Every subscriber who leaves has to be replaced before a subscription business can grow, which makes retention the quieter half of reader revenue and often the more profitable one. The first renewal is the real test of whether acquisition brought in the right people.
Retention starts with habit. The publishers that keep subscribers longest engage them well beyond the welcome emails, and renew on the strength of the brand rather than another discount. A surprising share of churn isn't a decision at all. Expired cards and failed payments quietly lose revenue that can often be recovered.
Some brands are losing subscribers and hard-fought revenue that could be saved with some attention and effort.
Tracy Larner Our subs retention strategy: William Reed
When someone does want to leave, how it is handled matters. Understand why before offering anything, and make the exit easy, because subscribers treated well on the way out are far more likely to come back.
Below you'll find some of our best feature articles on subscriber retention and churn, from engagement and renewal pricing to payment failure and cancellation, alongside our latest news and industry commentary.
Does your CEO know what your subscriber retention rate is? The chances are, probably not. But, according to Julian Thorne, author of our Guide to Retention Strategies for Publishers, this number should never be far from his or her (or your) mind.
A subscriber’s first 30 days are important to build habit but so is every day after, says Emma Robinson, head of customer experience.
You cannot improve a process until you have documented it, and you cannot achieve an objective until you have a process and system to support it, says Rosa Sherwood, head of CRM, engagement and loyalty.
It’s a well-known fact that engaged subscribers stay for longer, says Susanne Kinnaird, head of digital reader revenue.
It’s important not to lose subscribers and hard-fought revenue through involuntary churn, says Tracy Larner, subscriptions director.
It’s important to understand the reason for cancellation and to ensure the retention offer directly addresses the subscriber’s stated concern, says Mike Halstead, managing director of HH&S.
What determines pricing power is not only the category of need, says Andy Burden, founder of Substribe, it’s the stakes.
Making it super-hard to cancel a subscription does no one any favours.
This year’s co-chairs of the AOP Digital Publishing Awards are Faversham House’s Amanda Barnes and News UK’s Dominic Carter. We grab five minutes with them to get their views on key digital trends and the upcoming awards.
Archant has launched two new apps for readers of The Hunts Post (Huntingdon) and The Comet (Stevenage) as its major investment in app technology gathers pace.
The ABC yesterday released the consumer magazine circulation results for the period ending December 2021 and some publishers have responded with their interpretation of the figures.
The National is approaching its first birthday. What have been the year one learnings?
Active Interest Media (AIM), a leading global enthusiast media company, has partnered with Lineup for access to its subscription management solution.
Quartz, a digital news publisher, this week announced the launch of its new Quartz Africa membership.
Readly’s UK managing director, Ranj Begley, looks at current audience and content trends, which are still being heavily influenced by the pandemic.
Jess Burney, MD, direct marketing & business development, at Immediate Media Co, assesses the outlook for consumer media.
Carolyn Morgan assesses the outlook for the B2B media sector.
Boostr CEO Patrick O’Leary looks at the five key challenges publishers need to address to drive revenue growth.
JPIMedia said Digital+ subscribers at The Edinburgh Evening News and Yorkshire Post are to be served ad-free news articles, with the feature to roll out across all its titles at a later date.
We pay one more visit to last November’s PPA Independent Publisher Conference to listen to Juan Señor’s excellent keynote.
Eastern Daily Press editor David Powles said the title is to press on with its online subscription plans despite owner Archant being put up for sale by investment firm Rcapital.
The New York Times Co said it is targeting at least 15m subscribers by the end of 2027 as it revealed it has passed the 10m mark after completing the $550m acquisition of The Athletic.
San Francisco Chronicle publisher Hearst Newspapers has announced the single largest digital expansion of the newspaper group, with plans for a shared development hub.
