Broadsheet, Australia’s leading cultural publisher, is embarking on a bold new chapter. Founded 16 years ago, the brand has become synonymous with the best in food, drink, fashion, and design across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. Now, they’re taking their successful model to London whilst also moving towards a reader revenue strategy.

We sat down with Nick Shelton, Founder & Publisher of Broadsheet, and Ross Wilmot, Director of Reader Revenue, to discuss their international expansion strategy and the development of a subscription revenue stream, layered on top of their advertising model.

A consistent lens for diverse markets

For Broadsheet, the move from Australia to London is built on a repeatable editorial framework. Nick Shelton describes Broadsheet’s core product not as a list of recommendations, but as a specific lens that can be applied to any global city.

“The way we think about Broadsheet editorially is that it’s a framework,” Nick explains. “What you see through that lens differs depending on the city, but the values of the lens itself – quality, celebration, and curation – remain constant.”

Rather than relying on local intuition alone, Broadsheet uses this framework to solve a universal problem for urban audiences: the paradox of choice. By applying the same rigorous standards in London that they do across Australia, they maintain brand integrity while respecting local nuances. This city-agnostic strategy allows the brand to:

• Curate rather than catalog: Instead of exhaustive listings, they use a highly curated approach where they “don’t write about things we don’t like.”
• Prioritize the premium enthusiast: By maintaining high editorial standards, they attract a specific high-value audience cohort regardless of geography.
• Operationalize local reporting: By treating London as just another “market” within a proven system, they can scale quickly without reinventing their brand identity.

“We learned this lesson in Australia long ago,” Nick notes. “Sydney and Melbourne are fundamentally different markets with different behaviors. Going into London wasn’t about having expectations of what the city would look like; it was about reporting on it through that consistent, high-definition lens.”

Engagement: the common thread between ads and subscriptions

One of the biggest challenges in the publishing industry today is the perceived conflict between advertising and subscription revenue. Broadsheet, however, sees these models as complementary, with engagement being the common thread. 

“We’re not a traffic-based model, we don’t sell programmatic advertising. It’s not about more people equals more money; it’s about the depth of engagement. And we’ve long had the muscle and mindset in the business of engagement. The better engaged the audience, the better we do as a business, something that applies across both advertising and subscription revenue goals.” 

In short: by focusing on engagement, everybody wins. 

Ross, Director of Reader Revenue at Broadsheet, who recently joined Broadsheet after working at a legacy media publication, explained that by moving even a small subset of their flyby audience into a medium-engaged cohort, they see an exponential increase in page views, the currency of traditional commercial models. This approach is useful for showing teams the clear benefit of engagement to the advertising side of the business while simultaneously building a base for subscriptions.

Whilst they measure a collection of engagement metrics, focused very much on quality over scale, frequency is their most important, north star metric. 

The five pillars of a successful subscription strategy

Broadsheet’s transition to reader revenue is built on five key pillars, as outlined by Ross:

• An audience-centric approach: A laser focus on the most engaged readers, understanding their motivations, pain points, and what adds value to their lives.
• Compelling value proposition: Ensuring the subscription product addresses the needs of engaged readers. Initial research at Broadsheet showed that their readers would be prepared to pay for high-quality content, but that it needed to be combined with unique experiences like exhibition tickets, and perks like free coffee as well as tools to help them curate their Broadsheet experience.
• Cross-departmental alliance: Moving beyond a traditional marketing-led view of subscriptions to ensure buy-in across the entire business, from editorial to product, data, and CRM. At Broadsheet, they already had established ‘Squads’ associated to 90-day, one-year and three-year goals, so when moving to subscription, a new audience monetization squad was formed.
• Culture of test and learn: Continuous experimentation with subscriber journeys, funnels, pricing, and offers to drive sustainable growth.
• End-to-end lifecycle marketing: Delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time, supported by a robust data infrastructure and access to the right platforms.

“There are of course many other aspects to consider, but in my opinion, these 5 are the ones that move the dial the furthest”

Building a value exchange through registration

A crucial component of Broadsheet’s reader revenue model is the registration wall. Launched in Australia in December 2025, a few months before their subscription model, the registration wall has already outperformed industry benchmarks: 

Specifically, a conversion rate (% of unique visitors who encountered the reg wall and converted) of 5.5% on the registration wall, compared to the industry benchmark of 3-5%.

“Registration serves us on several different levels,” Ross says. “It gives us the ability to communicate more directly with our most engaged audience, gather insights into their needs, and personalize their experience. And of course, it helps us reduce the reliance on third party platforms for our audience, which is going to be more and more crucial.”

