Time-Tested, Future-Ready: How Le Figaro Transformed Subscriptions For Growth

Founded in 1826, Le Figaro is France’s oldest newspaper still in print and now one of the most modern. It serves 22 million monthly readers across a growing multi-brand portfolio, including Gala and Le Particulier. 

Faced with rising subscriber expectations and a competitive French publishing market, Le Figaro launched AMEX (Amélioration de l'Expérience Utilisateur), a bold internal transformation that turned work that once took weeks into something that could be done in hours.

The transformation delivered clear gains in revenue, efficiency, and subscriber experience. By modernizing its infrastructure, Le Figaro now powers a leading digital subscription business while laying the foundation for long-term growth.

The Challenge

Improving The Reader Experience By Modernizing Systems

Le Figaro holds a strong position in France with over 22 million monthly readers across multiple brands, and digital subscription revenue that represents 50% of total company revenue. Yet its legacy infrastructure created friction points throughout the customer experience.

The operational constraints were limiting growth potential.

We had to negotiate everything with third-party vendors. Every time we wanted to make a change, whether it was a hyperlink or a big feature request, we had to produce a ticket, obtain a quote, and discuss planning. Everything costs money and takes time.

Benjamin Lupu, Product Manager for Reader & Subscriber Experience, Le Figaro

Even more critically, delays slowed Le Figaro’s ability to respond to market opportunities. Valentin Jubert, Director of Digital Subscriptions at Le Figaro, describes the competitive impact:

We needed weeks to launch a promotion because each offer required coordination with our third-party provider and separate development for every payment method. In a fast-moving market, that timeline limited our ability to respond to competitive opportunities.

Valentin Jubert, Director of Digital Subscriptions, Le Figaro

This technical debt also included hidden operational costs. Le Figaro managed multiple subscriber databases that required constant synchronization. "We had two or three people working full-time every week just to ensure databases were correctly synchronized every morning," Lupu notes.

The customer experience also reflected these internal inefficiencies. Signup flows took nearly a minute across 10 steps, customer service representatives worked with 1990s-era keyboard-only systems, and print-focused tools created confusion for digital subscribers expecting modern subscription management.

In France's competitive media market, these friction points represented a strategic risk.

We have strong competitors in France. They are pushing the limits regarding UX and content, and we have to match them. Customers won't subscribe to multiple newspapers, so if our experience falls short, we could lose them entirely.

Valentin Jubert, Director of Digital Subscriptions, Le Figaro

Addressing these challenges required a comprehensive transformation led by a tripartite governance structure: Valentin Jubert overseeing digital subscriptions strategy, Benjamin Lupu managing product and subscriber experience, and Sandrine Crozat leading all technological aspects of the initiative

The Strategy

Making Subscriber Experience the Foundation for Growth

Le Figaro's transformation philosophy centered on subscriber experience as the core of its business strategy. Subscriber experience became Le Figaro's raison d'être, guiding every technology decision throughout the transformation. The company believes that owning critical infrastructure creates competitive advantages, a principle it demonstrated when building its Content Management System to control editorial workflows and site performance.

Content quality and subscription experience must work together. We have excellent content, but that value only reaches readers when the entire experience from discovery to subscription to daily consumption is seamless and intuitive.

Valentin Jubert, Director of Digital Subscriptions, Le Figaro

The AMEX project was a technical and organizational tour de force, mobilizing over 100 people over two years and touching every department except journalism and advertising. The goals extended beyond technical upgrades to strategic positioning for long-term success.

"Digital subscription is a pillar of our strategy because we want to digitalize everything, from advertising to subscriptions. Digital revenue is key for us, especially looking into the future," Jubert says.

The Solution

A Subscription Engine Built for Speed and Control

Le Figaro evaluated multiple subscription billing platforms and an in-house solution before selecting Chargebee as its subscription management engine. The decision prioritized Chargebee’s architectural flexibility and long-term scalability within Le Figaro’s broader technology strategy.

Lupu explains, "Our subscribers use different subscription channels: Some subscribe through Apple, others have print subscriptions, and others subscribe directly through our website. We needed to create unified customer interfaces that bring all these subscription types together.” This approach positions Chargebee as the subscription management engine while Le Figaro maintains control through custom interfaces for internal teams and customer-facing experiences. The headless implementation demonstrates Le Figaro's technical savoir-faire in building sophisticated, integrated platforms. The strategy required robust API capabilities for seamless integration.

Our development team's evaluation confirmed Chargebee's API was both modern and reliable. Since this platform would anchor our subscription infrastructure for years, ease of development was a critical selection factor.

