The Indian newspaper and magazine industry, a cornerstone of our society, is expected to clock a CAGR of 2.23% over the next 5 years. While print continues to dominate today, digital is fast catching up and is poised to capture 50% of the 200 million+ reader base. News organizations are, therefore, having to respond to the rising influence of digital media at a strategic level.
The Hindu, a pioneer in the newspaper industry with a dedicated readership since 1878, has consistently stayed ahead of this trend, through innovation and foresight. It was among the first mainstream newspapers to offer a digital edition in India, setting up a news website in 1995. Today, its digital versions—including the website, app, and ePaper—cater to an ever-growing audience.
The growing popularity of search engines and social media platforms as news sources is proof of how reader behavior is evolving over time. Responding to these changes, The Hindu has been agile in crafting new ways to attract, engage and retain readers online. Since 2021, The Hindu has used CleverTap as an all-in-one user engagement platform, leveraging many of its powerful features to ramp up its user engagement strategies.
Readers are engaging with online content in increasingly unconventional ways, making it clear that we need a deep understanding of these behavioral changes to connect with them effectively. CleverTap’s capabilities have helped us better understand and act on these user patterns.”
Ashok Subramanian P,
Digital Head – Subscriptions & Marketing
A Value-Driven Approach to Acquisition and Onboarding
The Hindu believes in delivering value to readers throughout their engagement with them, and it starts even before they become subscribers. For instance, the newsbrand that is known for its wide and insightful election coverage, decided to share premium articles with non-subscribers during the Indian National Elections in June 2024. This helped boost acquisitions and engagement, with the latter seeing a remarkable 12% jump during the election month.
Readers who decide to subscribe are onboarded seamlessly through tailored journeys, orchestrated on CleverTap. Over the first ten days, a series of sharply designed messages are sent via Email and WhatsApp to welcome new subscribers and help them get familiar with The Hindu’s features and offerings. By adopting a smart approach to segmenting the audience and personalizing these messages (for example, with the reader’s geographical location), a boost in engagement rates was achieved: Email open rates went up by 21% and Click rates increased by 17%.
The biggest success has been the welcome Email. It is currently delivered in two variations (one for India-based users and another for international users) and fetches a 100% open rate.
Achieving maximum user engagement with the welcome Email is a great sign. Our insights tell us that high levels of initial reader engagement predict higher chances of long-term engagement and retention.”
Jeevanand V. S.
Growth Analyst
Leveraging Data for Dynamic, Tailored Engagement
In its quest to understand readers better, The Hindu conducted a subscriber survey of content preferences. The insights gleaned from it are driving the personalization of story recommendations, delivered through weekly Email and WhatsApp newsletters as well as daily push notifications. This data-led personalization has led to a 50% increase in open rates. Additionally, the team is witnessing a significant 74% increase in users returning to The Hindu website or app within 30 minutes of opening a message.
Encouraged by the outcomes, The Hindu has also leveraged the auto-segmentation feature based on RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary). With this powerful segmentation option, the team is able to adopt a more granular approach to identifying newly inactive users whose subscriptions are at a higher risk of lapsing. These users are being re-engaged quickly with trending content recommendations.
Innovative Methods to Deepen Engagement
Reader expectations are ever-increasing, more so from a quality newsbrand like The Hindu. Knowing this, the team has identified webinars–that showcase deep analysis of current and important topics by leading experts at The Hindu–as a route to sustained engagement amongst its subscribers.
Subscribers who register for webinars tend to be 30% more engaged. To expand this segment, the team has begun driving awareness of upcoming webinars through in-app notifications. It has also innovated with CleverTap to develop a WhatsApp bot to automate nudges to subscribers who have registered for the webinar. The same bot also alerts subscribers who attended earlier webinars, with a “Would you like to register?” message when there is an upcoming webinar. This manner of targeted engagement, complemented with In-app communications, has driven up registrations by 5X in recent webinars.
Across the board, these data-driven, personalized engagement approaches have helped The Hindu increase monthly subscriber engagement by 16%, and the average page views per subscriber by 39% within a few months.
With CleverTap, we have enhanced our understanding of our readers, enriched their experience, and are continually innovating to deeply engage and retain them.”
Ashok Subramanian P,
Digital Head – Subscriptions & Marketing
Creating Personalized Renewal Journeys for Higher Retention
The Hindu has monthly, yearly, and even two-yearly subscription plans. Non-renewals can be an exit route for even long-standing subscribers and the team closely monitors user behavior as the renewal date approaches. For example, unusual inactivity in the period before renewal may indicate higher chances of non-renewal. Based on such granular insights and the length of subscription plans, The Hindu reaches out to users, in the period leading to the renewal date, with personalized offers and discounts. The Journeys capability on CleverTap has proven useful in these tailored retention efforts.
“We have used CleverTap’s Journeys feature extensively throughout the subscriber lifecycle,” says Subramanian. “It provides a great platform to implement our understanding of user behavior, and helps tailor the right response in real time, aligned with our goals of highly personalized engagement.”
A Blend of Tradition and Technology Wins the Game
By adapting to new user behaviours, The Hindu is preserving its rich legacy and thriving in a rapidly changing digital landscape. Insights-led, personalized engagement that focuses on value for the reader throughout the lifecycle will ensure the news brand sustains and builds on its leadership position. CleverTap strives to be a long-term partner in enabling this exceptional journey.
