Seminars

7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.

Registration and networking: Steam Whistle Brewing company, Pilsner hall

Steam Whistle Brewing, The Roundhouse - 255 Bremner Boulevard

Start your third day at the Media Subscriptions Summit with coffee, tea, and morning snacks. Meet fellow delegates, connect with INMA speakers and industry partners, and set the tone for a focused, hands-on day of learning.

8:30 a.m. – 9:40 a.m.

Seminars 1–2 (parallel sessions)

Seminar 1: The future of paywalls with FT Strategies: From soft to dynamic

Locomotive Hall, Steam Whistle Brewing, The Roundhouse - 255 Bremner Boulevard

As publishers move beyond one-size-fits-all paywalls, strategic choices become as important as technology. This seminar explores how leading news organisations decide when and how to evolve paywalls — from soft and metered models to smart and dynamic approaches — using clear decision frameworks grounded in real-world cases. Led by FT Strategies, the session combines strategic thinking with implementation lessons, highlighting what worked, what failed, and how to align paywall choices with audience, brand, and growth goals.

Lisa MacLeod

Director, FT Strategies, United Kingdom

Aliya Itzkowitz

Senior Manager, FT Strategies, United Kingdom

Jenna Zuschlag Misener

COO, The Logic, Canada

Brought to you by  

Seminar 2: Data-driven subscriptions with WordPress VIP: From legacy metrics to intelligent growth

Pilsner Hall, Steam Whistle Brewing, The Roundhouse - 255 Bremner Boulevard

Senior media leaders face a defining challenge: growing subscriptions amid AI disruption, creator competition, and fragmented audience journeys. This session explores how leading publishers are modernising subscription growth by rethinking KPIs, upgrading to AI-ready stacks, and treating growth as a continuous, connected system.

What the panel will unpack:

• How donation-driven communities vs. hybrid membership models define success differently, and which KPIs actually matter
• How modern CMS and data architectures make it easier to test, optimize, and adapt in an AI-shaped landscape
• What “data-driven subscriptions” look like when content, product, engineering, and revenue teams are finally aligned

Duncan Clark

Chief Content Officer, Postmedia, Canada

Josh Fosburg

Head of Industry, Media, WordPress VIP, United States

Allison McHenry

CTO, Daily Kos, United States

Alexandra Ungureanu

Chief Strategy Officer, XWP, Canada

Brought to you by  

9:40 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

Networking break

Refresh with coffee and snacks, compare notes from the first seminar sessions, and connect with fellow participants before the next set of deep dives.

10:00 a.m. – 11:10 a.m.

Seminars 3–4 (parallel sessions)

Seminar 3: How to transform and scale your digital subscription business

Locomotive Hall, Steam Whistle Brewing, The Roundhouse - 255 Bremner Boulevard

Join us for an interactive panel discussion to learn how Mather collaborates with leading global publishers to drive holistic growth. This seminar features a live, case-study format with representatives from The Toronto Star, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, and Telegraph Media Group, who will share the key factors behind their subscription growth strategies.

Using Mather's 7-Lever Growth Framework and Digital Subscription Playbook as the foundation, this session will equip attendees with actionable subscription growth tools, tactics, and frameworks they can implement immediately.

Pete Doucette

Senior Managing Director, Mather, United States

Angus Frame

Chief Executive Officer, Torstar Corporation, Canada

Donika Lilova

Head of Subscription, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany

Alex Rigg

Director of Subscriptions, Telegraph Media Group, United Kingdom

Brought to you by  

Seminar 4: Lessons from the front lines of reader revenue

Pilsner Hall, Steam Whistle Brewing, The Roundhouse - 255 Bremner Boulevard

Subscription success for publishers is no longer driven by acquisition alone. As growth slows and reader expectations rise, publishers are being forced to rethink how engagement, data, and workflows come together to support long-term retention. In this seminar, a leading publisher will share how they re-examined their subscription strategy, what prompted change, and which decisions ultimately moved the needle on reader retention and lifetime value.

The session will explore how:

• Subscription teams are moving beyond surface-level engagement metric
• A clear understanding of what’s driving subscription performance today to turn reader behavior into action
• Operationalise insights into daily decision-making

Adley Bowden

Head of Individual Investor, Morningstar, United States

Matt Monahan

President, Arc XP, United States

Brought to you by  

11:10 a.m. – 11:40 a.m.

