Warsaw-based publisher Gremi Media is known for their influential newspapers: the venerable Rzeczpospolita, an economic and legal staple for over a hundred years, and the finance-oriented Parkiet. Traditionally, both publications depended on their daily print editions to reach readers across Poland and beyond. By 2022, however, circulation was slowing at a rate of 10 percent per year as readers moved increasingly online. Meanwhile, sanctions on Russia amid the war in Ukraine forced a switch to a more expensive paper supplier, underscoring Gremi Media’s urgent need to prioritize their digital platforms.

“We were forced to move a little bit more quickly from paper to digital,” Sebastian Krause, Gremi Media’s director of new media, recalls.

And Gremi Media faced an additional challenge: Their mobile applications – though trailblazing when launched in 2010 – had become outdated, leading to low ratings on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. It was time for a major overhaul. So in 2024, Krause and his team partnered with the Google News Initiative (GNI) to build a brand-new app for Rzeczpospolita, aiming to drive retention and engagement with a high-quality user experience designed for today’s mobile devices.

A key goal of the app redesign was to give new readers a great first impression and keep them coming back for more. With GNI’s support, Krause and his team created a “best of the best” module for first-time users, featuring 10 recommended Rzeczpospolita articles identified with Google BigQuery analytics. For returning users, they developed two distinct experiences: one reflecting editorial choices and website popularity, and another offering PDF versions of the print edition.

Additional enhancements include a “read later” list, sharing options, and customization features for a more personalized experience. This makes the app especially unique and valuable for the 75 percent of users who are already subscribers and previously frequented the Rzeczpospolita website. “It’s a very good way to build your brand – to say we appreciate you and we will give you access to content in the application even though you bought access on the site,” Krause explains.

To launch the new app quickly and cost-effectively, Gremi Media used Flutter, an open-source framework created by Google for building, testing, and deploying multi-platform experiences from a single codebase. This approach made it easy to incorporate modern features like in-app purchases.

Along with the new app, Gremi Media launched several efforts to increase Rzeczpospolita’s brand recognition among younger, internet-savvy audiences. They increased non-regular readers’ access to editorial content by publishing select articles through Google News Showcase. They also made more premium content available through Google Reader Revenue Manager, which allows readers to instantly register and purchase subscriptions using their Google accounts. Additionally, Gremi Media publicly shared over a dozen datasets on Google’s Pinpoint platform, enabling journalists and researchers to uncover hidden stories and patterns.

The new Rzeczpospolita app, launched in May of 2024, quickly demonstrated its impact. Nearly 90 percent of users from the older app transitioned to the new one within three months. The app has since achieved over 38,000 downloads, and it now offers 9,000 regular users a mobile-friendly source of news.

This successful digital pivot has yielded substantial returns for Rzeczpospolita and Gremi Media, including a 10-percent increase in overall subscriptions and a 12-percent boost in digital brand recognition. Moreover, the new app's optimized subscription process has driven conversion rates up by 27 percent on iOS and 17 percent on Android.

While impressive, these metrics tell only part of Gremi Media’s success story with GNI. Krause and his team gained immense value throughout the project from the shared expertise and guidance on everything from managing costs to setting realistic goals and deadlines. “The GNI team demonstrated considerable experience and helped our team understand how to define measurable assumptions for each stage,” Krause explains. As a result, he adds, Gremi Media learned “that effective cooperation with external organizations financing innovative projects is possible.”