Emanuele Porfiri, Senior Data Analyst at FT Strategies (UK)

“Though obvious, we believe there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to measuring content performance (it depends on the organisation and content’s goals, as well as the data available). At the FT, we evaluate the performance of an article based on the volume and quality of engagement it generates. Whilst volume is perhaps a straightforward metric, quality of engagement is a trickier one to define and we opted for a metric we call ‘Quality reads’, that based on a set of page views and article’s indicators, estimates the percentage of page views where the reader has read at least half of the article. 

Ultimately, as there are endless ways in which to measure performance, at FT Strategies we recommend testing different versions (if the data is available) and validating them against a desired user action (e.g. registration, subscription, retention…). At the FT, we can see that subscribers with higher quality engagement are less likely to churn, and that’s exactly one of the behaviours we want our content to generate.”

Delving into deep reader engagement metrics

Andrey Boborykin, Executive Director at Ukrainska Pravda (Ukraine)

“While we start with the fundamental metric of pageviews to gauge initial reach and interest, we recognize that true engagement goes beyond mere clicks. To gain a more nuanced understanding, we delve into scroll depth and engaged reading time. By analyzing how far down the page readers scroll, we can infer the level of their engagement. Furthermore, we measure the amount of time readers actively interact with the article, which provides valuable insights into their engagement. These metrics are then evaluated against our internal benchmarks, allowing us to assess not only the absolute numbers but also the relative success of each article. Such comprehensive analysis helps us refine our content strategy and ensures that we consistently deliver relevant and engaging content to our readers.”

Joao Rodrigues, Data Specialist at Observador (Portugal)

"Our approach to measuring the success of an article has changed over time. Through numerous iterations and collaborative efforts between the editorial and subscriptions teams, we have arrived at a formula that is now widely accepted in our newsroom. We believe that a combination of three key factors is crucial in defining success: reach (pageviews), engagement (time and scroll depth), and conversions (number of subscriptions resulting from a specific article). Evaluating these three factors together helps us achieve a more comprehensive assessment of an article's success and continuously refine our content strategy, ensuring that we deliver impactful and engaging articles to our audience.

We circulate these metrics to our journalists, editors, and directors daily. Directors use them to know what content to highlight on the homepage and which articles to pick in their daily and weekly newsletters. Editors analyze these metrics to understand which articles (and their respective subjects) have performed well in recent days. With these insights, they make informed decisions on what to write (or not to write) next. Journalists use these metrics, offering their unique perspectives on why they believe an article performed better or worse.”