Project details
Client:
GroundTruth
Piano
Piano Benchmarks Report
Piano serves some of the world's most recognized media companies and publishers — The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde. When I joined as Director of Content and Communications, one of the programs I built was an annual benchmarks report: a flagship piece of original research that would give Piano's clients and prospects real data on how their industry was performing, and position Piano as the authority on subscription growth.
I conceived the content plan, worked with internal strategists and data analysts to identify the right questions, and led the writing, editing, and digital production of the report from brief to launch. I also commissioned a print brochure version to distribute at Piano Academy Live 2024, our annual customer conference, where one of our strategists presented the findings on stage to an audience of delegates from more than 23 countries.
What the Data Revealed The 2024 Subscription Performance Benchmarks Report drew on Piano's global publisher data collected between 2022 and 2024. The findings challenged the prevailing narrative that media was struggling: while traffic had grown only 5%, conversions were up 14% and subscription revenue had surged 28%. 85% of Piano clients increased revenue over that period — even those whose traffic declined. The report covered seven major trends, from the collapse of social media referral traffic to the rise of mobile conversions, the decline of free trials, and the growing importance of lifetime value over raw subscriber volume.
It gave Piano's clients a clear, data-backed framework for making smarter decisions about acquisition, retention, and pricing.
A Report That Landed The Subscription Performance Benchmarks Report was well received by clients and prospects. It was presented on stage at Piano Academy Live 2024, distributed in print at the conference, and published digitally as a gated asset to support demand generation. For me, this project represented what good content leadership looks like: not just commissioning content, but understanding the audience, shaping the research questions, and making sure the final product was useful enough that people actually wanted to read it — and share it.
Read the full report at piano.io.