Citynews’ new local investigative journalism section launches through subscription model

This project came to fruition via partnership with Google as an experiment with business models for local news outlets, following the work of Local Experiments and similar Google News Initiative projects.

Citynews announces the start of its first local subscription offer on MilanoToday and RomaToday. The subscription package includes access to Dossier, the new Citynews section on Investigative Journalism, and will also allow the users to browse the news without advertising.

“We thought that the heavy users of MilanoToday and RomaToday might want to enrich their experience with in-depth information on the cities – declares Luca Lani, CEO of Citynews –. This subscription will offer, in addition to unlimited access to the articles of the Dossier section, also the possibility to experience the website and app without advertising and to receive the new dedicated weekly newsletter. The real news is that, for the first time, Citynews is experimenting with an editorial subscription at a local level".

"Luca’s work over the past decade with Citynews has illustrated his abilities as one of the great innovators in local news. Investigative journalism has become challenging to fund at a local level, and he and his team have put together a creative solution. We look forward to continuing to experiment and learn together in this space over the coming months.” – Natalie Gross, Product Manager, News Ecosystem at Google.

The subscription will be accessible from the website and from the App (iOS and Android) and will be valid for only one digital newspaper. The promotional cost for a full year is 48 euros and 4.99 euros if the subscription is monthly. Citynews has developed the editorial and subscription system internally, thanks to the work of a dedicated team, which was coordinated by Lara Gagliardi, consultant and project manager, expert in digital transformation and subscription economy, with almost ten years of experience in the GEDI Group. 

“This is an historical transition for us, also in terms of business model – concludes Mr. Lani –. Obviously, Citynews will remain for a long time a company based mainly on advertising, but we will experiment, in the coming months, if the production of investigative content, for which our readers are willing to pay, is a viable way to build an alternative or parallel model to that founded on advertising”.