Building Sustainable News Organizations: How The Philadelphia Inquirer Is Growing Consumer Revenue Through Philanthropy and Premium Subscriptions

Declining search traffic and waning interest in traditional news subscriptions are forcing publishers to confront a critical question: How can we build sustainable news businesses in an increasingly turbulent digital landscape?

In this case study presentation, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Senior Director of Revenue Generation, Sarah Jarvis, and Senior Product Manager for Revenue, Harriet White, will share how the Inquirer is experimenting with philanthropy and a new premium subscription product to diversify revenue, deepen reader loyalty and drive incremental consumer revenue from its most engaged audiences.

Attendees will leave with practical resources and actionable strategies for exploring new revenue streams, including specific guidance on how legacy news organizations can ramp up fundraising efforts and successfully introduce a new subscription product — from identifying attractive subscriber benefits and differentiating the premium product value proposition from existing products to planning and executing a successful launch.

Speakers

Harriet White is a Senior Product Manager, Revenue at The Philadelphia Inquirer where she has launched award-winning news revenue experiences and has supported The Inquirer's transition to a digital-first news organization. As a reporter at heart, Harriet graduated from both Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and University of Missouri's School of Journalism. Her previous experience includes time with McClatchy, The E.W. Scripps Company and Medill’s Local News Initiative.

Sarah Jarvis is the Senior Director of Revenue Generation at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where she leads key initiatives focused on subscriber growth, e-commerce revenue, and fundraising. In her role, Sarah oversees subscriber acquisition strategies, including paywall experimentation, the development of new subscription products and access tiers, enterprise subscriptions, and gated subscription offers for niche audiences such as college students, teachers, members of the military, and healthcare workers. She also oversees The Inquirer Store, the company’s e-commerce site, and supports fundraising efforts for The Philadelphia Inquirer High-Impact Journalism Fund, which directly supports investigative reporting from The Inquirer’s newsroom. Through her work, Sarah helps expand access to trusted local journalism while driving sustainable business growth.