Crucially, the registration wall introduces a clear value exchange on the site. “Previously, people were completely free to browse the site as they wished,” Ross explains. “The registration wall helps set the tone for the eventual introduction of a paywall, ensuring it’s not a shock when certain content becomes paid.”

Registration has also built confidence internally ahead of their paywall launch

“The insights from our research proved that there was definitely an appetite to pay as long as it’s the right proposition and that a subscription adds significant value to an individual’s life. And that’s where we’ve been focused on these three aspects of the subscription proposition, the content being the inspiration, the experiential side of things, and the utility aspects as well, pulling all those different ingredients together.”

Nick added that, ultimately, the team believed in the strength of their brand. 

“We’ve been running this for 16 years. We know we have a strong brand. We know we create a product worth paying for. So let’s do it. Having a reg wall in place was valuable for validating our assumptions on conversion rates through the steps in the funnel. We exceeded every single one of those assumptions. Of course, more people provide data for registration than handing over a credit card, but we consistently exceeded benchmarks since the launch, so we didn’t feel we needed to wait around for subscription. We just had to go for it, with confidence.”

London: building a cultural footprint, Australia: Broadsheet digital subscription

Currently, Broadsheet’s London operation is focused on audience acquisition and brand awareness. Before switching on monetization features, they are busy establishing themselves as the ultimate London city guide.

While London is about growth, Australia is the testing ground for the brand’s most ambitious move yet: Broadsheet digital subscription. Launched just days ago (April 2026), this membership program represents the official transition from a free-to-read model to a premium value exchange.

Ross highlights that early data from Australia has been “very strong,” already exceeding industry benchmarks for conversion. The model isn’t just about a hard paywall but rather an integrated experience:

• Exclusive experiences: Members get early access to ‘Readers’ Preview’ dinners at the city’s hottest new restaurants
• Perks and rewards: The program includes ‘The Vault’ (high-value giveaways) and daily rewards like free coffee or discounts at local partners
• Journalism access: Unlimited access to Broadsheet’s trusted journalism for A$1/week

The current content access model is a static meter, where audiences have access to a set number of articles per month before being asked to register and then subscribe, but the goal is to move towards a dynamic model adapted to a reader’s level of engagement via Poool.

What’s next?

Of course, the launch is just the beginning! Ross shared that the team is already focusing on:

• Identifying optimisation opportunities that exist within their key conversion journeys and subscription checkout funnel
• Leveraging those insights to inform a cross-departmental working group focused on CRO, building a roadmap of experimentation and executing
• Introducing new forums to share actionable insights with editorial: what content is driving conversion (last click and participation) and engagement to inform content and commissioning strategy; identifying opportunities to potentially convert a higher proportion of readers below the superfan engagement cohort 
• Building CRM muscle through talent acquisition and data engineering: unlocking capabilities within their Customer Engagement Platform (Braze) and Customer Orchestration Platform (Poool) to become more personalised and dynamic across owned channels 
• Building further value into the subscription proposition through product development of utility tools

The post From Melbourne to London: how Broadsheet is scaling culture and reader revenue 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 fifth in a 6-part series where I share what I learned from studying 100 subscription business models across 15+ industries. 
> Episode one: 100 subscription business, 15 industries, 1 moodboard
> Episode two: What’s free, what’s paid, and why it’s really an engagement trade-offf
> Episode three: Why the best subscription businesses don’t try to sell on day 1
> Episode four: The subscription pricing page we've all built at least once

The cycle doesn’t stop when someone becomes a subscriber

In episode 1, we introduced the idea that the best subscription businesses don’t follow a linear journey (attract → convert → retain) but an infinite cycle of micro-conversions, where each step has one goal and unlocks the next. In episodes 3 and 4, we looked at what happens before the first paid conversion: how these businesses use registration, onboarding, and pricing to guide the user step by step.

This episode covers what happens after someone becomes a subscriber.

And what we observed is that the journey really doesn’t change in nature once the user has paid. After someone subscribes, the next micro-conversion might be signing up for a newsletter. Then downloading the app. Then discovering podcasts or games or a specific section of the product. Then, when the subscriber is ready (and when you know enough about their usage), you can propose an upsell or bundle.

Acquiring a subscriber isn’t the end of the funnel. It’s just one more step in the infinite cycle we described in episode 1. And what most people call “retention” is really just the continuation of the same sequence of micro-conversions, except now you have data about the user and can be much smarter about what you propose next.

The problem is that most of this work needs to happen fast.

