Il Messaggero reignited digital subscription growth by pairing AI-driven product innovation with a more collaborative, data-led approach. Support during the Subscriptions Academy and AI Launchpad programmes helped streamline the funnel, enhance engagement and achieve a 26% increase in subscriptions.

Il Messaggero accelerated subscription growth by introducing new AI-powered digital products and strengthening cross-team collaboration
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Situation

Il Messaggero is one of Italy's leading newspapers, renowned for its national reporting and comprehensive local coverage of Rome. Digital reader revenue is seen as a crucial part of Il Messaggero’s business model, and a digital subscription model was launched in 2019. However, subscription uptake stagnated after initial success and by 2024, significant growth potential remained untapped. As a result, Il Messaggero’s leadership set a goal to optimise its subscription funnel, enhance reader engagement and adopt a more experimental, data-driven approach across teams.

To achieve this goal, Il Messaggero participated in the Subscriptions Academy programme, delivered by FT Strategies and supported by the Google News Initiative (GNI), before moving on to the AI Launchpad in 2025. Together, over 18 months, these programmes provided a framework that supported deeper audience insights, strengthened digital capabilities and explored how AI-powered innovation could boost engagement and long-term subscription growth.

 

Our work together

Subscriptions Academy

Over five months, Il Messaggero collaborated with FT Strategies and GNI to audit and refine its entire subscription strategy:

  • The team conducted a full review of the subscription funnel: acquisition, registration, conversion and retention.
  • Bespoke data analysis and expert consultations helped identify where the funnel underperformed and highlighted high-impact opportunities for improvement.
  • Il Messaggero ran four experiments focusing on streamlining registration, increasing the visibility of newsletters and launching a co-developed newsletter between the print and digital teams.
  • The publisher introduced the “North Star” methodology: establishing cross-functional forums in which editorial, commercial, and product teams adopted a shared framework for growth, experimentation and delivering value to readers.
AI Launchpad & development of “Data Painter”

Building on the foundations of Subscriptions Academy, Il Messaggero joined the AI Launchpad programme with a mission to embed its strong in-house AI capabilities within their everyday reporting:

  • The in-house data science team worked with FT Strategies experts in a series of weekly sprints to design an AI use case prototype.
  • The result was Data Painter, an AI-powered tool that transforms article text and data into publish-ready infographics — quickly, autonomously, and at scale.
  • Journalists could now produce high-quality visuals directly in the CMS, reducing dependency on external studios and accelerating production timelines.

Impact

Subscriptions & engagement uplift
  • Within 12 months of completing the Subscriptions Academy, Il Messaggero recorded a 26% year-on-year increase in digital subscriptions.
  • Experiments around registration flows and newsletters evolved from one-off tests into standard practice. New products - including a segmented dynamic paywall and premium newsletters with exclusive analysis for subscribers - have boosted both engagement and retention.
Cultural and organisational transformation
  • The newsroom now operates with a growth mindset: editorial, technical and commercial teams share accountability for subscription performance.
  • Journalists play a direct role in shaping how content drives conversions, from data-rich features for premium users to tailored newsletters for loyal readers.
  • Audience insight increasingly informs editorial commissioning and promotions, prioritising content that resonates with high-value readers, and treating registered users as a priority audience with bespoke products and messaging.
Data-powered storytelling at scale
  • Data Painter has become a core newsroom capability; production time for infographics has fallen from 2 hours to 15 minutes.
  • Now embedded in the CMS and widely adopted across teams, Data Painter enables more stories to be enriched with visuals and infographics, enhancing reader value and supporting subscriber conversion.
What this means for Il Messaggero’s future

This journey has delivered more than short-term gains. Il Messaggero has built a repeatable model for innovation, underpinned by cross-team collaboration, data insight and a culture of experimentation. Subscription growth, new digital products, and AI-powered storytelling now sit at the heart of its long-term strategy, positioning the publisher for sustained growth and digital transformation.

“These programmes have been incredibly valuable. We’ve learned and discovered new methods, including the North Star framework and governance. These will be essential in sustaining our change within a complex organisation. This experience has also been highly productive, providing the structure we needed to organise our ideas and focus on the key areas that will help us achieve our goal.”

 

Vera Mihaylova
Digital Manager, Il Messaggero