End-to-end KPI’s

A unified, full-funnel KPI set gives editors and commercial teams a common view of performance throughout platforms.

Modern newsrooms reach audiences on websites, apps, social platforms, newsletters, audio, and video. With teams spread out, they need a single vocabulary of performance; a shared set of KPIs keeps editors, product specialists, and commercial teams aligned, removes confusion about what matters, and lets everyone assess progress on the same terms. The baseline metrics shown here span the entire audience journey, covering attraction, engagement, retention, and monetisation, so they provide a clear, common starting point that any newsroom can build on.

A unified, end-to-end KPI set links upper-funnel reach to mid-funnel engagement and lower-funnel revenue, highlighting opportunities such as subscriptions, commerce, and advertising. The framework lets teams compare brands consistently, decide where to focus effort, and demonstrate how editorial choices translate into money.

Funnel stages and headline metrics

  • Acquire – Views show how many pieces of content people open, while Monetisable clicks reveal commerce intent and native-advertising activity.

  • Engage – Time spent captures active consumption, and Repeat visitor rate indicates how often audiences return within a chosen window.

  • Retain – Direct-relationship views track visits that start on owned surfaces such as the homepage, newsletters, or apps, and Subscriptions & Churn signal long-term value.

Monetisation throughout the funnel

  • Display ad impressions convert reach into revenue on first-party properties.

  • Video and audio ad impressions aggregate paid inventory from on-site players, third-party channels, and podcasts, giving one view of audiovisual ad performance.

Because the set is lightweight and the definitions are identical everywhere, teams can benchmark performance, choose the biggest levers for growth, and prove how editorial decisions drive results.

Direct-relationship unique pageviews is one of my favorite metrics right now. It measures people who arrive through the homepage, an index page, often via branded search such as New Yorker crossword, our newsletters, or our apps. It captures the truest, most core audience because we are not relying on Google, ChatGPT, Meta, or any other platform to reach them.

Sarah Marshall, Condé Nast