This article summarizes the session given by Max Leroy, Audience & Product Strategist, formerly of The New York Times, CNN, and POLITICO, at The Audiencers' Festival in Paris on September 16th, 2025.

This session in 5 bullet points:

• The real danger to the media? Not AI or Google, but our disconnect from readers’ needs.
• Plummeting trust, dwindling audiences, refusal to pay: in any other industry, we would be talking about the collapse of product-market fit.
• Urgent action is needed: we must stop pointless obsessions and return to users’ needs.
• This series of articles presents five toxic obsessions and offers five useful obsessions for the sustainability of the media: short circuits, communities, respect for audience needs, experimentation, and advertising/UX balance.
• This first chapter covers obsession number one: exhausting ourselves by criticizing platforms.

What if the greatest threat to the media were neither AI, nor the “big bad wolf” Google, nor the decline in social traffic, not even the crisis in publishers’ business model? What if the real problem were us? Us and our persistent inability to take an interest in those we are supposed to serve: our readers.

The symptoms of this disconnect are measured each year by the Digital News Report and the figures for France are damning:

• Trust in free fall: Only 29% of French people still trust the media, compared to 39% 10 years ago. This score places us among the lowest in Europe, just ahead of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary
• An audience that shuns the news: More than a third of the population (36%) actively avoids the news, exhausted by information overload and paralyzed by information anxiety
• A value that is no longer perceived: Barely 11% of readers are willing to pay for online news

In any other industry, such a verdict would be final: the loss of product-market fit. The absolute priority would then be to stop everything and go back to talking to our users, understanding their pain points and needs, and reinventing our value proposition.

How did we get to the point where our product no longer meets an essential need of its audience?

Yet where do our eyes and conversations among media professionals turn? To the evolution of algorithms and the experiences of Google, Meta, X, and OpenAI, which are drying up our traffic sources. Or to the adoption of ad blockers and the end of third-party cookies, which are jeopardizing our advertising revenue… We are obsessed with other people’s products, those that impact our distribution. Meanwhile, a new generation of content creators is exploding, forging direct and authentic bonds of trust with their audience, something we no longer know how to do with ours.

Of course, the risks posed by platforms are real, and the political, legal, and economic battle to defend our value is necessary. But it must not become an excuse to paralyze what is essential: the work of our editorial, product, and marketing teams to urgently regain that product-market fit. We must focus our efforts on what we can control and accept the rest. Fear does not prevent danger.

Let’s dare to use a metaphor that’s not so far from reality. Imagine for a moment that traditional media are like historic car manufacturers, spending their days complaining about gas prices, CO2 emissions regulations, low-emission zones, or the end of combustion engines in 2035. Meanwhile, in a decade, electric cars have become more accessible and cycling in cities has made a strong comeback. Users have moved on: you don’t fight product-market fit, you pursue it.

It’s time to radically shift our obsessions. We need to abandon toxic topics over which we have limited influence and refocus on our main lever for action: our relationship with our current and potential audiences. In this series for The Audiencers, I invite you to explore five of these toxic obsessions that paralyze our teams. The hope is to replace them with five obsessions centered on the needs of our audiences and thus find our way back to product-market fit.

Toxic obsession 1/5 : Criticizing platforms

Our first toxic obsession is to waste time and energy denouncing platforms. We criticize their products, algorithms, and decisions, but let’s be clear: these companies are empires that write their own laws and have the means to listen to (almost) no one except Donald Trump, who supports them. Some executives even display a visceral, personal contempt for the press. Why, then, would they negotiate sincerely with us, when our dependence gives them all the leverage?

The fight for neighboring rights or against uncontrolled crawling is legitimate. But to wage it from a position of quasi-absolute digital vassalage is to condemn oneself to reaping only crumbs. The real leverage for negotiation lies neither in Brussels nor in the forums we sign, but in our direct relationship with our audience. To start a serious conversation with Google, it would be wise not to depend on its services (Search, News, Discover). For many media outlets in France, Google accounts for more than 50% of traffic, and in some cases more than 85%.

Faced with changes to their products—AI Overviews in particular—our instinct is to want to slow things down and demand guarantees. This ignores the reality of their market. Google is not on a crusade against the press; Google is fighting for its own survival in the face of the massive adoption of LLM chatbots as response engines by users. Google’s goal is to stay in the game by responding to this new need. In this battle of titans, we are neither their ally nor their enemy; we are simply the battlefield.

To replace this trait: Grow our audiences through short supply chains

Our obsession with platforms keeps us in a reactive, sterile, and exhausting position. Since the balance of power is stacked against us on their turf, the only viable strategic response is to change the playing field.

