Stacked for Success: Best Practice Tips for Publishers in an Evolving Ecosystem | For Publishers

Engagement for publishers can be tough in this current media climate: A focus on readership has shifted to be focused on revenue-driving subscribers, which are stagnating across the board, according to Reuters research — and delivering news only on a single channel isn’t enough to get and maintain interest.

Despite these trends that show publishers that the time is now to change the old way of distributing news, we share evidence-backed best practices that are working for the 4k+ publishers that we maintain relationships with on the Stacker newswire.

Here’s a guide to what you can do to leverage the successes that major publishers like Gray Media have had to keep audiences plugged in.

Newsletters: The foundation of reader loyalty

For a while now, newsletters have come back from the dead as a dependable channel for retention and loyalty, bringing the need-to-know news to the top of busy readers’ inboxes.

Stacker’s friends at the Santa Barbara publication Edhat have a newsletter that curates local stories plus Stacker newswire stories, with an average open rate of 60%. Seattle Medium has a similar content strategy and is averaging 8.4% click-through rate, which is double the benchmarks reported from newsletter experts like Mailchimp.

Using Stacker stories that already meet the bar for high-quality journalism and are optimized for interest and engagement, we’ve seen publishers have success with the right kinds of content and frequency that doesn’t overdo it. Publisher e-newsletters are finding success when they:

• Mix content: Blend your core reporting with unique, high-performing content from Stacker or other publications, adding variety while filling coverage gaps.
• Cadence: Consider an additional digest catered to specific reader interests. According to research, more e-newsletters leads to stronger reading habits and higher retention.
• Monetization: Use content as a soft gate to encourage email signups to the newsletter.

👀 One political news network used Stacker stories to convert their readers into thousands of subscribers, averaging about 10 subscribers per Stacker story.

Social media: Capturing new audiences and driving traffic

Unsurprisingly, social media now surpasses TV and news sites as the primary news source for over half of Americans, Reuters reports, emphasizing a mobile-first, fragmented consumption pattern.

In a Stacker survey of partner publishers in February 2025, publishers reported that social referrals are beginning to gain steam after five years of decline. An analysis by Similarweb and Press Gazette in March 2025 found that one-third of the world’s biggest news sites had increasing total social visits and growth in Facebook’s share of traffic. Gray Media even reported to Stacker that Meta is currently a top traffic source for their readers.

Based on what we’re seeing from our publisher partners and existing research, like the 2025 Reuters Digital News Report, these are the platform strategies that are working for publishers now:

• Prioritize Facebook: Yes, Facebook might feel like old news, but it remains the top social platform for news in the U.S.
• Maximize reach: Using the same content across multiple platforms — for instance, Facebook and Instagram via integrated tools — can help maximize efficiency and bang for your buck, while ensuring that users don’t miss what’s relevant to them.
• Test new platforms: If you’re already a pro on social, experiment regularly as the algorithm changes, and test your stories on newer channels like Threads and Bluesky, which we’ve seen show promise in early experiments.
• Get local & analytical: For your content strategy, local context remains the top driver of trust with readers, so regularly posting bite-size local insights that impact readers' lives, like real estate or job listings, can give your engagement a boost. And to really understand the effects of your content, integrate Facebook and Google Analytics, plus real-time tools like Chartbeat or Parse.ly for qualitative data that spots spikes, so you can boost posts and optimize your headlines or story placement.

Source: Pew Research Center, Fact Sheet, September 2025

Your homepage: The engine of habitual visits

Direct website traffic to your homepage or “dark social” shares (like untracked article links that are often shared in messaging apps or email) continue to be a top traffic source and are critical for brand recall.

👀 According to Chartbeat analysis, nearly half of first-time homepage visitors return within seven days, making it a powerful loyalty tool. Visitors to more than one webpage are also 2–3x more engaged with higher pageviews and time on site than those from search or social.

Here’s how publishers can optimize their homepage for visitor loyalty:

• Refresh frequently: An hourly-updated homepage drives higher click-through rates than if it's only updated once or twice daily.
• Design for habits: Ensure that your website has clear navigation so that visitors can easily find fresh, diverse content that makes them want to return again and again.
• Curate mix: Blend an automated national newswire like Stacker that also includes manual human judgment for more comprehensive coverage on your site.
• Strategic placement: Reserve story slots for rotating content on evergreen or trending topics (Stacker’s Story Hub has thousands of options) to ensure freshness. Put your own spin on it by weaving in local stories alongside hyperlocal reporting.

Push alerts: Building habit and direct connection

Push notifications are another highly valuable and simple way to connect directly with audiences and build regular readership habits. Users who opt in to push notifications are more likely to visit, subscribe, or donate.

Example of a push notification that promotes visibility with key stories

But getting the balance right — so you don’t pester audiences — is crucial to maintaining trust and loyalty in your publication. Here’s how to walk the line to keep your audience tapped in:

• Frequency & timing: Cap alerts within industry norms. For instance, local outlets average three times a day and time lighter content like trend-driven stories for midday or early evening — rather than breaking news coverage.
• Content mix: Blend original reporting with shareable, trend-driven stories for variety.

👀 Gray Media added trend-driven Stacker stories as push alerts alongside their coverage, resulting in 9 out of 10 stories delivering above-average open rates. Some examples:

👉 A rare, historically massive cicada season is coming – 503k pageviews
👉 Netflix cancels cheapest plan as subscribers have to choose – 102k pageviews

• Optimization: To get your push strategy right, ensure your website is mobile-friendly with clean headlines and quick load times for a seamless experience, even if you don’t have a dedicated app.

Heading into 2026, while search and social are still crucial for publishers that want to acquire new users, direct channels like alerts and email newsletters are what drive the most frequent use and audience loyalty.

We would love to connect

See how you can get success like Gray Media by adding Stacker stories to your news mix.

To learn more about how the Stacker Newswire can help you grow and retain your audience, reach out to us at publishers@stacker.com.

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