Denník N’s data-driven subscription strategy

Denník N’s data-driven subscription strategy

The problem: 91% of the 76 publisher professionals interviewed said “silos were moderate to very significant issues in their total revenue optimization efforts”, according to Piano and Digiday’s State of Publisher Revenue 2024 report.

The solutions: The top three solutions highlighted in the report are:

• Communicating revenue goals & responsibilities clearly.
• Conducting regular team workshops and training/cross-training sessions.
• Aligning goals and KPIs across different teams.

What does this look like in practice? A great case is that of Denník N, a Slovakian publisher. Their goal was to write articles that directly generated subscriptions. This required a solid data and content-driven approach across the analytics and newsroom teams.

The data-content pipeline: Every day, journalists would receive an email with information on subscriptions sold the previous day (not unlike Twipe’s Analytics solution). Every week, they would receive one detailing the performance of their articles, including the number of new subscriptions generated. Based on this data, journalists could adapt their content to better meet reader preferences.

Results: In the end, the average length of articles doubled, and the total number of articles published decreased. This reflected a reader preference for in-depth content, which was in line with how the journalists wanted to cover issues.  

Perplexity partners with publishers

Catch-up: Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine that summarizes information in real time. Earlier this summer, the company came under fire from Forbes and Conde Nast for reformatting their content without their permission and proper attribution.

What’s new? It seems like Perplexity is doubling down on developing partnerships with publishers and academics in the journalism space. 

• Revenue-sharing plan: Two weeks ago, Perplexity launched a revenue-sharing plan with six publishers. As it introduces advertising into its search engine’s answers, publishers will get a yet-to-be-determined slice of the pie. Their Chief Business Officer told the Financial Times that “revenue-sharing is a more powerful way of doing so than one-time lump sum payments, which is the route OpenAI went.” 

• Philanthropic donation: Last week, Perplexity also made a $250k donation to Northwestern Medill School of Journalism to study how AI will impact journalism and media consumption.  

Reddit’s organic search has increased 7x. Publishers are taking note.

The impact of Google’s update: Last September, Google brought changes to its algorithm that changed which sources were prioritized. A winner of that change? Reddit. AdWeek reports that “between August 2023 and April 2024, readership to the 20-year-old platform nearly tripled”.  

Publishers jump on the trend: Publishers such as the New York Times Opinion, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and AP, have either reactivated or created Reddit accounts.

Is there any benefit to being on Reddit? Although self-promotion is generally not well regarded on the platform, Reddit may be an interesting forum for publishers. For one, it’s popular among a sought-after audience: the under 40s. It also lends itself well to community and brand building. In an age where, especially younger audiences, want to feel closer to the people behind the story, Reddit allows for easy interactions with the public. 

What past attendees had to say about

the Digital Growth Summit

Building digital products centers on actively listening to user feedback, a philosophy we carry into organizing the Digital Growth Summit. 

Our attendees’ enthusiastic responses to DGS 2023 confirmed that our efforts are resonating. 

Experience it yourself. Grab your tickets today. 

🎧 Fan of podcasts? You’re in luck!

Twipe customer update

You can now listen to the Telegraph’s award-winning podcast shows on Twipe’s Modular News Apps.

Podcasts continue playing with the screen locked, while doing other in-app activities like playing puzzles, and while using third-party apps. This feature ensures subscribers can enjoy their favorite podcasts uninterrupted, regardless of other ongoing activities on their device.

🗞️ What we’re reading

Digital Content Next breaks down young audiences’ media consumption into 5 trends and offers 5 actions publishers can take to better serve this audience. 

The New York Times sees a 13.6% year-over-year increase in revenue.

Financial Times CEO shares his views on AI, journalism, and the health of the FT in this interview.  

💡 Twipee recommendations 

Mladen Subašić, Technical Project Manager, recommends listening to Rory Sutherland, the Vice Chairman of the marketing agency Ogilvy UK.

“I like how he describes the idea of perceived value as a product value. In his words, it’s not necessary to have faster trains, but a more enjoyable ride.”

Mladen suggests watching his Ted Talk on Youtube, “Rory Sutherland: Perspective is everything“.