At our first Deep Dive in Zurich, more than 60 media professionals came together to share their knowledge and experiences. They also discussed concrete benchmarks from practice - some of which we’re sharing here.
This campaign architecture brings Bajour 300-400 new members per round
Bajour is working on measuring how many interactions it takes, on average, for readers to become paying members: from clicking on the newsletter to the landing page to the support page. Currently, each campaign brings in around 300-400 new supporters, which corresponds to roughly one in ten newly acquired readers.
For conversion, Bajour relies on three to four intensive campaign weeks per year, during which the appeal is placed directly in the briefing introduction for 10,000 free readers without existing supporters noticing. They receive alternative introductions, made possible by the close integration between the We.Publish membership system and the newsletter platform. So-called shock campaigns - “Hey Maxi, you're still not a member” - are particularly effective.
The planned comprehensive analytics system will make it possible to evaluate advertising measures specifically based on their effectiveness in attracting supporters and to determine whether the lowest cost-per-lead ads are actually the most effective.
This is how Medienhaus andererseits has built a data-driven subscription strategy
Continuous growth is great – but understanding it is even better. Medienhaus andererseits shared insights into the development of its data-driven subscription strategy: specific KPIs were defined along the funnel and are now tracked using various tools. All data goes into a dashboard (tool: PostHog) that serves as the basis for analysis and decision-making.
KPIs along the funnel and suitable tools:
- Reach
- Social media follower: Meta
- Website unique user: Plausible
- Relationship building
- Newsletter readers, click rate: Mailer Lite
- Conversion
- Subscriptions: Frisbii
- Dynamic paywalls: Poool
„I’m a little bit embarrassed, but …“ – this is how Tsüri gets email addresses
With “hooks” like this, Tsüri achieves strong results with video lead ads on Instagram and Facebook. The principle is simple: test with minimal effort, then scale in a data-driven way. The lead ads direct users to a registration wall where they must sign up with their email address to unlock content. After registering, readers are directed to website articles, which are accessible free of charge anyway. Email generation directly converts potential supporters through a smart survey: by asking whether good journalism is worth financial support, new subscribers are redirected to the support page.
Impressions from the Deep Dive: Content, speakers, and images
Last updated: November 28, 2025
