The ultimate case study list to inspire your reader revenue model

Topic Publisher Case study
Engagement DN Media 64,568 players, with more than half of them being new to DN > Read this case study
Engagement The New York Times Dopamine and the hook model > Read this case study
Engagement The New Yorker Monetizing this important engagement feature > Read this case study
Engagement The Independent Why this should be a key metric for engagement > Read this case study
Engagement Pamplonews Hyper-local news on WhatsApp > Read this case study
Engagement Condé Nast Growing the ‘happy middle’ of the audience funnel > Read this case study
Community Globe and Mail Live Q&As with journalists & call-outs for reader-led pieces > Read this case study
Community DER SPIEGEL Turning commenting into a debating feature > Read this case study
Community The Telegraph and The Times Developing a community beyond commenting > Read this case study
Community Daily Maverick Database of contactable readers and their expertise > Read this case study
Community The Guardian US Meeting underrepresented communities where they are > Read this case study
Community Financial Times, THECITY & Ryan Y. Kellett Reimagining journalism as a collaborative, community-driven practice > Read this case study
Newsletters The Washington Post 5 low-key ways to increase click-through rates in newsletters > Read this case study
Newsletters Infobae Building a portfolio of 40 newsletters > Read this case study
Newsletters Morning Brew Deep dive into their newsletter success > Read this case study
Newsletters The Telegraph and The Edinburgh Guardian How to make newsletters valuable in a reader revenue model > Read this case study
Newsletters The GIST A newsletter with over 650,000 subscribers > Read this case study
Newsletters 6AM City Tech stack, audience strategy and unit economics > Read this case study
Newsletters Reuters 5 essentials when A/B testing in your newsletter > Read this case study
Newsletters Toronto Star, BBC & Reuters Newsletters in the fight for sustainability > Read this case study
Newsletters Wirecutter How they shipped a personalized newsletter in 4 weeks > Read this case study
Newsletters The Economist The Substack newsletter experiment > Read this case study
Metrics & data DER SPIEGEL Engagement > Read this case study
Metrics & data Globo Engagement > Read this case study
Metrics & data Financial Times North Star > Read this case study
Metrics & data News UK Building a collaborative data culture > Read this case study
Young audiences The Wall Street Journal How to develop lasting relationships with young readers > Read this case study
Young audiences Young audiences funnel Mastering the Youth-Friendly Engagement Funnel for Media Brands > Read this case study
Young audiences Valuable Young Audiences report A new funnel for younger audiences > Read this case study
Young audiences Morning Crunch Lessons on acquiring and engaging young readers > Read this case study
Young audiences Les Echos The French publisher’s quest to reach new audiences > Read this case study
Young audiences Mediahuis Building a subscription product for young audiences > Read this case study
Support models The Guardian Understanding supporter motivations, testing the Epic (the “ask” module at the end of articles) and ways of framing donation vs subscription > Read this case study
Support models La Presse Advertising, philanthropy, and user engagement: How the non-profit La Presse generated $13 million net assets in 2023 > Read this case study
Registration Blick.ch 600k registrations through hiking, raffles, commenting and more > Read this case study
Registration Radio Canada How Meta’s news ban actually led Radio Canada to build a stronger strategy > Read this case study
Registration Bloomberg and Reworld Data, subscriptions and LTV thanks to registration > Read this case study
Registration Réussir group How registration came to be at the heart of Réussir’s subscription model > Read this case study
Registration OneLog A single account across Switzerland > Read this case study
Registration CBC, Graham Media and Toronto Star Registration success stories > Read this case study
Digital transformation Ringier The 5 R’s of digital transformation > Read this case study
Digital transformation Clarin The 5 secrets behind the most successful Spanish-language subscription > Read this case study
Digital transformation Les Coops d’Info From bankruptcy to digital transformation > Read this case study
Digital transformation NZZ Bridging newsroom and product with Alban Mazrekaj > Read this case study
Digital transformation Irish News How they’ve grown from a strong print legacy > Read this case study
Digital transformation IAMExpat Keeping audiences at the center when diversifying revenue > Read this case study
Conversion (paywalls) ELLE Magazine Launching a dynamic paywall whilst reducing impact on ads and traffic > Read this case study
Conversion (paywalls) ELLE Magazine 2 Contextualized paywalls based on the article subject > Read this case study
