Winning the Young Ones
2026 Finalist
Media associated with this campaign
Overview of this campaign
The transition from print to digital has fundamentally changed how audiences discover and consume news. For younger generations, local journalism is no longer a default part of everyday life, but something they must actively choose — in a media landscape dominated by global platforms such as Meta, Spotify, and Netflix.
NTM’s local newsrooms faced a clear challenge: while the organization had a strong subscriber base, it was heavily skewed toward older generations. Younger audiences often had low awareness of local news brands, limited willingness to pay, and consumption habits shaped by social media and mobile platforms. To secure long-term sustainability, NTM needed to both reach younger audiences and create a meaningful first relationship with them.
The objective of this initiative was to bolster next-generation readership by lowering barriers to entry and meeting younger audiences where they already are, while maintaining trust, security, and long-term business viability.
A central part of the strategy was the launch of a new subscription package for readers under the age of 25. Unlike previous experiments with free trials, discounts, or student offers, this subscription was genuinely free until the reader turns 25 — with no time limits and no hidden conditions. The goal was to remove payment anxiety entirely and allow young readers to build habits around local journalism on their own terms.
This product initiative was supported by a broader ecosystem of efforts:
- Tailored onboarding journeys designed specifically for younger readers.
- A clear editorial focus on topics and storytelling formats that resonate with younger audiences. Changing KPI to solely measure engagement in young target group in all newsrooms.
- A major investment in Instagram and TikTok as discovery platforms.
- Close, unpretentious collaboration between newsrooms and the B2C team to align editorial content, marketing, and product design.
Together, these elements formed a coherent strategy focused on awareness, trust, engagement, and long-term conversion — rather than short-term subscription wins.
Results for this campaign
The initiative delivered strong and measurable results across audience growth, engagement, and business performance.
At the beginning of 2025, NTM had 34,240 subscribers under the age of 50. By the end of the year, that number had grown to 50,057, representing a 46% increase and nearly reaching the internal target of 52,500. This growth significantly outpaced overall subscriber development and demonstrated clear progress in strengthening next-generation readership.
The launch of the “Under 25” free subscription played a key role. Introduced as a pilot at two newsrooms in June 2025 and rolled out across all 16 titles in September, the initiative attracted 13,174 subscribers under the age of 25 by year’s end. Importantly, 90% of these subscribers had no prior relationship with NTM, confirming that the initiative reached a genuinely new audience. Only 3% had previously held a paid subscription, limiting cannibalization.
Engagement and discovery were driven by a strong social media strategy. Across NTM’s 16 newsrooms, Instagram followers increased by 43%, adding more than 80,000 new followers in 2025. One newsroom grew its Instagram audience by over 200%, while average reach per post increased by more than 180%, driven primarily by video-first storytelling and higher publishing frequency.
These audience gains translated into business impact. Digital subscriptions across all age groups grew from 125,132 to 151,802, surpassing the 2025 target of 150,000. Despite adding a large number of free subscribers, NTM exceeded its average revenue per user target by more than 10%, and digital reader revenue increased by 34%, reaching €21.8 million.
For the first time in many years, NTM also reversed a long-term decline in total subscribers. In 2025, total subscriptions — including print — increased by 3%, from 248,896 to 256,803.
Together, these results show that investing in next-generation readership can drive growth, engagement, and revenue — without sacrificing existing audiences or business stability.