Reader Revenue Toolkit


Revenue that comes directly from readers in the form of subscriptions, memberships, donations, events and more is crucial for the long-term sustainability of news organizations — especially those serving local communities.

To help create that future, the American Press Institute maintains this Reader Revenue Toolkit — practical guides and resources to help publishers get started or go to the next level with their reader revenue strategies.

What’s inside

The Toolkit contains API’s subscription-related research and in-depth guides. We also are creating collections of posts that address key challenges that we have found most pressing for publishers, starting with potential ways to acquire new subscriptions.

You can sign up here for Reader Revenue Toolkit notifications about new resources.

This Reader Revenue Toolkit will continue to grow over time as more resources are added. Question you need answered? Something missing? Are your own reader revenue initiatives and projects proving successful and you want to share? Reach out to readerrevenue@pressinstitute.org.

By Gwen Vargo

How to win the loyalty of new subscribers through great onboarding

A reader has paid for a subscription. Now what needs to happen? This is a critical moment to shape the experience of subscribers and influence their sense of attachment to your organization. You want them to embrace you as a valued part of their daily lives, not stop the subscription as soon as the initial […]
By Gwen Vargo

How to retain subscribers by keeping their engagement levels high over time

Say you’ve implemented a well-designed program to onboard new customers. It’s getting them to look back favorably on their decision to subscribe, and to learn how they like to interact with your content. What’s your next priority? At this point, the goal should be to deepen the relationship — to build loyalty and make them […]
By Gwen Vargo

What are the keys to an effective subscription offer page?

Well-constructed offer pages are vital to the goal of increasing reader revenue. They can influence a user’s entire perception of your publication and service — for better or worse. Each detail deserves careful thought and planning. Yet just like registration pages, their importance is often overlooked. When readers land on a subscription offer page, they […]
By P. Kim Bui and Gwen Vargo

How to understand different reader types and drive each type to subscribe

The path from a casual reader to a paying subscriber isn’t a short one, but by understanding how audiences get from one place to another, publishers can begin to devise strategies to get more readers to complete that journey. A recent study published by the American Press Institute as part of The Media Insight Project […]
By Gwen Vargo

How to improve subscription registration and payment forms

Ensuring the best possible user experience is crucial to moving potential subscribers through your digital checkout line. Every step matters. Yet publishers often overlook — and undervalue — the registration and subscription pages they rely on to sign up these readers. That is a costly mistake. The importance of user-friendly registration and subscription pages should […]
By Gwen Vargo

Beyond email: Other tactics to drive users to subscription offers

While publishers should seize on the opportunities offered by email marketing, they should not view email — or any single approach — as the magic bullet to gaining subscribers. Wherever possible, news organizations should be using multiple touch points to connect with prospective subscribers, both on and offline. Email campaigns, while effective, rely on having […]
By Gwen Vargo

How to get the email addresses you need to drive new subscriptions

Nothing is more important to the brave new world of building subscriptions than the relatively old world of email. An email address gives publishers ways to target and connect with potential subscribers that are much more effective than metrics like “unique visitors,” a potentially misleading number due to the fact that the same person may […]
By Damon Kiesow

What it takes to shift a news organization to reader revenue

Launching a paywall is easy. Pivoting a whole business from an advertising-centric mindset to one focused on reader revenue is not. Despite 10 years of experimentation and increasing attention, the news industry still needs to develop some of the attitudes, technology and skills needed to sustain exceptional membership and subscription programs. To succeed with reader […]
By Gwen Vargo

Welcome to the Reader Revenue Toolkit

Revenue that comes directly from readers in the form of subscriptions, memberships, donations, events and more is crucial for the long-term sustainability of news organizations — especially those serving local communities. To help create that future, the American Press Institute maintains the Reader Revenue Toolkit — practical guides and resources to help publishers get started […]

Paths to Subscription: Lessons in why recent newspaper subscribers chose to pay

This study may be the largest study ever undertaken of people who have recently subscribed to newspapers. It surveyed people who subscribed in the last three months to 90 local newspapers across the country. The survey of more than 4,100 recent newspaper subscribers captures their motives and mindsets at the time of the decision. The […]