Monthly view

September 2026 subscription marketing

Blended cost

$7.25/ sub start

Total spend

$60,372

September 2026

  • Subscriptions4,910 starts · $7.25 / start$35,575
  • Midwest Sports+325 starts · $33.07 / start$10,747
  • Advertising$14,050

Blended cost per start is Subscriptions spend over Subscriptions starts. Midwest Sports+ and St. Cloud Live are shown on their own, and Advertising is excluded.

Subscription starts

5,459

Starts report, all titles

Spend

Where the money went

  • Facebook newsletter leads, content boosts, app downloads, WDAY+, Sioux Falls Live at 9$8,82515%
  • Facebook $2 for 6$8,18114%
  • SEM news (InForum, Post Bulletin, Duluth, Grand Forks)$7,30012%
  • Facebook advertising promotions$7,25412%
  • SEM advertising (InForum, Post Bulletin, Duluth, Grand Forks)$5,0008%
  • Service charges (video, vanity URLs, ad ops fees)$3,9567%
  • Ralph Engelstad Arena advertising$3,3135%
  • SEM Midwest Sports+$3,0005%
  • SEM WDAY+$3,0005%
  • Facebook Midwest Sports+ app download$2,7475%
  • Programmatic Midwest Sports+ general promo$2,5004%
  • LinkedIn advertising$1,7963%
  • Programmatic Midwest Sports+ app download$1,5002%
  • Programmatic Midwest Sports+ Watch campaign$1,0002%
  • Programmatic Sioux Falls Live at 9$1,0002%

Efficiency

Paid channel cost per start

ChannelSpendStartsCost / start
Facebook newsletter leads, content boosts, app downloads, WDAY+, Sioux Falls Live at 9$8,8254—
Facebook $2 for 6$8,18157$144
SEM news (InForum, Post Bulletin, Duluth, Grand Forks)$7,30048$152
Facebook advertising promotions$7,254——
SEM advertising (InForum, Post Bulletin, Duluth, Grand Forks)$5,000——
Service charges (video, vanity URLs, ad ops fees)$3,956——
Ralph Engelstad Arena advertising$3,313——
SEM Midwest Sports+$3,00037$81
SEM WDAY+$3,00035$86
Facebook Midwest Sports+ app download$2,7471—
Programmatic Midwest Sports+ general promo$2,500——
LinkedIn advertising$1,796——
Programmatic Midwest Sports+ app download$1,500——
Programmatic Midwest Sports+ Watch campaign$1,000——
Programmatic Sioux Falls Live at 9$1,000——

Starts are campaign-attributed conversions tied to each spend line. A dash means no tagged campaign conversions for that line this month.

Shopping cart

Online shopping cart starts

5,103 starts came through the online shopping cart (93% of all 5,459 starts), from the Starts online report.

Digital onlyPrint + digital comboNumber at the end of each bar = market total

Markets

Starts by market

MarketTotal startsCampaign startsPaywall starts
InForum1,064132949
Rochester59668430
Midwest Sports+51242329
Duluth41537324
Grand Forks37736283
Brainerd25932191
Willmar24320211
St. Cloud22414171
Mitchell21015177
Alexandria146988
Dickinson1401186
Worthington1376108
Sioux Falls128856
Bemidji1251182
Park Rapids121988
Detroit Lakes10416102
Jamestown98685
Superior85868
Perham75354
Pine&Lakes62451
Cloquet56222
Fergus Falls5098
Wahpeton39109
Wadena37124
Williston36132
Madison3099
Watford City28215
Pierre2158
NewsCenter11160
Hankinson1135
Sidney1082
Agweek912

Levers

Starts the team can influence

Paywall placements and campaigns — the two tables your team can act on. Total starts (5,459) come from the Starts report; these are the marketing-driven slices inside it.

Paywall placements · 4,039 starts

Top campaigns · 556 attributed starts

Campaigns

Campaign performance

556 campaign-attributed starts.

  • newsletter242 · 44%
  • cpc120 · 22%
  • promo send74 · 13%
  • facebook paid social57 · 10%
  • lifecycle flow45 · 8%
CampaignSource / mediumStarts
dailyamemail / newsletter100
2for6sept_fbad_whathappenspaidsocial / facebook_paid_social57
MS+ Aug26 - Apr27google / cpc37
WDAY+ Aug26 - Apr27google / cpc35
subscribenewsletterad_genericemail / newsletter28
breakingemail / newsletter25
dailypmemail / newsletter22
Grand Forks Local Newsgoogle / cpc18
InForum Local News #2google / cpc17
2for6sept_send6_lastchanceemail / promo_send16
2for6sept_send2_get6monthsemail / promo_send14
2for6sept_send5_get6monthsemail / promo_send14
ccdeclineemail / lifecycle_flow14
obituariesemail / newsletter13
weeklyamemail / newsletter12
2for6sept_send1_knowhatemail / promo_send9
Post Bulletin Local News #2google / cpc9
sportsemail / newsletter9
fruitninjaemail / lifecycle_flow7
publicsafetyemail / newsletter7
(not set)dappier / widget5
2for6sept_send3_6monthsemail / promo_send5
2for6sept_send4_alotcanemail / promo_send5
(ai-assistant)chatgpt.com / ai-assistant4
eeditionemail / newsletter4

Top 5 campaigns

Rolled up by campaign name across every source and medium it ran on.

  1. #1

    dailyam

    100

    starts · 18.0% of attributed

    email / newsletter

  2. #2

    2for6sept_fbad_whathappens

    57

    starts · 10.3% of attributed

    paidsocial / facebook_paid_social

  3. #3

    MS+ Aug26 - Apr27

    37

    starts · 6.7% of attributed

    google / cpc

  4. #4

    WDAY+ Aug26 - Apr27

    35

    starts · 6.3% of attributed

    google / cpc

  5. #5

    subscribenewsletterad_generic

    28

    starts · 5.0% of attributed

    email / newsletter

Opportunity

Lift on campaigns & paywall

3%

lift applied

+17

from campaigns

+121

from paywall placements

Kept separate on purpose: a start can be tagged to both a campaign and a paywall placement, so the two figures should not be added.

Top campaigns

dailyam

100
+3.0

2for6sept_fbad_whathappens

57
+1.7

MS+ Aug26 - Apr27

37
+1.1

WDAY+ Aug26 - Apr27

35
+1.1

subscribenewsletterad_generic

28
+0.8

Paywall placements

Direct to checkout

2,099
+63.0

Subscribe page

1,335
+40.0

Front page

362
+10.9

Subscribers only

230
+6.9

CTA banner

13
+0.4

At today's blended $7.25 per start, a 3% lift is worth about $121 in equivalent media on campaigns and $878 on paywall placements.

Action

Recommended next best steps

  1. 1 · Scale the email engine

    Email drove 355 starts (64% of everything campaigns can account for) with no media cost — newsletters 242, promo sends 74, lifecycle flows 45.

    • The 6-send offer series (resends folded into their original send) averaged 10.5 starts a send, but "2for6sept send 6" hit 16. Rebuild next month's series off that winning offer and subject line instead of 6 fresh creatives.

  2. 2 · Fix the on-site paths

    CTA banners produced 13 starts against 362 from the front page and 230 from subscribers-only content.

    • 23 of 31 markets logged zero banner starts — check the banner is actually firing before rewriting the creative.