Breaking through the growth ceiling: how The New Statesman and Dennik N went from stagnant to soaring

Chris Stone, The New Statesman (left) and Patricia Vol'anska, Dennik N (right)

Credit: Mark Hakansson / Marten Publishing

So your exciting new growth strategy has hit a ceiling and you cannot quite find a way to shift to the next gear?

Two case studies from Newsrewired last week (13 May 2025) showed how to get unstuck in the worlds of podcasts and subscriptions.

Make a promise

"We were stuck at around 70,000 subscribers for almost three years," says Patricia Volanska, head of social media, video, and podcast at Slovakia's Dennik N.

10 was their magic number: the publication launched a subscription campaign on its 10th anniversary, promising to deliver on 10 public pledges if 10,000 new subscribers signed up.

Dennik N introduced a "pay what you want" model for a 10-week trial subscription – including a €0 option, which just one quarter (24 per cent) decided to take up. The average contribution was €4 and the highest amount offered was €100.

What's even more spectacular, Dennik N retained three quarters of subscribers after the first renewal, and half after the second renewal.

The campaign was directly inspired by Zetland’s ambassador model, which had achieved similar results in 2019, adding 3,500 new members to help the media company reach a point of sustainability.

Dennik N gave existing subscribers a unique referral link to refer friends, and it worked, as five per cent of their subscriber base managed to bring in at least one more subscriber.

It promoted the campaign heavily in special editions of the newspaper, in the app and website, podcasts and video, and across social media.

Instagram proved surprisingly useful, as Dennik N turned to an AI marketing tool, Manychat, to DM users who comment on their posts. It achieved a clickthrough rate of 80 per cent.

The results speak for themselves. The publication reached the 10,000 target in just four days and gained over 20,000 new trial subscribers in two weeks.

"The community will engage when they see purpose and authenticity," Volanska notes, adding that active community management was crucial in their success, with staff actively engaging critics and turning negative comments into opportunities.

• Read more: 10 weeks, 10 promises, 24k new subscribers, 72% retention rate: lessons from Denník N’s subscription drive

Podcasts punch above their weight

"Podcasts are seen as a side project or an additional nice-to-have, but if you use them strategically, they can be one of the most powerful tools you have to grow audiences in your funnel," says Chris Stone, head of podcasts and video at The New Statesman (TNS).

These days, The New Statesman has an arsenal of different podcasts reaching a million unique users across all platforms.

In the wake of X's declining value for news and Meta's flatline, Instagram and TikTok have become its fastest-growing channels, where podcasts can be clipped up to help promote the show.

This helped on Instagram especially, because TNS found a hard 10,000 follower barrier it could not break past. It has now reached 50k on Instagram, helped by podcasts tapping into new audiences, feeds and interests.

YouTube has also been an enormous growth engine, doubling overall listenership, with video podcast views exceeding traditional audio downloads. The channel reached 100,000 subscribers in its first year and now approaches 180,000.

An important revelation was that simple interview formats outperformed expensive documentary-style video content tenfold in terms of views, watch time, and subscriber growth.

"It's not especially revolutionary to make a podcast, film it and put it on social media," Stone admits.

"But I speak to quite a lot of organisations like ours who are trying to do too many things, with too few people - that was certainly the situation that we were in."

In a world of fewer resources, podcasts produce a surprising amount of resources, be that an abundance of clips for social media, developing community relationships, revenue potential on platforms, or a funnel to acquire new subscribers.

The challenge is to sell the appeal of ad-free listening on the app and subscriber-exclusive shows.

• Read more: 'The news industry has a lot to learn from podcast creators' says Chris Stone of The New Statesman

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