Conversion (paywalls) Foreign Policy Finding the balance between free and premium articles (conversion and engagement) > Read this case study
Conversion (paywalls) Jeune Afrique Double conversion rates with a dynamic paywall and subscription offers page > Read this case study
Conversion (paywalls) FAZ How FAZ is working to reach 300,000 digital subscribers by 2025 with dynamic paywall testing > Read this case study
Conversion (paywalls) Mediahuis Propensity modeling > Read this case study
Conversion (paywalls) L’Équipe Halving subscriber acquisition costs whilst increasing both attribution and last-click subscriptions > Read this case study
Conversion (paywalls) ZEIT ONLINE 4 learnings about paywall A/B testing > Read this case study
Subscriptions Le Monde Defining subscription pricing > Read this case study
Subscriptions Le Monde (bis) Testing and optimizing their subscriptions offers page > Read this case study
Subscriptions Scientific American Increasing acquisition with introductory pricing > Read this case study
Subscriptions The Atlantic Introducing group subscriptions > Read this case study
Subscriptions Maddyness A B2B lifetime offer > Read this case study
Subscriptions The Guardian Leveraging new audiences with a 12 for 12 campaign > Read this case study
Membership Daily Maverick Superpower database of contactable member ‘experts’ > Read this case study
Membership Daily Maverick (bis) Boosting membership conversion with a targeted Q&A mailer > Read this case study
Membership The Kyiv Independent 70% of revenues now from reader donation and membership > Read this case study
Membership Condé Nast Building membership as a tier above subscriptions, with up to 50x higher LTV > Read this case study
Onboarding The Economist How a print onboarding pack increased new subscriber engagement by 3.5% > Read this case study
Onboarding The Washington Post Unlocking subscriber lifetime value the power of personalized subscriber onboarding > Read this case study
Onboarding Le Parisien Launching a new on-site onboarding journey > Read this case study
Retention L’Équipe Strategies applied to limit churn amongst readers moving from a low-cost trial offer to the regular price > Read this case study
Retention Toronto Star Getting subscribers signed up to the newsletter > Read this case study
Retention DER SPIEGEL Identifying key engagement drivers to use in onboarding and subscriber engagement strategies > Read this case study
Retention Hearst US Understanding subscriber loyalty and churn risk > Read this case study
Retention Nat Geo Kids How transparency at cancellation wins beyond save rates > Read this case study
Retention The Telegraph Retaining subscribers with a killer mobile strategy > Read this case study
AI 5 AI use cases > Read this case study
AI Financial Times AI-powered story finding > Read this case study
AI Todo Jujuy How a local Argentine media outlet in the province of Jujuy integrated AI into their newsroom workflows to boost reach, innovation and sustainability > Read this case study
AI Aftonbladet Innovating with AI > Read this case study
AI Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger Medien Bringing AI to a 400 year old media group > Read this case study
AI DIE PRESSE AI and reader revenue > Read this case study
AI Nursing Times Creating premium experiences with AI (on-site search with AI) > Read this case study
AI Newslaundry Ask Birubala: Inside Newslaundry’s AI tool that frees up time and unlocks team growth > Read this case study
AI The Washington Post How they built “Ask The Post AI” > Read this case study
AI CT Insider Launching an audio briefing with AI > Read this case study
AI Financial Times Smarter discussion points thanks to AI-generated talking points at FT > Read this case study
AI NG Digital 80% of the homepage is now personalized and it’s changed everything > Read this case study
Audio & Video De Correspondent The move to paid podcasts, integrated with Spotify > Read this case study
Audio & Video Le Monde How Le Monde uses a synthetic voice to better engage audiences > Read this case study
Audio & Video BFM Building a mobile-first vertical video format in-house > Read this case study
UX Politico Revamping Politico.eu website > Read this case study
UX Le Parisien Le Parisien’s new homepage: optimizing editorial and conversion simultaneously > Read this case study
Apps Le Monde New mobile app to combat news avoidance and fatigue > Read this case study
Apps The Atlantic Bringing more value to readers and subscribers through the app > Read this case study
Apps Financial Times Lessons learnt from launching FT Edit > Read this case study
Apps The Guardian Relaunching the new Guardian app to match changing reader habits > Read this case study
Technology L’Express Migrating 1.2 million articles to a new CMS > Read this case study
Technology Bonnier How the customer centre at Bonnier News became a source of insight and the tools we used to achieve this > Read this case study
Technology Le Figaro How Le Figaro limits subscription password sharing > Read this case study

This piece has been written by Madeleine White