Kicking off the eighth INMA Media Subscriptions Summit in Amsterdam on Wednesday, INMA Readers First Initiative Lead Greg Piechota asked: “What kind of an era is it?”

The answer might be more hopeful than you think.

Both this year and the year prior have been eventful for the world — and for journalists. With so much going on the demand for online news has increased as well, especially around the U.S. elections.

Subscriber-oriented news media saw on average a steady growth of 11%. This growth is not an anomaly but a trend that has continued since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Smart tactics, proven by data

What news media tactics are going to make these subscribers stay and generate revenue? Piechota shared insights rooted INMA benchmarking data, highlighing four different tactics that have been successful for news media companies around the world.

1. Two paths to Rome: There are two ways to achieve the most profit in the subscriber model in news media, according to the data from 2024: volume-first approach and revenue-first approach. The volume-first approach means producing a lot of content for a lower price. The revenue-first approach on the other hand is focused on quality, interesting pieces with higher subscription rates.

2. Smart paywalls: Smart paywalls function based on AI and use the consumer’s behaviour to determine the best time and method to ask them to pay for content — if it thinks they are likely to pay at all. This saves the marketing team time and is very effective — so much so that 22% of news brands say they use hybrid/dynamic/smart paywalls and 38% of members say they are working on/or planning to implement them. The reason for the popularity of this new tool is it maximises conversion of consumers into subscribers, reader and ad revenue, and realised prices.

3. Personalisation: Similar to smart paywalls, the personalisation of prices is based on the engagement of each individual. The logic behind this is that getting someone to stay as a subscriber at a lower price is cheaper than finding a brand new person and convincing them to become one.

4. Bundling: Analysis shows bundling was the single most profitable tactic of 2024. It drives revenue with retention, not price. An analysis of The New York Times' All-Access bundle shows that half of the subscribers upgraded to the bundle since 2023, even when they pay more for it. This also improved engagement to the point of 20% difference, measured weekly. Also, it provided a longer commitment to the medium. Research showed that the subscriber lifetime, measured in months, has increased by 20% with the bundle.

North America missed its turn to shine

Users flocked to online media in the third quarter in North America. The number of monthly users increased by around 30% compared to the second quarter.

The U.S. presidential elections are possibly the reason behind this. However, news media comapnies did not manage to acquire more consumers.

Why is that? Piechota suggested the election resonated less with the public; 71% of newspapers did not endorse a candidate and there has been fewer casual users which has been going on since 2023.

To prevent what happened in North America, it might be useful to go back to the core of news funding, Piechota said.

Consumers are the primary customers of most news publishers. In fact, 49% of revenue in 2023 was from consumers. The other source is advertisements (40%). Users fund two-thirds of all media. These people are visiting the newspages as subscribers (83%) and only less than one-fifth (17%) are people who buy a single item.

People subscribe to ideas but stay for habits

The most effective driver of getting someone to subscribe to a news medium is to highlight that this is a time of crisis for the world as well as the news media, and financial help from people is crucial to keep the independent watchdog role of journalism alive.

People are motivated to pay for online news if they view the content as good quality and distinct from what the other media offer.

However, if people are not happy, they do not hesitate to cancel their subscriptions. This is often not the complete end to their commitment to the medium, as usually subscribers tend to come back and potentially cancel again later.

What’s on the horizon?

Several things can be seen as the next big thing in journalism.

Amongst them, Piechota cited the Spotify of news in the form of a super bundle, like the one offered by Norwegian outlet Amedia or by AI agents, which can take on the analyses and content creation so journalists have time to focus on the distinctive content that makes consumers love the medium.

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