As the subscription economy continues to evolve across industries, companies are exploring different approaches to building sustainable customer relationships.
News publishers are no different, but arguably face even bigger challenges than DTC brands in several other sectors (as the media landscape continues to splinter and AI’s building impact test business models). There are lessons to be learned from their experience.
New research from INMA (International News Media Association) examines how select news organisations have built thriving subscription businesses, revealing strategies that challenge conventional wisdom and offer insights for retail brands.
Paulo Celso Pereira, executive editor of Brazil’s O Globo, conducted comprehensive research examining how five leading global news organisations built thriving subscription businesses in his study “Beyond the Funnel: Strategies for a New Subscription Model.”
His research focused on The New York Times (US), Financial Times (UK), El País (Spain), Clarín (Argentina), and United Daily News Group (Taiwan), analysing what these successful publishers do differently.
The findings remind us of strategic lessons that other subscription brands could benefit from applying.
1. An even sharper version of the 80/20 principle
The 80/20 principle tells us that a small share of customers usually drives most of the value. INMA’s research reinforces this — but shows just how extreme the imbalance can be.
At The Boston Globe, 2% of readers account for 86% of total revenue. At Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland, a similarly small group contributes 73% of total revenue.
The lesson isn’t new, but the precision is striking.
Loyal, highly engaged readers aren’t just important; they’re the business. They generate subscriptions, return frequently, read deeply, and in doing so, drive ad impressions as well.
For publishers, the message is simple: focus energy on the small cohort that really matters. For other subscription businesses, the parallel is obvious.
Take a theoretical meal-kit service as an example. The core isn’t a vast swathe of casual taster customers, but those who cook most recipes, open the newsletters, and recommend the service. These power users carry disproportionate long-term value, and deserve disproportionate attention. Optimise for them.
2. Quality beats quantity every time
The New York Times exemplifies the quality over quantity principle ruthlessly.
Despite pressure for content volume, Executive Editor Joseph Kahn spends editorial meetings discussing journalism quality rather than pageviews. The company deliberately limits data exposure to journalists, preventing metrics from corrupting editorial judgment.
Monica Drake, The Times’ Deputy Managing Editor, explains their philosophy: “We don’t want it to enter the minds of the reporters or editors that they should do something to drive the audience. That helped us to keep the quality relatively high.”
INMA’s research shows that stories driving most subscriptions aren’t always the most-read articles. At Spain’s El País, a long-form investigation into Catholic Church abuse converted more subscribers than viral content.
Quality and relevance trump reach.
Other subscription brands may face similar tensions. A subscription box service might feel pressure to include more items to justify pricing, but successful companies like Birchbox built loyalty through carefully curated selections rather than overwhelming variety.
For example, a subscription box service may feel pressure to increase item count or variety to justify prices, whereas brands such as Birchbox have long leaned into curated selections and tailoring boxes to personal preferences — a strategy that delivers stronger value.
3. Newsletters as habit-builders
Perhaps no strategy from the media translates more directly to retail and other subscription sectors than newsletter mastery.
Financial Times grew newsletter subscribers from 400,000 to 1.6 million in four years, transforming them into their biggest driver of reader engagement.
Sarah Ebner, FT‘s Director of Editorial Growth and Engagement, developed three types of newsletters: free ones to expand reach and acquire registered users, and subscriber-only editions to reduce churn. Each serves different strategic purposes within the customer journey.
Hannah Sarney, FT‘s Editorial Product Director, describes newsletters as “the most powerful subscriber engagement tools” that take people on a journey “from ‘I’m interested’ to ‘I’m reading’ to ‘I’m engaged’ to ‘I can.'”
Another key insight from FT‘s approach is personalisation at scale. Rather than one-size-fits-all communications, successful brands develop content strategies that serve different audience segments whilst maintaining consistent brand voice.
Other subscription brands should view email not just as a promotional channel but as relationship-building infrastructure. Exclusivity, quality, tone and relevance all help with building affinity, habit, loyalty and long-term value returns.
4. The bundling renaissance
INMA researcher Greg Piechota offers a compelling interpretation of The New York Times‘ bundling strategy. He argues the company is simply recreating digitally what newspapers did in print for decades – providing one destination serving several interest areas.
In 1987, The Times published its thickest-ever issue at 1,612 pages, mixing news with lifestyle content, sports, games and classifieds. Today’s bundle of news, cooking, games, and audio content follows the same logic of capturing different moments in subscribers’ lives.
By June 2025, 6.02 million of The Times‘ 11.3 million digital subscribers paid for full bundles or multi-products, whilst only 1.69 million subscribed to news alone. This demonstrates how bundling reduces churn whilst increasing per-customer revenue.
Other brands can apply this thinking to their own subscription offerings. Rather than single-category focus, successful services increasingly bundle complementary products and experiences. Amazon Prime exemplifies this approach, combining shipping benefits with entertainment, making subscription cancellation more psychologically difficult.
5. AI-driven personalisation
United Daily News Group in Taiwan represents the cutting edge of AI-enabled subscription strategy. Their CurateX programme revolutionised newsroom workflow by incorporating real-time metrics into editorial planning.
Amelie Lin, UDN’s Director of Data Development, explains how AI helps identify content topics that drive subscription conversions. The system automatically classifies published stories and provides real-time performance metrics to guide future content decisions.