Why you have about 100 days (and probably less)

INMA data shows that a quarter of subscribers cancel in the first month, and half are gone by the fourth month. And a Nieman Lab study on The Wall Street Journal’s data showed that the probability of adopting a new habit drops dramatically after about 100 days.

Half of your new subscribers are gone within 4 months, and after about 100 days the window to build a new habit narrows significantly. If you don’t manage to execute enough micro-conversions during those first few months (newsletter signup, app download, feature discovery, habit formation), the probability of keeping that subscriber drops, regardless of how good your anti-churn campaigns are later on.

(I know this isn’t the most cheerful insight we’ve had in this series, but it’s what the data consistently shows.)

What this looks like in practice: L’Équipe after the Olympics

This is where the theory gets concrete. L’Équipe (a Poool client), speaking at The Audiencers’ Festival in 2025, shared how they built 12 post-subscription projects after the Paris 2024 Olympics, which had generated a huge spike in new subscribers, subscribers they needed to keep. I won’t go through all 12 (the full article is worth reading), but the ones that stood out to me are the following.

Their data analysis revealed something I found really striking: what a subscriber does after paying has more impact on M+1 churn than what they did before subscribing. When Fabien Mulot showed this at The Audiencers’ Festival, it was one of those moments where you think “of course, that makes total sense” and at the same time you realize that most of the industry’s energy is still focused on acquiring subscribers, not on what happens once they’ve subscribed.

Based on this insight, they focused their onboarding on one specific goal: getting new subscribers to read at least two paid articles within the first three days. Their data showed that each paid article read during those first 72 hours reduces the following month’s churn by about 5 points, so two articles in three days already makes a meaningful difference on the curve.

The onboarding sequence they built follows the same micro-conversion logic we’ve been describing throughout this series:

• first, welcome the subscriber and showcase what their subscription unlocks;
• then encourage them to personalize their experience (alerts, newsletters, favorite topics);
• then immediately serve them paid content tailored to their interests. Each step has one job.

The cumulative impact is significant.

• Simply being exposed to this onboarding journey reduces churn by 7 points at M+1.
• Completing the onboarding journey while also activating an action (turning on alerts, signing up for a newsletter) reduces churn by 20 points at M+3
• The more micro-conversions a subscriber completes in those early weeks, the less likely they are to leave.

Beyond onboarding, L’Équipe continued the logic with a newsletter strategy (a monthly preview of upcoming content, plus journalist-led newsletters across four sports verticals where subscribers can ask questions directly to editorial teams), and a new “Games” vertical to expand consumption into other formats. Each of these is another micro-conversion in the sequence, another reason for the subscriber to come back tomorrow.

El País and FT Strategies confirm the pattern at a broader scale

L’Équipe’s data is specific to sports media, but the pattern holds across other publishers.

El País shared at a 2024 INMA conference that subscribers who use editorial newsletters churn 24% less, app users churn 15% less, premium newsletter users churn 29% less, and loyalty scheme users churn 30% less. Each one of these is a micro-conversion that happened after subscribing, and each one reduces churn by 15 to 30%.

FT Strategies ran some very complementary work, analyzing the impact of each product feature on engagement vs. the percentage of subscribers who actually use it. The features with the highest impact (multimedia, interactive content, games) are also the ones that fewer than 30% of subscribers use. The gap between impact and adoption is where the biggest opportunity sits.

What happens when you get the micro-conversions right: lock-in effects

When the micro-conversion sequence works well over time, you eventually reach a point where leaving becomes genuinely hard for the subscriber. This is thanks to long-term engagement and relationship-building.

But of course, there are other strategies to keep your subscribers retained, ones that can be used in conjunction with the micro-conversions detailed above. When combined, they’re powerful for developing loyalty.

During our benchmark, we saw three main types of lock-in across the 100 businesses:

• Personalization – we talked about Spotify in episode 4, but the principle applies to any product that gets smarter with use, adapting the product to the user
• Multi-accounts – Netflix profiles, Blinkist’s partner account where you sometimes keep the service for the other person
• Bundling with external services – Canal+ with Netflix, Amazon Prime combining shopping, streaming and delivery, Walmart+ bundling grocery delivery with Paramount+

(You can read more about lock-in effects here)

Funnily enough, each of these is really the result of many successful micro-conversions accumulated over months and years. The lock-in is earned, not imposed.

Anti-churn: necessary, but it’s the safety net

And then there’s anti-churn, which is what happens when the micro-conversion sequence hasn’t worked well enough and the subscriber is about to leave.

