Marcela Kunova of Journalism.co.uk writes about how The Economist has been successful in reaching a younger audience.
Kunova writes, “To address this challenge, The Economist focused on creating new formats to meet the needs of Gen Z. One example of this is Economist Espresso, launched in 2014 as a quick, digestible daily briefing that presents global news in a concise format. This product appeals to those with limited time, offering five short articles per day alongside quizzes and a handful of longer reads.
“To bring in younger readers, the publisher started to offer free access to Espresso to all students 16 and over in July this year. While this may initially appear as a loss-making move, The Economist believes that early brand adoption leads to students becoming paying subscribers later in their careers.
“In the first month, this strategy has doubled Espresso’s readership, increasing the number of 18-24-year-old readers twelvefold. The student subscription offer was taken up from 4.5k institutions across 120 countries.
“This prompted the brand to experiment with AI translation which now makes Espresso content available in six languages, including French, Spanish, and Mandarin.”
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