) launched an innovative subscription drive named internally as the “Pay what you can project”.

Designed to coincide with the 2025 Municipal Elections, the campaign aimed to lower the barrier to local news while reinforcing the value of independent, cooperative journalism.

Results were beyond their expectations:

• 4.2% increase in subscribers
• Despite the minimum amount being $1 per month for the first three months of subscription, the average amount paid was $3.12 per month. This increased to $3.50 after increasing the suggested price

Principal Director, Audiences and Platforms, Marc Gendron shared how this strategy boosted subscriber growth and increased ARPU for those on this offer.

“Pay what you can” strategy

The core of the initiative was a flexible pricing model for the first three months of a new user’s subscription.

“We wanted to make an audacious promotion that would be too good to ignore! It shouldn’t rely solely on a heavy discount, but also on our unique value proposition at a time when it’s more relevant than ever.

Our gamble was: we know that there will be more interest towards our local politics content during the municipal campaign, so let’s surf on that wave and make sure our new promotional subscribers get the most out of their plans, that they feel that they are getting much more than what they are paying for. Instead of opening up access to our elections coverage, or setting up a fixed promotional price, we wanted to give more power and autonomy to users by letting them choose their price.”

Key components include:

• Democratic access: The campaign was rooted in the belief that a strong democracy requires exhaustive and impartial electoral coverage.
• Price autonomy: Prospective subscribers were invited to “fix the price” for their initial three-month period.
• Transparency and trust: Using the slogan “Un média qui vous ressemble, un média qui nous rassemble” (A media that looks like you, a media that brings you together) the group highlighted its status as an employee-owned cooperative.

“Our goal was to increase the total number of subscribers, between 3.5% and 4.3% of total subs. 

We mobilized everyone we could in order to achieve these targets. The new features we needed to implement, flexible pricing mechanics, everything was put on the development roadmap early in 2025. Our collaborators from Wizeline, who take care of all our platform development projects and Arc XP integration, worked tirelessly to have every feature ready for the fall campaign.

We also got the help of Drakkar Digital (renamed deRabane since), our long-lasting marketing partner, in order to create the visuals, copy and plan the delivery of all the marketing messages.

The editorial team was mobilised too, because the success of the campaign relied heavily on their capacity to deliver unique, useful and original content during that specific period.

Finally, our small digital growth team (including the IT and customer service team) operationalized the whole process.“

Feature gating: creating a product worth paying for

Of course, a promotional project is only as good as the product you’re selling! Les Coops has worked on developing strategic “feature gating” to build a subscription worth paying for, with clear value and strategic steps through registration towards subscription: 

Interactive engagement: Features like the “Question of the Day”  required users to be connected to vote and view live, constantly updated results.

Bookmarking across devices: Registered users gained access to a bookmarking feature, allowing them to save their favorite articles across web and app platforms.

Premium audio: Audio versions of articles were restricted to “All-inclusive” and “Ultimate” subscribers, serving as an upsell for basic plan holders.

Access limitations: To maintain account integrity, the platform limited simultaneous access to four devices, automatically disconnecting the oldest session when the limit was reached.

Premium content: Chroniques (articles written by columnists) and archives (articles published more than 30 days ago) have been hard paywalled as a key part of their subscription value proposition 

Marketing across site

As with any campaign, design and messaging needs to be consistent across the website and platforms, including the paywall. 

Dedicated paywalls: Les Coops d’Information built dedicated “Pay what you can” paywalls in Poool, including a live countdown to create urgency.

Subscription landing page: To ensure continuity of messaging through the user journey, dedicated subscription landing pages were also created in Poool, highlighting the value proposition, sharing subscriber testimonials and providing reasons why users should subscribe. 

Multi-channel promotion

The campaign was supported by an intensive five-week marketing blitz:

Email campaign: 72 unique emails (12 per media outlet) were delivered, each utilizing different angles and value propositions.

Targeted ads: The group targeted known non-subscribers through Google Ads, StackAdapt, and Bing Ads

In-app and newsletters: Non-subscribers were greeted with dedicated “Pay what you can” headers in free editorial newsletters and pop-up messages upon opening the mobile app.

Results 

“The final results were pretty impressive. By the end of the five weeks of promotion, our total subscriber base had increased by 4.2%, more than our targets and very close to our most optimistic forecast.

What was the most interesting though was the fact that, despite the minimum amount requested being 1$ per month for the first three months of subscription, the average amount paid was 3.12$ per month. This average increased to 3.39$ when we suggested 5$ in the price field and to 3.50$ when suggesting 6$. Each time we changed the suggested amount, we saw an increase in the number of users choosing to go with the suggested amount.

There are even some new subscribers that paid more than the regular price of a subscription!