L’Équipe has been methodical about this too. Their cancellation form (which handles two-thirds of all unsubscriptions) was redesigned through A/B tests: they added an intermediate screen summarizing the benefits the subscriber would lose (+2% retention), and tested personalizing the message with the subscriber’s first name and a specific discount percentage (+1.2 points on conversion). Small changes, but measurable impact at scale (source).

Unidad Editorial took a different approach by building a churn propensity model that predicts which subscribers are about to cancel, triggering personalized actions before they reach the cancellation page. Result: a 25% reduction in churn in three months.

These are well-executed tactics. But in the broader picture, they’re the safety net.

The real strategy is everything that happens before the subscriber even thinks about leaving: the onboarding, the feature discovery, the newsletter signup, the app download, the habit formation. All of those micro-conversions that, together, make the product too valuable to walk away from.

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

Map the post-subscription micro-conversions you want your subscribers to make. Newsletter signup, app download, podcast discovery, games, alerts configuration, etc. based on their value. Then ask yourself: do you have a sequence designed for this, or are you hoping it happens on its own?

Focus on the first 3 days and the first 30 days. L’Équipe’s data shows that each paid article read in the first 72 hours reduces the following month’s churn by 5 points, and a completed onboarding with an action reduces churn by 20 points at M+3.

Check the gap between feature impact and feature adoption. FT Strategies’ framework is a useful lens: if your most impactful features are also the least used, that’s your biggest opportunity. And El País data shows that each additional touchpoint is worth 15 to 30% less churn.

Treat anti-churn as a safety net, not as a strategy. If the majority of your effort goes into save campaigns for subscribers who are already about to leave, you’re fighting the battle at the wrong end of the timeline.

And if all of this sounds like a lot to orchestrate (because it is): that’s exactly the kind of problem we’re solving with Poool and Darwin CX. From onboarding sequences to engagement actions to anti-churn triggers, across web, app, and print. Orchestrating micro-conversions at every step of the subscriber journey is what we do. If that resonates, or if you’re currently looking at your subscription platform options, let’s talk.

Next week, episode 6, the last one: toilet paper, Japanese snack boxes, razor blades, wine, and genealogy. The most surprising subscription models we came across, and what they confirmed about engagement (because at this point in the series, I think you already know what the answer is going to be).

The post The first 100 days: why most of what we call retention is really just micro-conversions (again): episode 5 appeared first on Audiencers.

In this guide, we share the various ways that publishers can segment their audience to develop a dynamic paywall model, with examples for each type of segmentation: 
> By content type: free vs premium, user needs, date of publication...
> By user profile: level of engagement, user status, location...
> By acquisition channel: Google, social media, newsletters...

Some quick definitions: 
> Audience segmentation: grouping users based on their profile or context, i.e. data that could impact their behaviour, inform us on what could convince them to subscribe or make them more or less likely to convert in that moment
> Dynamic paywall: a paywall that adapts for different audience segments. This could be in terms of the paywall design, messaging or even the journey itself (e.g. seeing a paywall or not). Note that "dynamic" doesn't necessarily equate to AI-driven. It's often rule based - i.e. a user reading a "politics" article sees a different paywall to a user reading a "sports" article.

There are 3 main buckets of audience segmentation with the goal of increasing conversion rates:

• By content type
• By user profile
• By acquisition channel

In each of these cases, the form of segmentation dictates who sees or experiences what. For instance, if we segment based on location, someone in Germany might see and experience something different than someone in the UK.

What can change based on the segment, in terms of the conversion strategy?

• The fact that the article is blocked or not
• The conversion journey (e.g. how many articles for free before the paywall, the use of a registration wall)
• The wording on the paywall
• The design (colours, image, etc.)
• The pricing and subscription offers pushed

Let’s dive into these 3 buckets of segments, with examples for each:

1. Segmenting by content type

For many publishers, this is the simplest starting point. It allows for extensive testing to discover what content converts best without risking overall traffic. It also helps to put editorial teams in control (to an extent) as the paywall strategy is based around their work instead of a user’s profile. This can be valuable when first launching a dynamic paywall to get buy-in from these teams.

This form of segmentation can take various forms:

• Content divided into free (often general news or commodity pieces) and premium (generally longer-form, investigative articles which can’t be found elsewhere)
• Format-based: e.g. articles vs games vs videos
• Topic- or tag-based: sports, politics, news, lifestyle
• User needs based: update me, give me a perspective, etc.
• Date of publication: e.g. articles published more than 30 days ago

Free vs premium

Organising content based on its value:

• Free content: keep open to maximize reach (often focused on ad revenue)
• Premium content: close to convert readers into subscribers

Some publishers are developing this a step further by adding 2 additional segments:

• Grey content: sometimes open, sometimes closed (based on editorial decision)
• Super Premium Content: with a hard paywall

This segmentation is often driven by two business goals: advertising and subscriptions. However, the articles used for advertising revenue (which aim to gain page views) can also serve the role of engaging audiences to move them through the funnel toward subscription.

