Paywall models: What you can learn from Bild, Handelsblatt, Wired and Co.

For decades, media companies and publishers relied on advertising as their main source of income. At the beginning of the Internet age, most publishers initially assumed that they could use a similar advertising model to monetize their digital content.

However, this model was disrupted by two players: namely Google and Facebook. With almost 70% Do these companies account for such a large share of total digital advertising spending that, as a magazine or newspaper publisher, you have to broaden your horizons to generate larger income.

The good news is that some publishers have already successfully freed themselves from the impending dependence on advertising revenue. It almost goes without saying that these companies are primarily based on digital paywall models fall back on.

That's why I'd like to highlight some of today's most promising paywall models in this article. By analyzing these eight case studies, you might be able to discover a promising digital subscription model for your own titles.

1. Boston Globes focus on digital subscriptions

Let's take a look at the Boston Globe first, because it's the first local newspaper to have more digital than print subscribers. In the first quarter of 2019, the digital subscriptions, e.g. from 108,000 to 112,000.

Yes, there are many other newspapers that have achieved great results by establishing various paywall models. However, these were always supraregional newspapers.

So how did the Boston Globe achieve this feat?

It's very simple. The Boston Globe has set the growth of digital subscribers as its ultimate goal.

Those responsible for the local newspaper attribute their success primarily to experiments with the metering paywall model. First of all, the Boston Globe fixed a gap that allowed users to bypass the paywall in incognito mode. But even as many readers of the Boston Globe read their Dissatisfaction with this initiative Expressed on Reddit, the company stood firm.

Second, reduced the newspaper the number of free items from five to two within a 45-day window. And thirdly, the newspaper expanded its mobile offering for digital subscribers. All in all, the Boston Globe was very satisfied with the progress achieved.

2. Wired's experiments

Auch Wired has achieved promising results using a digital paywall model. After the introduction of the paywall, the American magazine was able to create a See a 300% increase in their digital subscribers.

How did Wired do that?

By doing lots of small experiments to find out what readers like. For example, when Wired began its paywall experiment, it focused primarily on three new types of content. These pieces were detailed reports, Idea essays and Topic guides. It quickly became apparent that some of these texts are great for generating subscriptions. As a popular example, here is the report with the title Facebook's Hellish Two Years to name. But also things like Shopping Guides were among the most popular items. In the case of Wired, the change in strategy towards high-quality detailed articles led to considerable growth in digital subscriptions.

Another important factor for subscriber growth was various niche newsletters.

Would you like an example?

According to Wired's own information, a visitor who comes to the website via one of these niche newsletters is 19 times more likely to become a subscriber than a visitor who comes via a search engine. The newsletters even dwarf the social media networks Facebook and Twitter. For example, the probability of visitors via Facebook and Twitter is 12 times and six times lower, respectively.

The magazine has also invested a lot of time in optimising the registration form. For example, it found that adding a payment option for Amazon Pay along with the request to “place order” instead of “start my subscription” helped a lot.

There were also some failed experiments, of course. For example, Wired tried to lure subscribers by offering a so-called YubiKey. They even offered subscribers a cover for their laptop cameras as a gift. However, these experiments did not result in sustainable growth. In summary, it can be said that the magazine has invested a lot of resources in experiments to optimize its own paywall. While some didn't work, others helped boost digital subscriptions.

3. Dagbladet's personalized paywall model

Dagbladet is a major Norwegian newspaper that has significantly increased its digital revenue with personalized paywalls.

The newspaper now has more than 85,000 digital subscribers. Over six months, the newspaper developed its own algorithm to show visitors personalized content on its website.

To do this, the algorithm takes into account certain behaviours, such as whether readers read a specific article multiple times and whether they look at similar articles. It also includes the time spent in order to provide users with content that is particularly relevant to them. Through this algorithm, Dagbladet manages to provide its readers with personalized content and increases revenue at the same time.

Readers seem to like this kind of personalization. The newspaper claims that Since the introduction of the personalized paywall model, subscriptions have increased by more than 100%. Yet Dagbladet still earns most of its income from advertising (a huge 90%). The magazine and its parent company Aller Media However, we want to make this relationship much more balanced in the future.

Of course, it is still unclear whether Dagbladet will be able to continue the impressive digital subscription growth. Nevertheless, it already shows the potential of personalized paywalls.

