Ganan los esfuerzos detrás de la ‘Mejor Iniciativa de Suscripción Digital’ de Clarín

Source: WAN INFRA

-Clarín launched its registration system in 2015. This laid the groundwork to launch a digital subscription model in April 2017, becoming the first news publisher in Argentina to do so. As of July 2023, the company has more than 650,000 paid subscriptions.

by Neha Gupta

This case study is part of our next Awards Report, to be published later this year.

"We did it because a business model based solely on advertising was exhausted and it was necessary to move to a model where subscription revenues had greater weight," said Gonzalo Abascal, Clarín's editorial secretary.

Clarín won "Best Digital Subscription Initiative" for "moving from a metered paywall to a smart paywall" at WAN-IFRA's Digital Media Awards Worldwide.

As of July 2023, the company has more than 650,000 paid subscriptions.

Their new goal is to reach 1 million subscribers by 2025 and expand teams dedicated to premium content production.

As part of this plan, they are working to enter other markets. For example, the United States, which has a huge Spanish-speaking population.

"The impetus for this project was to find a new sustainable business model, which would give value to quality journalism, and it was possible thanks to a team of 25 people," said Abascal.

Currently, close to 30 million people visit Clarín's website every month.

"We all know that they are sporadic readers, and they do not pay anything to read a note, two or three pieces, but we have the opportunity to convert them, build their loyalty and then subscribe," said Emilio Basavilbaso, Chief Operating Officer.

Diverse portfolio and organizational alignment

The leading Spanish-language publisher ranks 15th in the global newspaper market. It offers three subscription packages: annual digital subscription, monthly digital subscription and a full monthly digital offer.

After reaching this milestone, the company redoubled its efforts to create diverse offerings for its range of readers and potential subscribers, while facing the ongoing challenge of increasing the total number of unique users.

This involved moving away from a traditional functional structure to an approach based on key initiatives, with a focus on the company's organizational capabilities.

See also: With 700,000 paying subscribers, digital is more profitable than print for Clarín de Argentina.

To achieve this, a digital management team was formed to oversee the site's technical performance, innovation, product enhancement and user experience.

The editorial organization chart was then reformulated to meet the new objectives.

The process began by dividing the editorial vertical of the newsroom into four sections, each of which was under the leadership of a central bureau chief.

Three of these four sections track information consumption by registered users and subscribers, number of subscribers reading content, and time spent as key performance indicators.

The fourth section works exclusively according to the needs of the mass audience.

Javier Kraviez, Chief Digital Officer, points out: "The intention is not to overlook those readers who are not subscribers and who may never become subscribers, but for whom the Clarín brand must continue to be a benchmark".

Each of the four sections has its own subscription and page views targets.

During this period, the production of special content for subscribers was also developed. The average reading time of each piece of this content was more than 4 minutes, exceeding the time of the content published periodically.

These efforts were coordinated by Clarín's 10-person Special Productions team, which includes journalists, illustrators, video and audio editors, graphic designers and web designers.

It takes at least three weeks to complete each production.

Clarín's most consumed and highest subscriber-converting content, produced by the brand's most popular journalists, was put behind the paywall.

As a result, for the first time in the brand's history, Clarín's digital revenue exceeded its advertising revenue.

"In the next 4 to 5 years, the digital unit will represent 80 percent of our revenues," said Basavilbaso, chief operating officer.

"The participation and cooperation of Clarín's different departments have been vital factors in the success of this subscription model. We always understood that this was a work of co-creation and co-execution," he said.

Behind the scenes and a redesigned application

The first step in implementing the smart paywall involved conducting an in-depth diagnosis of Clarín's subscribers' consumption patterns and habits.

The team examined their potential digital subscriber base and segmented them into well-defined groups to understand the depth of their relationship with the brand and product.

They also analyzed how these different segments spent their time on Clarín's website.

They also analyzed how these different segments spent time on the Clarín website. In parallel, the team worked on improving the UX, in collaboration with international company GlobalLogic, to comprehensively understand the different points of interaction between the product and readers, to "offer a user experience that guarantees the satisfaction of potential digital users."

"A complete diagnosis of the internal work process was also made to identify bottlenecks, idle and insufficient capital," said Abascal, Clarín's editorial secretary.

As part of the subscription strategy, they also launched a new mobile application.

Divide and conquer subscription strategy

The digital management team used a metered paywall to execute the following actions:

Article reading limits based on content and reading preferences.

Generate clusters of users, based on their interests and reading frequency. Create corporate subscription offers through agreements with associations, clubs, unions, and universities. Produce five exclusive newsletters for subscribers with premium content. Currently produce 24 newsletters. clusters de usuarios, según sus intereses y frecuencia de lectura.

Crear ofertas de suscripción corporativa a través de convenios con asociaciones, clubes, sindicatos y universidades.

Create different offers during sales. Develop a proprietary technological tool for subscription and reader service.Q&A with Javier Kraviez, digital director of Clarin:

Preguntas y respuestas con Javier Kraviez, director digital de Clarin:

1) What has been your biggest learning or conclusion from this product/initiative, etc.? The key for a mass consumption media in this new reality is to understand that not all audiences are willing to pay for content, so it is important to identify and create clusters, and know their preferences.

Once this is done, it is essential to offer paying users’ content that they find relevant and consider valuable. "We are making business decisions based on data and evidence. Decisions that have to do with how we achieve a better engagement between readers and content producers, without jeopardizing the veracity and value of the information hierarchy, are two immutable values of Clarín's journalistic activity," he said. In addition, El País of Spain highlighted Clarín as one of the four global media with a successful subscription model. The others are The New York Times, Financial Times, and Le Monde.

Una vez hecho esto, es esencial ofrecer a los usuarios de pago contenido que consideren relevante y que consideren valioso.

“Estamos tomando decisiones comerciales basadas en datos y evidencia. Las decisiones que tienen que ver con cómo logramos un mejor engagement entre lectores y productores de contenidos, sin poner en riesgo la veracidad y el valor de la jerarquía informativa, son dos valores inmutables de la actividad periodística de Clarín”, afirmó.

Además, El País de España destacó a Clarín como uno de los cuatro medios globales con un modelo de suscripción exitoso. Los otros son The New York Times, Financial Times y Le Monde.

In retrospect, Abascal said the team should have launched premium content for subscribers from the beginning. "We should have restricted access to the columns of the company's top journalists. They are the most consumed and generate the highest conversion rate," he said.

2) How has this evolved or developed from the time you submitted your nomination for the award? Can you share any results?

In the three months since submitting the entry, Clarín's subscriber base has grown by 8 percent.

3) What has the award meant to your team, either internally or externally?

Receiving this recognition not only serves as validation of our vision and convictions, but also motivates us to continue striving for even greater challenges. Achieving these results is not the merit of a single person, but of a multifunctional organization.