The phrase ‘audience-first’ has been thrown around the publishing industry for years as a ‘best practice’ to succeed in digital reader revenue models. But, in my opinion, the opportunities that digital, compared to print, brings in terms of being audience-first haven’t been maximized to their full potential.
2025, is hopefully the year that this changes! But not only - 2025 is also the year publishers become human-first.
Using data for personalization and targeting is one thing - increasing engagement to bring the right content, offer and messaging to the right audience, at the right time - is definitely a step in the right direction.
But with the rise of automation and AI, where we can get content pretty much anywhere, actual human relationships and communities will be ever-more vital for success.
It’s something that Mattia Peretti is advocating for (mainly from a journalistic perspective, but applicable across the board), where publishers find that “juste milieu", the intersection between creating products and experiences that create value for people and society AND support financial sustainability.
Concretely, how can this play out for publishers?
> Well-defined and widely communicated mission statement that encompasses the culture, goals and values of your company. This doesn’t necessarily have to link to your product, but the sentiments and benefits that it creates. Just look at the example of Starbucks - not once do they mention coffee. Instead, the focus is on the conversation, community and human connections that coffee creates.
You can then move to the value proposition to help you match what your organisation offers with what your community needs.
> Build a community and we don’t just mean add a comment section.
The publishers who are succeeding the most with community building are those that have a variety of ways for readers to feel part of the community, and that get journalists involved in conversations.
The Times and The Telegraph for instance have “Ask the experts” hours where a journalist is in the comment section, replying directly to reader questions. They’ve also developed reader-led journalism from these, a perfect eco-system of articles inciting conversation which creates more-human journalism which creates community.
Daily Maverick has taken this a step further by building what they call their superpower database, collecting 3 answers from new members to understand where their expertise lies. Unlike most data collection, the questions were framed as benefiting members rather than the publication. By sharing these details, an Insider could be contacted by the Daily Maverick team to participate in their journalism, provide expertise on a certain topic or even be invited to join a panel session at one of their events.
It’s a way of making a member feel like they’re directly supporting journalism, building that all-important sense of belonging whilst also providing a searchable database that’s indispensable to editorial teams, giving them an edge in having access to such a wide variety of experts who are ready to help at any moment.
DER SPIEGEL in Germany realised that commenting across the site diluted the potential value for the community, so developed a debating section with a clear question up for debate, links to articles from the editorial team, ability for readers to vote and share comments.
> Let’s put a stop with the one-size-fits-all models
Whether it be homepage personalization (Schipsted saw subscriber click-through rates on the front page increase by 25% in less than a year), targeted churn prevention (such as Hearst US’ 75-variable subscriber scoring system) or manual personalization by users via UX functionalities (ability to save content for later, follow topics and authors, etc.), adapting a site to each reader as an individual with their own interests and preferences is essential, especially for younger generations.
And I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t mention dynamic paywalls….
A dynamic paywall model is when the conversion journey adapts to a reader’s profile or context, depending on the publisher’s strategy.
This is achieved through audience segmentation – splitting readers into groups based on factors such as their location, the device they’re using to access the website, how they came to arrive on the site, the article they’re on, their level of engagement, etc.
Given that every visitor to a publisher’s website is different, this strategy allows for adapted and targeted paywall messaging, subscription offers, and engagement journeys to optimize conversion rates for each ‘type’ of reader.
I’d recommend this article if you’re looking to get started with a dynamic paywall model.
> Get journalists involved
The aforementioned community-building strategies will only succeed if journalists get involved, helping to bring readers into the content, not only in terms of soliciting their expertise but also making articles feel human-focused.
For instance, The Times & Sunday Times integrates reader comments, poll results and contributions into their journalism, such as through reader recipe of the week.
Even simply forefronting journalists and using their photos across the site can play a significant role in building more human relationships. We see this on paywalls (which include a quote and photo from the editor-in-chief, for instance), on newsletter sign up pages (where the newsletter image is of the author) or even as the image of the article.
In conclusion - don’t forget that your audience isn’t one big group. They’re individuals (humans) with different contexts, reading habits, levels of engagement, interests… But, equally, your readers are different from your neighbour’s. So start with the data and go from there!
If you have further questions, or are interested in getting started on being dynamic in your reader revenue model, get in touch!
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Madeleine is VP Marketing at Poool and Co-founder of The Audiencers, working to provide publishers with the tools, expertise and inspiration to engage, convert and retain your readers for high LTV.
