Taking Pulse: Subscriptions

Tuesday, May 16; Wednesday May 29
11-11:45 AM EDT

These are free event for DCN members.

These virtual events will bring together DCN members to discuss the most pressing issues impacting their subscription strategy: From audience development, to interplay with advertising, to encouraging maximum engagement and more – these closed-door, members-only discussions are the best place to share insights with your senior executive peers that will shape and grow your business.

Reema Rao Headshot

Reema Rao
VP, Marketing Strategy
The Wall Street Journal

Tuesday, May 16    11:00 - 11:45 AM EDT

The evolution of the Journal's subscription strategy

Valuable insights into the opportunities and challenges that trusted news publishers face in this new digital era of AI and competing platforms and how the media industry can strike a balance between adapting to consumer behaviors while maximizing reach and subscription revenue.

Reema Rao is a seasoned marketing and media executive with 15+ years of expertise in consumer products, brand management and digital subscription services. Reema joined Dow Jones in 2023 to lead and operationalize strategic plans to drive The Wall Street Journal’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) digital subscription and revenue growth. She oversees cross-functional workstreams that execute end-to-end strategies across brand, acquisition, engagement and retention.

Prior to Dow Jones, Reema spent much of her career in entertainment media at HBO/WarnerMedia, contributing as a launch team leader for the HBO Max streaming service and the Game of Thrones franchise, as well as playing a critical role in the company’s digital transformation. Reema’s multifaceted career also includes stints in tech, financial services and fashion, where she made significant contributions, including growing the Apple Services subscriber base, marketing new card products and loyalty programs for American Express and launching a new fashion brand for GAP.

Sarah Ebner
Executive editor,
Head of newsletters
Financial Times

Wednesday, May 29    11:00 - 11:45 AM EDT

Using newsletters to enhance the value of subscriptions

Leveraging newsletters to maximize engagement and value of your subscriptions

Sarah Ebner is an award-winning journalist who is currently executive editor and head of newsletters at the FT, which she joined in April 2021. She is an expert in newsletters and digital journalism and was the first ever head of newsletters at The Telegraph, where subscriptions from newsletters went up from 5,000 in 2018 to over 30,000 in 2020. Sarah is a former deputy editor of the Jewish Chronicle where she had special responsibility for digital and launched a new website in 2016. It garnered record traffic.

Sarah spent eight years at the Times, where she was the sole female editor on the Times digital sports desk and also set up and ran Times Woman, a weekly email bulletin which showcased the best of the female writers at The Times and Sunday Times. Before that she wrote and edited The Times's hugely successful School Gate blog for five years, winning two awards including the prestigious "best commentary" prize at the Online Media Awards

Sarah has been a national newspaper news reporter and feature writer, as well as a producer on the BBC television news and current affairs programme, Newsnight.

She has launched a number of successful newsletter while at the FT, including award-winners Unhedged, Inside Politics and Fashion Matters.