Rather than fighting to optimize increasingly precarious traffic, we must devote our resources to building short circuits with our audiences. It’s up to us to transform volatile, algorithm-dependent readers into a loyal and engaged audience that we can activate ourselves. This approach makes our newsletters, apps, events, and communities the main tools of our resilience strategy to resume negotiations from a better position.

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This article summarizes the session given by Fabien Mulot, Marketing Director at L’Équipe, at The Audiencers’ Festival in Paris on September 16, 2025.

TL;DR

• After the peak in acquisitions during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, L’Équipe identified four key moments to drive retention: onboarding, usage stimulation, retention, and re-subscription.
• A new web and app onboarding process encourages users to read two paid articles within the first three days, as each additional article reduces M+1 churn by five points.
• Newsletters have become a key lever, from “Rendez-vous du mois” to newsletters written by journalists, as well as a new “Games” vertical.
• The cancellation form has been redesigned with a series of A/B tests: adding a summary screen and displaying personalized discounts has improved retention.
• An RFV engagement score adapted to L’Équipe’s style guides all actions: two-thirds of subscribers exceed the strategic threshold of 100.

How can subscribers be retained once the Olympic Games are over? For L’Équipe, the challenge is immense: transforming the momentum of a global event into lasting loyalty. Fabien Mulot shared the methods implemented in 2025, which he summarized as “12 projects” organized around four stages in subscribers lifecycle: onboarding, stimulating usage, retention, and re-subscription:

Each stage has been assigned its own performance indicator:

1. Onboarding: the crucial first 3 days

Data analysis showed a strong correlation between immediate consumption and retention. Reading at least two paid articles within the first three days significantly reduces churn M+1.

This is the core of L’Équipe’s new onboarding strategy: a web and app loop that showcases the benefits of subscription, encourages users to personalize their experience (alerts, newsletters, favorites), and then prompts them to immediately read paid content tailored to their interests.

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This article summarises the session given by Mathias Douchet, Chief Product Officer at The Telegraph, during the Audiencers' Festival in Paris on 16th September 2025. The slides from his presentation can be downloaded at the end of the article.

TL;DR

• At The Telegraph, the mobile app has become the most engaging platform and the best predictor of subscriber retention.
• The ‘light freemium’ access model, with a 14-day trial in exchange for a simple email address, activates non-subscribers without disrupting the reading experience.
• The app out performs the website by far: +15% usage, +8% sessions per week, +6 points retention at 30 days vs. website.
• Resources follow strategy: approximately 90% of resources are dedicated to the app, and teams have been built around the app product.
• The Telegraph is aiming for 100% of digital subscribers to use the app, with aggressive promotional campaigns from day one and better-integrated web-to-app pathways.

Founded in 1855, The Telegraph is one of the UK’s leading news outlets, with 30 million monthly readers across its website, app and print editions, and over a million subscribers.

The product culture is long-standing and well-established, with the ability to make clear and decisive decisions about subscriptions and the reader experience.

The mobile app: a flagship product

In 2022, The Telegraph merged its two apps: the first was a digital version of the newspaper – highly regarded but little used; the second was a live feed version – more widely distributed but not very popular.

The current app is the result of 3-4 years of work, with engaging additional features such as games, news feeds, discoveries and newsletters.

The Telegraph app in a few words: 
-> Freemium model: a selection of free articles, the rest is reserved for subscribers
-> A 14-day free trial is offered to new app users
-> App usage has increased by 15% in a year
-> 8 more sessions each week vs web
-> 6 percentage points higher 30-day retention vs web

Of all the projects tested in recent years, not everything has worked, and that’s key to the approach: test quickly, keep what works, and discard the rest.

The access model is simple: light freemium. The home screen and a few articles are visible to everyone, while the rest is reserved for subscribers. To compensate for the significant amount of closed content, new app users are offered a 14-day trial, available via email. This allows for data collection and has proved more valuable to conversion rates than a standard paywall. The downside however is that users may drop out after 14 days if the follow-up is not well orchestrated, hence the ongoing work on activation and retention after the trial.

The app significantly out-performs web

Mobile app users have eight more sessions per week than web users and show six more subscription retention points at 30 days.

App usage is becoming the most predictive indicator of retention, ahead of other signals that were previously considered priorities, such as multi-channel engagement and newsletter subscriptions. This justifies the strategic refocusing and budget shift.

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This article summarizes Télérama’s session at the Audiencers’ Festival in Paris on September 16th, 2025. On stage: Fleur Lavedan, Chair of the Executive Board, Annabelle Bizard, Digital Marketing Director, and Tom Alexandre, Product Director.

