Q: What is your subscriber acquisition strategy?
A: At Newsquest, our primary goal for digital subscriptions is to continue to grow the subscriber volumes in our chosen markets. Just before the new year, we hit our target of gaining 100k paying subscribers across 125 UK news brands. This was up from around 50k just two years’ ago. To achieve this, our strategy includes several key components, including pricing, marketing messaging and paywalls.
Pricing is one of the components we continuously test to find the sweet spot of value and affordability for our readers. Our aim is to ensure that our offerings are attractive while not devaluing our brands or content. It’s not easy to get it right and it also takes time to learn. Acquisition metrics quickly show initial price conversion. But to really understand whether the price is right, it’s necessary to wait to see what happens with retention. That can take a while!
Frequently changing our creative and messaging is also a key part of our marketing strategy. While the value proposition for our readers remains the same, we adapt the way we present that to them through our promotional campaigns. Our local brands will always be at the heart of the community, reporting trusted, local news. But, with some creativity, we can change our design and wording to freshen this up every few weeks. This allows us to keep the messaging alive and engaging. We’ve found this approach helps us to maintain momentum throughout the year. One thing we’ve worked hard on is ensuring the creative is still “on brand” for each news title. It is a challenge with the scale and pace we’re working to, but we believe worthwhile in the long run.
Paywall conversions are always a hot topic for subscription media. We, like many other publishers, are balancing our paywall stop-rate with ad revenue. We use a combination of freemium and metered models, where our best content is often behind a subscriber-only paywall and other content is metered. Currently the task of choosing the best content lies with the newsrooms, with guidance from the central team. We’ve clearly had some success with this approach.
Q: Where are you enjoying most success?
A: One advantage of manually controlling our paywalls are the insights we’ve gained into the types of content that drive local reader conversions. We’ve seen some success with news coverage that focuses on local football clubs, as well as court and crime stories. These topics are the cornerstone of local journalism, requiring the talent and determination of our staff to deliver exclusive content that our readers are eager to consume.
The Daily Echo, based in Southampton, is a great example of a local news site that is delivering coverage of these two topics to drive their subscription growth. In the last two years, their volumes have grown by more than 250%. In 2024, around 20% of subscriber article conversions came from their sports reporting — pre-season club exclusives were particularly good at generating new acquisitions. Similarly, 21% of article conversions came from their court reports, providing local content that can’t be found elsewhere.
Feeding insights back into the newsrooms has proved valuable too. We have seen some exciting results from a knowledge-sharing approach. As a central team, we are always keen to share the successes from one editorial team to another and enable them to learn from their peers. It also means that we are not alone in our campaign to grow subscriptions. We are together on this journey as a whole business.
Three top tips
- Test that your pricing is right for your market(s): This involves experimenting with different price points and monitoring the impact on subscriber acquisition and retention. By understanding what your audience is willing to pay, you can optimise your pricing strategy to maximise growth without devaluing your content.
- Find the right balance of paywall friction: Too much friction can deter potential subscribers, while too little may not provide enough incentive to subscribe. There’s also the factor of protecting ad revenue, if that’s pertinent to you. Regularly review and adjust the volumes and types of content that sit behind the paywall to ensure your acquisitions are flowing without causing harm elsewhere.
- Change up your promotional messaging and design frequently: Keeping your marketing campaigns fresh can help capture attention and drive conversions. Look out for any peaks in sales during your campaigns and work out how to repeat those moments often. Experiment with different creative approaches and messaging to see what resonates best with your audience.
Susanne and the other contributors took part in a ‘Subscriber Acquisition Special – Q&A’ webinar on Thursday, 22nd May 2025. You can watch a recording of the webinar by registering here.
This article was included in the Subscriber Acquisition Special, published by InPublishing in April 2025. Click here to see the other articles in this special feature.
