As the future of the news focuses more on reader revenue as its economic model, retention of subscribers and members is becoming more critical. It is one thing to get users to subscribe, particularly with discounted introductory offers. It becomes essential to keep those consumers. To continue growing net revenue, publishers need help to evaluate what they are currently doing and where there are opportunities to improve retention and decrease churn.

To advance this cause, the American Press Institute surveyed news publishers across the United States about what they were doing, what was helping maintain customer loyalty and what was not — and what they need to know more about. We also partnered with publishing associations, including the News Media Alliance, Institute for Nonprofit News, and LION Publishers, to reach their members.

We assessed how adept news publishers are at each of nine key strategies for retaining subscribers — including such operations as onboarding new subscribers well, studying subscriber behavior, and testing price options. Within those strategies, we asked about nearly 40 discrete tactics to see what techniques are common or uncommon. We also asked publishers, in their own words, to share what methods are helping them the most with retention.

The result is a unique current snapshot of the retention strategies and needs among news publishers, with some of its findings contained in this report.

Our study accomplishes three practical purposes:

• Discovers which retention tactics and strategies are being used, or not used, at news organizations.
• Diagnoses the biggest areas of need, so API and other experts or journalism-support organizations can respond effectively.
• Establishes benchmarking data, so a given publisher who completes this survey can compare its responses to those of other publishers. (Contact us to take the assessment yourself and get your own benchmarking data.)

In the end we reached 133 respondents whose answers represented the retention strategies of 526 publications. They include publishers big and small, newspapers and digital-only, nonprofit and for-profit. All have readers who pay for content — subscriptions, memberships, or recurring donations. And all have a shared need to retain as many paying customers as possible.

The study finds some differences in retention strategies among different types of publishers. In other ways, though, they have similarities or shared challenges.

We encourage you to explore the findings and ideas detailed in this report. They include:

• What publishers do, and don’t do, about retention
• 9 subscriber retention strategies
• 31 effective subscriber-retention ideas to steal

And please get in touch with us at API for more information or to get help with your news organization’s subscriber retention efforts.

Editor’s note: For simplicity, throughout this study we will use terms such as “subscribers” or “subscriber retention,” however the terms should be understood to also encompass members or donors at publishers with those kinds of pay models.

Chapter 2

What publishers do, and don’t do, about retention

We asked publishers whether or not they currently follow 38 different tactics that each may help with customer/subscriber retention in different ways. We found some of the best practices are employed more widely than others.

Almost all publishers said they encourage their newest subscribers to sign up for email newsletters. They also use analytics to track what subscribers, as a whole, are or aren’t reading.

Many publishers also use onboarding tactics, such as sending welcome emails to new subscribers. And they respond to questions or concerns readers may raise on social media.

Overall, there were 10 retention-related tactics that we found at least two-thirds of publishers employ. They are shown in the table below.

The Top 10: Most-common retention tactics

	Percent of publishers who use each tactic
We encourage new subscribers to sign up for our email newsletters	90%
We use analytics to track what subscribers as a whole are reading	89%
We track data about which digital content online users engage with	86%
We send welcome emails that highlight features of their subscription including apps, e-editions, rewards programs, etc.	78%
We respond to individual concerns and complaints on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.	78%
Customer service tracks reasons for cancellation or lapse	74%
We conduct campaigns to win back recent cancellations	72%
We email subscribers to remind them about the overall benefits of their subscription	69%
Introductory price discounts	69%
We send surveys via email	68%

Next there is a larger group of 16 retention-related tactics that roughly half of publishers employ and half don’t.

Some of the common themes among this middle group are credit-card or customer-care tactics, such as using software to update credit cards and training customer service representatives to save cancellations.

Some tactics are dependent on having certain technical systems or expertise — like tracking individual subscriber behavior, using specific software for credit card updates and overhauling UX and customer experience for online account management.

But other tactics here are more feasible for any publisher to adopt. These include sending subscribers thank-you notes from journalists, calculating the lifetime value of a subscriber, and training customer service teams how to save cancellation requests and address complaints.

