The West Australian has a long history of serving the community, with 190 years of presence in Western Australia and 18 regional mastheads stretching from Broome to Albany. With habits shifting amongst the generations, an opportunity was identified to engage the next generation of news subscribers and to grow a deeper understanding of their digital reading habits. The hypothesis was that a student-only discount campaign and Reader Revenue Manager’s simplified subscription flow would motivate students to subscribe and engage with The West's content.

The West Australian team partnered with a local university to offer discounted digital subscriptions to all students who signed up using Reader Revenue Manager. The campaign provided the students with access to our digital product at a discounted rate over a 12 month period.

This trial surfaced surprising insights into the consumption habits of the students when compared to other demographics:

1. The West Australian digital subscription comes with access to all regional mastheads and we noticed that students were 1.5x more likely to consume regional content when compared to their "regular subscriber" counterparts.

2. Regarding consumption, the students showed a strong affinity to access content within an app environment, with 63% more likely to use the mobile app than standard subscribers.

3. Students who signed up using Reader Revenue Manager were also more likely to continue their monthly subscription - over the first 6 months, the University students had a 41% lower churn rate than regular subscribers.

Overall, the project was successful and showed students' appetite for a trusted news source. The insights gleaned from this partnership have helped shape The West's 'Next Generation News' project in order to better connect with younger readers.