In a context of transformation for the media industry, with changes in reading habits, content distribution in the hands of technology industries, and the advertising market controlled by Google and Facebook, Clarín faced the challenge of launching the first paid online information content in Argentina.
They hired us to carry out the most important and ambitious project in the newspaper’s history. Clarín’s first steps were to set the path not only for the company, but for the entire industry. Would newspaper readers be willing to pay for something that was free for the last 20 years?
The environment was discouraging, the local market had no reference or experience in digital subscriptions. Globally, the circulation of newspapers and magazines suffered a big drop, and graphic advertising was in full contraction and did’t find lasting solutions. A new business model was actually needed.
We set out to move very quickly, but on a very solid evidence base, so we designed a 3-stage strategy: 1- Analysis of the current state, 2- Strategy and design, 3- Going to market.
We used Design Thinking techniques that allowed us to engage with clients, build an MVP, test it, and evolve it in short iterations. Using all the information we collected, we created several designs, tested them, and chose the one that worked best. Then we launch them and use A/B testing tools to keep improving the conversion and experience. A cycle of continuous improvement began as we got more data.
The current version is used by 300,000 paying customers and has 1 million registered users, making it the largest subscription newspaper in Latin America.
Our work was not limited to just developing a product or service, but also to change the culture of the organization, which allowed us to keep working with Clarin to this day, evolving the Paywall, improving the user experience and working with other group products, such as Gran DT.
