Here’s an awkward truth about running Audiencers: we spend all year analysing, deconstructing, and benchmarking other publishers’ registration walls, paywalls, and onboarding journeys. Which means every time someone lands on our site, they’re quietly judging our own reader journey. And quite rightly so.

But, over time, our walls had gathered digital dust. They didn’t reflect our latest research, our messaging asked for commitment without proving value, and there was definitely room for some innovation.

So, I decided to open the bonnet and rebuild the entire Audiencers reader journey from scratch.

Our current tech stack:

• CMS: wordpress
• ID/login: Auth0
• Subscription management: Hubspot (not my fave for this task)
• Payment: Stripe
• On-site journeys: Poool

A quick disclosure before we dive in: Audiencers was created by the team behind Poool, and our on-site reader journey runs on Poool. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But this piece isn’t a canned product brochure; it’s an honest, operational teardown of our funnel mechanics, why we structured our access rules the way we did, and what happened when I used Poool’s MCP to rebuild our touchpoints based on what already converts for publishers. The Poool journey is what I’ve optimised so far, the Hubspot and Auth0 UX is definitely next on my list!

1. The strategy: the value of the archive

Before designing a single button, you have to establish an unambiguous access model. We settled on a 4-tier matrix centred around one publishing reality: content published today needs reach, but archived evergreen insights hold genuine commercial value.

Why 14 days of free access?

When we publish a deep dive on how to optimise your paywall, you might not be actively reworking your paywalls that week. But, in three months, when your team is tasked with overhauling your paywall, you will look for reliable benchmarks. At that exact moment, our archive solves an immediate, operational problem. That is the moment a free member (hopefully) converts into an annual subscriber.

Meanwhile, putting up a hard paywall immediately would kill discovery, peer sharing, and habit formation. Not to mention remove the important registration step for data collection, newsletter sign up and thus engagement. As we’ve seen time and time again, newsletters are a key step in convincing readers to subscribe.

2. The audit: what wasn’t working

When I audited our existing funnel against our own published benchmarks, the flaws were obvious:

• The registration wall asked for friction without showing return: the headline was a standard demand: “Create a free account to continue reading.” It framed registration as a hurdle rather than a valuable membership.
• The subscription landing page buried the price: visitors had to click a radio button just to see the €299 rate, while company plans showed no baseline figure at all.
• The offer page copy was repetitive and bloated: the headline “Make more informed decisions” appeared twice on the same page, and didn’t apply many of the best practices we see on the market today.
• Walls hadn’t been updated in a while: not to mention the fact that we talk (a lot) about needing to continuously change the design and messaging to increase conversion rates, but we hadn’t done this in a while.

3. The rebuild: applying “what works” via Poool’s MCP

Normally, rebuilding an entire reader journey, including registration walls, paywalls, onboarding tours, and offer pages, means weeks of friction: product briefs, Jira tickets, waiting for frontend developers, and endless design review cycles.

As a lean team of one on Audiencers, I don’t have weeks. And I definitely don’t have the tech knowledge (ask ANYONE who’s worked with me). So I connected Claude to our Poool dashboard using Poool’s new MCP.

Many generative AI tools build whatever you ask for, starting from a blank canvas. But Poool’s MCP builds what works. Every journey step it creates draws from two distinct sources of built-in expertise: 10 years of experience at Poool with 250+ publishers, and Audiencers’ analysis of 1,000+ more. Instead of guessing copy or starting with a blank template, it filters requests through proven layouts, structures, and messaging patterns, building the optimised version directly in your dashboard while teams retain full approval control.

So here I am, optimising Audiencers’ reader revenue strategy using our own content, inception.

Here is how that workflow redesigned our funnel touchpoints:

A. The registration wall: from passive form to dynamic playbook

I prompted the assistant to inspect our current wall and cross-reference it with our benchmarking analyses:

“Using Audiencers content, especially the benchmarking articles and strategic recommendations
on messaging, redesign the current registration wall in access.”

