Nothing annoyed me more than the perception that all we did was test washing machines when I was editor in chief at Which?.
People less familiar with Which? often see it as just something to call upon when appliances break, when you want a new TV, or a better bank account.
Winning the SEO battle for terms like “best washing machines” or “best TV” has always been vital to draw traffic to the website. But leaning too heavily on ‘point-of-need’ traffic has inherent shortcomings.
SEO is getting harder to win, given fierce competition and the impact of AI overviews and most Which? product reviews are behind a paywall.
Which?’s growing portfolio of newsletters has become a key tool to counter all three challenges. Newsletters convert casual traffic into returning known users, they enable content sampling, and they demonstrate that the brand is useful much more often than when your washing machine breaks.
They also open up longer conversations with your audience – whether that’s about paid subscriptions, partnership services or supporting consumer campaigns.
Learning from the best newspapers
As Sarah Ebner, the FT’s head of newsletters, said recently to Press Gazette, some people have predicted the death of the newsletter in the last decade. But the evidence says newsletters aren’t going anywhere yet. Indeed, they’re only becoming more important for publishers.
Newsletters avoid the algorithm and allow you to own the relationship with readers – a precious commodity for publishers trying to command the same attention they once had in print.
At Which?, in 2021 we looked with envy at the sophistication of email programmes from papers like The Times, The FT and The Economist – all of which also have hard paywalls.
Looking at the US, we admired the size, swagger and conversion rates of newsletters from The New York Times and its consumer-testing arm, Wirecutter.
Newspapers had been forced to develop brilliant newsletters quicker than magazine brands because news consumption was shifting so fast. So it was no surprise they were well ahead. They also had the benefit of news that people wanted to read every day.
The pivot to freemium newsletters
Until 2021, most of Which?’s newsletters were only for paying subscribers to Which? magazine, which.co.uk, or to a specialist Which? title like Gardening, Money, Tech and Travel. They were designed to increase member engagement with the website or print magazine.
Only one or two went to a broader audience and were free to subscribe to. These were mission-based, like the Scam Alerts newsletter (which now has more than 475,000 subscribers).
I worked closely with Simon Crane, former head of acquisition (now at Just Group), to re-engineer the newsletter programme. We took all the existing newsletters and made them free to sign up to.
With our teams, we created nine free newsletters (the flagship Weekly Scoop, plus Money, Tech, Travel, Gardening, Home, Cars, Food & Health, and Sustainability). Each of these had a rough 80/20 rule – 80% free content, and 20% of clearly marked member-only links to encourage paid subscription. We added these to the existing Scam Alerts newsletter.
The results of this shift speak for themselves. While Which? previously had around 1 million email subscriptions through its member-only approach, it now has more than 2.7 million newsletter subscriptions.
That translates into more than 1.4 million unique readers, because most subscribers take more than one newsletter. But of these, around a million aren’t currently paying subscribers – a huge, but engaged, prospect pool.
Converting newsletter subscribers to paying members
I asked my former colleague and Which? content director Jenni Allen how these newsletters are performing in 2025. She says they are still “incredibly important to the organisation’s growth strategy”.
In the last financial year, Which? attributed nearly 46,000 new paid subscriptions to its newsletters, according to its annual report.
Much of this uplift comes from presenting exclusive subscription offers to newsletter readers that aren’t available to website visitors. We experimented heavily with this while I was at Which? – especially with annual subscription deals. This continues to be a very cost-effective acquisition route compared with pay-per-click ads, for example.
The bigger bonus is that the people converting from free newsletters are also likely to become more loyal paying members.
“We know there is a correlation with retention,” Allen says. “We see positive correlation with [paying] members’ likelihood to continue subscribing, particularly early on in their tenure when they may not yet be fully committed to that ongoing subscription.”
Which?’s data show that if paying members opt in to one or more topic-specific newsletter on top of the default Weekly Scoop email, they are much more likely to stay a subscriber. They’re also more likely to subscribe to a specialist title like Which? Tech.
Everyday ‘catnip’ content keeps engagement high
Critical to Which?’s success has been ensuring that newsletters composed of 80% free content can offer real value to readers.
Allen describes newsletter curation as “both an art and a science… you need editorial instinct and judgment around what’s a good story, and what’s going to grab attention. But equally, you need to be heavily data-led by what works.”
What works reliably is a good smattering of ‘everyday’ consumer stories. This is especially important in the generalist Weekly Scoop, which goes out every Friday morning.
“One of the latest Weekly Scoop sends had an excellent click-through rate of 19.4%”, Allen says. “That was off the back of a couple of stories about the best instant coffee and the most accurate weather apps – both of which speak to British fixations.
“They also blend everyday interest, utility, and us being able to give people a trusted answer.”
This kind of consumer ‘catnip’ may not necessarily convert hundreds of free readers to a paid subscription. But it keeps engagement levels high, which can become a real challenge as newsletter lists start to swell.
Testing new approaches to newsletters
Which? has also recently launched new Deals and Retirement newsletters. More than 32,000 people signed up for the Deals newsletter in its first quarter – well ahead of target. Jenni says this isn’t about bombarding people’s inboxes, but curating “fewer deals on the products that people are really interested in, and that we think are worth buying.”
The Retirement newsletter, however, is an eight-week series aimed at the over 50s. It contains a guided journey through retirement planning, which introduces readers to how Which? can help through its content, magazines, services and partnerships.
I ask Allen which of the 12 free newsletters she sees as the most successful.
“We get fantastic click-through rates on our monthly Cars newsletter – 26% on average. But the Weekly Scoop [which goes to a much bigger audience] remains the flagship. And when we get those sorts of 19% click-through rates, it’s fantastic.
“We’re also really proud of the Scam Alerts newsletter, because that’s helping nearly half a million people to regularly avoid scams. Last time we surveyed subscribers to that newsletter, 81% told us it had prompted them to take action.
“We’re really focused on what people can do with our newsletters. They’re engaging, they’re interesting, but we want to ensure they help people to take action too.”
For an organisation historically best known for testing products and putting its Best Buys behind a paywall, Which?’s push into free newsletters has certainly broadened its appeal. And with search only becoming more challenging, newsletter traffic is now some of the most valuable of all.
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