When you step back and look at all the things that lead people to subscribe to a newspaper—the background factors, the specific triggers, the lifestyle conditions, and the publication characteristics—patterns emerge.
The survey asked an array of questions to get at all of this. Those multiple questions can make the results seem complicated because there is a lot to digest, but they also provide a richer profile of the consumer.
To help make sense of this robust data, we looked for patterns and connections in the answers from more than 4,100 recent subscribers. Based on this analysis, we identified nine different groups—what we call “paths to subscription.”
Some individual subscribers might fit into more than one group. But these paths offer a clear sense of different types of readers and how publishers should try to appeal to them.
The nine paths are:
- Digital Paywall Converters
- Topic Hunters
- The Locally Engaged
- Social Media-Mobile Discoverers
- Journalism Advocates
- Life Changers
- Coupon Clippers
- Print Fans
- Friends and Family
The report describes the unique combination of factors that lead each group to subscribe and offers insights into the best ways to target readers of each path.
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- Paths to Subscription: Why recent subscribers chose to pay for news
- What makes people ready to subscribe to local news, and what converts them
- After conversion: How to engage and retain new subscribers
- How different types of recent subscribers vary
- Digital subscribers: What motivates them to pay and how they are different from print readers
- Younger subscribers: What the future of paying for local news looks like
- How subscriber motivations vary in big and small markets
- What drives Republicans or Democrats to subscribe to local news
- Paths to subscription: Nine common journeys from reader to subscriber
- Digital Paywall Converters subscribe because they want unlimited articles
- Topic Hunters subscribe for news about a particular topic or issue
- The Locally Engaged subscribe because they care about the community
- Social Media-Mobile Discoverers subscribe after high-quality engagement on digital platforms
- Journalism Advocates subscribe to support a free press
- Life Changers subscribe because they just moved or changed jobs
- Coupon Clippers subscribe to get print coupons and save money
- Print Fans subscribe because they love relaxing with a paper
- ‘Friends and Family’ subscribers need news to support relationships with people
- Methodology
- Appendix 1: Respondents’ demographics and news behaviors
- Appendix 2: Analytical Definitions of Paths
- Paths to subscription: Nine common journeys from reader to subscriber
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Interacting with your community and providing quality programming while providing the news may seem daunting, but it’s worth it.
Our belief in the brand and the business hasn’t wavered. When you’re a business with a mission, it becomes the only thing that matters.
Our mingles normally draw anywhere from 20 to 40 people. At a recent one, we had the mayor, a bank vice president, several retirees, a young entrepreneur and the owners of the bowling alley hanging out in our office, all chatting with each other and our newspaper staff.
