It’s clear subscribers find value in benefits beyond main news offering, such as discounts, games, exclusive Webinars, or multimedia products.

But which are the most effective?

“There is nothing more loyal than a newspaper subscriber who also does the crossword,” Gustaf Eriksson, executive vice president of subscriptions of Amedia, said during the recent INMA Subscription Retention Master Class, part of the Readers First Initiative.

Eriksson and media leaders from Technische Universität Dortmund, Corriere della Sera, Grupo RBS, Netwerk24, and Haaretz shared how rethinking bundling, loyalty programmes, games, and cancellation processes can help transform news media companies’ retention strategies.

The power of bundling

Bundling can increase subscription sales by attracting a broad subscriber base with different preferences, according to a study of the German market from Technische Universität Dortmund.

Study author Lukas Erbrich, research associate and chair of Media Economics at the university, said depending on the particular market landscape and audience segment, bundling offers a wide range of opportunities for news publishers.

The results of Erbrich’s study, which was published in February in the journal Media and Communication, showed bundling can increase revenue in the German digital market and can increase subscription sales across the German market including print and digital.

“Overall, a comprehensive bundle that includes all national and regional content is the most appealing solution for the German online population,” Erbich said.

Interestingly, bundling seemed particularly effective on those customers that publishers may be on the verge of losing or have already lost in some countries, Erbrich said.

The study looked at audiences who were less likely to subscribe to digital journalism, including people under 30, rural people, and groups with less formal education, less interest in politics, and low trust in the media. Among those groups, bundling increased subscription sales 33%-40% compared to single-publisher offerings.

“What is really important is that market expansion,” Erbrich said, adding that though some degree of market cannibalisation should be expected when print subscribers are offered digital bundles, this expansion seems to compensate for the loss of individual subscriptions.

Amedia creates a brand-wide bundle

Norwegian media company Amedia is finding big success with bundling all of its titles into one offering, +Alt.

Gustaf Eriksson, executive vice president of subscriptions, said making content digestible for readers was a key focus of the +Alt project. An onboarding process encourages users to choose the titles that are relevant to them.

“We suggest all of the papers that we know that you have visited. So we show them first, but below that you can also search for your own,” Eriksson said. “And we also have them categorised by region. So you can easily just click on the ones you want to follow and that’s basically your onboarding service.”

Amedia organises the data gleaned from subscribers to understand loyalty. They categorised readers into groups like local readers who read at least one paper over the course of 20 days, cross-readers consuming more than one paper, sports fans, and +Alt users.

“If we looked at how many of these subscribers were active five months after the categorisation period, we got a very clear picture,” Eriksson said. “So if you didn’t read enough of even your local papers, we lost about 16%, which is pretty bad.”

More encouraging, the more titles consumers read, the less likely they were to churn:

• Readers who read an additional newspaper were 30% less likely to churn.
• Consumers who also watched live sports only have a churn rate of 3%.
• Those who subscribe to +Alt churn at a rate of 2.4%.
• And most incredibly, consumers who subscribe to +Alt and watch live sports churn at 0.7%.

Corriere della Sera evolves its loyalty programme

When Corriere della Sera in Italy wanted to increase subscriber engagement and retention, it created new ways to provide value to its audience.

Giacomo Bernardi, head of customer engagement and churn for parent company RCS Mediagroup, said the company launched two pivotal programmes: a loyalty programme called Club Corriere and live events called Le Conversazioni del Corriere.

The company quickly decided to evolve the loyalty programme and launched a new dedicated platform allowing subscribers to get discounts and benefits from RCS partners. The model offered subscribers a free registration on the platform, but registration was required. Then for every euro a user spent on their subscription, they earned one credit to spend on exclusive benefits inside the club.

By 2022 — after two years of running the programme — customer members had amassed more than 2 million unused credits, Bernardi said: “So we understood that we need to evolve this way of giving them back value for their subscription.”

The company relaunched the programme under the same name, capitalising on the strong brand identity and logo. Instead of the rewards being based on how much they spent on their subscription, users were rewarded for the length of time they have been subscribers.

In the six months following the launch of the revamped loyalty club, Corriere della Sera has gained 45,000 new members and boasts a 35% engagement rate.

“This is much more high than before, so we are very proud of that,” Bernardi said. “And the most important thing is that the people involved in this club churn 13% less than people that are not involved.”

Grupo RBS modernises its loyalty programme

Alan Streck, digital growth executive manager at Grupo RBS in Brazil, provided valuable insights on how to successfully transition a legacy loyalty programme into the digital age.

Grupo RBS offers two subscription bundles: Basic and Plus. Notably, 65% of subscribers have access to the Clube de Assinante, which is a key feature of the Plus bundle. Streck elaborated that the Clube de Assinante has been instrumental in achieving their objectives.

This programme boosts sales by offering promotions such as complimentary show tickets to customers who commit to long-term subscriptions. Additionally, subscribers enjoy benefits with high perceived value, including exclusive discounts and access to events.

“We have more than 300 partners offering you up to 50% discount — its movie theaters, theaters, restaurants, shows, pharmacies, gas stations, and online stores,” Streck said, adding that one of the next steps is to expand the benefits with high perceived value, especially exclusive experiences.

Comparing churn rates between the Basic and Plus bundles shows there is nearly a 40% reduction in churn for those with Clube de Assinante access. This significant decrease in churn is attributed to their investment in long-term subscriptions, using the Clube de Assinante as an acquisition strategy.

Netwerk24 drives retention with games, audiobooks

Madelein Venter, general manager of marketing and subscriptions in the news division at Media24 in South Africa, said the biggest opportunity to lock in new subscribers is within the first six months, as that’s when subscribers are most likely to abandon their subscriptions.

But the biggest driver of retention? Games on the Web site. The games feature was added about two years ago. Venter says about 386,000 games are loaded per month, and over 10% of their base engages with the games at least once a month.

Another huge driver of retention for the brand is their audiobooks division, done primarily in the Afrikaans language. The work done with audiobooks also helps quite a bit with acquisition of new subscribers.

“We have a partnership with in-house publishers that we have a monthly account of audiobooks,” Venter said. “That’s normally about best-selling authors and the subscribers only have that month period to engage with that specific audio book. Ninety percent of those pageviews contribute to retention. Our most popular ones rack up about 100,000 listens per book.”

Haaretz rethinks its cancellation process to improve retention

Lior Kodner, chief executive officer of Haaretz in Israel, said a new cancellation process has seen some success with subscribers deciding to stay on despite starting the cancellation process.

Subscribers can directly cancel their subscription by visiting the Web site. Additionally, due to local legislation, if a subscriber sends a personal e-mail to cancel a subscription, Haaretz must follow through within three business days.

The process now includes some human interaction with a customer service representative starting a conversation to learn why the reader is leaving. Connecting with subscribers about their pain points can help retain them longer and identify areas of improvement. Based on this newer process, Haaretz has seen a retention of 27% with the personal touch.

The main goal is to keep subscribers, and yet, Kodner admits, “If they want to leave, let them leave.” In Haaretz’s case, 25% of those customers who leave return on their own: “We want them to feel that they can buy any time, they can cancel anytime, so this is kind of a long-term relationship with the customers.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .