Libération | Subscription

Success Story: Libération

How does Libération attract and engage new subscribers through its newsletters?

The client

Libération is a French daily newspaper, also available online.

Founded on the initiative of Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Clavel, the newspaper was first published on 18 April 1973 and took its name from a publication created in 1927 by the libertarian Jules Vignes, a name that would also be adopted by one of the Resistance newspapers led by Emmanuel d’Astier de La Vigerie.

Initially positioned on the far left of the political spectrum, the daily newspaper shifted towards the social-democratic left in the 1980s, following the departure of Jean-Paul Sartre.

For the past three years, *Libération* has been grappling with the challenges of the digital age and changing reader behaviour. The newspaper has therefore adapted to these changes and expanded its digital offering, enabling it to record a 108 per cent increase in digital subscribers in 2020. This trend is continuing in 2021.

The context

The targets set for the next three years are very ambitious: to triple the digital portfolio.

This is why the teams at Libération chose to partner with Actito to bring this strategy to fruition.

They needed a user-friendly tool that would allow them to manage their editorial newsletters and marketing campaigns on a single platform, with the aim of attracting and retaining subscribers.

The results

Editorial newsletters are a real driver of engagement for Libération. They enable the publication to showcase high-quality content to its readers and are entirely produced by journalists.

These newsletters account for between 40 and 50 per cent of new subscriber sign-ups. Open rates exceed 30%, click-through rates average 5%, and the dissatisfaction rate is less than 2%.

Next steps

To achieve its growth targets, Libération has a host of projects to implement, including:

• Enhancing its data model: adding tables, connections, etc.
• Launching new marketing campaigns: retention, reactivating dormant subscribers, loyalty programmes, content personalisation…