Another really encouraging fact: 84% of these new subscribers had never subscribed before! This is probably one of the most encouraging findings of this adventure. It means that there is still room for us to grow.”

What’s next?

“This kind of campaign is a little more complicated than one with a fixed set of promotional prices. But the results we got were pretty impressive.

The fact that the user sets the initial price does add a layer of interactivity however, and it lowers the entry bar to a level where they feel comfortable. The core of the challenge remains though: to convince newly converted subscribers that our offer is worth the regular price.”

What should another publisher make sure of before testing this same project? 

“They should immediately get the buy-in from all important stakeholders as the impact on ARPU can be unpredictable. In our case, we feel that we were quite lucky to get an average ARPU of more than 3$ despite the fact that the minimum amount required was 1$. But that is still below the average ARPU we got with fixed price promotions and way below our regular numbers. Make sure that you manage everyone’s expectations. Even your own! 

That being said, as we have been galvanized by the nomination we got for this project at the INMA Global Media Awards, we will reactivate the Pay what you can promotion for two weeks in order to see if we can get similar, or even better, results this time around.”

The post Les Coops de l’information “Pay What You Can” Campaign appeared first on Audiencers.

Max Moné is co-founder and CEO at Poool, the dynamic journey builder to boost subscription conversion, engagement, and loyalty.

This is the third in a 6-part series where I share what I learned from studying 100 subscription business models across 15+ industries. 
If you haven't read the first one yet, start here. 
And Episode 2, focused on product and media, is here.

What we expected to find vs. what we actually found

When we started building our subscription moodboard, we structured our analysis around 4 areas: product, conversion, offers & pricing, and retention.

Episode 2 covered the product (and was focused solely on media brands).
This one covers conversion, and we’re back to cross-industry.

For the past 10 years, whether in e-commerce, Saas or media, I’ve seen the same customer journey model everywhere. Attract → convert → retain. 

A linear, finite sequence. And that’s what we expected to analyze in this series: how the best subscription businesses optimize the 3 steps in this sequence.

What we found was fundamentally different.

When we looked at the NYT, Figma, Miro, Calm, Masterclass (and 95 others), we noticed that conversion almost never happens in one step. It happens through micro-conversions, each with its own objective. And more importantly, even conversion itself seems secondary. The real priority for those companies is to create value for their user as a first goal. To build engagement. To make the product feel indispensable before asking for money.

We saw this pattern everywhere.

The journey we observed doesn’t look like a line. It looks like a loop. 

Attract → Convert at level 0 (ex: account) → Onboarding & discovery → Engage → Convert at level 1 (trial or cheap offer) → Onboarding & discovery → Engage deeper → Convert at level 2 (full price, bundle)… and it keeps going.

One step, one job. And for some, it’s almost a religion

The critical principle behind this model: each step has one single goal.
Not two. Not three. One.

Let me show you what that looks like in practice.

Look at the homepage of the New York Times (I mean, when I looked at it when building the moodboard). Arguably the biggest digital newspaper in the world. The only action button in the top right corner says “LOG IN.” Not “Subscribe.” Not “Try for $1/week.” Log in. Because at this stage, the goal is registration, not subscription.

And this discipline is consistent everywhere. In their registration flow: zero* subscription CTAs. In their onboarding: they ask which areas of The Times you want to explore, they recommend newsletters, they push the app download. Zero subscription CTA. The only goal is to understand who you are and start personalizing.

This sounds obvious when you write it down. But look at most media registration walls: they almost always push a subscription offer at the same time. Most onboarding flows try to sell and educate simultaneously. Same for the homepage, if you spend more than 20 seconds there you will probably be asked to do 5 different things in one session (register, signup for newsletter, subscribe, …)

*if you look closely, you’ll find spot where you can see subscription CTA, but you have to look closely

Not just media: Figma, Miro, Calm, Masterclass do the same

This isn’t a media-only pattern. That’s the whole point of this episode.

Figma: $12.5B company.
Homepage: “Sign up for free.” You click, you give your email. 

Then the onboarding starts: What’s your name? How do you plan to use Figma? What do you do for work? Where do you work? Have you used Figma before? What do you want to make first?

Six questions before you see anything about pricing. And when the plan page finally appears, it includes a free Starter option, so even the pricing step isn’t a hard sell.
Look at the wording: “Which plan would you like”? 

(Image: Figma onboarding flow – from homepage to personalized workspace, 8 steps)

What Figma adds to the picture (that the NYT doesn’t show as clearly) is that the product itself adapts in real-time during the onboarding. On the right side of the screen, you see your workspace evolving with each answer. It’s not a form. It’s a first preview of the value you’re about to get (to make you stay onboard).

Miro: 600M€+ in revenue
They push this even further on the personalization side.
Email → role → needs → team size → personalized interface → guided tour.
The subscription offer only shows up when you try to access a paid feature. At a moment when you already understand the value. Not before.

