From humble beginnings with one daily newsletter and a podcast to 40,000 subscription members and their very own boat, the story of news media startup The Pioneer is certainly unique.

During INMA’s recent Media Innovation Week in Antwerp, Moritz Klein, head of memberships at at the Berlin-based news media company, explained how the startup has grown, the evolution of its subscription offerings, and what exactly a boat has to do with journalism.

One price, one membership option

The Pioneer was founded by well-known German journalist Gabor Steingart in 2018, offering one daily newsletter and one daily podcast for free. The company grew steadily, spawning many different initiatives and products before eventually streamlining its offerings and introducing a new pricing structure at the end of 2022.

Today The Pioneer offers two free products: revamped versions of the original newsletter and a podcast. The daily newsletter has a reach of more than 250,000 recipients and the podcast has more than four million plays per month. The company uses these to cross-promote their other products such as its WorldBriefing podcast with the former vice chancellor of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel. Its journalism focuses on business, economics, and politics for a highly educated reader base.

The Pioneer now offers one membership option that includes all its products at €25 per month. It’s a successful model for them with subscriptions reaching 40,000 in July 2023. Klein likened it to a Netflix subscription with the success lying in its simplicity. It’s an understanding that The Pioneer has arrived at based on the failure of prior subscription offerings, which provided consumers with eight different subscription choices. 

“We lost so many people,” Klein said. “Now we have one offer. You cannot choose. You hit the paywall and the only thing you can do is become a member.”

The Pioneer also offers an introductory pricing model: three months for €3. “Willingness to pay is not that high in general but especially in Germany, so we need to set the bar to jump over as low as possible.” 

Klein advised testing different pricing models to see what works best: “You need to challenge and retest these things.” 

He offered the following insights on The Pioneer’s subscription journey:

• They have tested introductory offers at €2 for two months and €1 for one month finding retention to be more or less the same.

• They have also changed their pricing structure from €25 per month to €25 for four weeks. There was no drop in memberships, and it resulted in a better financial outcome.

• The wording of the pricing has an impact: “We write €6.25 euros per week for four weeks. This has helped subscriptions,” Klein said. 

Membership retention onboard The Pioneer One

“I think you just want me to talk about the boat,” joked Klein at the beginning of his presentation (and he wasn’t wrong — attendees loved the project). The Pioneer One is certainly a novelty part of the brand, but what does it have to do with journalism?

Building of The Pioneer One finished in 2020, and the boat was launched along with the news company’s brand and membership options. 

The boat has three purposes, Klein explained:

• It is the place of production for all journalism. All interviews and podcasts are recorded and produced on the boat.

• It’s home to The Pioneer’s live journalism. Staff can transform the newsroom into an event location within 30 minutes, allowing guests to come onboard and participate in events. “We wanted journalism to be more participative.”

• It’s all part of the brand identity. “The ship is part of our symbol and mission.”

The concept is key to building The Pioneer’s membership base, Klein said. Only members have the chance to buy tickets for onboard events, but multiple tickets can be bought allowing members to bring their friends to events: “The members never leave. When they’re on the ship, they don’t quit. They bring subscribers in.”

The news company has used the ship to travel Germany: “Everywhere the Rhine goes, we can go.” Its success has led to the addition of a bus to get to further locations that are inaccessible to the ship. The company is now building a second boat, The Pioneer Two: “The future is floating.”

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