The Mixed Bag: 16 retention tactics many publishers do, but many also don’t

	Percent of publishers who use each tactic
Customer service collects more general feedback about the website, news content, etc.	62%
We give access to exclusive content	62%
We calculate a Lifetime Value metric for our subscribers	60%
Our customer service reps are trained in tactics for “saving” renewals when customers ask to cancel	60%
Options for billing frequency (monthly, quarterly, annual)	59%
We send email marketing asking for updated their credit card information	59%
We use a vendor or software that attempts to automatically update any credit card number that has changed	57%
There is a shared understanding across the organization of our goals for retention and whether we are meeting them	54%
We offer free or discounted access to our own events	46%
We send educational information about how to use our products	46%
They receive a personal thank-you note from a journalist or executive	43%
We identify subscribers who are not engaging/reading content online regularly or at all	42%
We make it easy for people to cancel subscriptions online, so they have an improved customer experience.	41%
Free trials	41%
We recommend email newsletters to subscribers based on what content they have engaged with	41%
We identify subscribers who do not engage with our other products and platforms, such as newsletters, events, podcasts, social media, etc.	41%

And then there are a dozen retention tactics that are followed by less than a third of publishers.

Many of these tactics may seem challenging or resource-intensive. They involve creating advanced segmentation or personalization, or offering subscriber-only benefits programs that have to be designed and administered.

The Overlooked: 12 retention tactics used by less than a third of publishers

	Percent of publishers who use each tactic
We have one-to-one communications when on site prompting subscribers to update credit card information	33%
We target low-engagement subscribers with campaigns to re-engage with content before their renewal date	31%
We organize meetups of subscribers and our employees	31%
We segment our subscribers based on their risk of cancellation	28%
We offer a reward program	27%
We offer discounts on local products and services	27%
We ask visitors to answer a survey while they are on our website or app	25%
We send them free gifts	25%
We send individual subscribers personalized messages about the content and services they have used	23%
We personalize the content subscribers see on our website or app based on what they have previously engaged with	20%
We personalize our communications with individual subscribers based on what they are reading	17%
Our subscribers can get other news and entertainment services for free or discounted prices through our partnerships	17%

Chapter 3

9 subscriber retention strategies

We asked news publishers to tell us how much potential value they thought different retention strategies could have. This was independent of whether the publisher was doing these things or doing them well. The results show what aspects of subscriber retention are considered most important.

This allowed us to identify gaps — or areas that might be valuable of which many publishers are not taking advantage. In the chart below, the orange bars identify the retention activities that publishers considered most valuable. The blue bars indicate what percentage of publishers felt they were proficient at each. There is a lot of room to make up.

Retention strategy	Value: Percent who said “extremely” or “very” valuable	Proficiency: Percent who said “very” or “fairly” proficient
Onboard new subscribers	86.3%	53%
Study interests and behaviors	86.0%	31%
Actively encourage renewal	85.5%	44%
Identify at-risk subscribers	83.5%	19%
Use metrics to evaluate churn	82.6%	28%
Test initial subscription offers	79.2%	48%
Track what subscribers read	75.7%	30%
Fix credit-card expirations	74.4%	46%
Offer subscriber-only benefits	62.0%	23%

American Press Institute

Below we explore each of these nine strategies in more detail, one at a time, to see how publishers are handling each one and where there is room for making productive change.

Collect information about subscribers’ interests and behaviors

One obvious strategy for retaining subscribers is to pay attention to what they are telling you. That means gathering feedback and tracking subscribers’ behavior and interests, both individually and collectively. And then adapting your content strategy and business practices to serve those subscriber needs as best you can.

For example, the Wall Street Journal recently created a cross-functional team to identify what specific user actions by new subscribers within their first 100 days indicate likelihood to renew their subscription. The effort, nicknamed “Project Habit,” identified some intuitive actions like subscribing to a newsletter or downloading an app. But also things like loyal consumption of a particular topic or author, reading recurring features such as a weekly column, and reading features stories beyond finance or politics.

In our study we found a huge share of publishers (86%) agreed that collecting information about their subscribers’ interests and behaviors was fairly or very valuable. However, they rated their proficiency as just moderate.

