LiveIntent Blog
  • Solutions
    • Advertiser solutions
      Discover a new advertising channel for powering profitable growth.
    • Publisher solutions
      Maximize the revenue generated across email and web inventory
    • Identity data solutions
      Build stronger connections with addressable audiences everywhere.
  • Identity framework
  • Case studies
  • Company
    • Our story
      Learn more about us, our mission, vision, and the people behind it all.
    • Careers
      Grow and develop personally and professionally at LiveIntent.
    • Press
      Read up on how LiveIntent is innovating the digital ecosystem.
    • Events
      Check out our upcoming events and stay up-to-date with all things martech.
  • Resources
    • LiveIntent Library
      Learn how to harness the power of email with our eBooks, guides, and reports.
    • Blog
      Explore martech topics, strategies, and tactics with fun, insightful content.
    • Knowledge base
      Get answers to all your pressing product related questions.
    • Brand assets
      Everything you need to know about the LiveIntent brand all in one place.
Contact Us
LiveIntent Blog
  • Solutions
    • Advertiser solutions
      Discover a new advertising channel for powering profitable growth.
    • Publisher solutions
      Maximize the revenue generated across email and web inventory
    • Identity data solutions
      Build stronger connections with addressable audiences everywhere.
  • Identity framework
  • Case studies
  • Company
    • Our story
      Learn more about us, our mission, vision, and the people behind it all.
    • Careers
      Grow and develop personally and professionally at LiveIntent.
    • Press
      Read up on how LiveIntent is innovating the digital ecosystem.
    • Events
      Check out our upcoming events and stay up-to-date with all things martech.
  • Resources
    • LiveIntent Library
      Learn how to harness the power of email with our eBooks, guides, and reports.
    • Blog
      Explore martech topics, strategies, and tactics with fun, insightful content.
    • Knowledge base
      Get answers to all your pressing product related questions.
    • Brand assets
      Everything you need to know about the LiveIntent brand all in one place.
Log in Contact Us
  • Blog Homepage
  • Programmatic Advertising
  • Email Monetization
  • Identity Resolution
  • LiveIntent Culture
  • Real Time Banter
  • LiveIntentional
  • Subscribe

Murmurs of newsletter subscription fatigue

    • Email Monetization
  • January 12, 2022
Victoria de Leon
Director, content marketing

Wait. Shh. Do you hear that? There’s a buzz in the air and, no, it’s not just those cicadas emerging from their 17-year subterranean slumber.

It’s a mounting concern about newsletter subscription fatigue — the idea that consumers will get tired of email newsletters, their inboxes oversaturated with branded messaging.

Now, let’s be real. There are many legitimate reasons to be fatigued these days… like the pandemic, quarantine, and life being altered as we know it.

The good news is that we don’t have to add subscription fatigue to that list.

While murmurs may be spreading among publishers and advertisers, the email newsletter boom isn’t slowing down any time soon. In fact, readers are more engaged with email than ever. According to an Adobe survey, consumers spend roughly five hours a day on email. eMarketer has reported that email is people’s preferred channel for receiving communications from retailers. Now, with third-party cookies on the way out and first-party data taking priority, subscriptions are only set to see growth for years to come.

Here’s a closer look at why — and what you need to know to drown out those pesky murmurs.

The growth of email newsletters

Over the last couple of years, subscriptions have evolved to become a cornerstone of publishers’ strategies and an invaluable channel for driving engagement and revenue.

The pandemic alone drove a 200% surge in email marketing engagement. Even the travel industry, which essentially halted in the wake of COVID-19, saw an almost 50% increase in email engagement. The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 also found that over 20% of American adults now pay for at least one digital news outlet, with most of those paying for an average of two subscriptions.

It’s no wonder major publishers are using newsletter subscriptions to retain and nurture those audiences and continue to monetize their content. The New York Times, for example, recently launched seven new opinion newsletters from columnists and niche opinion writers. The publisher also made one-third of its total collection of over 50 newsletters subscriber-only. This allows NYT to deliver personalized, relevant content and drive traffic back to its website and paywalled pieces. It also helps the publisher to compete with paid subscription offerings from self-published journalists who use platforms like Substack.

The Atlantic, whose subscriber base grew by nearly 50% from 2020 to 2021, is similarly recruiting established, paid newsletter writers to come under its umbrella and build its engaged audience. Meanwhile, Quartz grew its subscriber base by 71% year over year and found that 75% of its paying customers accessed most of the publisher’s content from their email inboxes.

“In the short-term: publishers and marketers want to make sure they provide content and products in a way that keeps up with this trend,” LiveIntent CMO, Kerel Cooper, told AdMonsters. “It’s sort of the next phase for these companies related to building engagement, interaction, and time spent with their brand. In the long-term: everyone understands that email will be the key to Identity in a first-party world. What these new entrants understand is the sheer superpower of the email address and they are developing strategies to be more dexterous with it.”

Even Twitter is getting in on the subscription action. The social media giant acquired newsletter platform Revue, making it easier for users to access and sign up for email content right from Twitter.

Why email newsletters will continue to flourish

Email newsletters don’t show any signs of slowing down in the future. Newsletters will continue to be a preferred channel for offering and receiving relevant content and cultivating direct, data-driven relationships for both publishers and readers.

Here’s how.

