Unveiling Subscription Value: How Le Monde Boosted Engagement and Profitability with Mather’s Analytics

CLIENT:
With over 80 years in publication, Le Monde has established its position as France’s leading newspaper, providing readers with quality, accurate and verified coverage of events in France and abroad. Le Monde’s journalists produce an impressive average of one hundred pieces of content daily, ranging from videos and podcasts to social media posts. Covering a broad array of topics, their work spans news, society, education, sustainability, lifestyle, and personal interests. To strengthen reader retention and engage its 640K+ subscribers, Le Monde partnered with Mather to analyze how different subscription perks—such as puzzles, games, access to archives, and other editions—impact subscriber loyalty and long-term profitability. This collaboration has helped shape new strategies and tactics for driving sustained engagement and revenue.
OBJECTIVE:

Develop a consistent and effective mathematical model to evaluate all subscriber benefits.
Estimate each benefit’s incremental impact on subscriber lifetime value.
Assess the long-term effects of increased benefit engagement on retention and profitability.
Leverage data-driven insights to refine product strategy and effectively communicate subscription value to current and prospective subscribers.

APPROACH:

The Path to Success   

To identify which subscriber benefits were driving loyalty and retention, Mather began by analyzing Le Monde’s historical subscriber and product data, while also gathering strategic insights from their team to fully understand the rationale behind past decisions and their outcomes. Mather’s team of economists then applied a powerful econometric technique called Survival Analysis, which provided data-driven insights into the relative impact of each benefit on overall subscriber retention. 

Following this, Mather created a 5-year baseline forecast for subscriber lifetime value, using each subscriber’s characteristics and current benefits. This set the stage for scenario modeling, where different subscription levers were adjusted to forecast the impact of enhanced benefit engagement on long-term subscriber value. 

RESULT:

Mather’s close collaboration with Le Monde has uncovered exciting opportunities to improve subscriber retention and drive long-term value. By delivering a comprehensive report with clear, actionable insights, Mather identified key benefits that had a far greater influence on subscriber loyalty than previously realized. With these insights, Le Monde launched several strategic initiatives to strengthen its product marketing and engagement strategies.  

 

Optimizing Featured Benefits

Le Monde revamped its subscription offers page by spotlighting the top three benefits identified in Mather’s analysis. Using A/B testing, they are comparing the performance of a streamlined offer (Version B) against the full list of benefits (Version A) to measure its effect on funnel entry rates. With a target to increase this metric by 1.5%, Le Monde is continuously refining their approach to ensure the subscription value is clear and compelling for potential subscribers. 

Reinforcing Subscriber Benefits via Targeted Emails 

Le Monde enhanced its communication strategy by increasing the frequency of targeted email campaigns, informing subscribers about the benefits included in their plans and encouraging greater usage. For example, the “Le Monde Jeux” campaign, targeting Duo, Famille, and Print + Digital subscribers, led to a 10% increase in active subscribers, a 3% rise in activity rate, and a 10-point boost in game grid completion rates compared to the 2024 average. These campaigns will continue to evolve, aiming to further enhance engagement and subscriber satisfaction.  

 

Enhancing Engagement Through Proactive Anti-Churn Targeting 

To address potential churn, Le Monde launched a targeted email campaign focused on at-risk new subscribers. Rather than promoting cold content, the campaign highlights key subscriber benefits, reinforcing the value of their subscription and driving deeper engagement. While the campaign is still ongoing, early results have shown promising improvements in retention, reflecting the effectiveness of this proactive, personalized approach

     


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