In its first pass, the assistant pulled our research and adjusted the copy:

• Before: “Create a free account to continue reading”
• V1: “This article is free. You just need an account to read it.”

It replaced a demand with reassurance, explicitly addressing the primary reader concern at a registration gate. Then we pushed it further with a follow-up prompt:

“Be innovative, using Audiencers’ benchmarks and adapting to our customer profiles and their goals.”

Five minutes and three prompts later, the MCP built an interactive diagnostic wall directly inside our dashboard:

1. The question: “What are you working on right now?”
2. The dynamic options: Readers select their current focus—Paywall & conversion, Registration & data, Retention & churn, or Engagement & newsletters.
3. The playbook: Selecting a topic dynamically updates the wall to display an editor-curated reading list for that specific challenge (e.g., clicking Registration & data surfaces Radio-Canada’s registration case study and 50+ annotated benchmarks).
4. The action: The primary CTA changes to “Unlock my registration playbook,” with a discreet “Skip, just create my free account” fallback underneath.

Before:

After:

Play around with the wall here.

The wall no longer acts as a gatekeeper, it functions like an on-demand consulting intake.

B. The subscription offer page: translating industry benchmarks into high conversion

Our main subscription offer page was overdue for a complete rethink.

“Be innovative and try to build a high converting page inspired by benchmarks, especially Audiencers’ Subscription offer page benchmarks, whilst still maintaining the light, fun look of Audiencers”

Running this brief through Claude and the Poool MCP generated a full redesign directly inside our dashboard. Instead of guessing what might work, the build borrowed structural wins from top-performing publisher benchmarks:

• Plans side-by-side above the fold: Benchmark data shows that leading offer pages present comparative options immediately above the fold. The redesign surfaces the Individual plan and Team plan side-by-side on screen one, featuring the Individual plan prominently with a playful, tilted yellow “Most popular” sticker.
• Unapologetic price transparency: The hidden radio button is gone. The rate is displayed front and centre alongside a relatable anchor: “less than £1 a day” (or €1 / $1 depending on geography)—followed by an immediate CTA button and a clean checklist of core membership perks.
• Sharper, action-oriented messaging: Out went “Make more informed decisions”. In came “Stop guessing. Steal what works.” a direct nod to our popular Steal this strategy series, accented with Audiencers’ signature teal highlight.
• Credibility without visual drag: Rather than burying readers in 24 dispersed logos, the layout condenses social proof into a single, high-contrast dark band featuring 8 key industry logos (including Politico, NZZ, Axel Springer, Estadão, and South China Morning Post).
• Bite-sized benefits and social quotes: The core value proposition is distilled into three pastel benefit cards using our recognisable editorial illustrations (Steal what works, Meet the people doing it, Put it into practice), paired with quick quotes from peers across Condé Nast, Globo, and Hearst, providing social proof spotted as a trend on benchmarked landing pages.
• Friction-reducing accordion FAQ: An interactive 4-part toggle addresses real buying objections right above the final checkout banner: Festival ticket eligibility, Poool client entitlement, group team volume discounts, and subscription duration terms.
• Protecting the brand identity: Crucially, the page didn’t end up looking like a stiff enterprise SaaS template. It retained the warm, distinctive Audiencers tone.

After:

With 3 targeted currencies

The page is live here. (p.s. of course, please feel to subscribe if you like what we do;)

C. The archive paywall: selling the library

When readers land on articles older than two weeks, they’re hunting for reference blueprints.

The new paywall opens with “Unlock the reader revenue library,” instantly cataloguing the inventory: 200+ case studies, 160+ step-by-step guides, 75+ benchmarks, and 160+ decoded paywalls.

Directly below, it presents three clear options side by side:

• Individual Plan (£299/year)
• Team Plan (multi-seat access for newsrooms)
• Poool Client Fast-Track (a dedicated pathway with a 3-step guide detailing how dashboard users link their existing account for immediate access)

As with the other use cases, this paywall was built in a few minutes. The prompt I’m liking in particular at the moment: “Be innovative using Audiencers’ trends”.

