Project

During the pandemic, digital subscriptions at The Globe and Mail have increased substantially. We suspect these new subscribers are not our core subscribers known as business leaders, investors and news junkies. This project is to set out to understand new subscriber paths and behaviours.

Goals

The objectives are to learn about the followings:

• Who are the new subscribers? 

• Why do they subscribe with us?  

• What happens before the subscription and after they become a subscriber?

• What are their needs and online behaviours? 

• What problems do they have? 

• How do they use our products?

Targets

The Globe and Mail digital subscribers who have been subscribers for 3 months

Methodology

• Screeners: open-ended questions about the subscription experience

• Qualitative research: online interviews with 30 users

• Post-interview survey about subscription experience

Key insights

Personas

From the research, we discover two new personas in addition to our core user groups.

1. The Generalists: this group of users represents a general public who wants to gain perspective in news and seek out to get up-to-date news from a trusted news organization. They want to get the most reliable news in one place. They are interested in broader news content such as the world, Canada, and politics. They have a low interest in business and investing content.

2. The Transitioners: this group of users represents people who switch from newspaper to online due to the Covid-19. They are also concerned about the environment that we want to switch from paper to digital. Their mental model is paper so they usually feel overwhelmed with digital content and format. They are passive reading experiences and need hand-holding experiences or one that reflects the paper version.  

The existing three groups of personas {Business leaders, Investors, and News Junkies) are validated as true. However, we notice more users in the 25-40 age group more than expected.

Job To Be Done

Following the framework of Job To Be Done to help us to understand what our subscribers hire The Globe and Mail to do for them and discover the unmet needs. The findings are people hire The Globe and Mail to:

“Get information and perspectives in one place.” 

“Be the first to know when things happen.”

"Help me connect the dots and stay ahead of the game.”

“Inform me when the markets change that will impact my investment.”

“Tell me what matters the most so I know just enough information.”

What users like about being a subscriber

• Quality of content and coverage

• Easy access and convenience 

• Digital access anywhere, on any devices

• Supporting journalism 

• Accessing all content behind the paywall

What possibly prompts users to cancel the subscription

• Become biased, imbalance in content, a change where writing becomes slanted.

• Quality decrease

• Price increase

• Less frequency of use

• Distraction from advertising pop-up

Outcomes

The research insights have confirmed many of the assumptions that help us continue the work we do. With wider, deeper, and updated information about our users, cross-functional teams from editor to sales & marketing and product team can incorporate the insight and adapt their plan more appropriately.

A few key takeaways are:

• We are heading in the right direction to engage our subscribers via email and onsite onboarding. 

• We want to provide more options so our subscribers can choose what communications are right for them (newsletter, phone, chat, notifications, etc.) 

• Strong signal for non-business/investment news

• Build on the excitement as it takes time to make decision to subscribe

• Improve awareness of the subscription value (Member Benefits section)

• Improve awareness and visibility for product features 

• Build brand loyalty with Generalists and Business leaders group