Independence comes at a price. At The Guardian, falling newspaper sales and declining advertising revenues were taking a toll on the news brand’s finances. So we turned to our readers.

I worked with The Guardian’s brilliant UX/research team to run multiple short-form messages in articles, encouraging readers to help fund The Guardian’s journalism. Alas, research panels and online clicks told us that no single message worked for everyone.

My solution? Combine every reader motivation into one. Dubbed “The Epic”, this long-form ask spoke to readers who’d just finished an article, clarifying The Guardian’s financial position and asking them to help fund us. After all, they were already in the mood for reading and their engagement was high.

The Epic generated 800 times the level of reader support - and kept it coming. Future iterations incorporated machine learning and name-dropped journalists, to keep performance high.

Results aside, I’m immensely proud of the teamwork (and editorial bravery) that it took to pull this off.