Challenge
How might we entice our readers to pay for our content (and keep paying)?
Expertise provided
- Mixed Methods Research
- Service Design
- Product Strategy
Approach
Are we building the right thing?
As part of a small strategy squad, we set out to understand what makes people pay for news. We interviewed over 40 subscribers of our publication and also of competitor titles to unpack this broad topic. At the same time, we ran internal workshops across the business to help us understand what differentiates our brand from our competitors.
Our conversations identified over 20 news needs, as well as three overarching drivers to pay for news. Further, this phase of the work identified many value propositions that were unique to the publication.
Are we building the thing right?
Synthesis and refinement of this work (in workshops and semiotic analysis) landed the team on a clear subscription strategy and value proposition.
This work also identified a many subscriber opportunities and features across the customer journey to be further explored in the design phase.
Frame
Empathise + Discover
Define
Ideate
Prototype
various value
propositions
Test + Refine
Frame
Empathise + Discover
Define
Ideate
Prototype
various value
propositions
Test + Refine
Outcome
The framework we created for strengthening the subscription value proposition became the foundation of revised marketing, editorial and product strategies that led directly to a surge in subscription growth that continues to this day.