CNN
Launching subscriptions to the world’s most popular news site
Background
CNN had new leadership who came in promising a digital transformation amid the headwinds of cord cutting and declining ad revenue. One of their big bets was to better monetize CNN.com, which served more than 100 million users each month. They wanted to launch a subscription product.
There were two problems:
1. Users had been reading unlimited free articles since the 1990’s, and putting up a paywall is a huge risk for a legacy media company.
2. We had three months to launch it. Design work wasn’t greenlit until July 1, and the product needed to go live by October 1 to capitalize on the spike in traffic leading up to the presidential election.
The team’s goal: Launch a subscription MVP in less than three months AND convince people to pay for it.
Approach
Wear multiple hats
CNN’s had a brand-new content design team and no product marketing function. They needed someone who could simultaneously be content designer and product marketing manager. My background in both UX and marketing made me the needle in a haystack they needed.
I was tasked with making the transition seamless between marketing surfaces and the subscription flow.
I had to document my rationale for all content decisions to help with stakeholder management and education. I had to bring receipts for why every word was written the way it was.
Test again and again
The team had tested the viability of a subscription before I started, but that didn’t mean pre-launch testing was finished.
Our plan was to launch multiple tests customized for what insights we needed at that moment.
The team ran a painted-door test on the existing registration wall to determine the right pricing strategy.
We wanted to know what key messaging resonated best with users, so I helped launched a quick quantitative survey of four different options.
We saved more time-consuming qualitative interviews for near the end, when we needed to validate whether we were ready to ship the flow
Learn to surf
Meeting such an aggressive timeline meant lots of compromises.
The team decided to reduce scope by reusing existing components from CNN’s UK Live streaming product.
This meant any text I wrote had strict design limitations.
I documented character limits and showed stakeholders multiple options that could fit. I worked within the space allotted to me and didn’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
Our team developed new ways of working to meet the frenetic pace: over-communicating with partners to reduce swirl, over-organize the Figma file for multiple editors; handling design reviews async.
I could have tried to fight the waves in a less-than-ideal situation, but I learned to surf instead.
Results
Most importantly, it launched October 1!
And nothing broke!
Almost as important, we exceeded our projections, making subscriptions a huge win for the company.
Stats included:
50,000+ subscribers before Election Day
$1.1 million+ revenue contribution in the first month
93% YoY growth in registered users in 2024
What I did (in 3 months)
Content design
Worked hand in hand with the lead product designer to design all screens, from paywall to sign-up to payment confirmation.
Developed an error messaging content model.
Created subscriptions content design guidelines for CNN’s design system.
Post launch, worked with the mobile team to create designs for the mobile app version of the subscriptions product.
Educated design leadership and product partners throughout the project about the role of content design.
Product marketing
Assisted UX research in testing paywall messaging pre-launch.
Wrote all copy for the marketing landing page.
Created an onboarding email series educating new subscribers about their benefits.
Developed a creative brief template to guide monthly marketing campaigns
Provided copywriting support for the first phase of post-launch email marketing.
Planned a paywall A/B testing plan to optimize the copy.
Brainstormed product positioning concepts to help guide marketing work post launch.
Learnings
Show your work
Content design was very new at CNN, so I had to show the organization what it looked like. I annotated every design so that people knew the “why” to every word in the flow. I documented all stakeholder changes so we had a historical record of design decisions. I overshared, which not only helped build trust among my team but made collaboration easier, because people came into meetings better prepared. This approach garnered praise all the way up to the head of product, and I developed a reputation as the person who knew more about the product than anyone else.
You can manage up as a freelancer
As a freelancer, I could have only worked on what I was told to. It would have been expected. Instead, I was proactive in helping the team when I saw gaps. I created creative brief templates to help the director of growth get early alignment on marketing campaigns. I met with the senior design director to advocate for stronger brand positioning in the product. I documented guidelines for the content design manager to make work easier after I left. I wasn’t told to do any of these things, but doing them made management’s lives easier, which made the project run more smoothly.