Calm goes somewhere else entirely. Before any trial or payment, they ask 10+ questions. Not about your job or your team. About your feelings. What can we help you with? How have you been feeling? What’s your biggest source of stress? They build a custom experience around your emotional state before asking for anything. For a meditation app, I found that pretty remarkable.

And Masterclass adds another layer: even from a paid Google ad (so, a user they’re paying to acquire), they don’t send you to a checkout page. They ask about your interests, build a personalized path of 36 classes (“Building your custom results…” appears on screen), and only then do they present the offer. They’re willing to add friction to a paid acquisition channel because they want to get you hooked first – making money is a second goal.

The cheap first offer: same goal, different method

Not every company goes through registration first. Some skip straight to a paid offer.
But when they do, the logic is the same: the goal isn’t to make money. It’s to get the user inside the product.

The NYT at $1/week. Peloton at $2.49/month. Washington Post, The Pioneer. These prices aren’t designed to generate meaningful revenue. They’re designed to let the user experience the product long enough to build a habit. The bet is that over 6 months, a year, 18 months, through bundles, new products, and price increases, the average revenue per user will grow significantly.

That’s why some media companies offer subscriptions at $20/year or even less. It sounds crazy if you think about it as revenue. It makes total sense if you think about it as product discovery with long term revenue as a goal.

And some companies stack both approaches. The NYT does registration first (zero subscription CTA), THEN aggressive trial pricing. They sequence the micro-conversions. As their own data shows, registration alone increases subscription conversion by more than 40%.

Others go with pure free trials: 7, 14, or 30 days. Headspace, Amazon Prime, Walmart+, Audible. Same logic: get the user inside long enough to build a habit. Free trials work especially well for products with daily usage. For the media industry, it depends on consumption patterns. A daily news publisher, maybe. A B2B publication or a monthly magazine? A 7-day trial probably isn’t enough to build anything valuable.

Let’s be honest, everything here sounds simple but it’s reaaaaaaally hard to do.
Complexity here is not about revenue tactics, but it stands in alignment within the organization.
You need a strong alignment between vision, long term goals (shared by all teams) and operations (plus a huge capacity to resist short term revenue, which is hard nowadays).

What you can take away from this (and test tomorrow)

Count the goals per step in your current journey. If any step tries to do two things at once (like a registration wall that also pushes a subscription CTA), that’s the first thing to fix. One step, one job.

Consider adding a “level 0” conversion before the paid one. A registration step gives you data, personalization, and engagement. The NYT showed that this alone increases conversion rates to subscription by more than 40%. That’s exactly why Poool makes it easy to set up and test registration modules (registration walls, onboarding sequences) and micro-conversions without dev, putting the data and engagement to use further down the funnel.

Rethink your first paid offer. The goal isn’t revenue on day 1. It’s getting the user inside long enough to build a habit. If Nieman Lab’s research is right and habit formation drops off after 100 days, design the duration around that.

Go sign up for Figma, Calm, or Masterclass. Not to use the product. To observe the journey. Take screenshots. I promise you’ll come back with ideas. (We did, and that’s how this whole series started.)

Next week, episode 4: offers and pricing. Why do the best performers acquire with one simple offer and upsell/retain with many. And why a single price means you’re designing for an “average user” who doesn’t exist.

The post Why the best subscription businesses don’t try to sell on day 1: episode 3 appeared first on Audiencers.

Spektrum der Wissenschaft, a leading German science journalism publisher, embarked on a multi-phase journey to optimize its digital subscription model, Spektrum+. Facing the challenge of engaging a broad audience with “deep, heavy, nerdy science content,” and understanding the limitations of resources, the publisher turned to a rigorous, data-driven testing strategy to build a product based on actual user behavior rather than internal assumptions (what a crazy thought, I know!).

At Audiencers’ Festival in Hamburg, Ann-Kristin Ebert, ecommerce Manager at Spektrum, shared their two phases of getting started with segmentation. 

TLDR: lessons from Spektrum’s journey

- Start by testing everything to understand audiences and prove the importance of segmentation

- Then test what matters based on learnings. Prioritize based on valuable, large and underutilised segments 

- Let go of perfectionism! Accept that some things that can’t be done now, and maybe not next month, maybe not even this year. “We can’t bake big pretzels with tiny ovens!”

Phase 1: “Testing Everything” (test like Darwin was watching!)

In the initial phase, Spektrum adopted an exhaustive testing philosophy, described as “testing as if Darwin was watching”. The goal wasn’t necessarily to find a single winning variation immediately, but to build a comprehensive understanding of how different tests performed across diverse user segments.

