How the Financial Times fights subscriber churn

Max Willens of Digiday writes about how The Financial Times fights subscriber churn.

Willens writes, “Several months ago, the FT overhauled its onboarding process to get trial subscribers using features that drive regular use. Those include myFT, a personalization product that allows readers to follow certain topics such as Brexit or U.S.-Chinese trade relations; and the FT app, which helps keep readers engaged with the FT because of its ability to push content directly to users’ phone screens. Its push to keep subscribers involved spread to events last year.

“Research released in February by the American Press Institute found that people convert from trial users to subscribers because they want unlimited access. Three-quarters of the people who subscribed to a digital news service after hitting a paywall did so because they were visiting the site regularly.

“But the persistent focus also comes from the fact that it’s easier to retain a reader before they become disengaged. ‘By then,’ Betts said, ‘it’s too late.'”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.