A good place to start is a matrix analysis, placing articles in different buckets based on their “strengths”. A goal can then be established for each bucket, making the most of each article.

For instance, Mather suggests the following matrix:

• Mass appeal / top of the funnel: advertising revenue focus, so left open
• Premium content / bottom of the funnel: subscription focus, so behind a paywall
• Mission journalism: often left open
• Under-performers (that require further analysis)

A slightly more complex approach is illustrated by FT Strategies below, who established 4 categories based on topic popularity vs willingness to pay:

The post Guide: how to segment audiences for a dynamic paywall 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.

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.

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.

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.

Khalil is an advocate for audiences-driven approaches in the media industry. He consults, advises, and mentors teams and individuals at media organisations worldwide, helping them shape stronger, more connected societies, focusing mainly on user needs, product work and AI. 

In this article, Khalil summarises his session at The Audiencers' Festival London 2025 where he interviewed Oliver Kemp on his work on user needs at TBIJ.

The media industry is struggling. Digital and print audiences are shrinking, layoffs are mounting, and trust in journalists is plummeting worldwide. You’ve seen this story unfold.

But look closer and you’ll find rays of hope – rays that are growing brighter. Because, beyond the industry malaise, a subset of media operations is thriving.

I’ve studied some of these successful operations for several years and found one fundamental factor that unites them: their ability to connect (or reconnect) with people … with their audiences. They serve people’s needs with quality, trustworthy journalism that is genuinely valuable. And because they consistently provide value, people forge real connections with them.

The key insight here is: serving people’s needs. Today’s successful media operations understand that addressing the needs of audiences underpins everything. And many achieve this by integrating the user needs model into their operations.

One media operation that has implemented the user needs model successfully is The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) in the UK. For TBIJ, it’s not about clicks – it has no shareholder to please – it’s about depth and transparency. Its mission is to hold power to account.

Oliver Kemp, TBIJ’s Audience Editor, led the model’s newsroom implementation. When I interviewed him at The Audiencers’ Festival in London, he shared valuable insights about the journey and critical factors for successfully rolling out user needs in a newsroom.

> Here’s a step-by-step guide to implementing user needs in a newsroom of any size.

TBIJ’s unique set of user needs

Integrating user needs opened new pathways for TBIJ to provide value to people. While its core journalism seeks to show abuses of power, talking directly to its audiences convinced Oliver and team that there are opportunities to provide more value by serving more needs.

This led them to create their own user needs model – one deeply representative of their audiences’ needs and fully aligned with TBIJ’s mission.

Creating a unique model helps bring a newsroom closer to its audiences. Beyond exposing abuses of power, TBIJ now aims to help people discover and learn about complex topics (often related to their investigations); involve people by being transparent about their journalistic process; and spark people into realising the good journalism can do by showing the real-world impact of their work.

A unique model can also win over more ambivalent colleagues for two reasons:

• Collectivity: creating the unique model offers an opportunity to bring colleagues along in the process. Oliver highlighted how he addressed scepticism and fostered stronger ownership of the final model.
• Relatability: the unique user needs tend to align closely with the operation’s mission, making them more relatable to colleagues and improving acceptance.

“The first step is to talk directly to your audience … These conversations can take many forms – surveys, interviews, focus groups, or even informal chats – but the goal is the same: to hear in their own words what they value, what they struggle to find elsewhere, and how your journalism can serve them better. This insight becomes the foundation for tailoring the model to fit your unique context.”

Creating a unique model requires considerable work and initial good faith from decision-makers, as results don’t typically appear in the short-term. This is why most media operations aren’t best-placed to create a unique model when beginning to implement user needs. For most operations, allocating resources is a constant battle, and the need to show results quickly is essential for future investment.

Using the plug-and-play user needs model is a perfect starting point for most operations, with creating a unique model more feasible when they are ready to double down on user needs.

Acting on the user needs

With the model in place, it’s time to identify how well (or not!) the newsroom is currently serving the user needs. The aims are to create a reference for gauging the impact of user needs-informed journalism, and to understand which user needs to prioritise (and deprioritise).