Before:

After:

Play around with the paywall here.

D. Onboarding new registered members: the 30-second tour

A registration model only succeeds if readers return, and for a while I’ve been very keen on implementing a product tour to show new free members around our media and community.

Drawing from our onboarding benchmarks, the assistant analysed patterns from publishers like The Washington Post and The Irish News:

• A separate welcome screen introducing the tour before launching into steps.
• Centred modals with one clear headline, one supporting line, one visual, and one button.
• A quiet “Maybe later” text link under the button to eliminate frustration.

The result was an on-site, 3-step onboarding flow highlighting Case Studies (with direct jumps to SFGATE and DER SPIEGEL), Directories (50 tools, 148 industry consultants), and Festivals (community passes for London, Paris, and Berlin).

Before:

Nothing

After:

If you’ve got a free account on Audiencers, you’ll see this journey next time you log in! Or play around with the onboarding journey directly here.

The display conditions mean that each users sees this only once, that it’s not shown to subscribers or Poool clients and not on certain pages, such as the subscription offers page.

4. Operational takeaways

Whether you configure journeys manually or leverage an AI assistant, the MCP provided a few key takeaways to apply to your reader journey, based off Audiencers expertise:

• Assign one job per wall. Our previous registration wall tried to pitch our newsletter, promote live events, and explain our company all at once. One step, one goal.
• Turn barriers into personalised utility. Letting readers select what they’re working on turns an administrative gate into a personalised diagnostic and adapted reason for converting. When set up properly it can also give you rich first-party intent data from day one.
• Lead with transparent pricing and clear anchors. Hiding annual rates behind radio buttons or burying team plans behind vague forms creates friction. Put the price front and centre, anchor it to something easily comparable (“less than £1 a day”), and display individual, team, and partner licences side by side. But of course, testing and adapting to the reader’s profile and context is essential.
• AI builds the steps, but your team retains the steering wheel. The MCP generated functional, styled, dynamic modules in minutes, but human editorial judgement remains essential. When Claude initially proposed heavy bullet lists on the registration module, we trimmed them to protect visual focus.

Test it out for yourself!

The updated reader journey is live across Audiencers today. You can test the interactive playbook on our latest articles, examine the newly streamlined offer page, browse the archive library paywall, or take the onboarding tour.

For existing Poool clients, Poool’s MCP is already available in your plan at no extra cost, connecting your preferred AI assistant directly to your dashboard to turn ideas, URLs, or Figma files into optimised journeys based on 10 years experience with 250+ media brands and Audiencers’ analysis of 1,000 more.

The post We write about paywalls for a living. So I rebuilt ours with an AI trained on everything we publish appeared first on Audiencers.

Building a sustainable digital reader revenue strategy requires a careful balance between user experience, advertising revenue, and subscriber acquisition. For Grupo Joly, Andalusia’s leading regional media group spanning 11 publications, including Diario de Sevilla and Diario de Cádiz, navigating this transition meant laying strategic groundwork years before launching paid subscriptions.

We spoke to Ana María Ferrand, Head of Data Analytics & Project Manager, Pedro Moreno, Product Manager, and Laura Grimaldi, Head of Engagement & Retention, about this strategy. 

> Grupo Joly, Andalusia's leading regional group with 11 titles including Diario de Sevilla and Diario de Cadiz, spent years on groundwork before charging for anything. A free registration wall launched in 2021 turned anonymous readers into known ones, and registered users spent longer on site and read more pages per session than anonymous ones

> Simpler won twice. A/B testing found clean, text-focused paywalls converted better than elaborate visual designs. And a single high-value annual offer beat showing monthly and annual side by side, lifting click-through across every reader segment. Over 92% of subscribers now take the annual plan

> Paywall visibility sits at around 34%, rising slowly. Fast-breaking general news stays open under a high metered threshold to protect traffic and programmatic revenue, while opinion columns, local analysis and regional sport go behind the wall

> Calls to action are embedded natively between paragraphs and in inline cards as readers scroll, rather than as pop-ups, to avoid ad-blocker and intrusive-interstitial penalties. The whole programme is run by a four-person core team, rolled out brand by brand rather than across all 11 at once

1. The pre-subscription phase: building an engaged database

Before introducing paid access, Grupo Joly focused on cultivating reader loyalty and collecting valuable audience data.

