We just wrapped the Back Indie Media Drive featuring 34 publishers from our community.
Drive participants added a collective 762 new paid subscribers (at least! I only have data from 20 of our participants). That's very impressive when you take into account that Aftermath’s big subscriber drive brought them 150 paid subscribers in 2025 and, according to their recent annual report, Hell Gate added 3675 net new paid subscribers in the last full year (or an average of 306 a month.)
We did have a couple larger audience indie publishers participating in this drive, but, I’d say for a ragtag bunch of solo journalists and a couple heavyweights, 762 new paid subscribers is pretty damn good for a one month drive.
I asked everybody what worked to win over those paid subscribers and several of you came through with specific examples.
Here's 10 winning emails that converted paid subscribers during the drive.
You can also find these promotions in our Swipe Files under the tag "Winning Promos from Back Indie Media Drive."
Lex Roman