Newsletter

As open-web ad supply comes under pressure, publishers are looking to apps to build higher-quality advertising products around engaged audiences, stronger signals and more valuable formats.

The old metrics of clicks, views and app opens no longer tell publishers what really matters. Using insights from the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2026, we make the case for measuring deeper engagement in owned products.

At a time when audience behaviour is being reshaped, our report shows that apps remain one of publishers’ strongest direct channels, but many are still underused as engines of habit and monetisation.

For publishers rethinking audience growth, here's what stood out from a full day of sessions at Arc XP Connect London.

From Sulzberger’s call for publishers to stand together against AI platforms to new thinking on video, reader revenue and AI-native workflows, Marseille made one thing clear. The future of publishing will be shaped by trust, direct relationships and smarter products.

The metered app paywall served publishers well for a decade. But treating every reader the same, whether they've visited once or open the app every morning, may be leaving conversion on the table.

What we took from INMA Berlin: AI is the new plumbing, but the real value still lies in trusted brands and the small group of users who love them.

AI search is weakening traditional subscription funnels, pushing publishers to automate routine work and build richer, app-led products that deepen direct relationships and subscriber value.

New research from Digiday and the Reuters Institute suggests that while subscriptions remain important, publishers are increasingly building broader revenue portfolios around events, branded content, B2B products and membership.

Publisher apps are no longer just for retention. With in-app revenue rising and engagement at its highest, they’re becoming powerful acquisition channels. We break down how publishers are moving apps up the funneland what it takes to convert engaged readers into paying subscribers.

Vertical video has evolved from a social-first experiment into a core publisher product, with publishers like The Economist using it inside owned apps to deliver deeper journalism, boost engagement and strengthen subscriber relationships.

In-app audio is evolving from a fringe experiment into a core publisher tool - helping news apps boost engagement, build daily listening habits and extend the reach of journalism without the overhead of traditional audio production.

AI is being used to protect journalists’ time, double down on distinctive reporting and rebuild direct relationships through apps, registration and new formats.

Katie Ruane from Mather Economics explains why siloed optimisation creates short-term wins and delayed trade-offs, and how connecting web, app, onboarding, paywalls, pricing, and retention makes performance clearer and growth more durable.

Publishers are grappling with generative AI integration, audience fragmentation across platforms and the rise of creator-led media in 2026, according to the Reuters Institute Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions report.

Nieman Lab's 2026 predictions argue that publishers are moving away from the factory model and toward resilience: niche-led products, owned distribution and deeper loyalty habits.

A shift from scale to depth, powered by apps, memberships and better user experiences, is defining the next chapter for news publishers.

Finansavisen’s data-led homepage redesign shows how tailoring to distinct audience segments can lift engagement, subscription conversions and editorial efficiency.

Lessons from WAN-IFRA’s AI Forum

Lessons from Newsday’s YouTube revamp

Publishers are looking at how they can embrace AI, strengthen audience relationships and evolve fast to stay ahead in a transforming media landscape.

In the age of AI, publishers need to create tailored experiences to build deeper audience relationships.

How publishers are boosting engagement with content rich experiences suited to a mobile-first audience

Requiring payment to opt out of tracking raises opt‑in rates and underscore the value of a paid digital product. Could this approach also sustain ad yields over the long term?

Discover looks like a lifeline, but over reliance can backfire. Here’s how publishers can build resilient growth.

As platform traffic crumbles, publishers turn to apps and owned channels to rebuild audience ties.

Mediahuis Belgium has managed to get young audiences to subscribe to a dedicated subscription, but there remain challenges to solve.

Push notifications are a vital way to build habit and loyalty and increase engagement with content, but it's essential to avoid overwhelming users.

The latest Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute highlighted that publishers must follow their audiences and embrace video and audio.

Publishers are elevating their digital user experience as part of premium subscription and membership tiers to increase revenue.

SEO experts fear Google's AI Mode will decimate traffic to publishers. We outline how to adapt, especially in driving app downloads.

Personalisation and new designs are delivering vastly improved UX for publishers' mobile audiences.

Two product leaders from the New York Times describe the strategy behind the biggest redesign of the company's app since its 2008 launch.

Pugpig's Product Director explains what a US court ruling against Apple means for how publishers sell subscriptions via their apps.

The more relevant the push message, the higher the engagement, and technology is increasing the ability of publishers to segment and target audiences.

The more relevant the push message, the higher the engagement, and technology is increasing the ability of publishers to segment and target audiences.

At the International Journalism Festival, a global product leader shared what she learned when she ignored her instinct to kill an app.

SEO is well understood by most publishers, and we outline how to leverage this knowledge to improve your app’s discoverability and drive downloads.