TL;DR

• With its new “Platform” product, Télérama aims to extend its longstanding mission: to guide those curious about culture, this time through the vast ocean of streaming platforms.
• Editorial strength: 20,000 reviews and 145 journalists, showcased in a hybrid editorial + service product.
• Four months of discovery, two scenarios tested, a final product that is automated but editorially embodied.
• Powerful launch: +3,360 subscribers in one month, a conversion rate 20 times higher than usual, +6% monthly visits, and prestigious advertisers.
• Next steps: advanced filters, more integrated platforms, SEO, personalization, and regular communications to win over new audiences.

At Télérama, product innovation only makes sense if it serves the magazine’s founding ambition: to inspire a love of culture and guide curious minds through a world that has become increasingly rich and diverse.

Faced with the explosion of streaming platforms, the editorial team wanted to address a universal frustration: spending evenings searching for something to watch rather than actually watching. Their response: a “Platform” guide, designed as a digital extension of the TV schedule.

Télérama has a rare asset: more than 20,000 reviews of films, series, and documentaries produced by 145 journalists, the largest cultural editorial team in France. But to transform this heritage into a digital format, it was necessary to go beyond a simple editorial reorganization.

The Platform project was born out of the conviction that without a service dimension, it would be impossible to create a daily reflex among readers.

So it all started with… a drawing:

The product team tested several approaches, including a “hot-lukewarm-cold” system based on the logic of editorial lists…

….and a minimalist version focused on a single daily recommendation:

The end result combines both: a mix of edited content and automation, enriched by service data provided by Plurimedia and JustWatch, with a systematic link to a Télérama review:

The launch was treated as a genuine digital statement. Massive app installation campaigns, open days, support from Le Monde Group publications, synchronization with the brand campaign… everything was aligned.

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Anthony Capon is Product Director for RMC and BFM's digital platforms. Here, he discusses a landmark project launched in March 2024: the in-house development of a vertical video feed on their platforms. The format was designed to address three key challenges facing the group: increasing user engagement, attracting a younger audience, and creating new monetization opportunities.

For BFM, one of France’s most popular news brands and platforms, video is a strategic asset, a source of expertise and a competitive advantage. And it’s all the more important in an ecosystem where the current challenge is to engage and retain our audiences on our own platforms.

So, it seemed obvious to us that we needed to develop this content, in all its forms, depending on news cycles, audiences, and consumption environments.

On our BFM platforms, we felt that there was a need for a format that could boost engagement, attract a younger audience, and serve our business strategy.

Vertical video was the obvious choice:

• It has a history with us, as we launched BFMTV’s live video in vertical format a few years ago
• It’s already a very important product for BFM, feeding into heavy usage among our most active audiences on social media (particularly Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube)
• It’s a good branding lever for our editorial teams and brands, not to mention an opportunity for monetization through advertising

But between the idea discussed in a meeting with the editorial team and the moment you scroll through your first feed in the app…

Let’s just say Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Reproducing the addictive scroll: behind the scenes of creating vertical video in-house

For the Product & Tech teams, our starting point was pretty simple: how could we replicate the swiping motion we all use on Instagram or TikTok on our own player, with our constraints, our content, and our UX?

Before writing a single line of code, we launched a quick but effective discovery phase (a nod to ProductROI enthusiasts) because we knew where we were going.

The goal: beyond the extensive benchmarking (particularly among our US counterparts), we asked ourselves how we could understand the mechanics of vertical formats that capture so much attention—and how we could adapt them to our editorial and technical context.

Of course, we also added analyses of current video usage on our formats (themes and video formats that work, completion rates on our Live or VOD video formats, average session duration on video formats, etc.).

This phase allowed us to quickly identify what “hooks” our users: smooth scrolling, instant video playback, and the absence of functional friction.

From there, we moved on to defining and validating the user flow, followed by the initial designs.

Alongside these UX/UI advances, we still had the most complicated task ahead of us: the player…

On the development side, it was quite a challenge

Our video player, originally designed for 16:9 use, was clearly not ready to handle fast, smooth, frictionless vertical scrolling. We had to open up the hood and work on a few key developments: video preloading (critical for the experience, especially on 4G or in gray areas), transitions between videos, native gestures, etc.

Preloading was particularly complex, and our developers had to be resourceful to achieve a truly seamless experience. And all this with our player – it isn’t the most flexible to use, but it does carry a lot of useful things, such as analytics, advertising, etc.

The result: a real feat by our in-house tech team, who managed to get this new format running smoothly on both the web and the app, despite all the constraints (particularly those of iOS and Android). A major QA phase followed to ensure that the format worked across contexts—from old Android devices to recent iPhones—without glitches or lag.

Behind the feed: our routine for producing, editing and publishing daily

Once the feed was in place, we still had to aliment it. And not just a little!