4. Handelsblatt's hard paywall model

The business newspaper Handelsblatt, is successful with an extremely tough paywall model. It was only in spring 2018 that the paper switched to a subscription strategy that focuses more on digital subscriptions. Today, the site only has a few articles that can be accessed without a subscription. The rest is behind a paywall. In fact, there is no longer any free content available in the app.

A/B testing once again played a decisive role in the introduction of the paywall. The ultimate goal was not only to improve the customer experience, but also to improve the conversion rate. At the same time, the company launched mobile marketing measures and created personalized purchase processes with the help of email sequences.

The hard work paid off. At the end of 2018, Handelsblatt was able to increase sales by more than 25% through its paywall. Through the app, even a remarkable 58% of customers became paying subscribers after a free trial period.

5. The Financial Times was ahead of the paywall trend

The Financial Times, one of the most respected newspapers in the world, was one of the first titles to opt for a paywall model. It all began back in 2002 with the introduction of online subscriptions.

Last year, the newspaper one million subscribers achieved. However, two points are even more remarkable for the Financial Times. First, that 75% of their subscribers have taken out digital subscriptions and second, that 70% live outside the UK.

So how did the Financial Times become so successful?

It owes its success primarily to a highly data-driven approach. As I'm sure you can imagine, the FT has collected an immense amount of data about its readers over the years.

The newspaper uses this data to optimize both its reach and digital product strategies. With a specific engagement score, your own editors can better understand which stories work best and why.

Ultimately, the Financial Times simply delivers excellent business journalism, so that many customers are willing to pay for this information.

6. Image and the power of videos

The tabloid tableau of our customer Axel Springer, is particularly characterized by the fact that it uses videos to increase subscription numbers.

While the company offers short, one-minute videos that are accessible to everyone, it places the detailed, longer videos behind the image plus paywall.

Why does Bild do that?

Mainly because they found out that eight of the ten articles with the highest conversion rate are either video documentaries or contain videos in some form. Bild Plus, of course, contains not only the videos generated by the Bild team, but also other videos that she has licensed from production companies.

The Bild Plus paywall model has been around in this form since 2013. Since then, the digital paywall has around 400,000 subscribers Generates who pay an average of €13 per month.

Examples of videos on the Bild-Plus platform include a short documentary about former tennis player Boris Becker and the marriage between Instagram influencer Ina Aogo and soccer player Dennis Aogo.

As videos are becoming increasingly important in today's content world, video paywalls can be a great way for media companies like Bild to generate significant revenue.

7. The Athletic's ad-free, subscription-only model

The Athletic is a fast-growing sports news subscription service that uses an ad-free, exclusively subscription-based paywall model. By October 2019, the young media company has over 600,000 subscribers won.

In doing so, the news website is taking an exciting path. Because it is the only ad-free payment platform for local sports news available exclusively on the Internet. From the start, the company had a paywall. The founders didn't want readers to be annoyed by pop-ups or autoplay videos. Instead, they wanted to create a pleasant environment where users could find out about their favorite team without distraction.

But just because the company has gained momentum through subscriptions doesn't mean The Athletic hasn't experimented with advertising. Specifically, it has, for example, a daily podcast called The Lead started, which is published completely outside the paywall. While the podcast is financed by advertising, the ultimate goal of the podcast is, according to The Athletic, attract potential subscribers.

8. Esquire's vertical paywall model

Finally, I have a very interesting paywall model for you: Esquire's vertical subscription model. Specifically, it's a micro-subscription built around one of their most popular editors named Charles Pierce.

Pierce has been writing for Esquire since 1997. For some time now, interested readers have been able to pay $17.99 per year to read his content exclusively. Subscribers to this micro-subscription gain access to all of his writing, rather than being able to read only three free articles per month on the website.

According to the publisher, an average of 60,000 people per day read Pierce's stories. Since introducing the paywall model, Esquire has thus gained 10,000 new micro-subscribers within a year.

Conclusion

These eight examples are proof that a paywall business model can also work for your media company. If you are open to making some changes to your company culture and take the time to do some interesting experiments, you have an excellent chance of seeing sustainable growth with a paywall model.

The general trend in the media industry is also clearly moving towards a paywall-based subscription model. While the intricacies will of course vary from company to company, in most cases this model will provide you with a more stable revenue base compared to an advertising-first model.

And more importantly, paywalls allow you to build an even stronger relationship with your readers, which in turn builds customer loyalty.

To find out how we can help you monetize your own content, contact us here. Our options include paywalls, subscriptions, video pre-roll ads, and many more.

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