Bridging the gap between fast-moving newsrooms and strategic marketing is a challenge for all media organisations. Stuff Group found a way to align these different paces, resulting in increased digital engagement, reduced churn, and subscription growth.

We call it marketing at the speed of the news cycle.

Our editorial teams move fast. Real fast. Our marketing team? They like to plan; strategically and methodically building cohesive, long-term campaigns.

That can be a difficult bridge to gap. But Stuff’s Masthead Publishing division — responsible for the group’s 30+ national, regional, and community digital and newspaper mastheads — knew if the two teams could align, it would be a game changer for subscriber acquisition, retention, and engagement.

Bridging the newsroom-marketing team gap

New Zealanders are known for their ingenuity and innovation, and at Stuff Group we work hard to drive solutions that are cross-functional, efficient, and highly effective.

To encourage collaboration and agility in our marketing campaigns, we embedded a member of the marketing team on the editorial floor to attend planning meetings and connect with the day-to-day news cycle. This allowed the marketing team to keep pace and amplify our mastheads’ most compelling stories without disrupting the editorial workflow.

Key to audience and subscription growth for any news site is providing something that readers can’t find on other (free or paid) sites and building a direct audience. When we considered how to build our brand, we wanted to put content at the heart of our messaging, elevating and building awareness using the kind of content that reflects our unique role in the communities we serve.

All this didn’t mean the marketing team stopped planning though. They worked with editors to identify content pillars — such as investigative reporting, local government issues, political analysis, and cultural moments — as focal points for advertising efforts.

This ensured that campaigns resonated with broad audiences while amplifying messages that aligned with the news of the day.

After launching digital subscription news sites for our three largest daily newspapers (The Post, The Press, and Waikato Times) in 2023, we set out in 2024 to grow our subscriber base and retain and engage existing subscribers, using this innovative marketing method.

125% growth in digital subscriptions 

Stuff already has New Zealand’s No. 1 news brand in stuff.co.nz, and with The Post we’re boldly setting out to aim for the No. 2 spot, too.

Relaunched and repositioned in 2023, The Post is home to some of the country’s most highly regarded political, business, and economics reporters. It is a once-metropolitan newspaper in New Zealand’s capital of Wellington that is rapidly growing into a must-read national brand.

We needed a marketing campaign to establish The Post as New Zealand’s premier source of politics, business, and economic news, leveraging its unique position in the capital city to deliver news that shapes the nation.

By showcasing The Post’s authoritative journalism across multiple platforms, the campaign ensured audiences connected with its distinctive voice, in-depth analysis, and timely, impactful reporting.

Key campaign elements included:

• Real-time content amplification: Quickly adapting to promote breaking news and major editorial stories through digital ads, e-mail newsletters and social media.

• Integrated promotion: Social media teasers, e-mail newsletters, and site banners invited readers to “Have Your Say” on the issues that affected their daily lives, driving traffic to the articles and the commenting feature.

• Consistent branding: Advertising reflected the tone and quality of The Post’s journalism, creating a seamless experience for readers across platforms.

The results stunned even us. The campaign ran from February to December 2024, during which the total Web site audience for The Post grew by an average of 18% compared to the six months before the campaign launch.

Digital subscriptions followed suit, growing 125%. Overall growth in digital subscriptions, including print-entitled activation, increased by 121%, and recognised revenue more than doubled.

Reducing churn, increasing engagement 

We also employed our “marketing at the speed of the news cycle” strategy to engage and retain existing subscribers to The Post and our two other daily metropolitan masthead, The Press and Waikato Times.

Key elements of the campaign:

• Compelling content series: Dedicated editorial teams produced high-quality articles, investigative reports, and opinion pieces on topics of local and national importance. Each series served as a catalyst for public discourse, inviting readers to reflect, comment, and engage.

• Integrated promotion: Weekly editor newsletters prominently featured the content, while daily bulletin e-mails ensured a steady flow of content to subscribers, accompanied by clear calls to action, such as “Have Your Say” or “Read More Online.” Print ads and article pointers in newspapers directed readers to the digital platform, fostering further engagement. Social media teasers and on-site banners amplified visibility and encouraged participation, seamlessly connecting print and digital experiences.

We saw great results here, too. From February to December, print subscribers activating their digital entitlements grew by 86%, helping them to discover our digital environment and engage with more of our content.

Our Subscriber Net Promoter Score improved by nine points, digital subscriber churn decreased by two percentage points, and newsletter engagement exceeded 45% unique open rate and 3% unique click rate — well above industry benchmarks.

By aligning our editorial excellence with strategic marketing, we not only delivered a more engaging experience for our audiences, but measurable business results. It demonstrated the power of leveraging high-quality news content as the foundation of advertising to achieve both audience impact and measurable positive business results.

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