Answer Choices	VALUE	PROFICIENCY
Not at all	0%	6%
Not very	1%	17%
Somewhat	13%	45%
Fairly	40%	24%
Very	46%	8%

Data Source: Q: In general, how would you rate your organization’s proficiency at collecting information about subscribers' interests and behaviors? / In general, how much value do you think collecting information about subscribers' interests and behaviors has or could have to the organization?

American Press Institute

We asked about five specific tactics that might be used to learn about subscribers.

The most commonly used tactic (by 86% of the respondents) is to track what content is being read online by subscribers. That practice is nearly universally employed by most types of news publishers, with the exception of the smallest newspapers (of whom still a majority, 67%, are employing).

The least-used tactic is asking readers to complete a survey (only 25% do this). This low response could be due to technical obstacles real or perceived which is keeping organizations from using this approach to learning.

	Percent who use this tactic
We track data about which digital content online users engage with	86%
Customer service tracks reasons for cancellation or lapse	74%
We send surveys via email	68%
Customer service collects more general feedback about the website, news content, etc.	62%
We ask visitors to answer a survey while they are on our website or app	25%

Data Source: Q: In which of the following ways does your organization collect information about subscribers' interests and behaviors? For each tell us whether you use this tactic or not.

American Press Institute

We found that online-only, for-profit publishers were more likely to employ most of these tactics.

One exception is that online-only publishers of any type are less likely to have customer service track reasons for non-renewal.

The smallest circulation papers are less likely to use any of these methods for learning about subscriber behavior, with one exception: small papers are actually more likely than others to have their customer service departments track the reasons customers didn’t renew (83% vs 74% of all publishers).

Identify subscribers who are at risk of cancellation

One great way to reduce subscriber churn is to determine in advance which subscribers are at highest-risk of nonrenewal, and then intervene.

The Arizona Republic realized that almost half of its paid digital subscribers were not visiting their website at all in a given month. They found that group accounted for 50% subscription stops each month. They used analytics to guide content changes that cut the share of unengaged subscribers from 42% to 26%, increasing retention as a result.

In our study, this strategy of identifying at-risk subscribers was one of the biggest areas where publishers could improve their tactics.

Publishers tended to rate their proficiency at identifying at-risk subscribers as “not very” or only “somewhat” proficient. More than half (52%) of publishers are “not very” or “not at all” proficient at identifying at-risk subscribers.

But 84% say it would be at least “fairly valuable” and 38% say doing so could be “very valuable.”

Answer Choices	VALUE	PROFICIENCY
Not at all	0%	14%
Not very	2%	38%
Somewhat	14%	29%
Fairly	46%	14%
Very	38%	5%

Data Source: Q: In general how proficient is your organization at identifying subscribers at risk of cancellation? / In general, how much value do you think identifying subscribers at risk of canceling has or could have to your organization?

American Press Institute

This suggests that one of the biggest technological needs for publishers is to implement more sophisticated and integrated CRM software that links all subscribers’ identities to their digital engagement. This would enable publishers to see which subscribers are NOT signing in or visiting their products.

Such technology would also help address a related need — the ability to model “churn propensity.” Which behavior patterns by a given subscriber should cause a publisher to worry that a customer is likely to cancel a subscription? To learn that requires the technology to trace subscribers’ behavior backward in time after they cancel subscriptions, and find patterns in that behavioral data.

We did find, as an exception, that larger news organizations are more proficient at doing this than smaller ones. Large newspapers (with a circulation of 200,000 or more) all felt at least “somewhat proficient” at identifying subscribers at risk of cancellation. This difference supports the idea that access to technology and resources is a driver of this gap.

Answer Choices	All Respondents	Large Metro or National Papers (Circulation of 200,000 or more)
Not at all proficient	14%	0%
Not very proficient	38%	0%
Somewhat proficient	29%	40%
Fairly proficient	14%	40%
Very proficient	5%	20%

Data Source: Q: In general how proficient is your organization at identifying subscribers at risk of cancellation?

American Press Institute

We asked about two specific tactics that publishers might use to learn about subscribers — identifying subscribers who are not engaged with your online content, and identifying those who are not engaged with your other products and platforms.