• The registration wall as a stepping stone: In 2021, the group launched a free registration strategy. By requiring users to create an account to access key benefits, such as tailored newsletters or exclusive reader contests, they transformed anonymous visitors into known, registered users.
• Habit-building value proposition: Free registration was presented as a premium service, helping readers build strong habits prior to any payment requirement.
• Increased engagement: Registered users demonstrated significantly higher engagement metrics, spending more time on site and consuming more page views per session compared to anonymous visitors. This registered pool established the ideal target audience for eventual paid conversions.

2. Launching subscriptions

When Grupo Joly launched paid subscriptions, they integrated Poool to manage paywalls, content access, and user journey optimization.

• Phased brand rollout: Rather than implementing paid models across all 11 brands simultaneously, the small 4-person core team opted for a progressive rollout. They began with flagship publications like Diario de Sevilla before expanding to title brands like Diario de Cádiz.
• Testing and simplifying design: The group initially tested elaborate visual paywall designs, but discovered through A/B testing that clean, text-focused, straightforward designs led to higher conversion rates.
• Single vs. dual offer messaging: While paywalls showing both monthly and annual plans were tested, presenting a single, high-value annual offer drove significantly higher click-through rates (CTR) across all reader segments. Over 92% of subscribers ultimately opted for the annual subscription.

3. Revenue balancing & paywall visibility

A primary challenge for regional publishers is safeguarding existing programmatic and advertising revenues while scaling subscription income.

• Targeted paywall visibility: Grupo Joly maintains an overall paywall visibility rate of approximately 34%, a figure they’re going to slowly increase over time.
• Hybrid access model: Fast-breaking general news is kept accessible under a high metered threshold to preserve traffic and programmatic ad revenue. High-value, unique content, such as opinion columns, local analysis, and regional sports coverage, is placed behind paywalls.
• Non-disruptive messaging: To prevent intrusive ad blockers or pop-up penalties, calls-to-action are embedded natively between article paragraphs or featured in inline content cards as users scroll.

4. Key metrics and future focus

Grupo Joly continues to refine its reader revenue strategy based on direct audience metrics.

Thank you to Ana, Pedro and Laura for their help with this article!

The post Inside Grupo Joly’s subscription strategy: How Spain’s regional giant leverages registration and dynamic paywalls appeared first on Audiencers.

At the Audiencers’ Festival in London, Shirin Shity, Senior Marketing Manager at Project Syndicate, shared how transitioning from an aggressive friction model to an open, communication-first strategy revitalised user engagement and subscription conversion. 

> Project Syndicate passed 200,000 registered accounts while engagement stayed flat because the wall fired straight after a reader's first article. People arriving from LinkedIn or social left before discovering what the site was for

> The second leak was their most engaged readers. Newsletter subscribers kept hitting unpredictable hard walls with no indication of how many free articles remained or when the allowance reset, which broke exactly the habit the team was trying to build

> Working with FT Strategies & Poool, they concluded more friction wasn't the answer and loosened the wall instead. Readers now get three free reads every 30 days, up from two, with the terms stated openly across multiple touchpoints rather than discovered by hitting a wall

> The mechanism is the interesting part: on the second and third article, readers have to click "Continue Reading" to spend a credit. Making the allowance something you actively spend, rather than something silently consumed, turns it into something worth having

> Over a four-week trial, registered users converting to paid rose 52%, click-through across registration and paywalls went from 7% to 9%, subscription prompt success from 11% to 14%, and RFV scores lifted 22%. Monthly sessions for logged-in accounts climbed from 1.9 to 2.5

By treating the registration layer as a value journey rather than a restrictive barrier, the publication grew their logged user base, increased the number of registered users converting into paid subscribers by 52% and saw a 22% uplift in overall RFV (Recency, Frequency, Volume) scores. 