Curating videos for the feed looks like this:

• Vertical videos are edited in Adobe Premiere or “cut” from BFM’s vertical live feed (available in the BFM app, on the “DIRECT VIDEO” page).
• They are then titled, tagged, and sent via Wildmoka…

• They are then sent to our in-house CMS, Cléo (as well as social media platforms) so that our editorial teams can edit, prioritize, and adjust the timing of publication.

The whole thing is based on a “hot” curation approach: the day’s news, key programme formats, more “cold” content with a step back from current events…

“Think of ROI from day 1”: what we put in place to monetize without degrading the experience

One of the things we did well was to integrate monetization from the outset, working with all stakeholders and keeping the same vision in mind: to develop and control the architecture and technical/advertising structure of our products in-house.

Today, the feed can accommodate:

• Sponsored formats (native editorials or branded capsules),
• Customized OPS,
• More “traditional” video monetization formats (currently being rolled out on the web and apps).

We’ve implemented a system of rules defined jointly with our advertising agency and managed on the publisher side: frequency of appearance, maximum duration, display context..

Above all, we incorporated the same logic as for videos: preloading ads to avoid latency and not “break” the user’s scroll. It’s not 100% perfect, but we’re getting close.

The result: a new offering with potential and, we hope, great KPIs for our advertising network, with ad formats that are neatly integrated and don’t affect the user experience.

18 months later: what we learnt

This offer was launched in March 2024, and we are very pleased with the figures and usage achieved.

Here are a few highlights:

• On average, the vertical feed generates 2.5 million video views per month
• Each time the vertical feed is initialized, an average of 7 to 10 videos are viewed
• Time spent is steadily increasing, which also meets business objectives

But we know we can go even further…

• Developing our “go to market” strategy: working on raising awareness and understanding of this new offering among our users, particularly in-app (currently too discreet, the vertical video slider is located in the middle of the home page)

• Working with our editorial teams on curation and editorial content, which in the future could take the form of “original capsules,” thematic collections, or other formats, as we have seen from our American colleagues (notably at the Washington Post and CNN during the US elections)
• Extending this more broadly to other brands within the group, as the potential is significant: the vertical player is already available on our BFM Business, RMC, and RMC Sport websites and apps, but the offering still needs to be structured

Our method for aligning product, tech and editorial

Beyond KPIs, it was the alignment of product, tech, editorial, and business from the outset that made the difference. Here’s how we approached it in terms of organization:

• A small pilot team (five people) with one representative per profession: PM, lead developer, lead editor, business sponsor (AdTech), and a marketing profile (on measurement and marketing of the offer)
• Clear rituals: structured weekly meetings (progress, obstacles, trade-offs, approvals), + parallel workshops on business expertise (Product Discovery, UX/UI Design, Editorial, Monetization, etc.)
• Shared management:
  • The PM framed the roadmap, challenges, and coordination
  • The tech lead was involved from the design stage to make the right tech choices to address other issues
  • The editorial team worked on the relevance of the selection of videos available in the feed and ensured the quality, responsiveness, and agility of the back-end tools for curation and editorialization
  • The business team provided commercial insights and monetization challenges on the tech side (visibility KPIs, ad UX, etc.)

The post The ins and outs of BFM’s new mobile-first vertical video format appeared first on Audiencers.

How can you set a price that reflects the value of your product AND is acceptable to your readers? This was the topic of a brilliant panel at the World News Media Congress 2025 organized by WAN-IFRA in Krakow. Three experts shared their very concrete strategies for increasing revenue while maintaining subscriber satisfaction: Flavia Barbosa Ferreira (Head of Retention at Le Monde), Mariah Craddick (Executive Director, Product at The Atlantic), and Danuta Bregula (Director of Paid Products at Axel Springer Poland).

Le Monde: increase price but with ‘finesse’

With 665,000 paying subscribers, Le Monde is the leading French-language daily. Half of its revenue comes from subscriptions (35% digital, 15% print), making pricing optimization a direct lever for profitability.

Flavia Barbosa Ferreira is Director of Retention at Le Monde. Last year, her team conducted a series of experiments to increase prices without harming profitability or reader trust.

The situation before 2020

At the start of the project, Le Monde’s digital subscription offer was €1 for the first month, then €9.90/month for the first year.

This offer made it possible to acquire a significant number of subscribers…

…but failed to retain them in the long term as the price rose to €13 per month in the second year, then to €17.90 in the third.

A new set of offers (after 2020)

Thanks to the development of an internal fraud detection system called “Capping” — which blocks users who are simultaneously trying to access to articles from multiple devices using the same account, i.e. account sharing — Le Monde was able to confidently promote multi-account subscriptions (B2C and B2B)….

This has led to an increase in “duo” and “family” subscriptions, which are sold at higher prices.

Next step: price increase

The Le Monde team conducted an A/B test of a price increase on 10,000 subscribers, who were divided into two groups: +$1/month and +$2/month. An informational email was sent in December for an increase to be applied in January.