Snacks and networking

Take a break for refreshments, sandwiches, and informal conversations with fellow participants, speakers, and seminar leaders. Use this time to reflect on the morning sessions and exchange practical ideas before the next set of deep dives.

11:40 a.m. – 12:50 p.m.

Seminars 5–6 (parallel sessions)

Seminar 5: Growing revenue despite falling traffic

Locomotive Hall, Steam Whistle Brewing, The Roundhouse - 255 Bremner Boulevard

Publishers navigating the turbulence of 2025 watched search traffic collapse by 40% — but the ones increasing revenue didn’t panic. They focused on core tactics and grew. Drawing on Piano’s benchmark data across thousands of publisher sites, this session breaks down what drove the decline and what the data reveals about the audience strategies that kept revenue growing despite the headwinds.

Michael Silberman

Executive Vice President Media Strategy, Piano, United States

Brought to you by  

Seminar 6: Community and audience engagement with Viafoura: From participation to retention

Pilsner Hall, Steam Whistle Brewing, The Roundhouse - 255 Bremner Boulevard

This seminar will explore how community has become a powerful growth engine for reader registration, engagement, and subscription. Join Viafoura and leaders from the Toronto Star as they share how newsroom-led community strategies—spanning commenting, live Q&As, and direct audience interaction—are driving measurable audience and revenue outcomes. Learn how the Toronto Star is converting anonymous readers into registered users, increasing time spent and return visits, and building trusted, direct relationships that support long-term subscription growth. Through real newsroom examples, this session will highlight how high-quality conversation and journalist participation strengthen loyalty and turn engagement into a durable reader revenue advantage.

Christine Loureiro

Senior Editor, Audience Engagement and Live Journalism, The Toronto Star, Canada

Priya Ramanujam

Managing Editor, Engagement and Newsroom Development, The Toronto Star, Canada

Mark Zohar

President and CEO, Viafoura, Canada

Brought to you by  

12:50 p.m. – 1:20 p.m.

Snacks and networking

Recharge with refreshments, some warm food, and take time for informal conversations with peers and seminar leaders. Share takeaways from the late-morning sessions and prepare for the final deep dives of the day.

1:20 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Seminars 7–8 (parallel sessions)

Seminar 7: The engagement engine with Marfeel: Using real-time data to feed a dynamic paywall

Locomotive Hall, Steam Whistle Brewing, The Roundhouse - 255 Bremner Boulevard

Dynamic paywalls decide when to ask users to subscribe, but engagement determines whether they ever get there. This seminar shows how publishers use real-time analytics to identify “subscription-influencing” content versus short-term viral traffic, and how that insight reshapes newsroom priorities. Using MediaNews Group as a case study, the Marfeel’s session explores how editors move from pageview metrics to loyalty metrics, identify which local topics drive the frequency needed to trigger paywalls, and use real-time data to recirculate users before they bounce, increasing the likelihood of a subscription offer.

Matthew Bain

Senior Customer Success Manager, Marfeel, North America

Kristyn Wellesley

Chair, AI Governance and Initiatives; Senior Editor, Audience Development and Engagement, MediaNews Group, United States

Brought to you by  

Seminar 8: Winning the battle for retention: Churn, engagement, and win-backs

Pilsner Hall, Steam Whistle Brewing, The Roundhouse - 255 Bremner Boulevard

Retention today goes far beyond preventing cancellations. It’s about building ongoing value, deepening engagement, and creating smart pathways to win subscribers back when they disengage. In this session, attendees will explore proven retention frameworks, real-world publisher lessons, and how modern technology is expanding what’s possible—from predictive churn signals to more personalized engagement and win-back strategies. The discussion will balance strategic best practices with practical examples, offering actionable takeaways publishers can apply across teams.

Kassian Goukassian

CEO, Falkemedia, Germany, Real world success stories

Tina Nikou

VP of Ops Infrastructure, Darwin CX, Canada, Leveraging technology to make it happen

Abi Spooner

Consultant, Atlas Consulting, United Kingdom, Best practices in Customer Retention & Engagement

Brought to you by