The FT is using events to fight subscriber churn

The Financial Times is hosting FT Engage events with a core purpose: to build more direct relationships with subscribers, while also attracting new ones, by offering exclusive access to FT journalists, reports Jessica Davies of Digiday.

Davies writes, “In the last few weeks, the audience development team has pulled data to examine the correlation between those who attended and their subsequent frequency of visits to FT.com, volume of articles consumed and the recency of their visits. Combined, this data yields an engagement score, by which the publisher judges its success. The results: Engagement scores of subscribers that have attended an event have spiked 300 percent on average, according to the publisher.

“The FT wouldn’t break down the 300 percent into individual user habits, but the data is enough for it to begin expanding the program internationally.

“Some of the Engage events have been tied to major news themes, like Brexit, and they’re structured to give subscribers the chance to mine the knowledge of FT journalists on these topics.”

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