The results were analyzed the following March:

“Following this test, we observed slightly better retention with the €1 per month increase compared to the €2 increase. Out of caution, and given that this was the first price adjustment under the new pricing structure, we chose to start with the €1 monthly increase, which was considered less risky—while still generating a significant increase in revenue. For certain cohorts with lower initial prices, we opted for increases greater than $1, based on the findings of this initial test.”

What Le Monde took away from it

Their ARPU has been growing steadily since 2020, and the presentation of subscription offers has been optimized for greater clarity and conversion.

Rather than starting with price, Le Monde begins by improving the offering, perceived value, user experience, and fraud prevention. Only then do they adjust the price. This is a deliberate “price-last” approach.

The Atlantic: make the value tangible for subscribers

With prices set at $79.99/year (digital), $89.99/year (print + digital), and $120/year (premium ad-free), The Atlantic is below its competitors in terms of price, but above average in terms of retention and growth: +15% subscribers YoY, and a retention rate of over 70%.

Mariah Craddick divides subscriber benefits into three categories:

• Essentials: unlimited access, newsletters, mobile app, narrated articles, digital issues.
• Utilities: article saving, sharing, reading mode, app customization.
• Bonuses: subscriber-only podcasts, games, live events, merchandise.

They measure value through:

• the percentage of new subscribers who performed a key action within the first seven days.
• the proportion of subscribers with “engaged” or “core” status.
• a retention rate that is four points higher among those who completed on-site onboarding.
• Articles narrated via 11 Labs, the article sharing feature, and the premium mobile experience (particularly on iPad) are key differentiators.

One of the secrets of their success? On-site onboarding.

Subscribers who complete the onboarding process on The Atlantic website retain 4 points more than those who do not!

Onet Premium: the most daring bundle in Europe

In Poland, Ringier Axel Springer launched Onet Premium, a bundled subscription giving access to more than 15 major brands (Onet, Poland’s leading news site, Newsweek, Forbes, Politico, Business Insider, National Geographic, and others). Together, these brands reach 22 million Polish users every month.

The offer includes:

• exclusive items from several brands.
• 150 episodes of exclusive podcasts per month.
• 30,000 audio articles per month.
• an average listening time of 67 minutes and 10 hours per month per user in the audio app.
• cross-promotional newsletters, subscriber events, and editorial formats shared between brands.

To achieve this, they created a unified identity driven by editorial consistency and cross-brand storytelling, proving the value of the bundle through its impact beyond each individual brand and building a community around the power of critical thinking.

As a result, between 2019 and 2024, they achieved rapid growth:

• +91% average annual revenue growth;

• -32% churn rate;
• +15% share of highly engaged subscribers;
• +58% revenue growth between 2023 and 2024.

Key takeaway: To prove the value of the bundle and move from a “price-first” to a “price-last” model, the value proposition must be consistent, clear, accessible, and obvious to the user.

The post Pricing strategies from The Atlantic, Le Monde and Onet appeared first on Audiencers.

Since taking over as CEO of Groupe Le Monde in 2010, Louis Dreyfus has pursued a clear ambition: proving that high-quality journalism can be economically sustainable — primarily through digital subscriptions. At the World News Media Congress 2025 hosted by WAN-IFRA, he shared a series of concrete editorial, tech and marketing decisions that have powered the group’s consistent growth.

1. Expanding editorial mission to broaden audience

Over the past 15 years, Le Monde has significantly widened its editorial scope to cover underreported topics and attract new readerships — without lowering its standards.

Key developments include:

• Thematic supplements on feminism, sexuality, climate, and the launch of public events (Le Festival du Monde)
• The launch of weekly magazine M 14 years ago, modeled after the New York Times Magazine, leading to an immediate +30% boost in traffic at launch, now accountiung for 25% of advertising revenue

Le Monde also developed new editorial verticals:

• The “Intimités” section, created in 2023, exploring intimacy, housing, parenting — highly popular with readers

• A major investment in African coverage, now with 36 dedicated journalists

2. Heavily investing in the newsroom

One of the group’s key moves: hiring.

From 310 journalists in 2010 to 560 today — a +80% increase in just over a decade.

“You can’t produce great journalism without journalists.”

The ambition: offer exclusive, in-depth, international content that justifies subscription value.

3. Winning over young audiences on social platforms

Le Monde made a clear bet: meet under-18s where they already are — Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube.

The result: native video formats led by young, identifiable journalists, with a clear, educational tone.

→ These short formats act as a gateway to subscriptions

→ Young audiences later return via desktop or the app, with strong retention potential

4. Investing in 3 distinct app products

Le Monde now offers:

• A PDF replica app (faithful to the print edition)
• A “Le Monde” app publishing more than 100 articles per day, 7 days a week
• A Tinder-like news discovery product (“La Matinale”) that delivers a curated daily briefing, with a selection of 21 articles

The goal: match mobile-first habits and improve retention through tailored experiences.

