Case Study: Funke Mediengruppe achieves 180% digital subscription growth and 50% churn reduction with Piano

How Funke Mediengruppe’s new subscription strategy helps finance local journalism

Funke Mediengruppe, a leading German publisher operating 12 local newspapers and national magazines, faced the challenge of moving from an ad-funded, free-content model to a sustainable reader-revenue strategy to finance local journalism. Their goals were to grow paid digital subscriptions, reduce churn, and transform the organization and product to prioritize long-term customer value.

They adopted Piano as their subscription platform and formed a cross-functional “speedboat” squad (sales, marketing, engineering, data and editorial) to iterate quickly. Tactics included a 20% price increase with an option to lock the old rate via annual plans, cutting ad volume for subscribers by 70%, using low-cost paid trials, and focusing on CLTV, onboarding and customer service. The approach drove strong results: digital subscriptions nearly tripled in 12 months (about 120+ new subs/day for major titles), grew 180% in six months, and churn fell roughly 50%.

Funke Mediengruppe’s

Stephan Thurm

Chief Executive Officer