Subscription Publishing Briefing: October 16

In this week's Briefing: Normalized churn rates can provide a more nuanced understanding of renewal performance and the health of publishers’ subscription businesses. The Economist’s paid podcast strategy is intended to add value for existing subscribers and entice new ones. ‘Normalized’ churn provides a better understanding of renewal behavior Churn is a key indicator for the health of any subscription-based business. But as publishers’ approaches to subscriptions become more sophisticated, the metrics they’re using to monitor and analyze their renewal performance are becoming increasingly nuanced, too. When calculating topline churn, most publishers use the commonly understood approach of dividing the number of cancellations in a given period by the num