Dear Colleagues,

It is my pleasure to invite you to join the 2026 INMA Media Subscriptions Summit in Toronto, which I am curating.

This year, our focus is sharply set on reinventing the news subscriber funnel. In the era of artificial intelligence and the thriving creator economy, traditional subscription growth models must adapt to new audience dynamics and expectations. How do we differentiate our journalism in the era of the content tsunami?

It’s also the last call to ditch print-era tactics and fully embrace the opportunities of digital content, products, and channels. After marketers, we are now seeing product teams embedded into newsrooms' workflows. How does it work? What does a new premium experience in news really loos like?

The media landscape is changing, disrupted by AI-driven search and discovery, and increasingly shaped by individual creators who capture audience attention. To thrive, we must reimagine acquisition strategies, emphasising direct audience relationships and engagement.

Should we then double down on our core hard news and its heavy users, or should we aim at diversifying beyond the news and reach casual audiences? While both approaches to growth seem to work for different companies, how do you choose which one is right for you? What are the lessons from the fast growers?

Retention is becoming the new growth frontier. It's no longer enough to acquire subscribers. Publishers must foster meaningful relationships and personalised subscriber experiences that drive long-term loyalty. We'll explore how successful publishers are reaching new audiences. Where does the future growth come from? Who is your future subscriber?

Beyond traditional content, engagement must evolve to include a vibrant community. Some publishers have already demonstrated that loyalty extends far beyond content: it emerges from community experiences on-site and off-site, including debating and gaming. How do we build communities around our journalists and brands? How can AI help us interact with individuals at scale?

Crucially, we will examine the role of individual talent and human creativity within an AI-driven media environment. If the news media firms become more like “record labels”, how can we leverage creators as partners and empower journalists to become powerful individual brands? How do we market the individuals on our brand platforms?

Join us in Toronto to shape this essential new agenda at a case study-rich, practical summit. Exchange notes and ideas with your peers. Let us discover together new strategies and tactics for sustainable growth in subscriptions.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Greg Piechota
Readers First Initiative Lead
International News Media Association (INMA)
Oxford, England

INMA’s Readers First Initiative aims at surfacing global best practices in the art and science behind digital subscriptions for news media companies and creating a road map toward the next generation of consumer monetisation.

We help the news industry exchange ideas, best practices and benchmark data. We publish newsletters, strategic reports, moderate a Slack channel, video meet-ups, and host master classes, town halls, summits and individual Ask-Me-Anything sessions.

The initiative is led by INMA’s Researcher-In-Residence Greg Piechota. He is a former news executive and research fellow at Harvard and Oxford universities, and an expert in business model innovation, digital transformation, and e-commerce.