Strategy and implementation

Spektrum focused on rapid, lightweight tests at the beginning of the purchase funnel to gain quick-win insights while minimizing cross-team dependencies. They initially targeted user groups they already knew well or could reach directly.

Key learnings from phase 1:

• Free trials: A banner promoting a free trial across all user groups had a significantly smaller impact on conversions compared to blocking walls in any usergroup. This led Spektrum to shift its focus toward testing its “hard paywall”.

• Contextual messaging (Facebook): Testing informal vs. formal language for Facebook referrals revealed that informal messaging (“Du” instead of “Sie”) nearly doubled click-through rates (CTR) for these audiences.

• Paywall design: Spektrum tested walls with one, two, and three offers across the 4 engagement groups defined in Poool’s dynamic paywall dashboard. While a single offer proved least effective across all segments, a three-offer wall with a central “Best Offer” highlight emerged as the strongest performer for the general audience.

• Text density: On the subscription offer page, most segments preferred shorter, concise text. However, a notable exception was print magazine subscribers, who converted better when presented with more detailed information.

Ann-Kristin shared that this first batch of testing proved very helpful for understanding the behavior of different segments, convincing the team that dynamicity is essential, and that they should start adapting to actual user needs, not just team assumptions.

“Evolution is a perfect way for the perfect adaptation for everyone – if you have some million years of time (spoiler: we didn’t).”

Phase 2: “Testing What Matters” (Test as if Marie Kondo could knock on your door at any time)

Recognizing that they lacked the “million years” required for total evolutionary adaptation, Spektrum moved into a more focused phase: “testing what matters”. This phase prioritized high-impact user groups rather than every possible variation for every segment.

Priority segments

Spektrum identified four key segments for prioritized testing:

• Biggest Group: currently “Volatiles” on mobile devices.
• Most Overall Conversions: currently “Volatiles” on desktop devices.
• Best Converting Group: currently newsletter subscribers.
• “Hidden Gems”: High-potential audiences, a segment that’s hard to identify. Ann-Kristin described this as like playing poker! At the moment, they think these audiences are those receiving mailings already

Device-based segmentation

A critical finding in Phase 2 was the difference in behavior between desktop and mobile users. While an “Unlock article now” prompt outperformed “Continue reading with Spektrum+” on desktop (raising both CTR and purchase rates), the same prompt on mobile increased CTR but dropped the purchase rate. It wasn’t so much the variations that were important here, but simply the proof that mobile and desktop users need to be treated differently. 

Operational framework and final lessons

To maintain this rigorous testing loop with a relatively small team, Spektrum implemented several organizational priorities:

1. Alignment through OKRs and RACI: They used three-to-four-month Objective and Key Results (OKR) cycles to define focus and RACI matrices to establish clear accountability for who is responsible, consulted, or informed for every task.
2. Data visualization: Spektrum emphasizes that seeing user segments visualized (e.g., in donut charts) makes it impossible to ignore the importance of the largest and highest-value groups.

3. Pragmatism over perfectionism: The team adopted “Zen mode,” accepting that “we can’t bake big pretzels with tiny ovens”. They focused on what could be accomplished immediately rather than future ideals.

Spektrum concludes that there is no “final version” of their product, only the next iteration, as user behavior and opportunities constantly evolve.

The post Spektrum’s evolution of audience segmentation and testing 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.

90 publishers from 40 brands across Europe joined us in a very sunny Hamburg on March 3rd for our very first Festival in Germany! It was also the first time we brought our one-of-a-kind discussion groups to a Festival – a format that allows attendees to share common challenges and brainstorm potential solutions.

The post The Audiencers’ Festival Hamburg 2026: presentation slides appeared first on Audiencers.

In the hyper-competitive world of digital media, where attention is a scarce commodity and paywalls are the standard defense, The Kyiv Independent is carving out a different path. Launched in November 2021, just three months before Russia’s full-scale invasion, this English-language newsroom has transformed from a 18-person startup into a globally recognized authority with over 27,000 paying members and 3 million monthly readers.

The secret to their impressive 78% growth in 2025 isn’t a complex algorithm. It’s a commitment to relationship-driven journalism. By treating their audience as a community rather than a series of transactions, they’ve maintained an average monthly churn rate of just 1.64%, significantly lower than the industry average.

The post How The Kyiv Independent is growing membership through relationship-building appeared first on Audiencers.

At the recent Audiencers’ Festival in Hamburg, Paywall Strategist at NTM, Daniel Loebjer, shared a radical success story that had the room talking (and asking lots of questions on access restrictions based on age!). In just one year, Sweden’s second-largest local news publisher managed to increase their young subscriber base by 500%.

The secret to their success? A bold decision that many publishers fear: They made it free.

The post Winning the young ones: how NTM grew its under-25 subscriber base by 500% 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.