For this edition of the report, we are pleased to spotlight news publishers based in eight countries on four continents. Most are regional or national publishers; a couple have global reach, and two also publish a number of small, local titles. So, regardless of the size of your publishing house, there are bound to be some takeaways you can learn from and adapt.

This report is available free to WAN-IFRA Members.

Most traditional news publishers now realise they need to increase the percentage of revenue they get directly from their readers, but figuring out the best approach can be challenging.

A starting point for many is to require their online readers to register to access content on the publisher’s website and begin using a paywall. Maybe not a hard paywall at first, but one that reduces the number of freely accessible articles that a user can access within a given time period before requiring a subscription. This model has become increasingly popular, and there are many benefits to going this route.
Direct user data helps fine-tune strategies, reduce churn
Requiring registration gives a publisher direct, first-party data, and helps them to learn more about their readers and their activities while accessing their site, versus allowing anonymous users to freely come and go. This model is becoming more and more important as it can directly help a given publisher to then fine-tune both their content and their subscription drives, as well as reduce churning subsc…