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# Mediahuis: from zero to 100k subs in five years
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2025/09/mediahuis-from-zero-to-100k-subs-in-five-years/
- Published: 2025-09-17T14:09:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-09-25T14:10:57.000Z
- Description: Some quick points of interest from Mediahuis Ireland's five year subs journey
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: Future of Media Technology, business models, subscriptions

👨‍💻

**These are live-blogged notes from a session at* [**Future of Media Technology*](https://onemanandhisblog.com/tags/future-of-media-technology/) *conference. These are more bullet points than my usual live-blogged notes – this talk was interesting, but outside my normal wheelhouse.*

[Mediahuis Ireland](https://www.mediahuis.ie/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) launched its paywall in 2020, which [Sheena Peirse](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheena-peirse-5837822/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), chief customer officer (and [now CEO](https://www.mediahuis.com/en/mediahuis-ireland-appoints-sheena-peirse-as-new-ceo-peter-vandermeersch-becomes-inaugural-mediahuis-fellow-journalism-and-society/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)), admits was probably behind the times. The Irish publisher is best known for the *Irish Independent*, the *Sunday Independent*, *Sunday World* and *Ireland’s Own*. Plus the *Belfast Telegraph*.

Bullet points from the talk she and [Paul McCarthy-Brain](https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-mccarthy-brain-6b5824/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), CEO and founder of [Flip-Pay](https://www.flip-pay.com/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) gave:

- Don’t underestimate the value of our brands and journalism
- No point in dipping your toe in the water; move quickly
- Create a culture of data-informed experimentation and agility
- The B2C/B2B revenue trade off is real in the short term but don’t avoid it
- Collaboration across the new room, product, and marketing teams is critical
- Paid social is a worthwhile acquisition vector.
- Analytics? “All attention-led, but we probably gather too much data.”
- Useful to look at historic data to explore the right offers to people willing to pay
- Overall customer base is older than Irish average. But acquisition has younger cohorts in proportion to their population density, so that changing over time.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/36/d8/36d823b7-59a1-4c8b-91bd-a54c64552596/content/images/2025/09/IMG_4502.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/36/d8/36d823b7-59a1-4c8b-91bd-a54c64552596/content/images/2025/09/IMG_4521.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/36/d8/36d823b7-59a1-4c8b-91bd-a54c64552596/content/images/2025/09/mediahius-schedule.jpg)