5. Subscriptions: growth, profitability and the end of the deficit

Key 2024 metrics:

• +10% digital subscription growth, +8% all kind of subs
• Average ARPU (monthly revenue per subscriber): €11.84

• Within 2 years, digital revenues alone will cover the entire newsroom costs

“We’ve entered a virtuous cycle where more subscribers = more resources to produce journalism.”

6. Fighting password sharing — and turning it into revenue

When the team found that some accounts were being used by over 5,000 people (!), Le Monde launched an upsell strategy inspired by Netflix — using an in-house tech tool called Capping:

• Pop-ups triggered by suspicious simultaneous usage
• Automated upsell to duo or family plans

→ Thousands of subscribers upgraded to more profitable plans

→ Le Monde is now offering Capping to other publishers

7. A fast-growing international edition

Two years ago, Le Monde launched Le Monde in English:

• 40 articles translated daily by native English-speaking editors and journalists
• A dedicated newsletter
• 7 full-time staff members

Results:

• 50% of new international subscribers now come from this edition
• Top countries: US, UK, Canada

→ Translations are now handled by OpenAI instead of DeepL or human translators, with only light editing by in-house journalists — lowering costs significantly.

Key numbers to remember

• In 2010, Le Monde was losing €10M per year
• In 2024, it will generate €25M in EBITDA

The post From €10M in losses to €25M in EBITDA: How Le Monde built a sustainable model appeared first on Audiencers.

Au World News Media Congress WAN-IFRA à Cracovie, trois médias — OKO.press (Pologne), La Marea (Espagne) et la newsletter « What Happened Last Week » (Allemagne) — ont partagé leur stratégie et leurs doutes autour des dons ponctuels et de l’abonnement comme modèles économiques viables et éthiques.

1. OKO.press : la donation au cœur du modèle

Média d’investigation sans publicité ni paywall, OKO.press fonctionne depuis 9 ans avec un modèle basé à 65–70 % sur les dons individuels, malgré un taux de conversion faible, quoique plus élevé que les moyennes auxquelles nous sommes habitués dans le monde de l’abonnement : environ 0,4 % de leurs 2 millions d’utilisateurs uniques mensuels. Le site distingue dons ponctuels et dons réguliers : ces derniers sont privilégiés pour la stabilité qu’ils offrent, mais les dons ponctuels jouent un rôle clé dans le tunnel de conversion. En avril 2025, 6 % des dons étaient ponctuels, contre 34 % de réguliers… 

Leur stratégie repose sur un mix solide de marketing, technique (choix de l’outil européen TakTak pour le recueil des dons) et d’éditorial : pas de manipulation émotionnelle, mais un message clair sur la mission du média. La campagne la plus stratégique de l’année repose sur le mécanisme fiscal polonais du « 1,5 % » : les citoyens peuvent allouer cette part de leur impôt à l’organisation de leur choix. Cela représente plus de 20 % des revenus d’OKO.press.

Le montant moyen des dons tourne autour de 35-40 Zloty (environ 8,5 euros), mais l’équipe craint avoir atteint un plafond sur l’audience “convertissable” et se demande s’il ne serait pas temps de lancer un paywall.

Pour s’inspirer : leur excellente landing page de demande de dons.

2. La Marea : la coopération avant tout

Lancée il y a 12 ans comme coopérative suite à l’échec du journal Público, La Marea reste l’un des rares médias espagnols à fonctionner grâce au crowdfunding. Environ tous les deux ans, l’équipe relance une campagne collective, souvent difficile (objectif atteint seulement deux heures avant la fin lors de la dernière levée), mais fédératrice. Les dons ponctuels annuels restent faibles (3 000 €), perçus culturellement comme de la charité.

En chiffres :

• 86,5% des donateurs font des dons réguliers vs 13,5% qui sont des donateurs ponctuels
• 83,6% des donateurs ne sont pas des abonnés
• 94,2% des donateurs ne donnent que lors des campagnes de crowdfunding (organisées tous les 2 ans)

Le média mise plutôt sur la transparence totale (comptes ouverts, refus de contenu sponsorisé) et la confiance de sa communauté. Un exemple récent : une campagne intitulée « Nous cherchons des humains » a généré de nombreuses réactions positives et même un don unique de 500 €. 

En parallèle, La Marea développe des abonnements numériques à faible coût (semestre, annuel) pour encourager l’engagement durable de son lectorat

3. « What Happened Last Week » : du solo à la communauté

La journaliste d’origine Kurde Sham Jaff a lancé sa newsletter “What happened last week” il y a 11 ans pour couvrir les régions du monde ignorées par les médias occidentaux. Au printemps 2025, sa newsletter réunissait 29 000 abonnés.