Fewer than half of all news organizations said they do either of these. This was a question that yielded some interesting open-ended responses, in which publishers described in their own words methods they were using to identify subscribers at risk of cancelling. Here are some of those:

• “We have a predictive churn model which uses many inputs.”
• “We identify trends in losses. For example, we have a drop in monthly subscribers in months 5 and 6, so we do a more intense onboarding campaign in month 4.”
• “A comprehensive predictive churn model that scores every user every week.”
• “We track customers who are outside of their normal payment renewal pattern.”

	Percent who use each tactic
We identify subscribers who are not engaging/reading content online regularly or at all	42%
We identify subscribers who do not engage with our other products and platforms	41%

Data Source: Q: In which of the following ways do you identify subscribers who are at risk of cancellation?

American Press Institute

The smallest newspapers (below 50,000 circulation) were even less likely to do these things — fewer than 20% of them employ either tactic of identifying disengaged subscribers.

An outlier in the other direction is the large-metropolitan newspapers, at which 100% said they identify subscribers who are not engaging online.

With reducing churn and increasing retention as priorities for many news organizations, being able to identify the subscribers who are most at risk will be critical to overall success with digital subscriptions.

Limit involuntary churn caused by credit card expirations

There may be nothing a publisher can do to keep a subscriber who really wants to cancel. But a good share of lost subscribers are people who were willing to continue but their automatic-payment information failed.

Nearly all the publishers we surveyed said that being able to fix payment errors due to expired credit cards is valuable to them (95% said at least “somewhat valuable,” while 37% said “very valuable”).

But most organizations rated themselves only “somewhat” or “fairly” proficient at doing this.

Answer Choices	VALUE	PROFICIENCY
Not at all	5%	11%
Not very	1%	12%
Somewhat	20%	30%
Fairly	38%	35%
Very	37%	11%

Data Source: Q: In general, how proficient are your organizations systems to limit involuntary churn caused by credit card expirations? / In general, how much value do you think these systems to limit involuntary churn has or could have to your organization?

American Press Institute

We asked about four specific tactics that might be used to update expired credit card information.

The most common tactic (employed by 59% of publishers) is to send emails asking subscribers to update credit card numbers. About the same number of publishers (57%) use software to automatically update credit card numbers whenever possible.

Less common is to show subscribers a notice about expired card information while they are on the publisher’s website (only 33% do this).

	Percent who use this tactic
We send email marketing asking for their updated credit card information	59%
We use a vendor or software that attempts to automatically update any credit card number that has changed	57%
We make it easy for people to cancel subscriptions online, so they have an improved customer experience	41%
We have one-to-one communications when on site prompting subscribers to update credit card information	33%

Data Source: Q: In which of the following ways does your organization try to limit involuntary churn caused by credit card expirations?

American Press Institute

Welcome, engage and onboard new subscribers

Subscribers are more likely to renew if they are aware of all the benefits of their subscription, and feel personally connected to the publisher’s brand.

A thorough and thoughtful onboarding process to welcome new subscribers is one great way to maximize your chances of retaining them. It is especially important for new subscribers who start on a short-term trial and will soon have a decision to make.

In short, this boils down to building habits. The print newspaper nurtured a morning habit. The evening newscast nurtured a habit. A familiar thing, at the same time, every day. The world of digital news is noisier and less scheduled, but there are still many ways that publishers try to establish habits in their readers’ lives.

In our study, 87% of publishers place at least a fairly high value on welcoming, engaging and onboarding new subscribers. They also rated themselves as fairly and somewhat proficient.

One exception is smallest-circulation papers felt less proficient, only 34% felt more than somewhat proficient, compared with 62% of all publishers.

Answer Choices	VALUE	PROFICIENCY
Not at all	0%	4%
Not very	0%	19%
Somewhat	14%	25%
Fairly	48%	34%
Very	39%	19%

Data Source: Q: In general, how proficient is your organization welcoming, engaging and onboarding new subscribers? / In general, how much value do you think welcoming, engaging and onboarding new subscribers has or could have to your organization?

