The Independent has doubled its revenue since 2019, to £55.1 million, and has turned a profit nine years in a row (Press Gazette).
So when a publisher like that tears up its subscription and starts over, it’s worth a close look.
The Independent replaced its old Independent Premium subscription with a two-tier membership. Neither tier is built around “access.” Both are built around perks.
Here’s what they did, and the four lessons you can take for your own site.
The two tiers, side by side
Members also get “no or fewer ads depending on their tier.”
Lesson 1: Your base tier sells belonging
Many subscription pages sell one thing: more articles. The Independent’s Standard tier sells a relationship.
Newsletters keep members coming back. Events put them in a room with the newsroom. Commenting gives them a voice. Puzzles give them a daily habit that has nothing to do with the news cycle.
Every one of those perks gives a reader a reason to stay subscribed on a slow news week.
Christian Broughton, now The Independent’s CEO, explained the thinking behind tiers back when he was its editor: “We learned not to treat everybody the same, and to listen”
Lesson 2: Build your top tier from things you already make
Your top tier can be built from work you already do, packaged for the readers who want more of it.
Looking to grow your publication?
Sign up for expert advice straight to your inbox.All-Access costs $4 more a month than Standard. For that $4, members get two extras: the digital edition of the newspaper and ask-me-anything videos.
The Independent didn’t build a new product for either one. The digital edition is a newspaper they already lay out. The videos are staff time in front of a camera.
Here’s what that looks like on your site:
- Print edition: a PDF replica is your All-Access perk.
- Print archive: your back issues are a top-tier perk too.
- Reader Q&A: if your editor already answers reader questions, a monthly live Q&A is your All-Access perk.
- Video: if you shoot it, members-only video is your All-Access perk.
For the archive, Reissue, from the team behind Leaky Paywall, turns your issue PDFs into WordPress articles in about 30 minutes each. Then you can open the archive to search and keep recent issues or the full archive for All-Access members.
Lesson 3: Paying members shouldn’t see ads
If someone pays you, take the ads away.
The Independent gives members “no or fewer ads depending on their tier.” We’d go further. Ads on a paid page cheapen the subscription, and ad tech that covers your subscribe buttons has your two businesses fighting each other.
Mexico News Daily grew subscriptions for 3.5 years straight on 100% reader revenue and zero ads.
You don’t have to drop ads for every reader to get there. We have food bloggers on Leaky Paywall earning $10,000 a year in profit from ad-free passes, at about a 90% margin. Free readers still see ads. Paying readers get a clean page.
The usual objection: “Won’t I lose ad revenue?”
But think about it. Your paying members are a small slice of your total traffic, so removing ads for them barely moves your ad income (common pattern). Charging for a clean page creates a revenue line that didn’t exist before.
Lesson 4: Make annual the obvious choice
Do the math on The Independent’s prices:
- Standard: $11 a month is $132 a year. The annual plan is $99. That’s 25% off.
- All-Access: $15 a month is $180 a year. The annual plan is $130. That’s about 28% off.
That looks like a deliberate push toward annual. An annual member can’t cancel after one month, and you get a year of cash up front.
You don’t need to discount that deeply. A 15-20% annual discount is enough to make annual the clear deal.
Lead with annual on your pricing page and mark it “Most Popular.” Keep monthly in your back pocket as an offer for engaged free readers and people who abandon checkout.
One publisher showed only annual on its public pricing page and brought in about €3,000 in three and a half weeks.
“I’m not The Independent.”
You don’t need to be.
Look at the perks again: newsletters, comments, events, puzzles, a PDF edition, video, a clean page. None of that requires a big newsroom. It requires a platform that lets you put each perk behind the right tier.
This is where running your memberships inside WordPress pays off. Comments, event listings, puzzles and PDF flipbooks are all plugins you can install today. Leaky Paywall lets you restrict any of them by subscription level, category, tag or page, so each tier gets exactly the perks you choose.
A JavaScript paywall bolted onto your site from the outside works differently. It controls who sees an article. It doesn’t control who can comment, register for an event or download the PDF.
A starter setup for your site
Step 1: Free registration first. Give one article free, then ask for an email to keep reading.
A registration wall converts 3.2-6.7% of the readers who see it, compared to 0.9-1.45% for newsletter popups (BlueLena study). Those registered readers become your best membership prospects. Leaky Paywall’s List Builder puts this wall in front of your readers.
Step 2: One core membership. This is your Standard tier: every original article, a paid newsletter that’s separate from your free one, commenting and no ads. Lead with the annual plan.
Step 3: A top tier for your biggest fans. Add the things you already make: your digital edition or archive, a live Q&A, members-only video. Call it All-Access or “super supporter.”
You don’t even have to start with it on your pricing page. One local publisher emailed existing subscribers one question: “Would you upgrade from $10 to $20 as a super supporter?”
A reply of “Yes” meant upgraded, handled manually. More than 100 said yes out of about 1,200-1,500 emails. That added over $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue.
Keep your pricing page to three cards. Core membership, top tier, and a third card for gift subscriptions or group access. More choices than that lead to decision fatigue.
Bottom line
The Independent didn’t add more paywalled articles. It added reasons to belong, packaged things it already makes into a top tier, and made the paid experience cleaner than the free one.
You can copy all three on a WordPress site with the plugins you already have.
