A master class in bundling from NYTimes and Amedia

By Greg Piechota

INMA

Oxford, United Kingdom

Connect   

Today, I will dive into bundling economics and lay out the three design principles for successful bundles.

If you have questions or suggestions, e-mail me at greg.piechota@inma.org or meet me at a free online Webinar featuring subscription expert Robbie Kellman Baxter on February 19.

Bundling economics at The New York Times and Amedia

All-access bundle subscribers have up to 26 times larger average lifetime value for a news publisher than customers of single products. This is driven by dramatically lower churn rather than a much higher price.

My comparative analysis of two very different companies — The New York Times and Amedia, a local news publisher in Norway — reveals a compelling business case for bundling:

  • Superior engagement leading to substantial retention gains.

  • Huge lifetime value boost despite small ARPU differences.

  • Massive total revenue share even from a smaller slice of subscribers.

Higher subscription revenue unlocks further investment in journalism, marketing, and innovative products, making bundling a key pathway to news media sustainability.

This analysis is based on bits of data shared by The New York Times Company in its financial reports and by an Amedia executive’s presentation at an INMA master class. 

When missing data points, I used benchmarks from INMA as a proxy for normal performance. Calculations are mine and were not reviewed by the respective companies.

Business case for The New York Times: Since 2022, The New York Times has been pursuing aggressive bundling of its core news product with specialised content verticals like Games, Cooking, and The Athletic:

  • ARPU advantage: The average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) for bundle subscribers was US$12.35, which is 7% higher than US$11.48 for news-only subscribers and 244% higher than US$3.59 for other single-product subscribers.

  • Higher engagement, reduced churn: The Times reported roughly 10 to 20 percentage points increase in weekly engagement rates and 40% lower monthly churn rate for bundle subscribers. Using INMA Subscription Benchmarks as a proxy for normal churn, I estimated that bundling extended the survival of an average subscriber by 20 months, or 69%, to 49 months.

  • Lifetime value multiplier: A longer paid relationship boosts its value as an average bundle customer generates an estimated 79% more revenue for The Times than a news-only subscriber (US$605 vs. US$338) and 470% more revenue than a subscriber to other single products (US$106). 

  • Revenue dominance: At The Times’ scale, these metrics translate into a robust revenue stream. As of Q3 2024, bundle subscribers accounted for nearly half (49%) of its digital-only base of 10.5 million yet pulled in nearly two thirds (64%) of US$322 million in digital subscription revenue.

Business case for Amedia: Norwegian publisher Amedia, with 127 owned or partnering local news sites, offers an even more dramatic case for bundling.

As a subscriber to “+Alt” bundle launched in 2020, one gets access to all local services plus a sports streaming service for only 11% higher monthly rate than for a single local site (NOK 299 vs. NOK 269, or US$26.50 vs. US$23.80).

  • Stunningly high adoption: As of Q2 2024, 75% of Amedia’s 556,000 digital-only subscribers had upgraded to the bundle; 60% of the bundle subscribers read content from other titles weekly and 41% daily. 

  • Sharp retention lift: Reported monthly churn rates for the engaged bundle subscribers and casual single-brand subscribers differ enormously — 0.7% vs. 16.4% — extending the average survival rate to almost 12 years from merely six months (sic!).

  • Lifetime value leap: This is where the Amedia bundle truly shines. The huge lift in retention translates into a staggering 26 times higher subscriber lifetime value (estimated NOK 42,700 vs. NOK 1,640). 

Amedia’s success demonstrates that bundling isn’t just for global or national giants like The New York Times. Local and regional groups can also leverage this tactic to build a more loyal and valuable subscriber base.

Growth through bundling: While structure of the bundles and execution details vary between publishers and markets, the fundamental economics of bundling appears consistent. 

Multi-product bundles create more opportunities for readers to engage with journalism or other content, leading to higher usage and deeper loyalty.

My analysis underscores the power of even a modest price premium if accompanied by significantly lower churn. 

According to my research for INMA, bundling joins the quartet of discounted and long trials, intelligent paywalls, and targeted price increases at renewal as the most profitable and proven tactics in news subscription marketing.

Interested in the math behind this analysis? E-mail me at greg.piechota@inma.org

3 critical design features of successful subscription bundles

Bundling is not about throwing a bunch of products together and hoping for the best. Three key elements determine the bundle’s success: product mix, subscriber experience, and content discovery.

The list is based on academic research on digital goods economics and my analysis of multi-product bundles offered by the world’s leading publishers such as Agora, Amedia, Bonnier, DPG Media, Dow Jones, Mediahuis, New York Times, Ringier Axel Springer, and Schibsted:

  • Product mix, or what you bundle, aims at increasing the perceived value of a subscription and adding reasons to engage with the brand more. 

  • Subscriber experience, or how you buy and access the bundle, drives adoption.

  • Content discovery, or how you navigate around the bundle, drives actual usage and retention.

Let’s analyse these three one by one.

Product mix: Assume I value general news content more than sports, and you value sports more than other news. The larger the difference between our willingness to pay, the bigger trouble publishers have in pricing the two verticals to maximise customers and revenue.

