At the end of 2018, “Gazeta Wyborcza” had 170,000 active digital subscriptions. Nine months later, it recorded a 17% increase in this number. This means that at the end of September this year, 29 275 more people had access to journalistic content, and at the same time the average user revenue (ARPU) increased.
- Having over 200,000 digital subscriptions is a really huge success of "Gazeta Wyborcza" – the leader in terms of the number of subscriptions in Poland and 13th press title in the global ranking with ‘NYT’ at the forefront. And this is just the beginning - says Jerzy Wójcik, publisher of the daily. - Five years ago we entered the Internet world with energy, determination and courage. Today it is our element and we have found in Internet the optimal business model for the qualitative medium such as “Wyborcza". It all happened because after 30 years of existence "Gazeta Wyborcza" still is a signpost and a friend for over a dozen millions of Poles, of different generations. You can only really envy us that we work for them. Thank you to all our readers for this trust.
The significant increase in the number of Wyborcza.pl subscriptions recorded this year was mainly due to the changes in the offer made from February 2019 - including introduction of ‘family access’, a possibility to read "printed" "Gazeta Wyborcza" online or share unlocked articles with friends, as well as making Wyborcza.pl application available to all subscribers. The actions of the daily’s online strategy development team focused in particular on persuading users to activate permanent, auto-renewable subscriptions, whose popularity is highly beneficial for customer retention. Currently, the vast majority of individual subscriptions, both purchased on Wyborcza.pl, Wysokieobcasy.pl, as well as in the App Store and Google Play, are auto-renewable.
- Forever gone are the times we began the digital transformation and the Polish Internet user paying for access to reliable journalism was considered a non-existent, mythical unicorn. We are aware how the development of "Gazeta Wyborcza" subscriptions influenced this significant change for the media. We are also aware of the great trust of our subscribers, most of whom are already convinced to pay for access in the auto-renewable form. For us it is a great commitment, both in terms of care for content and for user experience, because we want our readers to stay with us for years. The high expectations of loyal users require from us developing unique competences in completely new areas - explains Danuta Breguła, director of the digital strategy of "Gazeta Wyborcza".
In recent months, the "Gazeta Wyborcza" team has intensively worked not only on making the digital offer more attractive, but above all on increasing the involvement of readers through publishing and marketing activities. Thanks to this, subscribers read a dozen times more content than other users, and the churn rate is low. Wyborcza.pl is also improving its mobile application and the offer of thematic newsletters (Wyborcza.pl/newslettery) - currently there are several dozen of them, including those on ecology, books, TV series or in the form of a daily summary of each day’s events. Tools based on AI algorithms, developed by the “Gazeta Wyborcza” technology team i.a. with the funding received from Google DNI Fund, also help taking care of users' needs. In turn, the data analysis team regularly monitors the readers' behavior on the site, gets to know their interests and involvement, and conducts surveys and polls in cooperation with the editors.
- We are increasingly familiar with the habits and needs of our subscribers and we try to respond to them. At the same time, we do not forget about our main role - when something really important happens in the country or in the world, we will write about it regardless of readership forecasts. The choice of topics and their display on the site is handled by experienced editors who know that the task of a serious newspaper is to inform, deepen users’ knowledge about the world and present various opinions - explains Aleksandra Sobczak, head of the Wyborcza.pl website and deputy editor-in-chief of “Gazeta Wyborcza”.
Another success of “Gazeta Wyborcza” in the area of digital subscriptions was also determined by the development of the offer dedicated to users from private companies and institutions.
- We are constantly developing our offer for business customers, enriching it with additional products and services in the premium version - we observe a great demand on the market for solutions dedicated to commercial companies and institutions, which is why we are currently focusing on this area - says Joanna Kwas, director of the advertising office of “Gazeta Wyborcza”and the Wyborcza group.
“Gazeta Wyborcza” also regularly establishes partnerships with other companies from the media market or the financial sector, allowing, for example, the creation of joint packages or offers beneficial for clients, as well as creation and publication of content. This year, such activities were carried out with i.a. player.pl, PayPal, Visa and Helios cinema network.
The new result of "Gazeta Wyborcza" in the field of digital subscriptions will be promoted in a special campaign with the slogan "This way", carried out in daily’s own channels, social media and other press titles. The advertisements emphasize the key “'Wyborcza”’s virtues recognized by its readers, including: look into the future, courage to tackle difficult topics, knowledge and reliable information.
Since 2014 "Gazeta Wyborcza" has been a strong leader in Poland in terms of the number of paid digital subscriptions. It is also at the forefront in the world - according to the report of the international association FIPP on digital subscriptions* published in July 2019, "Gazeta Wyborcza" ranks 13th globally, ahead of such titles as "New Yorker", "Corriere della Sera "or" National Geographic ".
This year is one of the most important in the history of the “Gazeta Wyborcza”. In May, the daily celebrated its 30th birthday. The celebrations consisted of: a gala held in the editorial office in Czerska in Warsaw, numerous jubilee meetings and publications, as well as the image campaign "Wyborcza over generations".
From the need to bring readers even closer and support “Gazeta Wyborcza”, at the beginning of October this year, Klub Przyjaciół Wyborczej - the Friends of Wyborcza Club was established. Friends are given the option of free entry to events organized by the daily’s team throughout Poland, they also receive monthly reports from editors-in-chief or information not published elsewhere.
* FIPP’s Global Digital Subscription (GDS) Snapshot
(http://wyborcza.pl/ [1] – https://www.agora.pl/ [2])
