This article was originally published on Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative website and is republished here with permission.

When newspaper editors decide to “take the wire” instead of assigning staff to report a story, some consider it a compromise that could discourage regular readers.

Turns out, readers don’t mind at all.

A first-of-its-kind analysis using data from Northwestern University’s Medill Subscriber Engagement Index reveals that wire service and syndicated content can help to develop reading habits and retain subscribers among light and very light readers. Even for the most ardent, heavier readers, wire content has a neutral — not negative — effect.

“Syndicated content is important to grow engagement,” said Edward Malthouse, research director at Northwestern’s Medill Spiegel Research Center and Erastus Otis Haven Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications. “Any story’s a good story if you can get me to read it.”

The index, launched last year, enables participating news outlets to track their digital subscribers. It identifies content that correlates with retention and pinpoints customers most at risk of giving up their subscriptions.

This latest analysis took into account tens of millions of page views by digital subscribers of two participating newspapers over 23 months, from Jan. 1, 2020, to Nov. 30, 2021.

At first glance, the data appeared to show that wire service content was not associated with retention or regularity, or had negative associations, Malthouse said. The initial findings aligned with conventional wisdom that readers put a greater value on original news accounts than on widely available, commoditized stories.

A more detailed look at the data, however, showed the surprising benefit of wire service stories for retaining digital readers who rarely use their subscriptions. News organizations need to reach these underengaged subscribers before they cancel, and wire content can help, Malthouse said. “It’s magic for light readers.”

The latest findings were “obviously music to our ears,” said Jim Kennedy, senior vice president of strategy and enterprise development at The Associated Press, a leading wire service. “We’ve always felt the local news readers are concerned about the whole range of news … world, national, business, sports, entertainment. You’re forcing them to look elsewhere if you don’t run any of it.”

‘Zombies’ loom large

Keeping readers engaged is mission-critical for news organizations that count among their paying subscribers so-called “zombies” who use their subscriptions less than once a month.

A Spiegel Center data analysis last year found that 49% of digital subscribers didn’t visit the websites they had paid for even once every 30 days. Infrequent web visits were especially common among people with combined print and digital subscriptions, but a fifth of digital-only subscribers also were “zombies.” No one knows how long these disengaged readers will continue to pay for local news when they’re only rarely connecting with it.

Kennedy suggested the latest research could shed light on how to reengage the “zombies.” “Why not give your audience the full range of what you can deliver?” Kennedy asked. “The ‘zombies’ could become more active readers if you can give them some of this information.”

In digging into data from the Index, Medill’s Malthouse found that many participating newspapers don’t use much AP content and, consequently, focus primarily on news, with some sports coverage. They tend to publish little on niche topics such as music, science, travel and less-popular sports such as ice hockey.

AP has found that readers do indeed leave their local news sites in search of related content elsewhere, Kennedy said, as when pro football fans read about their hometown team in local media, then read about the rest of the NFL elsewhere. “Why not give them some of that?” he asked.

The Medill data analysis indicates that increasing the readership of AP business stories has the most potential to reduce churn among subscribers. AP sports, local and health stories have the same effect, though to a lesser degree, the analysis shows.

Even so, determining which wire stories will help keep readers engaged is still part art as well as science. “If someone’s not interested in business, showing them a bunch of AP business stories isn’t going to help,” Malthouse said. “You want to avoid information overload.”

News organizations should blend sound editorial judgment with automated recommendation systems that direct readers to stories fitting their personal interests, he said. “You want to detect passion points for that reader. Make it easier for me to find the content that I want.”

At the same time, Malthouse said, “We should not create echo chambers by only showing political stories on one end of the spectrum.”

Poynter’s Rick Edmonds said the latest findings were “not all that surprising,” given the strong, broad coverage available through wire and syndicated reports.

“AP sometimes gets a bad rap that they’re sort of the backstop. That hasn’t been true for quite a long time,” said Edmonds, a media business analyst. “The quality of their coverage is really quite high. They have a well-earned reputation for fairness and objectivity.”

Medill Index growing fast

Medill’s Spiegel Research Center and the Local News Initiative oversee the index, with technical support from Glenview, Illinois-based Deeta Analytics. Mather Economics, an Atlanta-based company that handles metrics for news organizations, provides data for analysis in the Index. Earlier this year, the Google News Initiative provided a major gift to support the Index for at least the next two years. It also is supported by the Myrta J. Pulliam Charitable Trust and other donors to the Local News Initiative and Spiegel.

News organizations participating in the index receive access to dashboards on a wide array of metrics, including retention rates, subscribers added, revenue per subscriber, frequency of news consumption, readership by topic, device types being used, and in-market and out-of-market readership. The index also includes a strategic planning tool that uses current data to predict future results.

Participation currently is free for local news organizations, and 52 were taking part as of February 2022, according to Tim Franklin, a professor who heads the Local News Initiative, a project aimed at making local news outlets financially stronger and more responsive to their communities. By the end of the first half of this year, Franklin expects to nearly triple the number of participating outlets to 150.

“We’ve been inundated with interest in the Medill Index since it became operational last year,” said Franklin, who is senior associate dean and the John M. Mutz Chair in Local News. “I think that’s a reflection of how valuable this tool can be for local news organizations, and of how essential reader revenue now is for the sustainability of those outlets. The Index is the right tool at the right time for the industry.”

Medill is in the process of onboarding local news organizations into the Index, Franklin said. To learn more, contact MedillIndex@Northwestern.edu.