Jason Langsner is Group Product Manager, Data + AI, at The Washington Post. In this article he shares how they built The Post's in-house generative AI chatbot tool that uses RAG to answer user questions.

1. Top Stories vs Latest Headlines

The question of whether to sort news chronologically or by relevance has already divided Twitter. But The Washington Post leaves this choice to its readers, thus serving the needs of different user groups simultaneously and giving readers the chance to personalize their experience.

2. Customizable News Alerts

The more you know about your users, the more you can adapt your website and content to suit their needs. Of course, this can be done by collecting data and presenting personalized news feeds. But a far simpler strategy is to simply allow readers to personalize their news alerts themselves, supporting high engagement rates and bringing the reader back to your app and content that interests them.

3. Save Interests In A Reader’s Account

In addition to news alerts, you can also store a reader’s interests in their account space for more refined recommendations.

4. Curated Podcast Playlists

Widgets are shown on the home page to recommend curated podcast playlists on various topics. Here, for example, podcasts providing advice for parents. This also gives evergreen content a place alongside new releases, underpining expertise in certain topics.

5. Telling Stories Through Slideshows

Galleries, interactive stories, and slideshows are a popular format to break text down into more digestible, lighter pieces, taking a page out of social media’s books to increase engagement & keep readers on-site. If you include them on the home page, they can be a powerful teaser for longer texts. 

6. Newsletter Widgets On The Home Page

We’re immediately encouraged to share our email address and sign up to a newsletter to form a habit of consuming WP’s content. A total of 5 newsletters are displayed on the home – some with a picture, others are more discreetly mixed in with stories.

7. Registration Banner

As you’re likely well-aware by now, registration allows you to collect first-party data, personalize user journeys, increase ad revenue and propensity to subscribe. Which is why it’s valuable to encourage registration even for free articles.

The best way to do this is with a registration wall, including a form field in the wall itself and a variety of login/registration options to reduce frustration. 

8. Multiple Login Options

Make registration easy. If users can login via a sign-in link or through existing social accounts, you make it simple to create an account in minutes and reduce frustration.

9. Link Accounts

Users sometimes have multiple accounts, for instance as no email address was entered for the print subscription or because subscription was purchased via the app store.

WP makes it easy for users to merge accounts and thus obtain a uniform data set.

10. Reward Long High Retention Rates

If you commit for to a year of subscription, you get two months for free. This pricing structure is now standard among software providers because it sets the right incentives, rewarding customers who commit for a longer offer.

11. An Upgrade For Super Fans

Some readers can be considered as super fans and would be willing to pay more for a subscription (in exchange for more value, of course). They’re also your brand ambassadors and are happy to recommend you to others.

Give them the chance to do this and reward them with additional content (e-books), sharing options (gift subscription), access to events or even the chance to speak with some of your team.

12. Entertain With Gamification

Those who have worked their way through the news deserve a bit of interactive entertainment, which also helps to build habits and increase recency, frequence and volume of visit. That’s why the home page ends with various games – just like the newspaper used to have cartoons and crossword puzzles. This is also valuable for engagement and habit forming.

Anjali Iyer is Head of Lifecycle Marketing at The Washington Post with over 15 years of deep knowledge in customer experience, customer insights, and strategy.

Our primary focus is to promote consumption, which drives both subscription and advertising revenue. By encouraging subscribers to spend more time with our journalism, we increase the likelihood of subscription renewals and active engagement with branded content and advertisements.

To achieve this, we have implemented an automated email subscriber journey that incorporates algorithmic triggers. This approach actively encourages subscribers to visit our site regularly and develop habits that enrich their overall experience, thereby driving revenue growth and maximizing the lifetime value of our subscribers.

Based on internal research, we have identified significant trends that further reinforce the importance of our approach:

1) The first two weeks of a subscriber’s journey are crucial as they significantly influence the subscriber’s perception. We have a limited window of 14 days to showcase the value we provide and build engagement.

2) Subscribers who have made fewer than four visits exhibit a retention rate that is 10 percentage points lower than those who have made 15 or more visits. This emphasizes the need for proactive engagement strategies to encourage subscribers to develop a consistent presence on our platforms.

3) Subscribers who utilize our app and visit us 15 or more times showcase higher Net Promoter Scores (NPS) than other subscribers. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction with a product, service, or brand. It provides insight into how likely customers are to recommend a company to others. To calculate NPS, the percentage of detractors (score 0-6) is subtracted from the percentage of promoters (score 9-10).  The resulting score can range from -100 to +100. A higher NPS indicates a higher proportion of satisfied and loyal customers, while a lower score suggests a larger base of dissatisfied customers.

This underscores the positive impact of fostering a robust subscriber experience and promoting frequent usage. Engaging subscribers is crucial for renewal and ensuring they continue to receive the value and benefits they signed up for. It also provides an opportunity for us to segment subscriber behaviors and take appropriate actions.

New Subscriber Onboarding

The subscriber journey begins with recommended onsite onboarding actions, seamlessly transitioning into triggered email communications.

During the onsite onboarding process, subscribers are prompted to select their interests and to receive personalized newsletter recommendations. This information enables us to better understand subscriber needs and preferences, facilitating the delivery of personalized experiences in the future. We have high completion rates for onsite onboarding.

The first email serves as a warm welcome note from our authors, establishing a personal connection with subscribers and sharing The Washington Post’s mission. It presents an opportunity to communicate our beliefs and reaffirm why subscribers have chosen to be a part of our community.

As the email series progresses, each subscriber receives tailored messages based on their individual preferences. Our objective is to ensure that subscribers only receive information that is relevant to their level of engagement thus far. For instance, we encourage premium subscribers to share their bonus subscriptions, one of the perks for premium subscribers. Other examples include sending email reminders to subscribers who have not completed onsite onboarding to select their interests and enroll in newsletters.

Behavioral data is utilized to personalize the onboarding experience at the subscriber level. Our goal is to educate subscribers about the benefits early on in their tenure and instill habits that positively impact retention and customer lifetime value.

Onsite Onboarding

Email Onboarding

Email Onboarding Results

To measure the effectiveness of our email onboarding journey, we withheld a control group to evaluate metrics such as total visits, days visited within 30 days, article pageviews, habit adoption, and retention.

Since the launch of the subscriber onboarding journey, we have observed statistically significant lift in retention and incremental customer lifetime value after 12 weeks compared to the control group.

These results highlight the success of our approach in enhancing engagement and providing greater value to our subscribers. Subscriber onboarding plays a pivotal role in achieving our subscription marketing goals, including increased consumption, reduced churn, and maximized CLV (subscription and ad revenue).