INMA Media Subscriptions Summit 2025: Our 3 most important findings for anyone who couldn't be there

The subscription model is evolving rapidly, and involving your own readership is of central importance for your sustainable success — this point has come up again and again. If you want to remain competitive, you should therefore prioritize the following areas in particular:

• Building communities instead of just an anonymous target group
• Smart, flexible paywalls that adapt to user behavior
• Personalized experiences that meet the needs of individual readers
• Using data analytics to optimize acquisition and retention strategies

The future of news subscriptions lies in understanding the needs of your readers and adapting systematically to them. By investing in technology, personalization, and community-based engagement, you as a publisher can ensure that your content remains valuable, accessible, and profitable in an ever-changing digital environment.

Although numerous different topics were discussed over the five days, I have identified three particularly interesting focal areas for you, which I would like to explain in more detail below.

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1 E-commerce tactics for subscription business growth

News sites can learn from e-commerce brands. Because they set new standards when it comes to engagement, community building and personalized marketing. The most successful publishers in the subscription business focus on building intensive relationships with their readership rather than relying exclusively on one-time deals.

Kunle Campbell, author of “E-Commerce Growth Strategy,” emphasized how important a strong community is for better reader engagement and conversion rates. The key is understanding your customer profiles, individualizing engagement strategies, and building trust.
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“First you turn a target group into a community and only then do they become subscribers. ”
— Kunle Campbell

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2 Dynamic paywalls increase sales

El Mundo's paywall strategy shows how important flexibility is. Unlike static paywalls, which set the same hurdles for all visitors, a dynamic paywall adapts to user behavior, level of interaction and the likelihood of a subscription being concluded.

As a publisher, this is the most effective way for you to monetize every visitor — whether through subscriptions or advertising revenue. With data analytics, you can optimize paywall triggers to achieve maximum conversion rates without scaring off occasional readers.

A rigid paywall based on the motto “one size fits all” gives away sales potential, while dynamic models are better at attracting different audience segments. For example, this personalized approach ensures that your most engaged readers see the paywall earlier, while less frequent visitors have more time to learn about content before they should subscribe.

3 Personalization as the key to customer loyalty

Retaining customers is just as important as attracting new subscribers. And personalization plays a prominent role in retaining subscribers over the long term. One example of this is Aftenposten's success, which shows how important it can be to segment your own subscribers and design your offerings based on engagement.

Instead of treating all readers equally, Aftenposten analyzed their behavior to:

• Customized subscription levels to meet readers' needs
• Prioritize content that drives high engagement and conversion rates
• Development of targeted marketing campaigns that promote customer loyalty

By consistently placing its readers at the center of its strategy, Aftenposten was not only able to increase the interaction rate, but also increase the lifetime value of its subscribers. This shows that consistent reader focus can be very decisive for long-term sustainability.

These approaches illustrate how important technology, personalization, and community building are for the future success of digital news subscriptions. Publishers that invest in these areas early on and continuously adapt their strategies will be best prepared for the digital age.

Enjoy, connect and grow together

Our joint dinner, which we organized together with Piano and Highberg, was another personal highlight: In the relaxed yet inspiring atmosphere of Café George, we met partners and industry colleagues to get to know each other, exchange ideas and celebrate together. From the initial planning meetings to the perfect moment for a group photo in which everyone finally looked at the camera, everything was right that evening. This own mini-event has once again impressively shown us how valuable strong partnerships and a lively network are — we are already looking forward to the next opportunity to organise the next evening together.

conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that the INMA Media Subscriptions Summit was not only a great professional success, but was also a lot of fun. During breaks and evening events, it felt like a huge class reunion: old contacts were refreshed, new friendships were made and the major future topics of the media industry were discussed together.

Thanks to intensive exchange and inspiring presentations, we were able to gain valuable insights as a technology partner from publishers on how subscription models can be further developed in the future. Anyone who continuously focuses on data analysis, content tailored to the target group and the consistent development of communities will remain competitive in the long term and create sustainable sources of revenue.

Would you like to find out more about how Purple, as a digital-first CMS, can help your publisher set up efficient and future-oriented workflows? Then schedule a demo now.