Si elle a longtemps compté sur les dons ponctuels, elle les juge instables.

« J’écrivais avec un taux d’ouverture très élevé (70 %) mais sans savoir ce qui motivait les dons : le sujet ? le moment du mois ? la compassion ? »

Elle a donc lancé un modèle d’adhésion (« Very Important Potatoes ») à 79 € par an, ou 9€ par mois, plus durable, permettant de mieux planifier ses revenus. 

Elle propose aussi des abonnements cadeau ou groupés. Son approche repose sur la co-construction éditoriale avec sa communauté (retours, enquêtes, suggestions de sources) pour bâtir une relation de confiance.

Dons ponctuels : quel rôle ?

Tous s’accordent à dire que les dons ponctuels ne sont ni suffisants ni insignifiants : ils peuvent initier une relation, mais restent difficilement interprétables en termes d’engagement réel. La clé : ne pas quémander, mais expliquer clairement la mission du média et les conséquences concrètes du soutien. Dominika Michalak (OKO.press) résume : « Il y a une différence cruciale entre demander et mendier ».

Enjeux communs : durabilité, technique et transparence

Si chacun a sa stratégie, tous partagent des principes fondamentaux :

• Technologie robuste : permettant les A/B tests, une excellente UX et un back-office de suivi des dons complet et facilement utilisable
  
• Narration honnête, sans pression émotionnelle artificielle
  
• Coopération entre médias : mutualisation, entraide, plateformes collectives
  
• Éducation douce du public sur les réalités économiques du journalisme

The post Donations: three media outlets share strategies to maximise voluntary reader revenue appeared first on Audiencers.

Le Figaro has pulled off a tour de force: halving the time it takes to take out a subscription, from 50 to 25 seconds. Behind this substantial improvement lies a mammoth project dubbed "AMEX" ("Amélioration de l'Expérience Utilisateur" -  Improving the User Experience), launched four years ago to internalize and modernize the entire subscription conversion process. We spoke to Valentin Jubert, Director of Digital Subscriptions, and Benjamin Lupu, Product Manager, Reader and Subscriber Experience.

A structured project driven by an in-house culture

The AMEX project was born in 2021 from a clear desire on the part of Le Figaro to modernize and control its subscription infrastructure.

In figures, AMEX means :

• 2 years of preparation
• 2 years of implementation
• 100 people from Le Figaro team

Historically, subscription management was entirely outsourced to GLI with Le Figaro’s Loggia tool, the print service provider. Not sufficiently adapted to digital needs, Le Figaro thus outsourced a central element of its business model, incurring a number of unnecessary and slowing-down frictions.

“Marketing had to wait weeks for each new operation. For the product and tech teams, this was an unjustifiable waste of time.”

The goal was clear: empower teams, simplify the user experience and modernize processes.

A three-pronged organization

From the outset, the project was structured around a strong trio: Product, Tech and Marketing.

“The success of this project was due to a close collaboration between the three of us: Valentin Jubert (Marketing), Benjamin Lupu (Product) and Sandrine Crozat (Technical). No one was simply a customer of another team: we designed the tool for ourselves,” explains Benjamin Lupu, Product Manager Readers and Subscriber Experience.

Involving senior management was also decisive in this. “Management teams, including Marc Feuillée (CEO of Le Figaro), were committed sponsors and followed the project on a weekly basis. That makes all the difference,” he adds.

Project goals

This project pursued several major ambitions:

• Reduce dependence on service providers and internalize strategic knowledge
• Modernize subscription funnels, both for users and for product and marketing teams
• Make marketing teams autonomous in launching offers and campaigns
• Harmonize customer spaces across the group’s various brands (Le Figaro, Gala, Le Particulier). From now on, a single “My Account” space will group all profile information together
• Overhaul and improve data flows to make them reliable and distribute them to all internal systems

Experimentation and tech-stack choices

One of the underlying building blocks of this major project was, of course, to change the platform used to manage digital subscriptions. The final choice – Chargebee – was only made after several POCs:

• An internal POC to see if it was possible to develop everything in-house
• A POC to test Stripe Billing, which turned out to be too limited for Le Figaro’s needs
• In-depth discussions were also held with Zuora, with whom it was not possible to carry out a POC
• Chargebee, chosen after a three-month POC, offering the right balance between functional richness and agility

“Functionally rich, Chargebee has also been very transparent about what they can and can’t do. Our technical team was thrilled. We set up a Slack channel between us, which has been great for efficiency! Their technical support team is in India, but we never felt the jet lag, they seemed to be available 24-hours for us – for really reasonable prices,” explains Valentin Jubert.

