How Bloomberg’s shift to subscriber-exclusive newsletters is working

Bloomberg newsletters

Lucy Keller, associate product manager for Bloomberg Media, writes about how it uses newsletters to attract readers.

Keller writes, “The newsletters officially shifted from the free model to our subscriber-exclusive model in the Fall of 2023, now only allowing Bloomberg.com paying users to sign-up. In thinking about our audience first, we grandfathered non-paying users in, allowing existing users of the three newsletters to continue to receive the newsletters for free.

“We are measuring success through newsletter sign-ups, aiming to achieve at least 14% of free newsletter sign-ups, relying on previous sign-up rates as benchmarks. Since the shift, sign-up results of the three subs-exclusive newsletters have been positive, with The Brink reaching 90% of sign-ups per day, The Weekly Fix seeing 63% of sign-ups per day and The Everything Risk exceeding our goal with 124% of sign-ups per day.

“Since we accompanied the newsletter model shift with a strong marketing campaign, we plan to keep a close eye on sign-up and engagement rates before leaning further in. If the numbers continue to look positive, it’s safe to say we’ll continue to invest in our subscriber-exclusive newsletter model.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.