American Press Institute

We asked about four specific tactics that might be used to welcome and onboard subscribers.

Almost everyone (90%) encourages subscribers to sign up for their newsletters and 78% send a welcome email. Those tactics were common among all types and sizes of publishers.

However, only minorities of publishers send educational information about how to use their products (46%) or send personal notes from a person in the newsroom (43%). Small newspapers are especially unlikely to send educational materials about their products (only 25% do so).

	Percent who use this tactic
We encourage new subscribers to sign up for our email newsletters	90%
We send welcome emails that highlight features of their subscriptions, including apps, e-editions, rewards programs, etc.	78%
We send educational information about how to use our products	46%
They receive a personal thank-you note from a journalist or executive	43%

Data Source: Q: In which of the following ways does your organization welcome, engage and onboard new subscribers?

American Press Institute

Encourage existing digital subscribers to renew

Another important strategy for retaining subscribers is to actively invest in strengthening your relationships with each individual subscriber, so they are happy to renew when the decision comes.

Publishers largely agreed that this is a high-value strategy (86% say “very” or “fairly” valuable). And most feel they are moderately proficient at doing so. But only 10% feel “very” proficient.

Answer Choices	VALUE	PROFICIENCY
Not at all	1%	6%
Not very	3%	17%
Somewhat	11%	32%
Fairly	45%	34%
Very	41%	10%

Data Source: Q: In general, how proficient is your organization encouraging digital subscribers to renew? / In general, how much value do you think encouraging digital subscribers to renew has or could have to your organization?

American Press Institute

We asked about six specific tactics that might be used to maintain strong relationships with each existing subscriber.

Today a dissatisfied subscriber is just as likely to vent their frustration publicly on Twitter or Facebook as they are to call or email the publisher directly. So for publishers, addressing those complaints requires someone to monitor social networks and respond to concerns and complaints. This was the most-commonly embraced tactic in this area, with 78% of publishers doing so. Responding to social media posts is notably less common at large metro newspapers (just 40% do so). That may be a matter of scale — as audience size and market size grow, the ability to monitor and respond to a large volume of social chatter becomes more difficult.

Other commonly used tactics include about 7 in 10 publishers saying they use marketing campaigns targeted at recent cancellations to try to win them back, and that they occasionally email existing subscribers to remind them about the benefits of their subscription.

Still common, but a bit less so, is that 60% of publishers will train their customer service representatives in methods to “save” a subscriber (if possible) when they ask to cancel a subscription.

There are two tactics that a small number of publishers are using. Both deal with targeting their digital subscribers based on their user behavior and how they are engaging with the content and products. Only 31% of publishers target low-engagement subscribers with marketing campaigns to re-engage with content before their renewal date. And only 23% send individual subscribers personalized messages reminding them about which content and services they have used.

	Percent who use this tactic
We respond to individual concerns and complaints on social media	78%
We conduct campaigns to win back recent cancellations	72%
We email subscribers to remind them about subscription benefits	69%
Our customer service reps are trained in “saving” renewals	60%
We target low-engagement subscribers with re-engagement campaigns	31%
We send subscribers personalized messages about the content and services they have used	23%

Data Source: Q: In which of the following ways does your organization encourage its existing digital subscribers to renew?

American Press Institute

Measure and test initial subscription promotions or offers

One of a publisher’s best tools for adding new subscribers is to offer an introductory discount. But what kinds of initial promotions will lead to subscribers you can actually retain after the trial expires?

This is a key question, and was the second-biggest area of need we found among publishers.

Many publishers say they have little evidence about which introductory offers are effective. This aspect of retention strategy had the lowest proficiency rating among all 9 we studied. Although 80% of publishers think testing their initial promotions is at least “fairly” important, there is highly mixed and inconsistent confidence in whether they do this well.

Answer Choices	VALUE	PROFICIENCY
Not at all	3%	10%
Not very	3%	15%
Somewhat	15%	27%
Fairly	42%	27%
Very	38%	21%

Data Source: Q: In general, how proficient is your organization at testing different initial subscription offers? / In general, how much value do you think testing different initial subscription offers has or could have to your organization?

