How Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung increased brand awareness among Millennials by 75%  

Hello & welcome!

This week, Google has abandoned plans to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome. With 40% of users already manually disabling cookies, competitors offering cookie-less solutions might leverage this as an advantage over Google.

Do you think newspaper publishers will continue to rely on third-party cookies for their advertising solutions, or are there better alternatives?

Sarah Cool-Fergus & Carlo Prato 

How Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung increased brand awareness among Millenials by 75%

The road from unknown to known: Only 4 out of 10 German youth aged 25 to 35 knew of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (F.A.Z.) before the campaign. By the end of it, this number rose to 7 out of 10. “It was one of our first successful steps in gaining new subscribers for the age group of the 25 to 35-year-olds”, shares Donika Lilova, Head of Paid Content Subscription & Deputy Chief Subscription Officer.  

How did they do it? F.A.Z. ran a marketing campaign that encouraged young readers to select one of two opposing opinions on topics that were trending among this audience (e.g. environment, politics, new work). They added banners (see image for example) across the website and social media accounts. To encourage subscriptions among those who clicked on the campaign, a 50% discount was shown on the paywall.  

Lessons for other publishers: Lilova attributes the success of the campaign to a few key principles that other publishers can also leverage:  

• Keep the text short with clear messaging.
• Use eye-catching visuals.  
• Promote topics that would be of relevance or interest to the target group.  
• Offer a discount “in order to become a part of the target group’s share of wallet regarding media consumption”. 

Looking to attract younger audiences? Draw inspiration from a surprising source.

The Toronto Star is experimenting with micropayments. They’re not the only ones.  

What’s new? The Toronto Star is experimenting with micropayments. In the coming weeks, they’ll begin offering the ability to pay $0.75 (€0.50) to access single articles and $1.50 (€1.00) for a one-day access to the website.  

They’re not the only ones. We’ve found little success with micropayments, but they seem to be making a comeback. In June, The Washington Post announced that it would also offer pay-as-you-go articles. They’ll also offer the ability to pay to access content from certain writers.  

What’s the big picture? Only 2% of non-subscribers report a willingness to pay the equivalent of a full-price subscription according to the 2024 Digitial News Report. Even among subscribers, few actually pay a full-rate subscription. In short, there’s room to lower the cost barrier.  

Playing the long game: Micropayments won’t solve the revenue puzzle for publishers. But they can help get more people into the marketing conversion funnel (collecting their email addresses or interests) to eventually convince them to subscribe.  

The Battle for ‘Wordle’: Heine’s Legal Success

The name Stefan Heine may ring a bell for puzzle lovers in Germany. He’s the man behind the puzzle provider of more than 400 media companies within the country. This week, he’s made the news by winning a lawsuit against the New York Times.  

Catch up: On February 1st, 2021, Heine secured the rights to use the word “Wordle” in Germany on the same day the New York Times bought the game from its original creator and applied for a trademark in the EU. The New York Times then sued the puzzle maker over the use of the name. 

The verdict’s in: This week, Hamburg’s Regional Court ruled that Heine can continue using the name as neither party has seniority of its use since they applied on the same day.  

Register now for the Twipe Digital Growth Summit

Learn fromThe Economist, Die Zeit, JP Politiken, Reuters, and many others at the Twipe Digital Growth Summit! 

Join 150 media professionals in Brussels on October 8th for a full-day event exploring the future of tech and media, particularly as it relates to Generative AI and edition products.

From seminars, hands-on sessions, and peer-to-peer networking with industry leaders from Europe and North America, you’re guaranteed to depart feeling inspired & empowered.

Only one week left! Use discount code NewsletterSubs to get a 20% discount on the tickets until August 1st. 

Twipe Product Update

17 titles, one app: Centre-France’s multi-title app launches this week

17 titles in one app: The Centre-France group has partnered with Twipe to deliver a multi-title app on our latest Modular News Apps platform.

How it works? The multi-title app allows users to choose from a range of newspaper titles from across their 8 daily and 9 weekly editions, select their preferred region and start reading! Titles and regions can be changed at any time within the settings. 

🗞️ What we’re reading

This ChatGPT bot can help journalists generate stories based on user needs.  

Workplace culture can be a significant obstacle to implementing AI projects, but these six tips can help you navigate it. 

Should publishers consider posting less content? Your readers might not even notice.  

💡 Twipee recommendations 

Tom Bury, Frontend Chapter Lead, recommends watching TLDR News, a YouTube channel that covers daily and regional (EU/US/International) stories. 

“I listen to TLDR News to be informed on some of the key things happening and often put it on while cooking. As a nice bonus, they also tend to end each video with a positive story.”

Any feedback or comments? Just hit reply and let us know. We’re keen to make this newsletter as useful and enjoyable to read as possible. 

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