Readers enjoy personalized, one-to-one content

Consumers flock to newsletter subscriptions because they know they’re signing up for curated content that matches their interests and behaviors — delivered right to their inboxes.

Peter Chang, CRO of Likemind, said: “Email is an opt-in environment where the users choose to be a part of our user base. They can choose to subscribe to all of our brands, some of our brands, or even, within the brands, just the different types of communications or content experiences that they want. So they have full control.”

That’s why publishers like The New York Times, which has eight million subscriptions and 100 million email-registered readers, are expanding their newsletter offerings across specific verticals like business, tech, and culture.

“We have to make sure that we’re adding much more distinctive value to what it means to feel like you are a subscriber,” said Alex Hardiman, chief product officer of The New York Times. “So a lot of the work now is about making sure that every single time you experience The Times as a subscriber, you know it and you feel it.”

Publishers build first-party data and revenue

For publishers, email newsletters offer a wealth of first-party data — namely, email addresses — which will be invaluable given that third-party cookies are set to be disabled on Chrome browsers in 2023.

With first-party data, publishers can more effectively track and target audiences across the web. And since publishers can own and activate their first-party data, they won’t have to worry about losing it behind walled gardens like Facebook and Google.

“Email is the largest identifier ever created by humans by far, and it can be used in adtech, martech, and madtech,” said Jason Oates, chief business officer at LiveIntent. “Having that asset and building up that first-party data is really helpful because you can start building a people graph of all of your customers […] Now you’ve got a pool of identifiers that you can actually leverage in different media.”

Publishers can also monetize their email newsletters with personalized ads to help diversify revenue streams and meet their bottom lines. For example, they can programmatically sell native ads, which fit seamlessly into the user experience and newsletter format.

“With native ads in email newsletters, publishers can transform their newsletters into a channel for first-party data collection,” Nick Bolt, senior product marketing manager of publisher solutions at LiveIntent, told AdMonsters. “With more premium options, publishers can attract a larger array of advertisers and acquire more data to continue growing their business and revenue.”

Driving the future of email newsletter subscriptions

Publishers can ride — and lead — this wave of email newsletter excitement by continuing to build and drive interest in their subscription offerings.

One of the best ways to do that is to use audience and behavioral insights to uncover exactly what subscribers want to see. That means gathering first-party data and using it to build audience segments for further retargeting and acquisition opportunities. From there, publishers can produce even more personalized newsletters and data-driven content.

Although services like Substack and Revue are growing in popularity today, they’ll likely dwindle in growth in the future — it’s unlikely that consumers will want to continue paying for several subscriptions at once. However, publisher newsletters from trusted and beloved sources will always reign supreme. In fact, their value and purpose in the digital marketing landscape are more significant than ever and are only expected to increase.

So, shake off those concerns swirling through your head, at least until those cicadas reemerge in another 17 years. Maybe we can reevaluate then — but we’ll probably do so by reaching you in your inbox

0
Tweet 0
Victoria de Leon
Director, content marketing

Must-Read Content

3 perks to owning your newsletter program
    • Email Monetization

The 3 perks of owning your newsletter program

  • Victoria de Leon
  • February 1, 2023
3 publishing priorities
    • Email Monetization

3 publishing priorities for 2023

  • Mano Pillai
  • December 21, 2022
    • Email Monetization

Staking a claim in $61.15bn in digital ad spend

  • Chris Hartley
  • December 13, 2022
Learn more about Email Monetization.
View Post
  • Email Monetization

Why email is crucial to local publisher monetization strategies

  • Victoria de Leon
  • July 14, 2022
View Post
  • Email Monetization

Consumer behaviors, email newsletters, and subscription fatigue with Mark Stenberg

  • Mark Dunning
  • June 13, 2022
View Post
  • Email Monetization

Email list monetization: What is it and why is it important?

  • Victoria de Leon
  • May 18, 2022
View Post
  • Email Monetization

4 ways to monetize your first-party data in 2022

  • Victoria de Leon
  • May 3, 2022
View Post
  • Email Monetization

5 tips for email audience building in 2022

  • Mark Dunning
  • April 5, 2022
View Post
  • Email Monetization

Unlocking and supporting business opportunities with first-party data

  • Nick Bolt
  • March 30, 2022
View Post
  • Email Monetization

CNET finds the sweet spot between direct-sold strategy and operational ease with Native Ad Blueprints

  • Jennie Conway
  • March 14, 2022
View Post
  • Email Monetization

Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP): What it means for direct-sold deals

  • Nick Bolt
  • February 22, 2022
LiveIntent Blog
Think outside the inbox and discover all the innovative ways email can help you grow your business.
© LiveIntent 2022
  • Solutions
    • Advertiser solutions
    • People-Based audiences
    • Publisher solutions
    • Identity data solutions
    • Identity framework
  • Company
    • Our Story
    • Careers
    • Employee Resource Groups
    • Press
    • Events
    • Contact us
  • Resources
    • Case studies
    • Blog
    • Knowledge base
    • Brand assets
  • Legal
    • Powered by
    • Content policy
    • Website privacy policy
    • Services privacy policy
    • Do not sell my info
    • Ad choices
© LiveIntent 2022
Popular topics
  • People-Based Marketing
  • Meet-a-LiveIntenter
  • Email Revenue
  • Identity Graph
  • Subscriber Acquisition
  • First-Party Data
  • Direct-to-Consumer
  • Cookie Apocalypse