The Challenge
NewsDaily (name changed) is a digital news publisher with 10M monthly unique visitors across their website, iOS app, Android app, and email newsletters. They needed to understand reader behavior across all touchpoints—but each platform had its own siloed analytics.
Key Problems
- Fragmented data: Web in GA4, apps in Firebase, newsletters in Mailchimp
- No cross-platform identity: Same reader appeared as 3 different users
- Content intelligence gap: Couldn't track article performance across platforms
- Subscription blindness: Unclear which content drove subscriptions
- Ad revenue mystery: Couldn't optimize for engaged readers
The Solution
We built a unified event collection layer using Jitsu, feeding into PostHog for product analytics and ClickHouse for advanced content analysis.
Architecture Overview
- Jitsu: Central event hub collecting from all sources
- PostHog: Reader engagement analytics, funnels, and cohorts
- ClickHouse: Content performance warehouse with article-level metrics
- Identity resolution: Unified reader profiles across platforms
Event Sources
- Website: Jitsu JavaScript SDK tracking page views, scroll depth, article completion
- iOS App: Jitsu Swift SDK with the same event schema
- Android App: Jitsu Kotlin SDK maintaining consistency
- Newsletters: Webhook integration for opens, clicks, and subscriptions
- Subscription system: Backend events for trials, conversions, and churn
Identity Resolution
The key challenge was connecting anonymous readers to known subscribers. We implemented a progressive identity resolution system:
- Anonymous visitors get a first-party cookie ID
- Newsletter signups link email to cookie ID
- App installs link device ID to email (if logged in)
- All IDs merge into a unified reader profile in ClickHouse
Content Intelligence
Article Performance Dashboard
- Real-time views, scroll depth, and completion rate by article
- Cross-platform reach (same article on web vs. app vs. newsletter)
- Subscription conversion rate by article (which content drives upgrades?)
- Reader recirculation (what do engaged readers read next?)
Reader Segmentation
- Casual readers: 1-2 articles/month, ad-supported
- Engaged readers: 10+ articles/month, subscription candidates
- Subscribers: Premium content consumption patterns
- Churning: Declining engagement, retention targets
Results
- Unified reader view: See each reader's full journey across platforms
- Content ROI: Identified articles that drove 60% of subscription conversions
- Newsletter optimization: A/B tested subject lines with engagement tracking
- 99.9% pipeline uptime: Jitsu's reliability handled traffic spikes on breaking news
- 50% faster insights: Editors get content performance data in real-time
Business Impact
With content intelligence, the editorial team shifted focus to high-converting topics, increasing subscription conversion rate by 18% in 6 months.
"We finally understand our readers as people, not pageviews. Seeing someone's journey from a newsletter click to a subscription—across web and app—changed how we think about content strategy."