Context: balancing global reach with direct subscriptions

For over 30 years, Project Syndicate has operated as a syndication network, distributing high-level commentary from leading global thinkers as widely as possible. Its primary business model involves charging media outlets in developed countries to subsidize the dissemination of op-eds to more than 520 outlets across 158 countries.

Direct consumer digital subscriptions represent a newer engine of growth. However, traditional subscription paywalls naturally pull against their historic key metric, reach. This tension is where registration sits perfectly: it acts as a bridge, allowing for intentional content sampling while pulling anonymous readers into a known ecosystem.

The evolution of the reg wall

Project Syndicate launched its initial website in 2012 as a fully open platform. The site has since evolved through several operational iterations:

• 2017: Introduced the first native paywall with a single subscription offer.
• 2020–2022: Moved to a dynamic paywall approach and introduced multi-tiered subscription packages.
• 2023: Conducted A/B testing comparing a 1-read vs. 2-read allowance. This led to a standard model where readers received 1 free article, then had to register to receive 1 additional free article every 30 days.
• 2025–2026: Migrated to a new, flexible paywall architecture (powered by Poool) to run rapid onsite user experiments. Prior to this upgrade, backend limitations meant simple copy or design changes took weeks or months to implement through remote developers.

The metrics that made the case for a change

Data collected in early 2025 revealed a structural mismatch between user acquisition and long-term retention. While Project Syndicate excelled at building an initial database of registered users, surpassing 200,000 total accounts, active engagement post-registration was remarkably low.

An audit of user segments highlighted two main leakage points:

1. The fly-by loop

Because the old registration wall appeared immediately after a visitor’s first article, light readers coming from external platforms (such as LinkedIn or social media) simply left. The wall blocked them before they could discover the site’s wider value, resulting in zero captured emails and an average of just 0.8 article page views per user.

2. The newsletter wall

Even highly engaged newsletter subscribers regularly hit unpredictable hard walls without any indication of how many free articles they had remaining or when their monthly allowance would reset. This arbitrary friction disrupted habit formation and caused valuable readers to abandon the platform entirely.

The experiment: communication over friction

Collaborating with FT Strategies, the marketing team realised that increasing wall friction was not the answer. Instead, expanding content sampling while providing transparent progress indicators would give readers a clearer path to building a subscription habit.

The team launched a soft-to-hard paywall journey based on three pillars:

1. Transparent onboarding: The site clearly states the exact terms of the offer up front across multiple touchpoints: three free reads every 30 days.
2. Explicit personalisation benefits: The registration wall highlights functional perks, showing readers they can follow specific topics, track favorite authors, and save pieces to a personalised reading list.

3. An active unlock mechanism: Instead of immediately showing a full article, the platform introduces a stepped widget on the second and third pieces. Readers must intentionally click a “Continue Reading” button to spend one of their available credits, encouraging them to treat their monthly allowance as something of value. Once the third credit is spent, a hard paywall prompts a direct subscription offer.

Strategic impact and performance signals

The soft-to-hard communication strategy yielded immediate results over a four-week trial period, proving that looser constraints could drive higher economic value:

• Higher direct subscriptions: The business saw a 52% increase in registered users converting into paid subscribers compared to the previous model.
• Stronger onsite conversion rates: The combined click-through rate across both registration and paywalls jumped from 7% to 9%, while subscription prompt success rates rose from 11% to 14%.
• Deeper reader habits: Registered users saw a 22% uplift in overall RFV (Recency, Frequency, Volume) scores. Average monthly sessions for authenticated accounts climbed from 1.9 to 2.5, demonstrating steady habit formation.

