E.W. Scripps Company Maximizes Revenue and Reader Quality with Outbrain Smartfeed

Success Story

The E.W. Scripps Company serves audiences and businesses through a growing portfolio of local and national media brands. Scripps is one of the nation’s largest independent TV station owners while also maintaining a collection of national journalism and content businesses including Newsy, Stitcher, and Triton.

Overview

As a leader in the media and publishing space, Scripps wanted to promote reader engagement through a personalized experience while maximizing RPMs and increasing revenue for their business.

Solution

Scripps used Smartfeed to maximize revenue by creating an optimal mix of paid and organic content in an engaging feed layout, creating a continuous stream of fresh content for readers to discover. These personalized discovery feeds led to higher CTR, RPM, and internal site recirculation. Outbrain delivered a clean, curated journey based on site loyalty.

Results

Scripps experienced incredible results over time, with Smartfeed delivering and exceeding expectations through multiple monetization streams. With the introduction of Smartfeed, Scripps saw a 43% increase in direct revenue and a 15% increase in programmatic revenue.

Paid CTRs and RPM had significant lifts on desktop and mobile, particularly when combined with Scripps’ site redesign.

The addition of Outbrain organic recommendations across Scripps’ properties led to successful recirculation, driving an average of one million additional PVs per month, and maximized display ad revenue streams.

The Smartfeed layout also led to longer sessions on site, with more pages viewed per session and lower bounce rates, cultivating loyal and engaged readers.

Results by Numbers

74% Lift in RPM, Desktop
73% Lift in RPM, Mobile
165% Longer Average Session Duration
58% Higher Pages Per Session
70% Lift in Paid CTR, Desktop
68% Lift in Paid CTR, Mobile
38% Lower Bounce Rates

We’re thrilled with our Smartfeed results. Our site experience is clean, engaging and truly customized. Smartfeed is a major contributor to the look, feel, and functionality of our pages. The additional revenue and RPMs have maintained over time and in some cases continued to improve. Smartfeed is a solution that delivers on all of our business needs, from engagement to revenue.”

Brandon Beard, Director, Passive Revenue, The E.W. Scripps Company