Benjamin Lupu, Product Manager for Reader & Subscriber Experience, Le Figaro

The headless implementation enables Le Figaro to:

• Consolidate subscription data across Apple, Google, print, and digital channels

• Build unified customer service interfaces spanning multiple brands

• Create custom checkout experiences optimized for mobile-first audiences (80% of traffic)

• Maintain competitive differentiation while leveraging enterprise subscription capabilities

The Implementation

From Vendor Dependency to Team Autonomy

The technical transformation involved migrating digital subscribers from legacy systems to a modern tech stack, including Chargebee, with integrations to Salesforce for unified customer service management and Stripe for payments. Jubert's team gained control over offer creation:

We are fully autonomous in my team to create offers. It's very easy. From A to Z, we can do everything without any internal or external help.

Valentin Jubert, Director of Digital Subscriptions, Le Figaro

Customer service transformation delivered operational efficiency gains. CS advisor onboarding time decreased from three weeks to two days, while representatives gained modern interfaces replacing outdated systems.

Mobile optimization proved critical for market positioning, with Le Figaro simplifying offers, streamlining payment flows, and adding features such as expired card updates to reduce involuntary churn among its mobile-first audience.

The Results

Faster Signups, Higher Conversions, Stronger Operations

Le Figaro's transformation delivered quantifiable improvements that strengthen its market position:

Revenue Impact:

• Transformation rate increased from 0.7% to 0.9%

• Signup time reduced from 50 to 25 seconds

• Mobile-optimized flows serving 80% of traffic

Operational Efficiency:

• New offer creation time: hours instead of weeks

• Representative training time: 2 days vs. 3 weeks previously

• Eliminated manual database synchronization, which previously required 2-3 full-time staff

Market Agility:

• Autonomous campaign management across Le Figaro, Gala, and Le Particulier

• Implemented A/B testing for subscription landing pages as part of a phased release strategy

• Unified interface replacing six separate "My Account" systems

Strategic Control:

• Direct data access for analytics and strategic decision-making

• Consolidated subscription management across all digital channels

• Independence from external vendor schedules and constraints

Sustainable Advantages That Compound Over Time

Le Figaro's modern infrastructure creates compounding strategic benefits. The company now offers seamless subscription upgrades and downgrades, functionality that was impossible with print-focused legacy tools but essential for digital retention.

Within two months of launching AMEX, we had built comprehensive upgrade and downgrade capabilities, something that had been impossible before. The team also unified six different ‘My Account’ portals (separate ones for Le Figaro, Gala, Le Particulier, and print/digital variants) into a single interface, simplifying customer journeys and cutting development duplication.

Benjamin Lupu, Product Manager for Reader & Subscriber Experience, Le Figaro

Platform unification delivers operational leverage. "Before, we had to develop six times for the same functionality. Now it's developed everywhere," Jubert notes. This efficiency enables rapid feature deployment across all three brands simultaneously.

Data ownership provides strategic intelligence advantages. "We now have direct access to data. Before, our tech lead had to ask for exports and wait, probably for days, just to look at data and find out what's going on," Lupu explains.

Most critically, the infrastructure enables real-time market responsiveness. "There's an event happening? We want to create promotions around this event, so we can do it," Jubert explains, describing competitive agility that was impossible under the previous system.

Next Focus: Retention, Personalization, and Market Leadership

Le Figaro's next focus is retention. "We worked really hard on acquiring new subscribers, and now we have to work very hard to retain them," Lupu says. Planned features include one-click reactivation for past subscribers and enhanced engagement tools.

Mobile payments are expanding quickly. Apple Pay is now live, building on the successful implementation of Google Pay, which took only six weeks.

The Strategic Impact: Subscriber Experience as the Path to Market Leadership

The AMEX project transformed Le Figaro's competitive positioning. Marketing teams control campaign creation, customer service representatives deliver superior experiences, and product teams iterate at market speed rather than vendor schedules.

"It's pure joy," Lupu reflects on the transformation. "This is really the first year we can do that."

The AMEX transformation achieved its strategic objective: positioning subscriber experience as the foundation for market leadership. With modern infrastructure enabling rapid experimentation and seamless customer journeys, Le Figaro has built lasting advantages to strengthen its position in France’s competitive media market.

As France's oldest national newspaper approaches its 200th anniversary, Le Figaro's strategic infrastructure investment positions it to maintain editorial authority while driving digital subscription growth for the next century.

Ready to put customer experience at the center of your subscription business? Discover how Chargebee can drive faster sign-ups, boost conversions, and foster long-term growth.