Google just had a record quarter. Search revenue crossed $400 billion for the first time ever. The company is calling it an “expansionary moment” driven by AI Overviews. For publishers, it’s the opposite. It’s a contracting moment. And the data…
Your email list may be worth more than your paid subscriptions. Even if a subscriber never upgrades to a paid plan, their presence on your newsletter list creates real, monetizable value. Local businesses will pay premium rates to reach 20,000…
Publishers stuck on legacy CMS platforms face a difficult choice: stay with systems that limit growth or undertake the daunting process of migrating years of content to a modern platform. The good news is that migration no longer requires months…
Need to update subscription prices for dozens or even thousands of subscribers in Stripe? Changing pricing across your subscriber base is one of the riskiest operations a publisher can undertake—done wrong, it triggers billing errors, failed payments, and churn. This…
Launching a paywall for your local news site in 2026 is easier than ever. With tools like PaywallProject, publishers can quickly spin up a subscription-ready site, capture reader revenue, and stay focused on producing great journalism. Key Takeaways Why a…
Two news publishers with nearly identical markets and starting points produced dramatically different results over one year. One grew their email list at twice the rate. The other converted paid subscribers at four times the rate. Understanding why reveals the…
Setting up your newsletter correctly could be the most important thing you do for your publication this year. With the right framework, you can turn casual readers into loyal subscribers and paying members. The key lies in understanding the three…
Many publishers are still hesitant about putting up a paywall, worried it will hurt their audience engagement and traffic. However, data shows the opposite can be true if a paywall is set up correctly. This approach can actually lead to…
The 240-year-old Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is closing in May. I went through their website to see what went wrong. Spoiler: a lot. Pittsburgh has 2.4 million residents. The Post-Gazette was the leading news source. At just 5% market penetration and $10/month,…
Your subscription page says “unlimited access” and “archive access.” Cool. But why should anyone care? Here’s how to sell benefits instead of features. I’ve been looking at publisher subscription pages lately, and they’re all making the same mistake. They list…