“On the other hand, everyone’s knowledge of our data model and our businesses was limited. We had to do a lot of the translation work from GLI to Chargebee on our own,” adds Benjamin Lupu.

A total revamp in a few steps

The AMEX project was carried out in several phases:

1. Redesign of subscriber account space: total overhaul of the “My account” space, unifying six different spaces (print + digital from the group’s three titles: Le Figaro, Gala and Le Particulier) into a single one – October 2024

2. New acquisition tunnels: tested on a part of the audience in November 2024 before generalization in December

3. Migration of digital subscribers: gradual switch to Chargebee, replacing GLI for B2C digital subscribers in early 2025

4. Integration of a new customer service tool: late but essential integration of Salesforce in five months, with an MVP “on the bone” to meet the December 2024 deadline

5. Overhaul of accounting and data flows: upgrade of accounting flows and synchronization of data with a future group CDP project (Treasure Data).

Drastic choices to simplify the user experience

Le Figaro has made radical choices to enhance the user experience:

• Mobile first: 80% of visits are made on mobile, so priority has been given to ultra-optimized design

• Fewer offers, greater clarity: rather than inundating the user with choice, a single offer is highlighted, with a price variation based on different criteria

Three clear offers:

• Access (€10-12): digital content + the digital version of the daily newspaper (PDF) + sharing an article + the ability to comment on articles
• Premium (€15-17): + 2 additional accounts + digital versions of Figaro Magazine and Madame Figaro (PDF) + Figaro Jeux and Figaro Cuisine applications
• Premium+ (€20-22): 2 additional accounts and digital versions of Figaro Histoire, Figaro Hors-série, Figaro Santé, Gala and Le Particulier magazines.

Positioning has been optimized to favor Premium and Premium+ subscriptions, which represent 65% of the portfolio and maximize ARPU.

• Payment rethink: change of payment gateway from HiPay to Stripe, with solutions to reduce involuntary churn, such as the ability to update expired blue cards

A mammoth subscriber migration

“Subscriber migration is the toughest part of the job,” confides Benjamin Lupu. Unlike redesigning tunnels, where corrections can be made after the fact, migration leaves no room for error.

First, we had to map the existing system to understand the thousands of use cases. Then, three blank migrations were carried out before the big leap. “We had only one chance to succeed. We checked every subscriber and every invoice.”

Another challenge was the transition period. Between December 10 – the date of the “Go migration” – and the final migration on January 31, no more new bankcard tokens could be taken on the Hipay and GLI side. “We implemented workarounds to avoid losing subscribers, but it required a huge amount of manual work from customer services, which was exceptional.”

What would you do differently?

• Anticipate the management of customer service and accounting flows: “We took them on too late, which was a mistake,” admits Benjamin Lupu. “Don’t underestimate the complexity of accounting: get help from experts. For our part, we worked with Advolis and Marc Duveau.”
• Better anticipate the need for a robust process: “We had to rebuild our entire Q&A process, with hundreds of use cases to test.”

The results: considerable time and efficiency savings

Today, the benefits are clear:

• Subscription time halved: 25 seconds instead of 50 to take out a subscription
• Transformation rate increased from 0.7% to 0.9%
• Launch of an offer in a few hours, compared with several weeks previously
• A flexible subscription tunnel: allowing upsell, cross-sell and the addition of new payment methods on the fly
• More efficient customer service: it previously took three weeks of training and three months to build the skills of a new advisor. Now, thanks to the new unified interface, a call center agent is up and running in just two days

All in all, “AMEX” has enabled Le Figaro to regain control of the implementation of its digital strategy.

“This project has given us a clear roadmap for the years to come,” concludes Valentin Valentin Jubert.

The post Le Figaro halves the time to take out a subscription with their “AMEX” project appeared first on Audiencers.

After 8 months of A/B testing and several iterations, Le Monde‘s marketing team has decided on (for now at least) the French publisher’s new subscription offers page. I met Virgile de Tassigny, Growth Marketing Manager at Le Monde, who told me all about this major project.

The original (or control)

Launched in 2020, at the same time as their new conversion funnel, the “control” displays 3 offers, with one (the “Duo” offer, ideal for couples needing 2 accounts) centered and highlighted as “Recommended”:

But after 4 years of existence, this page needed a thorough refresh.

1. Too much text kills the message (and conversion)

The old page was dense, with repeated information and several scattered CTAs. The result was a high cognitive load and an unruly user experience.

The first priority of Le Monde‘s redesign was therefore to simplify the offering. From now on, each formula will highlight a maximum of two to three key benefits (instead of a long list) with the aim of speeding up decision-making.

They also decided to elimination the little-understood labels, such as “Essential” or “Family”.

The first iteration led to this version:

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