Financial Times-Backed News Site Sifted Launches Paywall with Piano

Our client Sifted, the two-year-old Financial Times-backed news website covering the world of European start-ups, recently garnered coverage in the Press Gazette for launching a paywall with us to generate stronger reader attachment and drive revenue. The Sifted website, which had 5 million unique visitors in 2020, currently has 67,000 newsletter sign-ups, which they hope to deepen through a reader revenue program.

“So we were getting quite good commercial revenues from traditional media models but felt very much like the FT, which concluded years ago now that this is quite a volatile source of income and, if you can, develop subscription revenue,” said Sifted co-founder and editorial director John Thornhill. “It’s more predictable, it’s more stable, you can have a deeper attachment with your readers. So we were always wanting to move towards a membership model at Sifted as well.”

Read the article