To do this, they are taking three approaches: reaching out to younger audiences in a variety of ways as well as by trying to gain new readers across Africa with a dedicated section, and new ones internationally with a new English edition.

“We want 25 percent of our portfolio in 2025 to be international,” Anne Tostain, Vice President of Subscriptions for Le Monde, told participants at WAN-IFRA’s recent Digital Media Europe conference in Oslo.

They know that high quality content is essential to achieve this, and they have invested heavily in their journalism. Today, Le Monde employs 520 journalists in France (where it is has the largest newsroom in the country) and around the world.

“We are convinced that investing in journalists, in good information, diversified information, rigorous information, is the best way to convince people to support us and to subscribe,” Tostain said.

She added that new editorial and product innovations are also helping them to reach new audiences around the world.

And Le Monde has been growing quickly, she said, increasing subscriber numbers by more than 12 percent last year, and by more than 56 percent from 2019 to 2020.

While they use a freemium model with a mix of free and paid content, the amount of free content on their website has been steadily declining. Today, Tostain said 58 percent of Le Monde’s content is behind a paywall, whereas five years ago, in 2017, that figure was 33 percent.

“We think now we have found a good …