From subscribers to supporters: How The Two River Times reimagined reader revenue

The Two River Times has long had a loyal audience.

The weekly newspaper, named for the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers, has served Monmouth County, New Jersey, since 1990. But like many local news organizations, it needed to adapt to a changing media landscape. 

That’s why, in 2024, The Two River Times became a nonprofit, creating a new path forward for a newspaper that had spent more than three decades as a trusted community institution. Owner Domenic DiPiero donated the publication with hopes that the paper could continue serving local residents for years to come. 

Later that year, The Two River Times — a newsroom with a 13-person team — sought the News Revenue Hub’s help running their first membership campaign as a nonprofit. The engagement went so well that, in early 2025, the newsroom onboarded to the Hub’s premium services, adding technology, strategy, and revenue support.

In an article announcing the newspaper’s transition to nonprofit, DiPiero said, “Print media and a reliable news source are not dead, at least not in our community.”

Over the past year, the Hub worked with The Two River Times team to build a communications plan that helped local residents understand their role in supporting a community-centered nonprofit newsroom. Together, they transformed decades of reader trust into a sustainable membership program, reimagining how the organization talked about its mission and engaged with local residents. 

Clarifying The Two River Times’ value to readers

For decades, Two River Times readers paid for a newspaper — most recently, through a $30 annual subscription. As the organization transitioned to a nonprofit membership model, it needed to help community members understand that membership was not a simple transaction; it was an investment in sustaining local journalism.

“They didn’t have a practice of asking for reader support,” Hub Senior Revenue Growth Specialist Will Warren explained. “A big part of our early work together was helping them think through what it meant to be a nonprofit newsroom and how to communicate that to readers.”

To support that work, the News Revenue Hub administered its Audience Insights Survey in July 2025. The survey helps newsrooms understand readers’ motivations, habits, and perceptions — and identify the messages most likely to resonate with their communities.

“The survey helped us understand a little better what readers were looking for and what kind of education they needed to understand why we were making this change,” said Lynette Deemer, publisher of The Two River Times.

Those insights informed a broader effort to clarify the organization’s messaging ahead of the shift from subscriptions to membership. Working with the Hub, The Two River Times developed reader-facing materials explaining how membership supports reporting, editing, printing, digital publishing, and community engagement. The organization also created a frequently asked questions page to address common concerns.

The work also informed the design of The Two River Times’ membership program. While supporters can contribute at any level, the Hub recommended positioning home delivery of the print newspaper as a benefit for members who give $100 or more annually.

Warren explained that the recommendation reflected both the value of the reporting and what reader-supported news organizations have learned about donor behavior.

“Good journalism is worth paying for,” he said. “We shouldn’t be afraid to ask people to support it and to know our worth.”

To test how readers responded to the benefit, the team ran an experiment during a 2025 summer fundraising campaign. Half of readers received appeals highlighting print delivery as a membership benefit, while half did not.

The two versions generated nearly identical open and click rates, but the revenue difference was striking. Emails that highlighted print delivery generated nearly twice as much annualized revenue per 100 recipients ($10.39 versus $5.61), confirming that home delivery was a powerful motivator for supporters.

“It was very clear that print was a motivating benefit,” Warren said. “That key data point informed future campaigning.”

Reimagining membership and fundraising

Deemer said the transition from a $30 subscription model to a $100 membership level that includes home delivery generated some initial questions from longtime readers, but has gone smoothly overall.

“We were prepared to answer questions, and it’s been an encouraging experience transitioning readers to the new model,” she said.

The paper is now transitioning remaining grandfathered subscribers to the new membership level. Deemer said the process is going well.

The impact was significant. Average gift size increased 88% year over year, suggesting that readers were willing to make larger contributions when the value of membership was clearly communicated.

The new membership approach also helped fuel a successful end-of-year campaign. With a strategy shaped by the Hub — including campaign planning, email production, and ongoing guidance — The Two River Times surpassed its $10,000 revenue goal by 50% and nearly doubled its 2024 year-end campaign revenue.

More broadly, The Two River Times moved from occasional fundraising efforts to a more consistent reader revenue strategy. Overall reader revenue has increased more than fivefold year over year.

Building the foundation for future growth

The Hub’s work with The Two River Times was not only focused on immediate fundraising results. It was also about building the systems, strategies, and audience pipeline needed to sustain reader revenue over time.

One early focus was helping the organization turn more website visitors into newsletter subscribers and future supporters. During a call-to-action sprint in fall 2025, the Hub helped The Two River Times rethink how it invited readers to subscribe to newsletters and engage with the organization online.

The results were immediate: newsletter signups from the website increased ninefold in the six weeks following the sprint compared with the six weeks prior.

The organization also launched email automations to build stronger relationships with readers over time, creating more opportunities to turn casual readers into engaged supporters.

Deemer said the Hub helped the team see the value of newsletter signups as a pathway to membership, even as the organization remains focused on growing its print audience.

She also highlighted the value of better tracking and testing. 

“It’s something I’ve never really worked with before — tracking through Salesforce — and that’s been phenomenal because it allows you to see what’s working and what isn’t,” Deemer said.

Warren said the partnership demonstrates how legacy print publications can build sustainable futures by combining their existing community relationships with new revenue strategies.

“It’s exciting for us to work with a print publication that is very different from a lot of our other nonprofit digital-only newsrooms,” he said. “There’s a lot that they’ve learned from us, about campaigning more frequently or building email lists and so on, but there are also things that they do that a lot of our other newsrooms don’t have the opportunity to do.”

After more than three decades of earning community trust, The Two River Times now has a clearer path to turning that trust into long-term sustainability. “The Two River Times has made great strides during the last year, and News Revenue Hub has been a key to that success,” Executive Director Gabriel Donio said. “We’re looking forward to continuing to grow with them in the coming year.”

Deemer said the newsroom is just beginning to think about what a sustainable membership program could make possible, from expanding reporting to experimenting with new ways of reaching audiences.

“We’re finally feeling the momentum now,” she said. “And it’s great.”

Has your newsroom switched to a nonprofit model? Want to boost audience and revenue? Learn how the Hub can help by emailing [email protected].