Core takeaways

Shirin summarised the lessons from Project Syndicate’s migration into three operating principles for digital publishers:

• Registration volume is a vanity metric without engagement: Amassing hundreds of thousands of registered emails is meaningless unless you build an active onboarding experience that keeps readers engaged during the critical first 30 to 90 days
• Understand your audience: Publishers must build flexible data infrastructures to track how their unique audience sample content, how often they return, and what roadblocks cause them to churn
• Fail fast: Cultivating an internal environment where teams feel safe running iterative product experiments, and knowing when to sunset unsuccessful tests, is essential to keeping pace with fast-changing user behaviour

The post Project Syndicate’s registration strategy: refreshing the value proposition to engage and convert appeared first on Audiencers.

At the Audiencers’ Festival in London, Ross Wilmot, Director of Reader Revenue at Broadsheet, shared how implementing a registration wall served as the cornerstone for a highly resilient digital subscription model. By transforming anonymous audiences into known, authenticated users, Broadsheet unlocked a powerful engagement framework that directly accelerated conversion rates.

After months of testing, Broadsheet found registration works best as a step before the paywall, building a direct relationship while readers are still deciding

> Registration selects for quality: Superfans register at 127 times the rate of casual Fly-bys, with 38% willingly authenticating

> Newsletters are the conversion engine: registered, newsletter-engaged readers hit the paywall 3.5 times per visitor against 0.1 for anonymous ones, a 35x difference

> The compounding effect: that cohort is 0.7% of the audience but drives 43% of all digital subscription conversions, an over-index of 61x. Direct offer emails to readers already warmed by daily editorial account for a further 18%

The strategy behind registration

To pave the way for their subscription model, Broadsheet deployed a registration wall in December 2025, strategically positioning it as an essential precursor to the full paywall, which followed on 21 April 2026, both built and launched using Poool. This sequential approach was designed to achieve several key outcomes:

• Accelerating conversion: By unlocking specific engagement features, the team could efficiently increase user exposure frequency to the upcoming paywall.
• Unlocking direct channels: Secure marketing permissions during the registration process to establish direct lines of communication, which heavily influences ultimate conversion.
• Setting the tone: Introducing a clear value exchange on the site, conditioning readers to understand that completing an action is required to access premium content, ensuring a smoother transition to a paid model.
• Boosting confidence: Confirming the audience’s willingness to complete an action built immense internal confidence within the company regarding the viability of the model.
• Guiding product strategy: Capturing known user identities allowed Broadsheet to develop personalised services tailored to specific reader needs.

Five key findings from Broadsheet’s registration data

Despite being in the early stages of the paywall rollout, Broadsheet data has already yielded critical insights regarding user behavior and the reader revenue funnel.

1. Registration captures high-quality readers

Broadsheet segments its audience into four distinct engagement cohorts based on monthly session frequency: 

• Fly-bys (1 session)
• Regular Readers (2–4 sessions)
• Engaged Regulars (5–9 sessions)
• Superfans (10+ sessions)

The data reveals that registration penetration rises sharply alongside engagement. Specifically, Superfans exhibit a registration rate 127 times higher than casual Fly-bys, with 38% of them willingly authenticating. This confirms that a registration wall successfully establishes a direct relationship with the most loyal segments of the audience, those with the highest propensity to buy a subscription in the future.

2. Newsletters initiate the conversion journey

Authentication acts as the primary gateway to newsletter adoption, which serves as a massive catalyst for paywall hits.

While registered users who actively engage with newsletters account for less than 1% of the total audience, they drive a staggering 7% of all paywall exposures. This means that this specific segment over-indexes for paywall hits by an impressive 10x, successfully drawing high-intent readers straight back into premium, monetisable touchpoints.

3. The newsletter is the core conversion engine

The daily newsletter serves as a continuous, automated nudge that repeatedly invites authenticated users back to the site, where they naturally encounter paywalled boundaries.

Registered users who are signed up for newsletters hit the paywall an average of 3.5 times per unique visitor, representing a 35x higher exposure rate compared to the average anonymous reader, who sits at a mere 0.1 exposures.

