During the covid pandemic, our newspaper published the latest news from public health officials on our website three or more times a day. The news was free to all who wanted to read it.

Our online traffic reached more than 3,500 visitors a day. That’s more than 105,00 visits a month. And we are in a small market maybe similar to yours.

I tell you this because if you are not using your website every day to attract and retain readers, you are failing your advertisers and community.

It is extra work but pays off at the bottom line.

That does not mean you have to give everything away free. You can put your most popular features and columns behind your pay wall. Let them read headlines and a couple of paragraphs if they are interested with the option of subscribing to be able to read every thing on your site.

A recent Audiences Festival hosted sessions on how to attract and retain subscribers. Here are a few of the best examples:

• Brazil’s largest publisher has more than 100 million unique monthly website visitors. Only Facebook and Google command more attention.

Readers can get breaking news and trustworthy journalism for free but its best content sits behind the pay wall. Ads and subscriptions are the two core revenue streams, the latter increasing steadily.

• A popular French sports newspaper has 2.5 million digital readers and 190,000 paid digital subscribers. They have personalized content with visitors’ favorite sports and test previews and teasers of upcoming content to give visitors something to anticipate and become subscribers. 

Marketing director Romain L’hote says this is why platforms like Netflix are so effective.

• A local French Canadian newspaper offered low cost 12-18 week digital subscriptions with an easy way to renew online. Print subscribers were offered a 13-week “ease in” subscription with free digital. 

Of those taking the offer, 33% became subscribers.

• There are lots of reasons why someone might cancel or let a news subscription lapse. A French news organization has 105,000 paying subscribers, 85% digital and 15% print. It also has 10 million website visitors a month.

Subscribers prefer to save money by switching to annual subscriptions. This saves hundreds of subscribers a month, says marketing head Adèle Bacos.

•  A German newspaper offers its subscribers special deals on digital and print subscriptions to encourage them to renew or take longer subscriptions. 

There is a penalty if you let your subscription lapse. You can renew only at the full price rate.

 In my experience, we’ve had luck with these:

• We arranged with non-profits to furnish volunteers to sell subscriptions by phone. The volunteers stayed with us longer and were better motivated because they felt they were part of something larger than themselves. They were helping their non-profit receive their commissions.

We’ve run football contests that pay off winners each week with “Consumer Bucks” that could be spent with sponsors of the contest page. The advertisers loved it because they could bring in the Consumer Bucks they had honored for cash from us. 

Some die-hard football fans bought a dozen or more papers to clip and submit the entry forms. This helped our single copy sales and encouraged them to become subscribers after they saw our sports and other local news coverage.

If you like some of these ideas put your own spin on them. You will learn what works in your market.

Next: First responders think creatively

 Looking for something to reward your stars? Consider giving them copies of  The Art of Compelling Writing. It’s available on Amazon.com.