Publisher apps are evolving to leverage unique content and mobile-only functionality to attract and retain subscribers and members.

Newsquest Scotland's focus on growing digital subscriptions and Amedia's local news bundle offer ways to address the crisis in local journalism.

We highlight the best tactics for increasing subscription revenue in your app from RevenueCat's State of Subscription Apps report.

The Atlantic's three-year turnaround shows how publishers can successfully pivot away from the traffic strategies of the platform era.

Publishers can benefit by rolling out active community strategies, as audiences sour on social media and yearn for connection, according to research from The Verge.

Just as publishers have tightened their metered paywalls, research shows you should reduce how much content is previewed to prospective subscribers.

AI is starting to prove its worth to media companies. We highlight how to manage the change necessary to take advantage of AI's promise.

Subscriber growth is slowing or has stalled for many publishers, but new techniques and technologies offer opportunities to restart this growth engine.

To continue revenue growth, we highlight tactics publishers are using to optimise the income from advertising and subscriptions.

Download our latest research report on how to use push notifications and other forms of app messaging to increase engagement and retention.

We review how publishers can reduce subscription journey friction to increase conversion via mobile.

Publishers are looking to develop and bundle new products to attract new audiences in 2025, according to a Reuters Institute survey of leaders.

Subscription success is about delivering value to audiences, and we outline how to measure your success in doing that.

Relentless change will continue in 2025. We outline how media should respond to challenges in discovery, technology and audience expectations.

Apple's App Intents got new powers with the introduction of Apple Intelligence, and Pugpig's head of product outlines how publishers' apps could use them.

Publishers need to diversify their traffic acquisition and revenue and develop a strategy for AI licensing, publishing experts told Summit participants.

Publishers are pivoting to video, vertical video, to keep up with changing audience habits.

After buying Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, Pugpig’s Steve Farrugia reviews current AR technology and considers the future of mobile media consumption.

WhatsApp can help publishers acquire new mobile users, which opens up opportunities to drive app downloads.

The membership model of South Africa's Daily Maverick has delivered on its years-long search for sustainability.

Young audiences are mobile-first, if not mobile-only, but targeting their platform of choice is only the first step in engaging them.

We explain how apps can play a greater role in acquisition even amongst loosely connected audiences.

Team Pugpig peered into the near future to consider the future of mobile publishing. Here are some opportunities.

In this week's bulletin, we take a look at how a publisher can further innovation while maintaining consistency and quality in their digital operations

This week we reflect on the discussions from INMA's Innovation Week in Finland.

We highlight three lessons publishers can take from the New York Times app re-design to drive their editorial and commercial success.

We sketch out a framework for integrating apps into your audience and revenue strategies and provide examples of how publishers use it.

One US publisher found a customised call-to-action has helped them engage users immediately.

Publishers discussed the technology and tactics they are using to drive retention and revenue at the Press Gazette's Future of Media Technology Conference.

Publishers and broadcasters are moving beyond using AI to automate tasks to create new products and business lines.

A rising number of successful small, independent publishers is showing reader revenue success isn't just for big media.

For publishers, AI poses a risk but also an opportunity.

We review the ways that apps can grow and diversify the revenue of news publishers.

Data-driven products, personalisation and ad targeting are allowing publishers to deliver better user experience and higher revenue.

We highlight some of the best mobile and app innovation from Paris 2024 Olympics coverage. Who deserves the gold?

We cover how publishers are using user research, data and experimentation to deliver the right level of personalisation.

India's Newslaundry involved their audience in the funding and development of their app, iterating based on their input.

Despite increased competition, publishers can continue to grow reader revenue if they offer subscribers flexibility.

Deep engagement with audio, puzzles and quality content drives app use and supports publishers' retention and revenue goals, our report finds.

Reuters Institute research shows while growth has stalled that more than a third of audiences would be willing to pay.

By enhancing the value exchange through offering access to new tools and services, publishers are attempting to encourage increasing number of users to sign up

Publishers are doubling down on their subscriber growth goals, and young, mobile-first audiences are key to their success.

Nikkei's clear sense of priorities allowed it to balance the results of its testing programme to increase subscription revenue.

The public's attitude about AI is still evolving, but it could have a negative impact on reader revenue, a study has found.

emap is using an AI-powered question feature on their Nursing Times to engage subscribers with more of their content.

We highlight three different approaches to maximising paying readers and how publishers decided which one was best for them.

Publishers large and small are finding success with audio. We highlight ways to add audio to your product mix.

After a frenzy of experiments, media groups are using their strategic goals for a filter for their adoption of AI technologies.

Almost half of the world's population will vote in elections this year. We outline three ways subscription-driven businesses can balance access to critical information with revenue.

