Summary

Improving subscriber retention and habitually engaging readers was the focus of the INMA Consumer Engagement Summit in November 2018 in Miami. In this report, learn more about key summit outcomes which include subscriber onboarding, winning every visit, creating habits, building community, rewarding loyalty, paywall models, content that converts, newsletter best practices, getting newsrooms on board, and smart pricing.

Key themes in the report

• The habits and rewards that are keys to engagement.
• How to encourage your newsroom to engage audiences.
• The varying metrics behind engagement.
• How to build lifetime value and relevance in retention efforts.
• The role of paywalls in audience segmentation and growth.

Who should read the report?

This report is written for editorial and audience engagement employees charged with engaging subscribers and improving subscriber retention.

Authors

Dawn McMullan, Senior Editor, INMA

Carly Price, Blog Editor and Contributor, INMA

Robert Whitehead, Board Member, McPherson Media, and Co-Moderator, INMA Consumer Engagement Summit

Detailed overview

Creating a long-term digital subscription growth path can only be achieved through a focus on retention and consumer engagement, according to a new report titled “Unpacking the Reader-Subscriber-Lifetime Customer Journey.”

The report chronicles:

• The habits and rewards that are keys to engagement.
• How to encourage your newsroom to engage audiences.
• The varying metrics behind engagement.
• How to build lifetime value and relevance in retention efforts.
• The role of paywalls in audience segmentation and growth.

Based on the November 2018 INMA Consumer Engagement Summit in Miami, the report looks at global innovators in digital subscriber retention such as The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, USA Today Network, Financial Times, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Times Newspapers Ltd., Star Tribune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aftenposten, and Dagens Nyheter.

The INMA report explores best practices in onboarding subscribers, winning every visit, creating a habit, building community, rewarding loyalty, paywalls models, content that converts, newsletter best practices, getting newsrooms on board, and smart pricing.

While much of INMA’s leadership on media subscriptions worldwide has been focused on acquisition, most media companies have hit a growth ceiling that can only be shattered by perfecting the art and science behind engaging subscribers and intensely focused on reducing subscriber churn. This requires a broad range of tactics supported by a new culture that embraces content economics and a deeper understanding of the value of content.

The Miami summit was guided, in part, by Grzegorz (Greg) Piechota, a researcher-in-residence at INMA who heads up the association’s Readers First initiative. Piechota unveiled best practices in value nurturing, the first of four pillars in the Readers First initiative that is designed to project INMA leadership on the subject of media subscriptions. The initiative is delivering reports, Webinars, meet-ups, workshops, a newsletter, and an ongoing Slack channel for INMA members to continue the conversation on media subscriptions.

“Improving retention, reducing churn, and the art and science behind engagement are hallmarks of media companies continuing their digital subscription growth path,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA. “Through 12 case studies, two keynotes, a benchmark study, and 140 engaged people discussing retention and engagement in a smart way at INMA, we now have the beginnings of the next step in subscriptions.”