Launched in 2018, Republik digital magazine belongs to no one, but to each of their 30,000 members a little bit. The team’s mission? To strengthen democracy with journalism, publishing just 2 to 3 stories per day, prioritizing the highest possible quality, and today funded entirely by subscriptions.
I spoke to David Bauer, Head of Product Development, to hear about how they leverage editorial products for growth.
> Republik, the Swiss member-owned magazine with 30,000 subscribers, used to block browsing on its own site while giving away any article reached by a direct link > They flipped it. You can now browse everything, but content sits behind metered registration, and new accounts get a week to explore before the subscription ask. Every story became a landing page > Email courses turned out to be the strongest acquisition product. "Bye-bye Big Tech" took 2,500 registrations in two hours and 12,000 in three weeks, a third of them people Republik had never reached before > The logic is problem then solution: the journalism explains what's wrong, the course offers something to do about it. David Bauer: "what better moment to offer a solution than when you've just pointed out the problem?" > Courses are free and send nothing else while they run. The pitch comes at the end and stays in context, selling the magazine as keeping an eye on powerful tech companies rather than as general news
A bit of context: From April 26 to May 31, 2017, Project R, a non-profit cooperative, ran a crowdfunding campaign to launch a digital magazine in Switzerland. It was an overwhelming success: over 13,000 supporters, together with the Project R development team, aimed to make a significant difference in the media landscape. The magazine, named, “Republik” launched on January 14, 2018 – uncompromising in quality, reader-funded, ad-free, and without any unnecessary frills. (source: Project R)
