News publishers are expanding their offerings and leveraging their existing content in new ways to attract subscribers — and keep them.

“The New York Times in the latest financial report for the third quarter, they basically said 49% of their base decided to choose a bundle with cooking, crosswords and so on,” Greg Piechota, INMA Readers First Initiative lead, said. “So this really works and we also hear that people who use those bundles who use content from multiple products are more engaged than single product users.

Of course they pay extra so they generate higher revenue per user and also they churn less because they’re more engaged. So their whole lifetime value is higher.”

During the recent Subscriber Acquisition Master Class, presented by the Readers First Initiative, media leaders from The Telegraph, Denník N, and Nikkei shared how their companies are reducing churn and increasing subscriptions through their product offerings.

Puzzles boosts retention for The Telegraph

Puzzles have been a popular part of The Telegraph’s offerings for nearly a century, and today they have evolved into a subscription growth engine for the company. Jo Coughlin, general manager for puzzles, said puzzles fit in well with the company’s bundling strategy, adding value to subscription packages.

“We’ve found that digital subscribers who’ve bolted on a puzzles subscription saved 23% better than our standard digital pack at the point of renewal,” Coughlin said. “And if a subscriber has puzzles and a bonus subscription, they save 31%.”

Having products that can be sold separately or added into higher-priced subscription packs provides greater flexibility in how pricing is determined “and offers more levers for us to pull when saving subscribers,” she said.

“Telegraph Puzzles is a digital subscription product offering daily access to crosswords and number puzzles,” Coughlin explained. Launched in August 2022, it was included in the higher priced digital plus subscription and is available to digital subscribers as an add-on. Today, it is the company’s most successful standalone product.

In addition to legacy puzzle projects, the Telegraph extended its range of crosswords and number puzzles by creating new games. Most recently, it launched a beta version of a new game called Sorted, which she said will be on the app soon. The trivia game requires players to put the correct answers in order, Coughlin said: “It pushes our portfolio a little wider, makes it a little bit more accessible to new audiences.”

Denník N convert “news junkies” with breaking news feed

Denník N in Slovakia does two things and they do them really well: long-form stories and super-short breaking news.

Denník N’s super-short minute-by-minute breaking news feed appears on its homepage, and it is proving to be a very successful strategy, Veronkia Munk, director of innovation and new markets, said. It brings value to customers who believe they will learn the basics of what they need to know on a lot of topics by reading the minute by minute feed. Many times the reader wants to learn more about highly engaging topics and the link directs them to articles behind a paywall.

“Sometimes we separate one paywalled article to three or four different posts in this newsfeed, so there are three or four occasions for someone to convert from minute by minute to our paid service,” Munk said. “In journalism there is this basic rule that every article needs to deal with the 5 W’s. Minute by minute concentrates on the what, when, and who and answers these questions, but the whys and the hows our audience can find out from our long forms.”

One key takeaway Denník N has from this strategy is that separating the newsfeed gave them much longer-lasting visits.

“Therefore we can repeat and offer our several products for these new audiences that come for the free product,” Munk said. “Since they’re usually news junkies, they will convert if they find something that they think is worth paying for.”

Nikkei boosts retention with a family plan

Nikkei in Japan has been focused on growing its subscription portfolio and improving customer retention through its premium bundles, Norihiko Sawa, principal research engineer, said.

One of the most impactful strategies Nikkei has implemented is the introduction of the Family Prime subscription plan. Launched in November 2023, this plan allows one subscription to be shared across multiple family members. Sawa explained that the family-oriented bundle is designed to replicate the communal subscription models seen in traditional print media, where newspapers were often shared within households. By offering digital access to multiple users under a single plan, Nikkei hopes to increase its market reach and reduce subscriber churn.

Sawa shared that about 15 to 20% of Nikkei subscribers were already sharing their individual accounts with family members before the Family Prime model was introduced. By formalising this practice with the Family Prime plan, Nikkei could capture this demand while offering added value to subscribers. Sawa said that this approach not only boosts subscriptions but also improves retention: “We saw lower churn rates with shared Nikkei.com accounts. Subscribers are more likely to maintain their subscriptions if family members are also included in the plan.”

Family Prime offering, which has now become one of the company’s most profitable products. According to Sawa, Nikkei added around 10,000 subscribers in the first few months, achieving a remarkably low churn rate.

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