Case Study: Cleveland.com earns $50K and builds a loyal Buckeye Talk community with Subtext

$50K in Revenue Earned by Buckeye Talk

Cleveland.com sports columnists and podcast hosts Doug Lesmerises, Stephen Means and Nathan Baird faced the challenge of keeping Buckeye Talk’s audience engaged between episodes and building an exclusive, monetizable community for their most loyal fans. To solve that, they turned to Subtext to create a text-based subscription offering that would bridge conversations and deepen fan relationships.

Using Subtext, Cleveland.com launched a paid “Buckeye Talk” campaign at $3.99/month with a two-week free trial, offering breaking news, daily analysis, subscriber Q&A via text and on the podcast, exclusive content and virtual events; hosts promoted the signup repeatedly on-air and across social channels. The Subtext campaign, launched in early 2019, drove steady month-over-month subscriber growth (including ~10% MoM during the COVID shutdown) and delivered $50K in revenue, a 67% trial conversion rate and a 5% engagement rate.

Cleveland.com

Doug Lesmerises

Columnist and Podcast Host