For most media operations, TBIJ included, the content audit forms the bulk of this work. The audit involves tagging hundreds of recently-published content with the user need each serves. 

Once the tagging is completed, the charts that change everything can be generated. These charts are the artefacts that will convince colleagues to take action. They showcase:

• The reference: how a media operation’s content currently serves user needs.
• The actions to take: where mismatches exist between content production and serving user needs.

Note: the chart is for illustrative purposes only, but it mirrors findings from many media operations that conduct content audits.

As you can see, doing the content audit, and subsequent analysis, can be a painstaking process. But it is of utmost importance. The insights from the audit forms the basis of every downstream decision.

User needs at the basis of strategy

Oliver shared how user needs now informs TBIJ’s content and engagement strategies, leading to even better journalism and growing audiences.

• More needs, better served: TBIJ tracks the volume of content it produces for each user need and identifies those that may be under-served. This informs content strategy, enabling them to act strategically to rebalance content production with user needs.
• Increase exposure of their investigations: certain themes and user needs are more accessible to specific target audiences than others. Reframing some investigative work around these creates more accessible entry points for more people.
• Increase engagement with their journalism: while certain user needs make good entry points, others suit deeper engagement or conversions. Understanding the user funnel through user needs, using tools like Poool’s Engage element, opens up possibilities for better-optimised user experiences.

User needs also became the basis for identifying both missed and new opportunities at TBIJ.

The “spark” user need has untapped potential, according to Oliver. To better inspire audiences about the impact good journalism can have, reframing this need so it more clearly guides TBIJ’s work may be on the cards.

This illustrates the evolving nature of user needs. It’s necessary to frequently revisit the model and iterate to remain close to audiences and aligned with the media operation’s purpose. Audiences’ needs, interests, behaviours, and the problems they face all change over time. And sometimes, it may be worth adjusting certain user needs to make them more actionable within newsrooms. The point is we must continually adapt to remain valuable.

Oliver also revealed that a fifth user need may be in the works at TBIJ – one that would be explicitly action-oriented. This speaks to extensive research showing that people seek information that helps them do something about what’s happening. There may well be an opportunity to serve this need by engaging people more directly with investigations, whether through participation or advocacy.

When user needs leads to culture change

Culture change can seem impossible – it’s hard and takes time. But at some point, it becomes inevitable.

Oliver knew TBIJ had reached this point when reporters started pitching ideas with user needs already in mind. No longer was user needs something they ticked off at the end of the process. Now, user needs directly shaped their journalism. Reporters were thinking about the “why” (need to serve) and “who” (target audience) of a story from conception.

“[Reporters] identified whether [their stories] would meet a need to inform, explain, inspire, or provoke action, and tailoring their approach accordingly. This not only produced stronger, more focused ideas, but also fostered a more collaborative editorial culture, where conversations about audience and impact became part of the creative process rather than an afterthought.”

This is the culmination of a user needs-first newsroom – where the virtuous cycle of value, quality, trust, and connection is fully activated to provide journalism that is genuinely valuable to people.

> Download all slides from Khalil & Oliver’s session here

The post Doing User Needs right: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism share their secrets appeared first on Audiencers.

Founded in 1891, Irish News has long been considered the paper of record for Northern Ireland.

Today, the top selling regional daily newspaper in the UK and Ireland, it continues to lead the way in print whilst steadily investing in a digital-first future, grounded in editorial integrity and community connection.

I spoke with Paul (CTO) and Annette (CMO) about their transformation:
Rather than chasing headlines or quick wins, the team is focused on building long-term sustainability by aligning technology, editorial, and audience insight with strong foundations:
> Step 1: build solid tech stack foundations
> Step 2: Customer segmentation and prioritisation
> Step 3: Funnel optimisation, KPIs & next best action

Protecting print while growing digital

From the outset, the Irish News team made a clear strategic choice: digital growth would not come at the expense of print. With print still playing a vital role in the community and business, this transformation has been about complementing, not replacing, the legacy product.

This strong print position has been a real advantage. Without immediate pressure to shift wholesale to digital, the team has had the breathing space to make thoughtful decisions, test ideas, and invest steadily in a model that will support Irish News in the long term. What’s more, the ability to recognise readers online, compared to anonymous print readers, would prove invaluable to their wider business strategy.

The process of digital transformation at Irish News:

Step 1: Build solid tech stack foundations. 

A digital transformation begins with infrastructure – integrating best-in-class technology including Poool’s dynamic paywall and registration tools, with a strong focus on actionable data.

