For a long time, the metrics that defined newsroom success were clear. They revolved around reach, exposure and volume.
Pageviews, sessions and impressions were the KPIs that made it into daily reports and weekly dashboards. These KPIs shaped editorial strategies and justified business decisions. They worked, largely because they aligned with the realities of the time. When advertising was tied directly to traffic, the equation felt logical. More visitors meant more revenue.
But logic has shifted.
Today, readers live across devices, platforms and private spaces. They encounter news in fleeting moments and rarely engage directly with a publisher’s homepage. At the same time, revenue models have moved away from advertising towards subscriptions, memberships and deeper reader relationships.
In this new context, the old KPIs tell only part of the story. Worse, they risk obscuring the most important question newsrooms must now ask:
Who comes back, who stays and who truly cares?
Reach is essential but misleading
No publisher can disregard reach. Visibility is still fundamental. Content needs to be found. Audiences needs to be aware that journalism exists and is available.
But reach has become easy and abundant. Content floods social feeds, arrives through notifications and is surfaced via aggregators and search. Readers encounter it everywhere, often without consciously seeking it out.
This ease of distribution has eroded the connection between reach and value. A headline might attract attention. A push notification may drive visits. Yet these interactions often lack depth. They are transactions, not relationships.
Most publishers know this already. Their analytics show it plainly. Huge spikes followed by rapid declines. New visitors who arrive once and never return.
Counting them makes dashboards look healthy. But reach does not equal retention. It does not predict habit. And it says little about who will choose to pay or stay loyal.
Reach measures visibility, not connection.
Engagement offers more, but not enough
In search of better indicators, publishers began looking to engagement metrics.
Time on site. Scroll depth. Shares. Comments.
These offer more texture than raw traffic data. They indicate that a user did something beyond simply landing on the page. They suggest curiosity or interest.
But engagement is nuanced and often misunderstood.
Time spent does not always mean quality reading. It can reflect distraction. Scroll depth may say little about comprehension or satisfaction. Shares and comments are often driven by strong emotional reactions, including anger or frustration, rather than affinity.
Perhaps most importantly, engagement tends to measure moments, not relationships.
Readers might interact heavily with a single article and then disappear. They may participate without feeling any deeper attachment to the brand or mission.
Engagement reflects attention, but not loyalty.
Belonging is where loyalty and value take shape
At the top of the hierarchy sits belonging. It is the hardest to measure and, increasingly, the most essential.
Belonging describes the reader who returns regularly. Who builds habits around your content. Who participates thoughtfully. Who chooses your publication over the infinite alternatives.
This is not passive consumption. It is investment.
Belonging reveals itself in various ways. Readers who personalise their experience by following topics or authors. Subscribers who continue month after month. Users who leave comments, contribute feedback or take part in communities.
Unlike reach and engagement, belonging is not episodic. It is cumulative. It develops through repeated, meaningful interactions.
It also has clear commercial implications.
Subscribers acquired through belonging are more likely to retain. Loyal users consume more and contribute to higher lifetime value. Advocates bring others into the fold through referrals and word of mouth.
This is not theoretical. Publishers that focus on belonging see tangible results.
The Financial Times, for example, evolved its core metric from recency, frequency and volume towards lifetime value and, later, global paying audience. This reflected a shift from counting visits to cultivating durable relationships.
Der Spiegel analysed its editorial formats to identify those driving habitual use and deeper reading, then prioritised these in product and design decisions.
We see this at tchop.io across all community driven news projects.
These are not isolated cases. They represent a growing recognition across the industry that metrics must go beyond interaction to reflect connection.
Designing for belonging requires more than content
Belonging cannot be willed into existence. It has to be designed for. Not only through content, but also through product choices, community strategies and editorial voice.
Some approaches include:
- Building habits through consistency: Recurring formats, daily newsletters and regular voices help readers establish routines.
- Creating opportunities for participation: Comments, surveys and live discussions encourage users to contribute and shape the conversation.
- Offering personalisation: Tools that let users follow topics or curate feeds reinforce the sense that the product reflects their interests.
- Establishing editorial identity: Publications that take clear positions and develop strong voices foster emotional alignment.
Each tactic on its own may not be transformative. Together, they create conditions where belonging can emerge.
Measuring belonging is harder, but necessary
Unlike reach or engagement, belonging does not lend itself to simple, universal metrics. Still, it is possible, and critical, to measure its signals.
Metrics that suggest belonging include:
- Frequency and regularity of visits
- Retention rates across time periods
- Direct traffic and app opens
- Participation in community features
- Subscription tenure and renewal rates
- Referral and recommendation behaviour
Some publishers create internal metrics to track these factors holistically. Financial Times’ evolution to lifetime value and global paying audience is an example of how KPIs can shift to reflect deeper, more complex objectives.
While these measures require more effort to track and interpret, they offer far greater insight into the strength and resilience of audience relationships.
This is more than a measurement challenge
Metrics shape newsroom behaviour. When pageviews dominated, editorial strategies optimised for clicks. When engagement metrics took over, formats designed to hold attention flourished.
If belonging becomes the true north, it will change how publishers think and act.
Newsrooms will need to shift their priorities:
- From one-off articles to consistent formats and ongoing narratives
- From chasing new visitors to retaining and rewarding loyal ones
- From measuring activity to understanding commitment
- From broad, impersonal reach to creating spaces for identity and participation
These are not small adjustments. They require cultural as well as operational change.
But they reflect the reality of media today. Scale without loyalty no longer delivers sustainable business models. Belonging, though harder to quantify, is now the most reliable predictor of future success.
The future of KPIs is relational, not transactional
Clicks are easy to count. Relationships are not.
This does not mean that pageviews and sessions will disappear from reports. Nor should they. Awareness and attention remain vital parts of the audience journey.
But publishers who stop there will miss what matters most.
Belonging offers a clearer view of whether journalism is resonating. It reflects the strength of community and the likelihood of retention. It provides a foundation for reader revenue and brand advocacy.
Most importantly, it shifts the editorial mission away from serving algorithms and towards serving people.
A pageview shows that you were noticed. A return visit shows that you were valued. Belonging shows that you matter.
As news organisations navigate a post-platform, loyalty-driven landscape, success will not belong to those who attract the most visitors. It will belong to those who turn readers into regulars, and regulars into advocates.
That journey starts with rethinking what you measure, and why.
Author Heiko Scherer is the founder and CEO of tchop, a platform that helps publishers to build thriving communities around their brands that they fully own and control. Learn more at tchop.io, connect with him on Linkedin.
