The Breakdown

A small-town local news publisher came to Paywall Project running a disconnected tech stack—PayPal gating a weekly flipbook, MailChimp sending basic newsletters, and all website content sitting wide open. Three years later, they’ve tripled their newsletter list from 700 to 2,500 subscribers and achieved 104% year-over-year revenue growth. The transformation required no dramatic workflow changes—just a tighter framework for converting readers into subscribers.

This local news publisher’s original setup had a common problem: they were selling access to their print PDF while giving away all their original content on the web. Readers could consume local sports, city council coverage, and community news without ever registering or paying. The only gatekept product was the flipbook—and that required an off-site PayPal checkout flow that frustrated users with clunky logins and a disjointed experience.

The fix centered on implementing what we call the “one-and-one” strategy: readers get one free article, then must register with an email to access a second article, and must subscribe to continue after that. Every free registration automatically adds the reader to the newsletter list—no sidebar widgets, no popups, no separate signup forms. The result is a high-intent email list built entirely from readers who demonstrated interest by engaging with content.

The technical changes were straightforward: Leaky Paywall replaced the PayPal setup, Stripe replaced manual payments with recurring billing, and Newsletter Glue streamlined the weekly email workflow. This local news publisher kept their once-weekly newsletter cadence but upgraded from a basic “the flipbook is ready” notification to a curated newsletter featuring thumbnails, excerpts, and read-more links to their top four stories.

Two subscription tiers emerged: digital-only and print-plus-digital, both offered exclusively as annual plans. The current split runs roughly 60% print-plus-digital and 40% digital-only, with digital-only trending upward as readers recognize they can access everything through the web experience.

The absence of popups deserves emphasis. Every subscriber on that 2,500-person list opted in through the in-content registration wall—not through entry interstitials or slide-in forms. When a registration prompt appears within the article a reader wants to finish, conversion intent is fundamentally different from a popup interrupting someone who hasn’t engaged yet.

This local news publisher’s confidence shows in their annual-only pricing model. No monthly option exists. This approach, inherited from their print-first origins, eliminates the churn risk of monthly billing and signals that the content is worth committing to.

For publishers hesitant to launch with tight metering, the conversation offers a graduated approach: start at two free articles with five more after registration, then progressively tighten to one-and-one as confidence builds. Some Paywall Project clients have walked this path all the way to a hard paywall, building proof at each stage that their content commands payment.

The bottom line: this local news publisher changed the on-site experience without changing their content production or newsletter cadence. The same weekly output, filtered through a tighter conversion framework, produced 3x newsletter growth and doubled revenue year over year—with projections to repeat that growth this year.

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Resources Mentioned

• Leaky Paywall — WordPress plugin for metered access, registration walls, and subscriber management
• Newsletter Glue — WordPress plugin for building newsletters with drag-and-drop article selection
• Paywall Project — Fully managed subscription tech stack service for publishers

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Key Takeaways

Registration walls outperform popup forms. This local news publisher grew their newsletter from 700 to 2,500 subscribers with zero popup forms, zero sidebar widgets—100% of new subscribers came through the in-content registration wall. Readers who register mid-article have demonstrated intent that popup-prompted signups never match.

The “one-and-one” strategy maximizes conversion pressure. One free article, one additional article after registration, then payment required. Tight metering builds email lists faster and converts to paid sooner than generous free tiers. Publishers uncomfortable starting here can progressively tighten from looser settings.

In-content prompts convert better than interstitials. When the subscription ask appears inside the article a reader wants to finish, it feels like access—not punishment. Popups spike blood pressure and trigger close-button hunting. Inline prompts let readers trade an email for immediate value.

Annual-only pricing signals confidence and reduces churn. This local news publisher offers no monthly option. The approach eliminates monthly churn risk, increases commitment from subscribers, and reflects print-publisher origins where annual billing was standard. Publishers can adopt this if their content commands it.

Consistent publishing matters more than volume. This local news publisher sends one newsletter per week, reliably on the same day, featuring their four best stories. Their audience expects it—and complains when it’s late. Consistency builds habit; habit builds subscription loyalty.

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Notable Quote

“The idea that somebody would be willing to pay for the content is a bit of a different world. Publishers are used to selling advertising around content—not selling the content itself. But if you wrote it and it’s original, it’s premium content. You can’t find it somewhere else.”

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Try This Week

Audit your free-to-registration ratio. Count how many articles a reader can consume before you ask for an email. If it’s more than three, you’re leaving newsletter growth on the table. Tighten your meter by one article and track registration conversion for 30 days—most publishers see immediate lifts without traffic drops.

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