From a “Free to read” section on The New York Times, to “Pay what you can” campaigns in Canada, we’ve brought together a collection of case studies published on Audiencers to share the latest strategies being tested by publishers around the world to increase conversion rates to subscriptions.
Key takeaways to copy & share
Paywall and subscription tests publishers ran in 2026, collected by Audiencers: > Stop advertising what's locked, start advertising what's free. The New York Times and The Verge both run "free to read" sections on the homepage, reversing years of premium tagging. The logic: conversion should happen on the article itself, not be pre-empted by a warning icon that ends the journey early > Sell access in smaller units. The Washington Post's day passes, week passes and pay-per-article found an untapped market, with 42% of flexible access buyers brand-new anonymous users. Over 180 days, up to 8% of week-pass buyers, 4% of day-pass buyers and 3% of pay-per-article buyers became full subscribers > Let readers set the price, then anchor it. Quebec's Les Coops de l'information took an average of $3.12 a month against a $1 minimum for the first three months. The suggested figure in the field did the work: $5 lifted the average to $3.39, $6 lifted it to $3.50. 84% of acquisitions had never subscribed before > Sell less, not more. SFGATE kept its entire site free and sold a separate paid app alongside it. Les Echos' "La Sélection" is 9 to 15 articles a day chosen from a daily output of 120 to 150, at an early bird €9.90 a month > Don't ask on day one. Figma asks six onboarding questions before showing pricing, and The New York Times tested a homepage whose only button top right said "log in". Each step gets a single goal, and early on that goal isn't the sale
Personalising paywall text around the reader’s interests
Dynamic paywalls, that adapt to a reader’s profile or context, are becoming increasingly more common as an effective way of increasing conversion rates. One such dynamic element that publishers seem to be testing this year is the use of personalised text based on the reader’s interest or the current article being read.
