Start With the Meter You’re Afraid Of

Salem Reporter covers city news, schools, politics, the economy, community, and obituaries for Oregon’s capital region. It has never had a print product. Every dollar of reader revenue comes from the website and the inbox.

Before the switch, the newsroom was fighting technical problems. Readers had trouble getting to content, free registration wasn’t set up the way it needed to be, and support from the old vendor was slow.

The new setup is what Pete and Tyler call the one-and-one strategy. Anyone gets one free article a month. The second article requires a free registration, which unlocks that story. After that, readers see an upgrade message.

That feels restrictive, and it’s the first thing many publishers push back on. Won’t readers leave before they ever get a taste?

Here’s the flip. The free newsletter is a taste, sent every single day. Stories you mark as always free are a taste too, and Salem does that on occasion. Readers see far more than one article.

The data backs the strict approach. In the Publisher’s AI Survival Guide, registration walls converted 3.2% to 6.7% of visible impressions, compared with 0.9% to 1.45% for popups. A popup asks. A registration wall requires.

If you’re still nervous, treat it as a test. Run it for 30 or 60 days. You can always pull it back, though Pete and Tyler both expect you won’t need to.

Make Registration Feel Like Content, Not a Popup

When a reader hits the second article, the prompt reads “This story is free for you.” It sits inside the article, not on top of it, so it works cleanly on mobile.

The reader enters an email and a password, and the story unlocks right away. There’s no trip to the inbox and no confirmation link to click. The reader is also added to the free newsletter list.

The prompt tells readers they’ll get the top stories directly in their inbox. That’s the second yes. They get the story they want now, plus a newsletter they’d likely want anyway.

Salem adapted its wording from what The Washington Post was doing. Tyler’s advice for local newsrooms is to watch how the big publishers handle registration, because those tactics have been tested at scale.

Asking for a password adds a little friction, and that’s a feature. People who don’t care won’t bother, and bots mostly drop off. The list you build is made up of readers who meant to sign up.

Some fake addresses will get through. Most email services remove them automatically, and it’s a small share.

Tyler is firm on one point: skip double opt-in on this form. Making readers find an email and click a link adds far more friction than the few bad addresses are worth.

Two technical must-dos: turn on the captcha for registrations, and install the IP blocker so readers can’t slip around the paywall with an incognito window.

We covered how Salem’s registration funnel drives conversions in 20% Free-to-Paid Conversion with a Registration Funnel. Every new name on Salem’s list comes from this wall. There are no signup widgets and no popups anywhere on the site.

Your Paid Newsletter Can Be Small

Salem runs two newsletters: a free morning edition for registered readers, and an afternoon edition only paid subscribers get.

Many publishers hear “two newsletters” and picture double the work. It isn’t. The paid edition is one or two stories and a short note on what’s new that day, the kind of thing that would otherwise wait until tomorrow morning.

For a local news reader, that small extra carries real value. You don’t have to build a second publication. You only have to give paying readers something a little earlier and a little more.

Write the Free Newsletter Like a Letter

The free newsletter has three parts worth copying.

It opens with a personal “good morning” note that reads like a person on staff wrote it. Personal newsletters work, and larger publishers like The Wall Street Journal lean into personalization too.

The middle is simple: an image, a headline, and a short excerpt for each story. Salem’s town hall reporting, the heavy lifting on local government, gets its own spot. Tyler says that coverage is what really converts subscribers.

The bottom is where the money is. A short statement of principles explains who Salem is and why it exists. Then come two standing asks: submit an obituary, and subscribe to get the evening edition.

Those asks appear in every send. They never nag, but free readers see them every day.

Pete does have one note. Those asks are big text links. A button and a line or two of benefit copy would likely do even better.

Salem builds the newsletter with Newsletter Glue. Editors hand-pick the stories instead of dumping an RSS feed, and a story written in WordPress goes to the website and the inbox in one step.

