About this Webinar

How El País has built scale and sustainability on a maturing market is the focus of this INMA Subscription Masters Webinar, which will feature Luis Baena, former chief marketing officer of Prisa Media and publisher of El País.

In just four years, El País transformed from a free news site to one of Europe’s fastest-growing digital subscription success stories, surpassing 400,000 total subscribers and becoming a leader in Spanish-language journalism across continents.

At the heart of this transformation was Luis Baena, a former strategy consultant turned media executive, who redefined marketing at Prisa Media. Under his leadership, the company embraced audience-centric thinking, powered by data, tech, and journalism itself.

Luis spearheaded innovations that deepened loyalty and boosted retention: from smart regional pricing to loyalty programmes that cut churn by up to 30%.

He also led El País into strategic partnerships, including a high-impact bundle with The New York Times, which added value to subscribers and drove engagement.

In this Subscription Masters session, INMA’s Greg Piechota, head of the Readers First Initiative, will interview Luis about building scale and sustainability in a maturing market:

• What made El País’ subscription strategy so successful in Spain and Latin America?
• How do you balance subscriber acquisition with engagement and retention?
• What’s the role of loyalty programs, newsletters, and utility content in cutting churn?
• How did they personalize pricing and product offers across regions?
• What lessons can global brands learn from El País and Prisa’s digital playbook?

Subscription Masters is INMA’s conversation series with the most accomplished minds in reader revenue: from global news publishers to platform pioneers and bestselling authors. Past guests include executives from The Guardian, Substack, The Wall Street Journal, and more. Each session dives deep into what’s working in subscriptions and what’s next.

Whether you're looking to grow subscriptions at home or abroad, or want to sharpen your post-acquisition strategy, this is a master class in building meaningful audience relationships at scale.

If you'd like your question asked to Luis, please send them to greg.piechota@inma.org.

About El País

El País a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. El País is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. Ediciones El País, S.L.