4. The compounding effect drives the majority of subscriptions

When high-intent audiences are paired with a high frequency of paywall exposures, the compounding effect generates the vast majority of subscriber growth.

The numbers paint a clear picture: the cohort of registered, newsletter-engaged users, which accounts for a tiny 0.7% fraction of the total audience, drives a disproportionate 43% of all digital subscription conversions. This equates to an extraordinary over-indexing factor of 61x. Registration hooks the high-intent reader, and the newsletter sequentially delivers the repeat paywall exposure required to close the sale.

5. Registration unlocks direct offer emails

The marketing permissions captured during the initial registration step open up a highly profitable parallel conversion path: direct offer emails.

By targeting prospects who are already kept warm by daily editorial newsletters, these high-impact, immediate sales emails successfully account for 18% of all subscription conversions.

The registration flywheel

The compounding dynamics of Broadsheet’s strategy form a self-sustaining lifecycle designed to maximise reader value:

1. Register: Capture invisible, anonymous readers via the registration wall to unlock the newsletter engine.
2. Engage: Deploy targeted newsletters to consistently return these authenticated readers back to paywalled content.
3. Expose: Systematically increase the frequency of paywall exposures over time.
4. Convert: Activate premium digital subscriptions through a combination of repeated paywall prompts and direct offer emails.

Next steps for Broadsheet

To refine the registration flywheel and further optimize conversion rates, Broadsheet is focusing on five core strategic enhancements:

• Refining analytics tracking: Adjusting internal analytics tracking frameworks to compile a completely transparent picture of user engagement metrics both immediately before and after registration
• Revamping user onboarding: Overhauling the initial post-registration onboarding flow to actively encourage the early adoption of editorial newsletters across the new database
• Introducing dynamic onsite experiences: Moving away from a static, one-size-fits-all approach to deliver tailored onsite journeys based on an individual’s specific engagement cohort
• Segmenting email campaigns: Categorising and filtering direct offer email campaigns to match the specific engagement levels of different user cohorts
• Continuous A/B testing: Initiating rigorous A/B testing variations directly on the registration wall interface to continuously optimize structural conversion efficiency

The post Broadsheet’s path from reader to subscriber: The registration flywheel in action appeared first on Audiencers.

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.

> Broadsheet Media treats advertising and subscription as complementary rather than competing, with engagement as the thread running through both

> Readers said they'd pay for quality content, but only bundled with things they couldn't get elsewhere: exhibition tickets, free coffee, and tools to curate their own Broadsheet experience

> Subscription isn't marketing's project. Broadsheet already ran 'Squads' against 90-day, one-year and three-year goals, so they formed a new audience monetization squad spanning editorial, product, data and CRM

> They launched registration ahead of the paywall, which built internal confidence before the subscription launch as much as it built the audience data

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

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

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.

> Les Coops de l'information, a cooperative of six Quebec news outlets, let readers name their own price for the first three months, timed to the 2025 municipal elections. Subscribers rose 4.2% in five weeks

> Against a $1 minimum, the average paid was $3.12 a month, and some new subscribers chose more than the regular subscription price

> The suggested figure in the price field did the work. Suggesting $5 lifted the average to $3.39 and suggesting $6 lifted it to $3.50, with more people simply taking the suggestion each time

> 84% of the new subscribers had never subscribed before, which is the number that matters most for a local publisher wondering whether it has exhausted its market

> Their own caveat is worth repeating: the resulting ARPU still came in below their fixed-price promotions and well below regular rates. Get stakeholder buy-in first, and manage expectations, including your own

“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. 

> Spektrum der Wissenschaft, a German science publisher, tested its way into segmentation rather than assuming it. Phase one was testing everything to prove segments behave differently, phase two was testing only where it mattered

> A free trial banner moved conversions far less than a blocking wall, in every group. On the wall itself, a single offer performed worst everywhere while three offers with a highlighted "Best Offer" won

> Switching Facebook referrals from formal "Sie" to informal "Du" nearly doubled click-through. Most segments also preferred shorter copy on the offer page, except print magazine subscribers, who converted better with more detail

> The device finding mattered more than the winning variant. "Unlock article now" beat "Continue reading with Spektrum+" on desktop for both clicks and purchases, but on mobile it lifted clicks and lowered purchases

> With a small team, they work in three to four month OKR cycles and accept the limits. As ecommerce manager Ann-Kristin Ebert puts it, "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.

Membership Growth Manager, Yana Zhuryk,  spoke at Audiencers’ Festival in Hamburg to share some of the relationship-building strategies that the Kyiv Independent uses to build a loyal, high-growth membership community.

You can access Yana’s full presentation at the bottom of this article.

Key takeaways to copy & share Copy

> The Kyiv Independent launched in November 2021, three months before Russia's full-scale invasion, and now has 27,000 paying members and 3 million monthly readers, with monthly churn at 1.64%

> They tested a polished promotional acquisition email against a personal one written by a team member. The personal version drove three times the conversions

> Membership is positioned as keeping journalism free for everyone rather than unlocking a paywall. Members submit questions the newsroom answers in articles, and the team replies to member emails within 24 hours

> Geotargeted appeals turn a global audience into neighbourhoods. One campaign challenged Swedish readers to overtake Danish ones as top per-capita supporters, and paying members can add a pin to a public map

> As membership growth manager Yana Zhuryk puts it: "Retention is not only about content. It is about responsiveness and presence"

1. Humanizing the newsroom

Instead of hiding behind a corporate brand, the Kyiv Independent puts its journalists at the center of its marketing. They understand that in an era of disinformation, trust is built between people, not institutions.

The “Authenticity Wins” email strategy: In late 2025, the team tested two types of acquisition emails. A polished, promotional version was pitted against a personal, storytelling email written by a team member. The personal version drove 3x more conversions and saw significantly higher open and click-through rates.

Visible experts: Field reporters like Francis Farrell are the “faces” of the brand, appearing in trench-side YouTube videos and personal newsletters that provide a “behind the scenes” look at reporting under fire.

2. Radical transparency and participation

The Kyiv Independent invites its members into the newsroom’s journey, making them feel like stakeholders in the mission of independent journalism.

Participatory content: Through their “Our readers’ questions” series, members can submit questions that the editorial team then answers in dedicated articles.

A “No-Paywall” community mission: They position membership not as a key to a locked door, but as a way to keep information free for everyone. This value-aligned positioning resonates deeply with their core audience. However, the team doesn’t shy away from campaigns to acquire new members

Direct interaction: The team maintains a Discord community for real-time engagement and commits to answering member emails within 24 hours.

3. Hyper-local geotargeting

Rather than a one-size-fits-all global appeal, they use geotargeted campaigns to create a “neighborhood” feel within their global audience.

Customized appeals: They create country-specific CTAs, such as challenging Swedes to overtake Danes as the top per-capita supporters.

Some of these are built in the Poool Dashboard and targeted based on the user’s location and level of engagement.

Interactive community maps: Paying members can add a pin to a digital map, visually demonstrating the global scale of the collective effort.

Relationships at the heart of the business model

The success of the Kyiv Independent offers a powerful blueprint for the future of sustainable publishing. By achieving a 25,000-member milestone by the end of 2025, they proved that even in a climate of “news fatigue,” audiences will show up for a brand that shows up for them. Their journey suggests that the most valuable metric isn’t just how many people read a story, but how many feel a personal stake in the newsroom’s survival. 

As Yana notes: “Retention is not only about content. It is about responsiveness and presence”. For publishers looking to thrive in 2026 and beyond, the lesson is clear: building a loyal community isn’t a marketing side-project, it’s the foundation of the business itself.

Find Yana’s slides (39-49), part of the “Community-building” panel, from our Hamburg Festival here:

ViewDownload

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