American Press Institute

On this subject, as was true with identifying at-risk subscribers, the large newspapers are more proficient than are smaller newspapers or online publishers. In the most extreme case, a majority of online-only for-profit publishers say they are “not at all proficient” at this.

Answer Choices	Online For-Profit	Online Nonprofit	Small Papers (Circulation under 50k)	Mid-Sized Papers (Circulation of 50-99k)	Large Papers (Circulation 100-199k)	Large Metro or National Papers (Circulation over 200k)
Not at all proficient	50%	25%	8%	0%	0%	0%
Not very proficient	17%	25%	17%	0%	20%	0%
Somewhat proficient	0%	33%	25%	40%	20%	20%
Fairly proficient	33%	8%	33%	40%	40%	20%
Very proficient	0%	8%	17%	20%	20%	60%

Data Source: Q: In general, how proficient is your organization at testing different initial subscription offers? / In general, how much value do you think testing different initial subscription offers has or could have to your organization?

American Press Institute

We asked about a few tactics for introductory offers.

Most publishers offer introductory price discounts (69%) and different options for billing frequency (59%). Many also offer free trials (41%).

	Percent who use this tactic
Introductory price discounts	69%
Options for billing frequency (monthly, quarterly, annual)	59%
Free trials	41%

Data Source: Q: Which of the following kinds of initial subscription promotions or offers does your organization measure the rate of retention for?

American Press Institute

One way in which we think publishers could improve their ability to measure and refine initial subscription promotions is to focus on the initial pricing.

The nearly one-third of organizations who do not yet test introductory prices would benefit from doing so. And for those who are already using introductory pricing there are opportunities to test different elements of the pricing.

For example, how the price is expressed? In terms of cost per week, or per month? If an introductory price is $1 for the first month of service, it could be expressed as $1 for 4 weeks, $1 for 1 month, 99 cents for 4 weeks, etc. These framings have different impacts on consumer psychology and may result in different rates of conversion and post-trial retention.

Testing different discount amounts could also affect not only conversion at the beginning, but the retention rate as well. With a highly discounted rate, there may be a large number of new subscribers, but less likely to renew than those who would accept at a higher trial-period price.

All aspects of introductory pricing and promotions have the potential to affect retention rates and should not be tested in isolation.

Free trials are another tactic to pay close attention to.

These are often with digital entertainment services like Netflix, Disney Plus, or Spotify, but sometimes also used in news organizations. As an example, a 30-day free trial that begins with the consumer providing credit-card information is much more valuable than trials that begin with no payment information. With a credit card on file and ready to charge at the end of the free trial, it is especially valuable for a publisher to engage the user during the trial with thoughtful onboarding that explains all benefits and services. The trial with credit card information on file will most likely have fewer people sign up, but convert at a higher rate.

Free trials without a credit card could get more people since there is a lower commitment upfront, but then the publisher needs to work harder during the trial to onboard, engage and demonstrate value since the conversion is not automatic.

There is not necessarily one right or wrong choice, which is why testing to see results all the way through to retention after the trial is important.

Finally, a third important variable is the frequency of billing or length of subscription term. We found 6 in 10 publishers (59%) let subscribers choose between several options of billing frequency (such as monthly vs. annual).

Online-only, for-profit organizations ranked the lowest for offering billing frequency options, at just 17%. One factor may be that annual billing is more commonly used in legacy print news organizations that have print circulation where annual billing cycles are the norm.

Offering various billing cycles can be a smart tactic, as it gives each consumer a way to express the level of short-term or long-term commitment they are comfortable with. You may use pricing incentives to make an annual subscription more attractive, because subscribers who agree to longer terms tend to retain at higher rates. Analyzing the expected “lifetime value” of a given subscriber can help you calculate the tradeoffs between lower prices and higher retention rates.

Offer subscriber-only benefits

For a certain kind of subscriber, the decision to maintain their subscription is all about cost versus value.

In earlier research, API identified this group as the “Thrifty Transactors.” Their interest in subscribing is driven by a combination of utility (news they can use) and relevance (reflects their sensibilities and interests). They are very price-sensitive and need to feel their purchases are high value.