An Upgrade Page With No Math

Once a registered reader uses up their free articles, the next click from the newsletter shows the upgrade message. It’s one big button that says “Upgrade your account.”

The headline, “Local news you can count on,” is a benefit. So is the promise to hold officials accountable. Features like 24/7 access and the subscriber-only email come after. We broke down Salem’s benefit bullets in Copy Clarity 101.

The subscribe page has a single offer and a single button. Readers don’t have to compare plans or do math.

That offer is a paid trial: $10 for three months, then the full price kicks in. The trial readers have already paid, so they’re a warmer group than a free trial would be.

The most interesting detail is barely visible. A small line at the bottom says readers can choose the annual plan and save 17%. Tyler recalls that more readers pick annual than the trial, even with that little promotion.

Pete’s suggestion: if annual is already winning, lead with it. If you run print and digital, the same rule applies. Keep it to two offers, digital and print-plus-digital, and push annual recurring when you can.

If You’re Apologizing for Your Ads, You Have a Clutter Problem

Salem works hard to keep its site clean. Few ads, no popups, and nothing that gets between a reader and the story. That “clutter-free experience” is even one of its subscription benefits.

Pete hears apologies all the time during website reviews. “Sorry about the ads, we’re redesigning.” If you feel the need to say that, the site needs work before reader revenue will.

Salem sells ads directly and also works with a local partner who sells for them. It is not an ad network.

Networks rarely pay off for local news. Traffic isn’t in the millions, and in many cases even millions of page views aren’t enough to earn meaningful network revenue. Meanwhile, network ads push publishers to put units everywhere.

Direct relationships pay better and look better. They also open the door to sponsorships that run across your whole footprint: the website, registration, the newsletter, articles, and events.

Salem is looking at newsletter sponsorships next. Its open rates are high enough that Tyler thinks it could command strong rates.

Small Revenue That Adds Up: Paid Obituaries

Salem charges to list obituaries on its site. For families, it’s usually much cheaper than a listing in a traditional newspaper. More funeral homes are learning the option exists.

The workflow is simple. The family fills out a WPForms form, then pays. The Post Submissions add-on turns the entry into a draft post in WordPress. Staff review it, tidy it up, and publish.

Salem won’t get rich from obituaries. But it’s steady extra revenue, it’s a real service to the community, and it takes almost no staff time. Many publishers already run WPForms, so the setup cost is low.

What the Numbers Show

In one 30-day window, Salem added 71 paid subscribers and 640 free registrations. That’s a paid-to-free ratio above 10%.

The 57 paid trials aren’t counted in that 71 yet. If they convert at the end of their three months, Salem would have close to 130 new paid subscribers against 640 free. That’s a projection, not a result, but it would put the ratio near 20%.

The bigger lesson is in the chart. When Pete and Tyler plot new free registrations against new paid subscribers, the peaks line up. When free sign-ups spike, paid sign-ups follow.

Some readers convert almost right away. They register, read the next story, and decide they want everything. That happens because the experience is clean, and the ask comes at the moment they want more.

A steady ratio between free and paid also makes your revenue easier to predict. Grow the free list, and you have a good idea of what paid growth will follow.

“If you’re apologizing for the ad experience on your website, you have a clutter problem.”

Key Takeaways

1. A one-and-one meter works when your newsletter and always-free stories give readers extra tastes. Test it for 30 to 60 days before deciding it’s too strict.
2. Put registration inside the article, unlock the story instantly, and skip double opt-in. A password filters for serious readers.
3. A paid newsletter doesn’t need to be big. One or two early stories can be enough of an extra.
4. Every free newsletter should end with the same standing asks. Readers should see your subscribe offer every time, not just on launch day.
5. Clean sites and direct ad sales support each other. Clutter costs you subscribers, and network ads rarely pay local publishers enough to justify it.

Try This Week

Add two standing asks to the bottom of your free newsletter: one to subscribe, and one for a paid service like obituaries or event listings. Then leave them in every send.

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