Crucially, UDN maintains editorial autonomy over algorithmic suggestions. Lin emphasises: “Technology must serve editorial value and public trust – not replace editorial expertise.”
For other subscription brands, AI offers similar opportunities to personalise experiences whilst maintaining brand integrity. Spotify provides a useful parallel: its recommendation engine surfaces songs tailored to individual listening habits, while human editors design branded playlists like RapCaviar or Today’s Top Hits. The algorithm drives scale and relevance, but the curated playlists reinforce Spotify’s identity and trust, showing how automation and editorial voice can work in tandem.
6. The community imperative
Financial Times demonstrates how community building drives subscription loyalty. Rather than treating comments as an afterthought, FT invests in moderation and civil discourse. They also create content based on subscriber input, fostering genuine two-way relationships.
Their community strategy is intentional, not incidental. Hannah Sarney, FT’s Editorial Product Director, explains: “It’s pure audience engagement because you’re starting with your audience; you’re saying to them, ‘We need you. What are your thoughts? You guide us on which way to go.”
Community builds strong relationships, loyalty and lifetime value. Rapha’s Cycling Club (RCC) is an example. They’ve built a “global club with” weekly led rides, exclusive kit and early product access. Members have access to members-only events and competitions and various other perks.
7. Metrics that matter
The report reveals how successful media companies moved beyond pageview obsession towards engagement metrics. Financial Times developed their “Lantern” analytics tool to prioritise “quality reads” – for example, tracking the share of page views where readers consume at least half an article.
By putting quality first, FT steers editors away from chasing clicks and toward content that deepens loyalty and lowers churn.
This shift from reach to depth metrics should also inform other subscription businesses. Rather than focusing primarily on subscriber numbers, brands should track engagement indicators like feature usage, community participation, and referral generation.
8. Getting everyone rowing in the same direction
El País demonstrates how company-wide alignment drives subscription success. As part of publicly-traded Prisa Group, El País has specific subscription targets that shape actions across product, editorial and marketing teams.
Mari Luz Peinado Izquierdo, Head of Digital Strategy at El País, emphasises: “Overall, directives must be very clear from the top down. Because the moment you start to hesitate, the whole thing falls apart.”
This lesson applies directly to other subscription brands struggling with departmental silos.
Marketing teams focused on acquisition whilst customer success teams battle churn creates internal friction that customers inevitably feel. Successful subscription businesses ensure all teams share unified metrics around customer lifetime value and engagement.
This is arguably one of the most critical considerations, and something that we at Atlas advocate. As Piechota also told me, “the recipe for subscription growth might read like common sense: focus on loyal users, invest in quality, bundle cleverly, use data wisely, and align teams around customer value.
“Yet, as thousands of news publishers discover every day, the real difficulty lies not in knowing what to do but in consistently executing it.
“This change is not just about installing a paywall or adopting a new marketing model. It is fundamentally about people — journalists, data analysts, product teams, and marketers — working differently together, often across long-standing silos. And people, famously, resist change.
“Transforming a newsroom from chasing clicks to prioritising subscriber value, or convincing commercial teams to optimise for lifetime relationships rather than short-term campaigns demands cultural shifts as much as technical ones. It requires clarity of leadership, patience in experimentation, and resilience in the face of setbacks.”
El País shows how company-wide alignment drives subscription success. As part of publicly traded Prisa Group, the paper sets clear subscription targets that guide actions across product, editorial, and marketing teams.
Mari Luz Peinado Izquierdo, Head of Digital Strategy at El País, puts it plainly: “Overall, directives must be very clear from the top down. Because the moment you start to hesitate, the whole thing falls apart.”
This is arguably one of the most critical considerations — and one that Atlas also consistently emphasises in its work with clients. As INMA’s Piechota told me: “The recipe for subscription growth might read like common sense: focus on loyal users, invest in quality, bundle cleverly, use data wisely, and align teams around customer value.
“Yet, as thousands of news publishers discover every day, the real difficulty lies not in knowing what to do but in consistently executing it.
“This change is not just about installing a paywall or adopting a new marketing model. It is fundamentally about people — journalists, data analysts, product teams, and marketers — working differently together, often across long-standing silos. And people, famously, resist change.
“Transforming a newsroom from chasing clicks to prioritising subscriber value, or convincing commercial teams to optimise for lifetime relationships rather than short-term campaigns demands cultural shifts as much as technical ones. It requires clarity of leadership, patience in experimentation, and resilience in the face of setbacks.”
The path forward
Findings in the INMA report is a good reminder for news media and other brands of the yard sticks for sustainable growth.
Success requires focused thinking: prioritising loyal customers over broad reach, investing in quality over quantity, and building genuine relationships rather than treating people as a pipeline to optimise.
As the research demonstrates, the most successful subscription businesses understand they’re not just selling products. They’re becoming integral parts of customers’ daily lives.
This is particularly true as subscription markets mature and customer acquisition costs rise. The winners are those that put the customer first, master relationship-building and optimise for lifetime value.
This article draws from “Beyond the Funnel: Strategies for a New Subscription Model” by Paulo Celso Pereira, published by the International News Media Association (INMA) in August 2025. The research examined subscription strategies at The New York Times, Financial Times, El País, Clarín, and United Daily News Group. Thanks to Greg Piechota and the INMA team for sharing the report with me.
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