For those kinds of people, publishers can benefit from offering extra benefits that are exclusive rewards for subscribers. For example, the Greeley Tribune in Colorado partnered with local restaurants to create a dining discount card program.

We found that publishers don’t see this strategy being quite as important as some others, but still one worth trying. And most feel not very proficient at it.

Answer Choices	VALUE	PROFICIENCY
Not at all	0%	11%
Not very	8%	32%
Somewhat	30%	34%
Fairly	32%	14%
Very	30%	8%

Data Source: Q: In general, how proficient is your organization at offering and testing subscriber-only benefits? / In general, how much value do you think testing subscriber-only benefits has or could have to your organization?

American Press Institute

We asked about seven types of subscriber-only benefits a publisher might offer. By far the most common is to give subscribers access to exclusive content (62% of publishers do this). That could be “hardwalled” news stories available only to subscribers, or other special content.

But fewer than half of publishers employ any of the other types of benefits, such as discounted access to events (46%), meetups with the staff (31%), or discounts on local products and services (27%).

One difference among types of publishers is that mid-sized newspapers (50,000 to 100,000 circulation) had 80% offering meetups with subscribers and employees. But on the whole, this area of strategy is not highly used by most publishers.

	Percent who use this tactic
We give access to exclusive content	62%
We offer free or discounted access to our own events	46%
We organize meetups of subscribers and our employees	31%
We offer a reward program	27%
We offer discounts on local products and services	27%
We send them free gifts	25%
Subscribers can get other news and entertainment services for discounted prices through our partnerships	17%

Data Source: Q: In which of the following ways does your organization offer subscriber-only benefits?

American Press Institute

Track what content subscribers engage with

The core appeal of any news product is the content. If people perceive the information to be unique, compelling, entertaining and useful, they will subscribe. If not, they won’t.

So one of the most fundamental ways to retain subscribers is to make sure the content continues to serve them well and reach them. To do this, you have to know what subscribers are reading or not.

The most-advanced version of this involves personalization to give each customer unique recommendations or experiences informed by their past behavior.

The publishers in our study ranked themselves overall as mid to low in their proficiency at personalizations. Only 4% said they were “very” proficient. But they did think it was highly valuable to track what content subscribers engage with.

Answer Choices	VALUE	PROFICIENCY
Not at all	0%	7%
Not very	4%	32%
Somewhat	20%	31%
Fairly	36%	25%
Very	40%	4%

Data Source: Q: In general, how proficient is your organization at tracking what content subscribers engage with? / In general, how much value do you think tracking what content subscribers engage with has or could have to your organization?

American Press Institute

We asked about four specific tactics that might be used.

Using analytics to track what subscribers as a whole are reading is a tactic that is used by 89% of the respondents.

Far fewer are using the following tactics the involve more sophisticated personalization to the online behavior of each digital subscriber.

	Percent who use this tactic
We use analytics to track what subscribers as a whole are reading	89%
We recommend email newsletters to subscribers based on what content they have engaged with	41%
We personalize the content subscribers see based on what they have previously engaged with	20%
We personalize communications with individual subscribers based on what they are reading	17%

Data Source: Q: In which of the following ways does your organization track what content subscribers engage with?

American Press Institute

Large newspapers (in this case, the two groups of 100,000 circulation or higher) are more likely to recommend email newsletters to subscribers based on what content they have engaged with. 80% of them offer personalized newsletter recommendations, compared to just 41% of all publishers.

Use metrics to evaluate churn

If you can’t measure something, you stand little chance of getting better at it.

That old wisdom holds true when it comes to subscriber retention as well. To keep churn under control, a publisher needs to have the right metrics at hand to spot problems quickly and monitor improvement.

On this subject, we found publishers lack confidence. Just 6% said they were very proficient at measuring churn. Most (83%) agreed it would be a very or fairly valuable thing to do well.

