• How one publisher used News@me to boost its audience by increasing its subscriber list and its returning traffic.
• Why creating a new approach of a personalized newsletter can make a better reader experience.

Publisher website case: The Stanford Daily
Contact: Joseph Beyda, President and Editor in Chief
Twitter: twitter.com/Stanford_Daily
Location: Stanford, California
Number of employees: The Daily’s work is produced by a team of nearly 200 students

Quick Read

The Stanford Daily is Stanford’s independent student-run newspaper. Founded in 1892, we print 8,000 copies five days a week when school is in session and reach thousands of students and community members online every day.

Challenge

Like many publishers, The Daily Stanford wanted to find a way to attract more returning visitors to their website.

Enter Joey, The Stanford Daily Editor in Chief:

Who are you Joey?
I’m the editor in chief at The Stanford Daily, and the former webmaster. Currently, I manage our staff of over 100 student editors, writers, photographers and graphic artists. On a daily basis, I’m responsible for getting a paper out the door, making publication decisions and helping advance the organization into the digital age.

What were the issues you were facing?
Previously, we had a hard time reaching readers who specialized in a specific topic. For example, during college football season we had a segment of readers who would come to our site looking for our coverage of the Stanford football team on a daily basis. However, with our single email newsletter that we sent to our entire subscriber base, we had no way to target our football readers.

Why have you chosen News@me among others services?
News@me is easy to use and integrates well into our WordPress backend. It also has comprehensive analytics that allow you to track the service’s performance over time.

How does it help you daily for your business?
Each week, hundreds of readers are driven back to our website for articles they wouldn’t have stumbled upon otherwise. In essence, this converts one-time readers into consistent readers.

What feature of News@me do you like the most?
The analytics are my favorite feature of News@me. I can track not only how many readers came to our site on any given day, but which tags are performing the best and building a strong subscriber base. With this information at my team’s fingertips, we can tag articles more precisely in the future to increase the service’s effect.

What’s the greatest feedback you received from a client about this curated newsletter?
A lot of our readers of specific topics (like football) have told us that they really value being alerted whenever we write about their particular interests.

Would you recommend it?
I would absolutely recommend News@me. It’s a great way to drive traffic and provide your readers with what they’re really looking for.

Lessons learned from this case: