Foreign Policy re-launched its paywall back in 2018 which was initially fairly open. But with increasingly more buy-in internally on the value of this model, the paywall model has tightened over time. Today, 50% of revenue is from digital subscriptions.
I spoke to Corinne Osnos, VP Subscriptions and Marketing at Foreign Policy, about how they divide content into free vs premium, some of the tests they’re running to better answer this question and the set up internally for ensuring every team is working towards optimizing for their digital subscription model.
A council approach to subscriptions, because “nothing is happening in isolation”
“We’re a small subscriptions team, but thanks to our council approach, we’re very intertwined with product and editorial, covering the entire funnel, from bottom of the funnel acquisition to final touch point conversion, price testing, email marketing, etc.
This is essential for us as nothing is happening in isolation.
As for editorial, they’re incredibly engaged in supporting our subscription goal. They’re invested in understanding what subscribers are reading, how it’s impacting conversions… It gets them excited! They have a lot of trust in this model, which means they want to be a part of the strategy. To maintain this connection, we have a very open, conversational approach to collaborating, with a slack channel and meetings on a monthly / bi-monthly basis to discuss strategy, what’s succeeded / what hasn’t, why we think that is, etc. with the goal of guiding their work and KPIs around that.
Especially since implementing a hard paywall model, a council approach has been incredibly valuable for making sure everyone understands the changes, why we’re testing this model and how it’s benefiting the overall business model.”
Continuous testing for an optimized subscription model
“Over the summer, we decided to run our largest experiment yet, this time based on the user, whereby a randomized 50% of the audience was not eligible for the first free page view. The result was 3x as many subscriptions from the hardwall cohort, and we were able to sell 5x as many longer term subscriptions, which suggests LTV will be better from the hard wall.
If these results could continue, that would be ideal! But the crucial question we’re asking now is whether we just had a lot of people sitting on the fence, and we simply pushed them with the hard wall? Or maybe there were a few particularly successful pieces during that time? Or maybe these results will continue?
Only testing and time will tell!
But this was just a test – we don’t want to only be catering to the bottom of the funnel, we need to think about exceptions to the rule.”
FP’s current subscription model
“The current strategy being tested is that 25% of articles are exempted from the hardwall, with a metered model instead, then 75% hardwalled during the first 7 days.
Segmenting by publish date is the test we’re currently running: if the article was published within 7 days, then it’s hardwalled. After, it’s eligible for a standard meter.
We also break out certain cohorts based on subscription propensity.
For instance, those with high search intent on search engines and churned subscribers are hardwalled because of high likelihood to subscribe, whilst social referrals have a registration wall and free page view because of low likelihood to subscribe. Conversion rate on the registration wall is 100x greater than for subscription, which is useful for us to collect email addresses, our strongest conversion driver.
We also have easy-to-share gift links and downloadable PDFs to help non-subscribers discover our premium offer, utilizing brand advocates (subscribers) to help us grow the top of the funnel.
Finally, we’re testing other exceptions to the hard wall that can be directly managed by editorial in collaboration with the subscriptions marketing team. Reasons to exempt may include author sensitivities, the likelihood a piece will convert, regional preferences, and more. But this is limited to 25% of what’s published each week.”
Which KPIs do you use to measure audience engagement on an article?
- General page views, subscriber page views
- Average engagement time
- Traffic conversion rate
- Bounce rate
KPIs for the success of a premium article?
- Traffic conversion rate
- Subscriber engagement
- Subscription conversions (volume)
- Subscription turnover (revenue)
