For more than 100 years, Kathimerini has been one of the most trusted and reliable daily newspapers in Greece, dedicated to quality journalism while remaining accountable to their readership. In recent years — as other legacy media around the world have experienced — engaging and retaining their digital news audience has become more challenging for them. Competition from a myriad of free online information sources has disrupted the traditional media landscape. Kathimerini faced a challenge: Evolve to keep their legacy alive and lead the way for other newspapers to thrive.

“The explosion of free digital news disrupted the industry,” says Kathimerini’s Managing Editor, Lefteris Bidelas. “The old prophecy that newspapers were doomed proved wrong once we embraced digital — we saw that content truly is king. But in today’s era, even the best journalism needs to reach the right audience. We’re not only competing with other news organizations anymore; we’re also up against ‘news creators,’ influencers, and a host of new players vying for attention.”

Bidelas continues, “Content may still be king, but distribution is the emperor.”

Kathimerini had a vision to move beyond their traditional print revenue model and develop a digital subscriptions program — one that would become the first in their market and serve as a lighthouse to guide other legacy media.

In early 2022, Kathimerini consulted with Google News Initiative (GNI) on developing a first-in-region digital subscriptions program. To crystallize the vision and carry out the work, GNI connected Kathimerini with FT Strategies — a consulting firm incubated within the Financial Times that works with media organizations to tackle their most important challenges.

Kathimerini, GNI, and the FT Strategies teams collaborated on gathering and analyzing user and market insights to create a roadmap for rolling out digital subscriptions on the newspaper’s Greek and English-language websites. “We came up with a North Star based on four pillars: acquisition, conversion, value proposition, and retention,” says Kathimerini’s Head of Digital Subscriptions Thodoris Giaouzis.

They analyzed data to determine the types of content Kathimerini’s readers would be more likely to pay for, as well as pricing for subscription offers. They then developed how the front and back ends of a paywall and subscription flow would operate. They also had to transform their content management system (CMS) to implement a data-driven customer relationship management (CRM) system, which would become the “backbone,” Giaouzis says, of the digital subscriptions program.

Preparing for digital transformation required more than identifying the right technology; this challenge called for synergy, collaborative innovation, and a shared vision of what Kathimerini could achieve. It also meant learning from other newspapers. “Google gave us access to other European publishers who had more mature paywalls and digital subscription models, like Corriere della Sera [Italy] and El País [Spain],” Bidelas says. “Those connections helped us to understand what to expect, what metrics and KPIs to use to measure our success, and how to avoid mistakes. We gained valuable insights from other publishers thanks to connections within the Google News Initiative ecosystem.”

Kathimerini launched a registration wall in February 2023 to convert anonymous users into logged-in members and prepare readers for upcoming changes. The next phase, Giaouzis explains, involved a website redesign “to add some functionalities for registered users and content categories and additional features, like games, to improve our value proposition before launching the subscription phase.”

Kathimerini’s digital subscriptions launched in October 2023, supported by audience research. “The focus was on consumption and [digital] access. The data showed us categories where readers are more willing to convert,” Giaouzis explains. Bidelas adds, “Foreign affairs and geopolitical analysis are top-converting articles, along with special reports, opinion pieces, and finance articles. Also reporting on what's happening in Greece attracts the most conversions.”

In 2024, Kathimerini joined the GNI Subscriptions Academy with FT Strategies to review their goals and compare their digital subscriptions to those of other European publishers. “So we've been able to make some changes and pivots — an ongoing process that we've been doing since the start,” Giaouzis notes. They are now working on integrating Subscribe with Google and Google Reader Revenue Manager to help grow, retain, and engage their audiences.

“It's going very strong, stronger than we anticipated the first year,” Bidelas says. They have exceeded initial targets: Kathimerini has over 300,000 registered users, with digital subscriptions now four times more than print subscriptions and 10 times more than ePaper subscriptions. The implementation of Google One Tap sign-in has also significantly improved conversion rates.

Kathimerini became the first major news publisher in the region to launch digital subscriptions — serving as a lighthouse for other legacy media to develop their own programs. Bidelas offers them this advice: “Do not waste time trying to figure this out by yourself. Partner with the experts, do your homework, and learn from others. When you combine the leading technologies and user experience tools with premium content, then you have something big in your hands and you will be a success.”