Accelerating Revenue with Strategic Pricing

How Mediahuis Aachen Unlocked Six-figure Revenue Gains with Mather’s Data-Driven Pricing Guidance 

By Katherine Ruane, Director of Marketing Strategy

July 30th, 2024

Editors note:

As of August 1st 2024, Mediahuis Aachen GmbH has been rebranded as Mediahuis Aachen GmbH. This change is part of the company’s effort to align itself with the European Mediahuis Group, in order to reinforce its presence within Europe’s media landscape. According to the organization, this renaming will not affect existing subscribers or business partners. Read the full note here.

Background 

With a history dating back to 1975, Mediahuis Aachen, today a Mediahuis Group brand, is recognized as a leading regional news publisher serving the Aachen-Düren-Heinsberg region in the far west of Germany. Facing a decline in print readership and revenue in recent years, Aachen embarked on a journey in 2023 to revamp their pricing strategy for sustainable growth, aiming to increase and stabilize subscription revenue, while maintaining strong subscriber volume. 

Before partnering with Mather, Aachen managed all its pricing in-house. However, increasing pricing pressures, especially in print, combined with a shift in consumer preferences toward digital formats, forced Aachen to adopt new, effective growth strategies. To address these challenges, Aachen sought a strategic partner with deep industry expertise and advanced data analytics capabilities, making Mather the perfect fit to help them succeed.  

The Path to Success 

To find the revenue-maximizing price increase for the print newspaper and digital e-Paper products, Mather’s pricing experts first analyzed historical subscriber, product, and pricing data from the publisher to understand pricing sensitivity (or elasticity) in the market. 

They then developed a robust forecasting tool that integrated these insights with regional and national pricing benchmarks to evaluate the potential impact of various pricing scenarios on revenue and churn KPIs. 

Ultimately, Mather delivered a comprehensive report to Aachen, detailing their approach and offering clear, actionable pricing recommendations for each product. This empowered Aachen to move forward confidently with their decision to raise prices, enabling them to grow revenue while also strategically positioning themselves for future pricing actions. 

Impact & Results  

• Following the engagement with Mather, Mediahuis Aachen increased their print newspaper price by 7% (their highest increase yet), with a lower-than-estimated impact to churn. 

• Following the success in print, a 6% increase was applied to digital e-Paper subscribers, resulting in near-zero incremental churn from pricing. 

• Overall, Aachen enjoyed a six-figure increase in incremental subscription revenue, yielding a double-digit ROI on Mather’s services. 

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