Poool ranks as top paywall provider in France

In Science Po's 2023 Tech Stack Study of French news publishers, Poool Access, the Audience Conversion Platform, ranks top, above in-house solutions and competitors.

49% of respondents to the study employ Poool Access to block content and ask readers to subscribe, up from 35.1% in 2022.

The study

The "Tech Stack Study 2023" survey is based on responses from a wide variety of French press publishers and, in particular, from professionals using these tools, including CTOs, editorial managers, product managers and marketing managers.

Respondent profiles are varied, both in terms of media size and press family. Survey participants include:

• The majority of national daily press titles in France
• Some audiovisual media brands (radio, TV)
• Magazine titles: general, business and entertainment weeklies,
• Regional press groups: daily and weekly,
• Pure-players (websites without print versions)
• Some trade press groups

If we add up the audiences of each participating title, this study describes the Tech Stack behind 5.3 billion monthly page views.

Between their in-house tools and those supplied by external providers, they all manage a rapidly evolving technical space, with licenses, developments, plug-ins, customizations and updates.

Producing content in the publishing industry therefore involves a constant choice of resources. This study bears witness to the complexity of the task, given the immense range of possibilities. 

The tools cited

In all, eleven tools are cited by more than a third of respondents as being part of their Tech Stack, a sign of the vendors' solid penetration of the French market. 

The "nominees" on this list are: 

• Google Ad Manager (Adserver) - used by  57% of respondents
• Didomi (Consent Management Platform) - 57% 
• Poool Access (Paywall) - 49%
• Piano Analytics (Analytics) - 46% 
• Youtube (Video player) - 43%
• Adobe Premiere Pro (Video Lives) - 38%
• Google Data Studio (Dataviz) - 37%
• Datawrapper (Editorial infographics) - 35%
• Brevo / Sendinblue (Emailing/CRM) - 35%
• Batch (Push notifications) - 33%
• Google Workspace (Editorial planning) - 33%

Paywall solution

- Average rating: 6.9/10

For publishers, choosing a paywall and understanding its potential (dynamicity, scalability, testing, etc), plays a crucial role in their subscription strategy and thus in their sustainability.

Requirements for this solution need to balance tech performance (fast display, ability to be bypassed, web performance, etc) and conversion rate performance, alongside allowing for a smooth user experience.

Results:

Notes:

• In-house solutions are rated very highly, and publishers talk about reliable, fast, secure and high-performance paywalls. 
• External solutions provide dynamization, personalization and A/B testing.

A few comments from respondents:

"Total control, overall efficiency and safety. Will ask to become more flexible/agile."

"Technical performance and webperfs need work."

"Needs more features. Undergoing evolution to make it more "intelligent". 

"Our tool allows us to set up a number of interesting scenarios that encourage newsletter sign-ups and subscriptions." 

Other notable categories in the study include Analytics solution, CMS, CRM, DMP, A/B testing and push notification solutions.

Download the full report

The full report is available in English here (translated by an online tool from French), table summary of key results here.

Special mention

This study would not have been possible without the instinct, eye and confidence of Jean-François Fogel, a professor affiliated with the Sciences Po School of Journalism and Executive Education. An "encyclopedist" of the press and a great transformer of journalistic practices in the digital age, Jean-François died on March 19, 2023. We dedicate this issue to him.