We review the tasks that publishers find AI is best-suited for and the change management needed to roll out AI.

Building a great mobile experience requires organisations to transform their thinking to "focus on users, rather than devices".

Publishers are using messaging apps, newsletters and their own community-focused apps to retool their acquisition and engagement playbooks.

The cyclone strategy focuses on conversion first before engagement. We look at which publishers would benefit by adopting this approach.

Changes in search could cost publishers billions. We explore SEO and app tactics publishers will need to adopt to weather this storm.

How innovative apps and events can entice young audiences from social media into a direct relationship with publishers.

Publishers from around the world talked about the tactics they are using to increase the acquisition and retention of audiences and to create new products.

We cover how publishers have been finding a balance in integrating AI into their editorial operations.

The proliferation in paywall models means that publishers have more options. We show you how to de-risk the choice.

Major app store changes are coming. We have four steps for publishers to take advantage of them.

Publishers should use data from lapsed subscribers and research to understand pain points to improve win-back programmes.

We highlight the processes and positioning that publishers are using to launch high-engagement audio products that deliver retention and revenue.

For media community strategies to succeed, a clear proposition with the right culture will help avoid the mistakes of the past.

Consumers are still feeling squeezed. We cover how publishers can retain cost-conscious subscribers looking for subs savings.

Publishers will need to re-write audience acquisition playbooks, grow ARPU and invest in first-party to meet the challenges of 2024.

Subscriptions alone won't sustain most media businesses. We look at how to balance diversification and strategic focus.

Publishers are in a maelstrom of change, says advisor Lucy Kueng, and we outline how to weather it in 2024.

US subs management company Mather sees a future without print, and we summarise how they see a more profitable future for publishers when they shut off the presses.

Apps are a great way to drive engagement with an audience and are creating both new revenue opportunities and breathing life back into old ones.

Although social media referrals have declined, we highlight the ways that publishers could and should be using platforms to achieve their own goals.

Publishers' events and high-end experiences are offering sponsors opportunities that platforms can't.

Publishers are rebuilding their destination strategy, and to do so, they need to invest in distribution to win the attention of audiences.

In the face of declining audiences, publishers are finding opportunities to earn higher returns from communities, their most engaged audiences.

Publishers' strategies are focused on increasing engagement. We summarise the increasingly sophisticated ways that they are measuring it.

Getting content discovered is becoming harder than ever. We discuss how publishers need to retool their audience acquisition efforts.

We summarise simple experiments and changes to your registration and subscription user journeys that can boost your results.

A new report from Pugpig and the Media Collective highlights how publishers can increase retention and revenue, even for lightly engaged audiences.

Rapid changes in the publishing industry mean that the ability to use experiments to deliver innovation has never been more important.

We review the range of ways that apps can contribute to higher average revenue per user including acquiring new paying users.

We review the range of ways that apps can contribute to higher average revenue per user including acquiring new paying users.

Community can be grounded in a place or an interest, and we review how publisher DC Thomson is using community to drive its growth.

Data shows that it's more difficult to convert mobile users to members or subscribers. We explain how and why it's worth the effort.

A new WAN-IFRA report provides nine case studies of how publishers have developed their operational and organisational data super-powers.

We cover how you can leverage the lessons The Hindu Group has learned in its data-driven digital subscriptions journey.

There are lessons in Blendle's missteps for publishers that can make your subscription and product strategy stronger.

Fortune's Chief Customer Officer discusses diversity, cross-functional teams, measuring what matters and focusing on engagement over growth.

Publishers need to learn from missed opportunities with disruptors in the past to meet the challenges of AI, Stuff's Sinead Boucher says.

Research from Airship reinforces how important it is to engage people with your app after they download it. We tell you how.

This week we take a look at the three step approach adopted by The Washington Post

We look at what the results of an American Press Institute study into younger people's propensity to pay for news means for publishers.

Apple is rolling out more privacy changes in its latest iOS macOS updates. Find out how this will affect your analytics.

After the years of media unbundling, publishers are creating bundles that are driving loyalty and growing incremental revenue.

Young people in Norway find news subscriptions a pain. Find out what their pain points mean for your publishing business.

Remember last week when we said that we needed more data to call peak subscription? The Reuters Institute has some data about that.

We discuss how to meet the challenge of balancing reader revenue with other sources of income for publishers.

Germany's Die Zeit discuss thow they developed their strategy to convert and retain trial subscribers.

The end of the Platform Era provides an important lesson for publishers that they can't rely on the strategies of others for their success.

What happens when you launch a product and users find it confusing? Amedia shows how to iterate until you get it right.

Research from the US has found that a focus on pageviews may actually hurt your subscription strategy.

