Romania Insider – Monetizing Quality News with a Mobile App

Cover Image Credits

Photo by Tony Frost on Unsplash

Client Background

Romania Insider is the largest independent English-language news platform in Romania, established in 2010. It delivers daily coverage of business, politics, society, culture, and travel to a global audience. With over 460,000 monthly readers (and peaks exceeding 800,000), the site attracts:

• Romanians living abroad,
  
• expatriates living and working in Romania,
  
• and international professionals interested in the region for business or leisure.
  

Their reputation for trusted, timely reporting created a loyal following both locally and internationally.

Challenges

Despite strong web traffic and an engaged readership, Romania Insider faced several challenges:

• Monetization: Reliance on advertising revenue was not sufficient for long-term growth.
  
• Audience diversification: Readers consumed content across multiple platforms (website, newsletters, social media), but a mobile-first channel was missing.
  
• Reader engagement: They needed a way to strengthen loyalty and deliver content directly into readers’ hands.
  

Solution with PressPad

To address these needs, Romania Insider launched a dedicated mobile news app with PressPad, available on iOS and Android. Key features included:

• Mobile-first experience: Easy access to Romania Insider content via a lightweight app.
  
• Integrated paywall: Readers could access one free article per month, after which a subscription was required. Options included:
  
  • €3.99/month
    
  • €34.99/year
    
• Seamless subscription management: Auto-renewal and in-app account settings provided convenience for users.
  
• Push notifications: Instant alerts for breaking news, boosting engagement.
  
• Ad-free environment: Subscribers enjoyed uninterrupted reading, further increasing perceived value.
  

Results

The app quickly proved successful:

• Hundreds of paid subscribers were gained organically in the first months.
  
• Conversion rates exceeded expectations, supported by the loyal readership base Romania Insider had cultivated over the years.
  
• Stable downloads: The introduction of the paywall did not cause a significant drop in app downloads, defying initial concerns.
  
• Revenue growth: Subscription income diversified and strengthened their business model, reducing reliance on advertising.
  

Client’s Feedback

Corina Chirileasa, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Romania Insider, shared:

“The conversions of our app paywall were far higher than we expected. Our readers chose to receive content from us via this easy-to-use platform. We reached several hundred app subscribers already, mostly organically, and downloads remained stable.”

Key Takeaway

Romania Insider demonstrates how a trusted media brand can successfully transition from free web content to paid mobile subscriptions. By leveraging PressPad’s native app, which dynamically pulls content from their web magazine via WordPress API or RSS feeds, they not only monetized their loyal audience but also deepened reader relationships in a competitive digital media market.

The publisher gave momentum to their app by creating very well designed landing page.

Favorite features

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