Economists found bundling might reduce the differences in willingness to pay across consumers, allowing companies to sell the two products to us both with just one price. 

Studies also showed the more products in a package and the more dispersed demand for them, the stronger the benefit of bundling for consumers and companies. 

The big question is: How do you assemble the right mix of complementary products? 

  • Build around user needs, as The New York Times did — bundling news for staying informed, with games for entertainment, and cooking recipes for lifestyle. 

  • Build around geography, as Norway’s Amedia did — bundling the news from where you live, with news from where you work, and news from where you grew up. 

  • Build around communities, as both companies did — featuring passion-driven sports products aimed at fans, such as the Athletic and Direktesport. 

The next big question is: How do you grow the bundle?

  • You can build: Developing products in-house, like The Times did with Games and Cooking, offers control but requires significant time, investment, and effort.

  • You can buy: Acquiring existing products, such as The Times’ purchase of The Athletic, can accelerate growth but comes with a hefty price tag.

  • You can borrow: Partnering with other publishers allows for expansion with less financial risk and faster time to market. 

The Times’ collaborations with Corriere della Sera in Italy or Politiken in Denmark and its exploration of bundling with smaller U.S. publishers like The Ankler highlight the last path forward.

Similar initiatives are gaining traction in Germany, with the “Alles.Plus” collaboration between national and regional brands such as Der Spiegel and Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.

An experimental study in Germany showed the strongest potential demand for comprehensive, all-you-can-eat bundles. Packages of one national and one local brand came second.

Market simulations suggested the introduction of a comprehensive bundle would potentially grow the total number of digital subscriptions in Germany by 41% and the digital revenue of publishers by 10%.

A comprehensive bundle was found most appealing to otherwise hard to reach consumer segments, such as people younger than 30, or people living in rural areas, or those who distrust the media.

Subscriber experience: A great product mix can be undermined by a clunky user experience at checkout or login. This is hard to fix when dealing with external partners who usually have different sign-on, subscription management, and payment systems:

  • Vouchers: The Times and some German publishers have used vouchers to grant access or discounts to partner products. Claiming vouchers and using separate logins can be cumbersome for readers. But it is cheap and fast for publishers, and it helps partners maintain brand autonomy and each owns their part of the customer relationship.

  • Single sign-on: A more seamless solution is a single sign-on system, which allows users to access multiple products with one login. This is easier for large media groups like Bonnier, Mediahuis, and Schibsted, which bundled their own portfolios only. Executives told INMA the integrated tech stack was key to make bundling work seamlessly.

  • Alliances and vendors: Initiatives like OneLog in Switzerland, a collaborative single sign-on platform developed by Swiss media firms, inspire a potential pathway for frictionless cross-publisher bundles. If not alliances, subscription software vendors may also solve this for multiple customers, as they have already started adding support for bundles. 

Content discovery: The financial success of a bundle depends on sustained engagement across separate products and improved retention. 

Both Amedia and The Times recognised this early, investing in content discovery tools and interfaces. They chose different paths: Amedia built a new aggregation app, while The Times added aggregation to its hero app:

  • Amedia’s stand-alone aggregator: In 2023, Amedia launched a separate app Alt specifically designed to help subscribers discover content across 100+ local news brands. The app, Web site widgets, and newsletters resulted in 60% of all bundle subscribers discovering content outside their core product weekly.

  • The Times’ integrated aggregator: In 2024, the Times invested heavily in its app to improve content discovery across its various verticals, available now with an easy swipe. Together with other channels, the app secured a 10 to 20 percentage point higher weekly usage by bundle subscribers as compared to news-only customers.

A multi-product discovery programme may include new metrics and goals (e.g., breadth of engagement), new product features (e.g., redesigned home pages), and new marketing tools (e.g., multi-product onboarding).

For cross-publisher bundles, content discovery is the toughest nut to crack, so it is often skipped. Practitioners from the video and music streaming sector, such as Globoplay in Brazil, Netflix, and Spotify told INMA that a single interface, aggregated library and personalised recommendations were key to their bundles’ success.

Design matters: Creating a successful subscription bundle is more than just a pricing strategy; it’s a design challenge. 

Whether you’re building new products, buying existing brands, or partnering with others, make sure you have a plan for how customers buy, log in, and discover all that your bundle offers.

The evidence from market leaders suggests getting these three elements right is required for the bundle economics to play out.

Hungry for bundling insights? INMA Media Subscriptions Summit in Amsterdam in March features case studies of Condé Nast, Dow Jones, DPG Media, Mediahuis, Newsquest, The Pioneer, Schibsted, and Der Spiegel. 

Next in the Readers First Initiative

About this newsletter

Today’s newsletter is written by Grzegorz “Greg” Piechota, INMA’s researcher-in-residence and lead for the Readers First Initiative. In his newsletters, Greg shares original research, analysis, and best practices in growing reader revenue.

E-mail Greg at greg.piechota@inma.org, message him on Slack, or meet him at a free online Webinar on February 19.

SUBSCRIBE TO THIS NEWSLETTER
By continuing to browse or by clicking “ACCEPT,” you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance your site experience. To learn more about how we use cookies, please see our privacy policy.
x

I ACCEPT