A clear theme emerged across five days of discussions at the INMA Media Subscriptions Summit in Toronto last week: The future of digital subscriptions may depend less on reaching the largest possible audience and more on serving the most engaged readers.

Publishers increasingly refer to these audiences as “super users” — readers who visit frequently, consume large volumes of journalism, and often become paying subscribers. These readers also generate significant advertising value through the volume of content they consume and the time they spend with news brands.

Across the week’s study tour, conference sessions, and seminar workshops, speakers repeatedly highlighted how a relatively small share of readers can generate a disproportionate share of engagement and revenue.

A small audience generating outsized value

INMA Researcher-in-Residence Greg Piechota, who curated the week, presented data to the 223 attendees showing just how concentrated audience value has become across the news industry. For the top 25% of brands, subscribers generate 41% of pageviews. 

The concentration becomes even more striking when revenue is measured at the individual user level, he said. 

“One of our members, Clarín in Argentina, actually attributed revenues to each and every user… 1 percent of users… generate 72% of total revenue from subscriptions and from advertising.”

The findings illustrate how highly engaged readers can simultaneously drive both advertising and reader revenue. Their frequent visits generate pageviews and time spent while their loyalty increases the likelihood of subscriptions and retention.

For publishers, the implication is clear: The audiences most committed to the brand often produce the greatest economic value.

Audience insight helps identify valuable readers

Understanding these audiences requires strong collaboration between editorial, product, and audience teams.

Audience strategy expert Hannah Poferl, chief data officer at Universal Music Group and former chief data officer and head of news at The New York Times, discussed the growing importance of audience insights in shaping newsroom strategy.

“Audience growth is more than a business imperative,” she said. “Audience amplifies impact.”

Audience teams play a key role in helping news organisations interpret reader behaviour, Poferl explained: “They are often the ones clarifying and finding and translating demand to their editorial teams.”

By analysing audience behaviour, these teams help editors understand which stories resonate most strongly with readers and where opportunities exist to deepen engagement.

From super users to dynamic paywalls

The concentration of audience value described by Piechota also explains why many news publishers are redesigning their subscription funnels around engagement signals.

Readers who visit frequently and consume large amounts of journalism represent the audiences most likely to subscribe. As a result, many publishers are building systems that identify these readers earlier in the audience journey.

Dynamic paywalls have become one of the primary tools for doing so. Rather than applying identical rules to every visitor, these systems analyse behavioural signals — such as recency, frequency, and depth of reading — to determine when to present subscription offers.

Seminar sessions during the summit highlighted how engagement segmentation can help identify these audiences: “Your loyals and lovers … are so critically important for subscription optimisation,” said Matthew Bain, senior customer success manager at Marfeel, which sponsored the seminar. “By focusing on specifically on those super loyal readers, you’re obviously going to help fuel the dynamic paywall, help boost your subscriptions.” 

These segments represent readers who visit frequently and demonstrate strong engagement patterns with the brand’s journalism. Prioritising these readers can strengthen subscription strategies.

Super users become advocates for journalism

Another insight discussed during the summit was how highly engaged audiences often become advocates for news brands by sharing journalism with others.

Poferl emphasised the importance of understanding how audiences interact with journalism and translating those insights into newsroom strategy. That understanding increasingly extends beyond what readers consume to how they help distribute journalism.

Publishers are now designing product features that encourage loyal readers to share articles with friends, family, and online communities.

Claudio Cabrera, vice president of newsroom strategy and audience at The Athletic, described how article-sharing tools allow subscribers to distribute journalism to people outside the publication’s subscriber base.

“A subscriber gets to have 10 articles a month or they can share it with whatever audience they want to share it with,” Cabrera said.

The feature allows readers to introduce new audiences to the publication’s journalism: “It gives us an opportunity to reach people who may not be introduced to the product.”

These types of sharing tools can turn highly engaged readers into powerful distribution channels for journalism, extending the reach of news organisations beyond their existing audiences.

Case studies show how publishers identify and serve super users

Examples shared throughout the summit illustrated how companies are operationalising the super user strategy.

One seminar presentation demonstrated how engagement metrics can guide editorial and subscription decisions. Using a behavioural metric known as RFV — which measures recency, frequency, and volume — publishers can identify which stories generate the strongest loyalty signal among readers. Those insights help newsrooms prioritise the content most likely to engage loyal audiences.

At MediaNews Group in the United States, for example, loyalty data is used to guide both editorial strategy and subscription prompts.

Other sessions described similar approaches to understanding reader engagement. Engagement at the Financial Times is measured using behavioural signals that track how often readers return to the site and how deeply they engage with its journalism. An executive called RFV FT’s “our core compound metric.”

These signals allow publishers to personalise subscription messaging and prioritise audiences demonstrating strong engagement patterns.

Building deeper relationships with readers

Engagement can also deepen the relationship between journalists and their audiences.

During the study tour visit to The Globe and Mail in Toronto, Lindsey Lowy, senior director of marketing and audience, described how involving readers more directly in journalism can strengthen loyalty among highly engaged audiences.

“The more that we can bring them into our reporting, the better our reporting will be and the more invested they are in our product and our mission,” Lowy said.

Initiatives that encourage participation — whether through reader conversations, feedback, or community-driven storytelling — can deepen relationships with the publication’s most loyal readers. Those highly engaged audiences are often the same readers who return most frequently, subscribe at higher rates, and help extend the reach of journalism by sharing content with others.

These initiatives — which can include reader discussions, events, and other forms of participation — help strengthen the connection between audiences and the journalism they support.

A strategic shift toward engagement

The discussions in Toronto suggest the next phase of digital subscription growth will depend less on maximising traffic and more on deepening engagement with loyal readers.

Super users — readers who visit frequently, engage deeply with journalism, and often advocate for news brands — represent the audiences most likely to sustain subscription businesses.

For publishers navigating an evolving digital landscape, identifying and serving these readers may prove to be one of the most important strategies for sustainable growth.

As the INMA summit made clear, the future of reader revenue may depend not on reaching the largest possible audience, but on strengthening relationships with the readers who value journalism the most.

Photos by Robert Downs Photography.

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