Answer Choices	VALUE	PROFICIENCY
Not at all	0%	9%
Not very	3%	30%
Somewhat	14%	33%
Fairly	42%	22%
Very	41%	6%

Data Source: Q: In general, how proficient is your organization at using metrics to evaluate and measure churn? / In general, how much value do you think using metrics to evaluate and measure churn has or could have to your organization?

American Press Institute

We asked about three specific tactics that might be used to calculate metrics related to retention.

60% of respondents calculate the Lifetime Value for their digital subscribers, meaning the total amount of money a customer is expected to spend not just this year but in their lifetime. Such a metric takes the long view by balancing current prices, future price increases, and the probability of retention.

Also more than half (54%) of publishers say there is a shared understanding by employees across the organization of their goals for retention and whether they are meeting them. This is important to ensure everyone who has a role to play in subscriber satisfaction and retention can play it well.

Only 28% of publishers segment subscribers into groups based on their estimated risk of cancellation.

	Percent of publishers who use this tactic
We calculate a Lifetime Value metric for our subscribers	60%
There is a shared understanding across the organization of our goals for retention and whether we are meeting them	54%
We segment our subscribers based on their risk of cancellation	28%

Data Source: Q: In which of the following ways does your organization use metrics to evaluate churn?

American Press Institute

Chapter 4

31 effective subscriber-retention ideas to steal

We asked news publishers to answer, in their own words, these two questions:

• Is there anything you have changed or implemented recently that made a measurable improvement in subscriber retention?
• What is the single most effective thing you are doing to help with retention?

The responses were varied of course, but on the whole they cover a range of interesting ideas and include many relatively simple tactics that other publishers might consider adopting.

Here is a list of 31 things that publishers told us was helping them improve retention (download the graphic version here):

1. In addition to sending an email series to lapsed subscribers, add a direct-mail piece.
2. Make customer service calls to a subscriber after they are halfway through their grace period.
3. Send renewal notices to subscribers who have not renewed, with a survey asking the reason for non-renewal.
4. Encourage new subscribers to sign up for newsletters.
5. For readers who unsubscribe from or are not interested in a daily newsletter, offer instead a weekly newsletter or alerts for a specific topic.
6. Launch an exclusive, monthly, members-only newsletter
7. Update and increase the number of email renewal notices.
8. Implement automated email messages to users whose credit cards are set to expire or have expired.
9. Create a set of reduced payment rates that customer service representatives can offer to help save a subscriber who is considering cancellation.
10. Use existing engagement data to inform rate negotiations for renewals and cancellation win-backs.
11. Prioritize subscriber retention in your organization by creating a dedicated team focused on it.
12. Use in-person or virtual events, focus groups and surveys to create ongoing conversations with readers.
13. Collect subscriber email addresses to send renewals through email, including to existing print subscribers.
14. Encourage auto-renewals and automatic payments for as many new subscribers as possible, even if they are not buying online.
15. Communicate the organization’s purpose of helping readers increase their level of awareness.
16. Organize events to meet our journalists.
17. For subscribers who have not opened emails in the last 3 months, remove them from the distribution list.
18. Upgrade our paywall/subscription system.
19. Use a payment vendor to automatically update credit card numbers when possible.
20. Send subscribers personalized reading recommendations from reporters and editors.
21. Engage subscribers with newsletters, and produce more content known to be popular with subscribers.
22. Add an annual digital subscription option to our checkout page. Longer terms are usually more likely to retain.
23. Test longer introductory rates (months), which could retain better than shorter term periods (weeks)
24. Transition subscriptions that are renewed manually to auto-renew.
25. Decrease the amount of initial discounts, and gradually raise a subscriber’s price from initial discount to full-rate over several periods of small increases to produce a higher, more consistent renewal rate.
26. Use a paywall to focus on recurring donors and auto-renew subscriptions.
27. Email series for new subscribers, including information about how to use their subscription and personal welcomes from reporters and editors.
28. Create an onboarding program that nurtures new subscribers.
29. Consistently communicate with our subscribers. Listen, and respond. It is extremely valuable, whether it comes in an email, a letter or a phone call. Make them feel special.
30. Track newsletter engagement and use surveys to develop special events that match current concerns of readers.
31. Be sure to calculate an accurate churn rate, and get data needed.