Sanoma Media Finland grew readership and subscribers by developing new editorial planning metrics.

AI technologies present opportunities and threats for publishers, and we look at how media leaders can respond.

The shuttering of Buzzfeed News isn't a sign of hurt across the industry. Look to other publishers on how to succeed as the digital media market changes.

Registration is a great tool to get to know your users, and we highlight tips from Poool on how it supports UX and your subscription strategy.

Find out the ways that the Daily Beast is converting unknown users to known users and maximising the revenue from the 'great middle' of their audience.

A local newsletter network and a traditional publisher that revamped its model are bringing hope for renewal in local media.

How you can use unifying goals, data and audience research to build products and media brands that stand out in a noisy media landscape.

Good keywords are only one aspect of an SEO strategy. We review how to manage your crawl budget to keep your content high in search rankings.

Find out why publishers have found out that less data can be more powerful and how publishers are distilling data to find insights.

Google is testing new subscriptions options for publishers, and we review how magazine editors are re-imagining their brands for the future.

We review how publishers can employ multiple gating strategies to capture more value from all of their customer segments.

Multi-dimensional personas are being used to improve media product development and could be used to improve AI recommendations.

Convention often trumps innovation, but INMA showed how a Norwegian newspaper countered their newsy impulses to build an app popular with younger audiences.

Do you think you're audience focused? Two new reports will show you how to go deeper with audiences to drive subscription growth.

At a future of publishing conference, we laid out an audience-focused product development process that can accelerate digital transformation.

Using the Reuters Institute's crystal ball, we look at what publishing leaders are expecting in 2023 including their business, platform and product plans.

Using the Reuters Institute's crystal ball, we look at what publishing leaders are expecting in 2023 including their business, platform and product plans.

Want to diversify revenue? The Dear Media podcast network has a winning formula of leveraging the brands of female influencers.

A look back and a look forward to 2023: How to prepare for changes in social media and search by digging deeper into user needs.

This week, we look at changes Apple is considering to open up its app store to respond to new regulations in Europe and elsewhere.

This week, we are proud to release our second annual State of the Digital Publishing Market report, which is chock full of data and insights on what is driving success in digital publishing.

This week, we cover how to mitigate risks in launching your subscription strategy and an example of a successful, intentional off-platform strategy.

Ahead of our State of the Digital Publishing Market report, we look at how publishers are using personalisation to increase engagement with audiences.

Product management playbooks galore feature in this edition of the Bulletin that have delivered 54% digital circulation growth for SPH and 25 m content views for a four-month-old fashion start-up.

Subscriptions and first-party data are allowing Bloomberg to remake their relationship with advertisers. Could it do the same for you?

This week we look at whether publishers have gone overboard with newsletters and push notifications and how to use A/B testing to drive your success.

Publishers are hungry for first-party data. We review tactics they are using in addition to registration to entice audiences to share their information.

This week, we highlight case studies of how audio has grown audiences, engagement and revenue at Tortoise and the Washington Post.

This week, we highlight how to engage audiences using SMS and Esther Kezia Thorpe's challenge to get real about podcast numbers.

This week, we look at how publishers are balancing paid content and advertising strategies and how product thinking can make your publication indispensable.

This week, we look at a range of experiments in publishers' ever-evolving revenue bundle with examples from Hearst, The New York Times and The Atlantic.

This week, we highlight an INMA report on how publishers can engage Gen Z, which is mobile-first, craves authenticity and is turned off by crisis reporting.

In this week's bulletin, we highlight a discussion about what will make a successful subscription strategy going into tougher economic times.

In this week's bulletin, we highlight a review of media companies' constant experimentation with their subscription pages.

In this week's bulletin, we review Aftenposten's sophisticated retention strategy that includes age-based segmentation and subscription sharing.

In this week's bulletin, Juan Señor says that after the pandemic created a golden age for subscriptions that the focus now must shift to retention.

In this week's bulletin, we review data.ai's research that finds that mobile use is still growing after pandemic re-openings around the world. How can publishers benefit?

In this week's Pugpig media bulletin, we review Mather's quarterly report for new revenue opportunities and how SCMP's data proved its visual journalism engaged audiences.

In this week's Pugpig media intelligence outlook, we look at how to engage 'sleeper subscribers' and how to remove Apple as the subscriptions middle man.

In the inaugural edition of the Pugpig Media Bulletin, we look at revenue experiments in regional media in the US and UK, the 'user needs' model for content products and how to use data to support the digital transformation of your news or media business.

With any luck, you’ve spent a decent portion of the last month either reposing in a deckchair with the sun on your face and a cool drink by your side or halfway up a mountain with a rucksack on your back and a sense of adventure in your heart. And now that you’re firmly back […]