The number one lesson learned at Mediahuis Ireland since it launched digital subscriptions five years ago is “don’t underestimate the value of your brand and journalism”, its next CEO has said.
Mediahuis Ireland reached 100,000 digital subscribers across The Irish Independent and The Belfast Telegraph in June. It works with Flip-Pay, which also powers Press Gazette’s metered paywall.
Mediahuis Ireland has 88,000 subscribers in the Republic of Ireland, where 20% of the population pays for “any online news” according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and 15,800 subscribers in Northern Ireland, where as part of the UK 10% pay for online news on average.
The hybrid paywall means readers have free, unlimited access to some articles with other content designated as premium and for subscribers only.
Sheena Peirse, chief customer officer at Mediahuis Ireland who will become chief executive on 1 October, told Press Gazette’s Future of Media Technology Conference in London last week that although the publisher was “late to the party” on subscriptions in 2020 it quickly saw “good growth” that “hasn’t tailed off”.
[Read more: Paywall launch was fourth-time lucky for Belfast Telegraph publisher]
One experiment didn’t work, she admitted: a metered paywall in 2021 that offered five stories for free. This “lasted a bit longer than a month.
“We stopped because it wasn’t addressing a problem we had. We had an engaged audience who would pay for news. By metering premium content specifically, we just reduced people’s propensity to pay for it.
“It led us to develop the paywall we have now, which is a hybrid metered paywall. That gives us flexibility, so we can have subscriber-only stories and drive registrations with metered stories as well as free.”
‘Don’t underestimate’ brand value
Peirse added that the “number one” lesson the publisher has learned since launching its digital subscriptions strategy is “don’t underestimate the value of your brand and journalism”.
“When we first launched, we were expecting 7,500 subscriptions in the first year and got this in the first six weeks,” she said.
“Your readers are incredibly engaged and loyal, your readers want to hear the news from you.”
‘Don’t avoid the ad-paywall trade off’
She added a second lesson is to dive in, not “dip your toe in the water” because “the B2C model for news is proven.”
“We need a mixed model, a B2B and B2C model. I wouldn’t worry about moving around the edges. You need to create a culture of data-informed experimentation and agility.
“If you put a paywall up, you are going to serve fewer ad impressions, but it is short term. Don’t avoid the trade off, as you’ll be able to get through it.
“At the heart of B2B/B2C revenue is engaged readers. Our B2B teams have come up with fantastic data products using that engagement.”
Peirse credited the team at Mediahuis for “incrementally” improving data through the launch of an online cancellation flow that users must follow to cancel their subscription, and a win-back strategy around identifying households that have cancelled a subscription and targeting them with a campaign.
“Learn quickly, use your data, find out what works, make it work, and move on.”
‘You’re not leaving money on the table’
Paul McCarthy-Brain, chief executive at Flip-Pay, described how their content monetisation tool powers the paywall at Mediahuis, collecting first-time data from the publisher’s data science team, which collects it from the customer.
McCarthy-Brain described the process as a “closed-loop system” and said it helps to target promotional offers.
“Customer lifetime value data we get can be used to inform the offers you should provide for people,” he said. Mediahuis defines customer lifetime value as three years.
“Say someone had a subscription 12 to 18 months ago, you can then give them a lower cost offer. It means you’re not leaving money on the table because you get the right offer to the people.”
Flip-Pay assesses data-led metrics – “recency, frequency, customer lifetime value – as well as tools to understand what readers actually engage with”.
McCarthy-Brain said this isn’t “just URLs” readers are engaging with, but “actual context” within articles.
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