While still early in their journey, the goal is a foundation that supports deeper audience understanding across the funnel (registration, engagement, conversion, retention), better targeting, and ongoing optimisation. But they’re the first to say the work is far from done.

“We’ve made real progress integrating the basics – tighter paywall metering, landing pages, but we know our data isn’t fully there yet. We’re putting the blocks in place.” – Paul

• CMS and subscription management: ArcXP
• Paywall, landing page, promotional modules, onboarding and cancellation: Poool
• Payments: Stripe
• Tech partners: code.store
• Mobile app: Pugpig
• Strategy partners (at various moments): FT Strategies & Atlas (a recurring revenues growth consultancy)

Step 2: Customer segmentation and prioritisation

The Irish News’s digital transformation began with a clear focus on identifying and prioritising audience segments. Rather than treating all readers the same, initial segmentation has focused on high-value groups such as frequent newsletter subscribers, engaged GAA (Gaelic Games) fans and Politics readers, registered users as well as lapsed subscribers.

These segments are beginning to shape decisions around the user journey, allowing them to tailor content, messaging, and offers to the needs and behaviours of each segment, ensuring that the most valuable and engaged groups are at the heart of the strategy.

Step 3: Funnel optimisation, KPIs & next best action

User journey mapping has been a major focus and is an evolving area.

The team is actively working to improve each stage of the funnel with clear KPIs: from anonymous visitor to engaged reader, subscriber, and retained customer. One of the strongest learnings so far is the power of simple changes like dynamic subscription prompts and homepage banners to drive results.

What’s already in play:

• Subscription promotion: Dynamic offers tied to editorial moments and brand consistency across channels.

• Metered registration model: A key driver of first-party data and user engagement.

• Landing page optimisation: Focus on benefit-led messaging, journalist credibility, and price framing.

• App engagement: Supporting retention by encouraging usage of the app among new registrants and subscribers.
• Structured onboarding: Both for registered users and new subscribers.

• Offboarding: Launching soon.

This funnel thinking is now shifting toward retention especially as Irish News sees churn emerge alongside subscriber growth. Building strong onboarding, engagement, and habit loops will be central to sustaining momentum.

“We’re working to get as much of Poool’s infrastructure on site as we can – including more dynamic elements, including walls and promotional messaging adapted to the content – as we’ve seen it works. For instance, when we don’t have the banner on the homepage, the traffic going through to the subscription page is more or less gone” – Annette 

An essential to every step: content marketing, editorial collaboration & brand consistency

The Irish News is in the early stages of developing a content strategy that sits above the daily editorial cycle designed to support both brand and subscriber growth.

The most notable success so far has been with GAA-focused campaigns, which have clearly driven registration and subscription lifts. These trials have proven the value of editorial-marketing collaboration, and future campaigns will aim to replicate that success across other core interest areas including politics and opinion.

Crucially, writers are now put front and centre in both content and marketing, helping to build trust and emotional connection with readers. 

Community remains central to The Irish News’ brand positioning.

The transformation has been about more than technology – it’s also been about being unmistakably clear on who they are and what the brand stands for. The recent rebrand was a pivotal moment in positioning Irish News for the future, ensuring that every reader touchpoint reflects the depth of its journalism, values, and connection to community.

This renewed clarity informs everything from content strategy to marketing messaging, ensuring consistency across channels while strengthening recognition and trust. As The Irish News grows its digital audience, using digital tools to create engagement opportunities, this brand clarity will be a key driver of both acquisition and retention connecting with readers not just on what we cover, but why it matters to them.

The results: steady, sustainable growth

The Irish News is now seeing consistent subscriber growth, with digital making up a growing share of total revenue. Since March, their total subscriber base has grown by over 15%. This has been driven in part by a 109% increase in new subscription orders compared to the previous six months.

“We’re making progress, but we’re still learning,” Annette explained. “Some months we hit our targets, other months we don’t and that’s okay at this stage. We’re learning quickly about what drives long-term relationships with readers and we know there’s work to do.”

The next phase will be focused on deepening engagement and improving the subscriber experience. That includes strengthening onboarding, supporting habit formation, and building a more deliberate content strategy to better serve subscribers and keep them engaged for the long term.

Step 4 & beyond: Transformation never stops! This is only the beginning…

For The Irish News, this is a thoughtful, steady transformation. They’re building a model rooted in editorial strength, audience insight, and a realistic understanding of the journey ahead.

There’s a long road still to go but the momentum is real, and the strategy is sound. Print remains strong. Digital is growing. And the foundations are being laid for a business that will endure well into its next century.

