• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 14, 2026

It comes as no surprise to me that The Washington Post has a paywall. I’ve long been a subscriber because the Post contains very good reporting, despite the political controversy that surrounds it.

Recently, the Post refined its subscription marketing in a bid to move beyond “surface-level optimization to a disciplined, insight-driven approach that directly influences subscription growth and revenue,” Kelsey Burnham, subscription acquisition manager for the Post, writes in an article in International News Media Association. 

Take its recent Tiny Tiles test. This was built on sound A/B testing principles, the kind pioneered by old-time direct marketers. 

Burnham writes that the goal was to see what worked on each touchpoint, based on:

• Clear and consistent measurement, comparing the performance of the new design versus the control or current design
• Analysis of multiple touchpoints and audience segments
• Clearly defined KPIs, with statistically significant results

"This allowed the Post team to implement paywall based on user experiences best practices that converted visitors into subscribers at a high level,” Burnham writes. 

She observes, “Advanced experimentation is not about running more tests. It’s about running smarter, more intentional tests grounded in user behavior, clear hypotheses, and business outcomes. It requires connecting user experience (UX) decisions to value perception, aligning metrics to specific goals, and designing experiments that can be confidently scaled.”

In addition, the Post’s marketers determined clear and measurable KPIs that drive growth for two high-impact touchpoints, both the paywall and registration wall, but with different goals for each.

For the paywall, the Post unit was focused on subscription conversion and revenue, while measuring these KPIs (and we quote): 

• Subscription conversion rate (CVR)
• Product and billing cycle mix (monthly versus annual subscriptions)
• One-year and three-year revenue impact through customer lifetime value (CLV)

And for the registration wall, the goal was to “turn anonymous users into known users through account creation while providing the option for subscription,” Burnham continues. The following KPIs were measured:

• Registration take rate
• Subscription CVR
• Product and billing cycle mix (monthly versus annual subscriptions)
• One-year and three-year revenue impact through CLV

Burnham doesn’t share the actual findings. But she observes, “The Tiny Tiles test reinforces a critical point: Advanced A/B testing is not just about identifying winners but rather understanding why something works, where it works, and where it does not.”

She concludes, “A system that drives continuous learning, enables precise scaling, and ultimately builds a more effective and sustainable subscriber acquisition engine is what distinguishes advanced experimentation.”