{"id":615531,"date":"2023-03-08T08:49:49","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T14:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/08\/the-washington-post-offers-bundle-subscription-with-headspace-app\/"},"modified":"2023-03-08T08:49:49","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T14:49:49","slug":"the-washington-post-offers-bundle-subscription-with-headspace-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/08\/the-washington-post-offers-bundle-subscription-with-headspace-app\/","title":{"rendered":"The Washington Post offers bundle subscription with Headspace app"},"content":{"rendered":"
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March 8, 2023\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u00a04 min read<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 By Sara Guaglione<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tIvy Liu\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Washington Post began offering a subscription bundle this week with the meditation app Headspace. It\u2019s an effort by the Post to market its recently expanded wellness coverage<\/a> to those that aren\u2019t frequent Post readers, and to increase its subscriber base by targeting those interested in verticals beyond its core politics and news stories, said Michael Ribero, chief subscriptions officer at The Washington Post.<\/p>\n

The Post is \u201cthinking about different on-ramps. For so long, we\u2019ve essentially had one on-ramp \u2013 one price, one dimension of coverage being politics or opinion,\u201d Ribero said. \u201cWe want to have more of these on-ramps for people to come on. We think non-hard news is a great one of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The bundle will be offered to new subscribers, who have the option to pay $70 for an annual digital subscription to The Washington Post and a 12-month subscription to Headspace \u2014\u00a0an over 60% discount. New subscribers can also choose a month-to-month Washington Post subscription for $4 every four weeks for the first year and get a 30-day free trial to Headspace. The subscriptions will renew independently, at the regular price of $120 for an annual Washington Post subscription and $69.99 a year for a Headspace subscription.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post declined to answer questions about terms of the deal between the Post and Headspace. The two companies will not share subscriber data. A person will need to sign up separately to create an account on Headspace once they subscribe through the Post. The Post will market the bundle on its paywall pop-up, through paid media and in emails from both the Post and Headspace, Ribero said.<\/p>\n

Bundle subscribers will get access to videos featuring Washington Post reporter Amanda Morris in Headspace\u2019s daily show, \u201cThe Wake Up.\u201d Post columnist Gretchen Reynolds will join Headspace\u2019s daily mindfulness podcast, \u201cRadio Headspace,\u201d as a guest host for five episodes. Subscribers can also meditate through exercises on The Washington Post\u2019s Well+Being section.<\/p>\n

The tactic is no doubt mirrored after the success other publishers \u2014 such as The New York Times \u2014 have had in growing their subscriber base by offering subscriptions to non-news content<\/a>, said Arvid Tchivzhel, svp of product at Mather Economics, a subscription management and customer data analytics firm that works with publishers. This comes as the Post is reportedly struggling to grow its subscription business \u2014 it has 3 million subscribers, the same number as in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure [The Post has] done some forecasting around what that market [opportunity] is. But I expect certainly a bump in subscriptions for The Post based on that,\u201d Tchivzhel said. Though the churn rate of a bundle subscriber will likely be \u201cslightly higher\u201d compared to a \u201cnative Post\u201d subscriber, the offering will \u201cstill probably be a profitable outcome,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s strategy is to get a reader to subscribe through the bundle offering with Headspace and then pull that reader in to consume content from other non-hard news sections and come across the Post\u2019s daily news coverage as well, Ribero said. The Post\u2019s \u201cbest customers\u201d \u2014\u00a0subscribers that have higher retention and engagement rates \u2014 are ones that are reading across different verticals, Ribero noted. He said the Post is seeing \u201cupticks\u201d in the frequency and diversity of non-hard news content subscribers are consuming, but did not provide stats to support this.<\/p>\n

The \u201cstickiness\u201d of bundle subscribers \u2014 or whether they will renew their subscriptions once the promotional period ends \u2014 remains to be seen. Michael Silberman, evp of strategy and social at paywall tech company Piano, said they have a few clients testing bundles but the data to support conclusive findings is currently limited. [Editor\u2019s note: Piano is a contracted vendor with Digiday.]\u00a0<\/p>\n

The strategy at the Post is to get consumers through the door with this bundle offering and use the next year to convince the subscriber why it\u2019s worth renewing at a full price, Ribero said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned a lot through our data that there are actions that our new customers take in order to increase the probability that they\u2019ll remain a customer after a promotional period,\u201d he said, such as getting new subscribers to go through the Post\u2019s onboarding process, return to the site often and read from a variety of sections and devices. \u201cWe have a year in order to build these habits with customers,\u201d Ribero said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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