“We’re still at the start of our journey,” Paul said. “Phase one is a three-year plan, and we’re only a year in but digital is now firmly at the centre of how we think about the future of Irish News. It’s no longer an add-on; it’s shaping the way we build, test, and grow.” – Paul

For instance, a new Subscription Manager will own these projects going forward, ensuring that Irish News continues to test and optimise their strategy. One of the first projects will be to add more dynamic elements to increase conversion, particularly with the goal of expanding Irish News’ international subscriber base, those who can’t buy a physical paper.

“The great thing about Irish people is that we only seem to get more Irish when we’re abroad! It’s a huge potential market for us… We just want to make sure that we know what works with our audience here before taking all of that learning when we spread our wings a bit more!”  – Annette

The post Digital by design: How Irish News is growing from a strong print legacy appeared first on Audiencers.

Adapting the paywall to a reader’s context, and particularly to the editorial topic they’re interested in, has enabled the women’s magazine ELLE to boost conversion rates. We spoke to Sophie Thierry-Clébant, Premium Manager, who tells us all about the project.

Where did you get the idea of contextual paywalls from?

When we launched the premium offer on ELLE, we obviously looked for the paywall model that would work best:

• In terms of visuals, images and colors
• In terms of how to present the offer

We often offer strong promotions, which we adapt to current events or seasons (sales, vacations, Mother’s Day, etc.):

These paywalls work very well, but you can’t run promotions all the time!

We needed to liven up the non-promotional periods by developing a more harmonious and coherent creative concept, linking print and digital. We also wanted to adapt our paywall to the profile of our female readers based on their browsing behavior, to ensure we met their expectations. Thus the idea of contextual paywalls was born!

What were your constraints in this project?

We have a predominantly mobile audience, so the paywall needs to be short, easy to read and understand quickly.

Our other constraint is a legal one: we have to show all subscription benefits in the paywall directly (since they’re not listed on the next registration page).

What was the outcome of this thought process?

We therefore thought about a fixed composition of paywalls that could be adapted to the reading context and the section the reader is in, via:

• A targeted tagline
• A frieze of visuals that are relevant to the topic
• As well as an adapted benefit, highlighting the editorial pieces most appreciated by subscribers in that specific section

We have now developed:

• 1 generic paywall, deployed on the site’s smaller sections

• 7 paywalls for various editorial topics:
  • Society (“Société”)
  • Fashion (“Mode”)
  • Psychology-relationships (“Psycho-sexo”)
  • Beauty (“Beauté”)
  • Design (“Déco”)
  • Cooking (“ELLE à table”)
  • Well-being / Fitness (“Forme / bien-être”)

> How the fashion magazine ELLE is using a dynamic paywall and continuous optimization to improve conversion rates

How did this work technically?

We’ve been using Poool’s journey builder for several years now, so it was very easy for us to put these ideas into practice. All we had to do was upload the subject tags into Poool, before building an adapted scenario for each rubric.

In the Appearances section, we created the generic template, duplicated it 7 times, adapted it to each context by modifying the tagline, the visual frieze and the first subscriber benefit and integrated then integrated each into the relevant scenario.

Did you launch on 100% of your audience straight away?

On the 7 major sections concerned, we A/B tested the generic paywall vs. the contextual paywall 50-50, to analyze the impact on conversions. We also tracked click-through rates, but our main KPI remains the conversion rate.

What are the results of these dynamic paywalls?

Custom paywalls clearly outperformed generic paywalls. Specifically, 3 sections showed a leap in conversion rate of +50% on average on contextual paywalls versus the generic paywall.

Other sections trended towards a +10% conversion rate, and only 2 sections performed either similarly to or slightly below the generic paywall. In the last 2 cases, we believe that the teasers were not optimal and are currently reworking them, before continuing the A/B tests to validate our hypothesis.

Overall, in the last quarter of 2024, the conversion rate to subscription using the paywall source rose by +20%!

Have you put any other dynamic strategies in place that adapt to a reader’s context?

Yes, absolutely. It’s something we’ve had for a few years now, but readers of certain newsletters have seen paywalls adapted to the theme of their newsletter:

The lesson to anyone reading:

In conclusion, contextualizing paywalls according to reader preferences and needs is proving to be a particularly effective and profitable way of optimizing our KPIs.

By placing the reader at the heart of our strategies, we can send the right message, at the right time to maximize the impact of our actions. It’s a great example of how to increase conversions when you’re under pressure with little time on your hands!

The post Contextual paywalls on ELLE.fr increase conversion rates by 20% appeared first on Audiencers.