Why Financial Publishers Struggle With Reader Engagement & How to Fix It

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Financial news has never been more important. Markets move faster, retail investors are more active, and economic uncertainty keeps audiences coming back for information. Yet financial publishers are finding themselves in a paradox: demand is higher, but reader engagement remains low.

The Reuters Digital News Report 2025 highlights that audiences are shifting to social platforms, short-form video, and even finance influencers as their primary news sources – which is especially true for younger audiences – instead of traditional outlets. At the same time, digital subscriptions have plateaued, and nearly 40% of people now actively avoid news altogether, citing information overload or negativity.

For financial publishers, this is not just a trend. It’s an existential challenge. Engagement has become the defining factor in subscription growth, advertiser value, and long-term survival.

So why is reader engagement so hard to achieve today? And what can financial publishers do to turn the tide?

The engagement gap in financial news publishing

What is reader engagement?

Reader engagement is the depth and quality of a reader’s interaction with content, measured by attention, frequency, and meaningful actions that signal interest and loyalty.

Despite an abundance of content, financial publishers are grappling with what we might call the “engagement gap”:

• Skimming, not staying: Readers often skim headlines or the first few paragraphs without finishing the article. The Financial Times’ strategies team found that “quality reads” and “depth of reading” are far stronger predictors of subscription conversions than raw pageviews . This underscores the problem — volume isn’t translating into value.
• Fragmented attention: Platforms like TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube have become go-to sources for younger readers looking for quick explanations or opinions. These audiences are drifting further away from publisher websites.
• Trust issues: The Reuters report also highlights that readers are cautious about misinformation and sceptical of AI-generated summaries. Trust in news remains fragile, and financial news — often complex and technical — is particularly at risk.
• Subscription fatigue: Even in wealthier countries, digital subscription growth has stalled. Many of the readers willing to pay have already subscribed; converting the next cohort requires deeper engagement and perceived value.

In short: financial publishers are competing in a crowded environment, where attention is short, alternatives are plentiful, and loyalty is fragile.

Why audience engagement is more critical in financial news

All publishers need engagement, but financial publishers have even more at stake. Their audiences are affluent, educated, and highly influential. Advertisers pay premiums to reach them, and subscriptions often carry a higher ARPU (average revenue per user) than in general news.

But here’s the catch: advertisers and subscribers don’t pay for reach, they pay for attention.

The INMA “Beyond the Funnel” points out that sustainable growth no longer comes from acquisition alone. The real engine is retention, loyalty, and habit formation. Readers who come back daily, who interact with content, and who feel a sense of belonging are the ones who sustain long-term revenue.

For financial publishers, the implications are clear: without strong engagement, you risk becoming just another “headline ticker” that audiences glance at but don’t stick with.

Top audience engagement strategies for digital publishers to score on retention and acquisition

A critical insight from FT Strategies is that engagement isn’t only about keeping existing readers, it also plays a major role in acquiring new ones.

For example:

• The Financial Times uses its “Lantern dashboard” to track depth of reading and return frequency. These are not just retention metrics; they help identify which visitors are likely to convert into paying subscribers.
• The Wall Street Journal tracks real-time “article interest” and “article engagement” metrics, comparing click-throughs to active reading time. If interest is high but engagement is low, editors can adjust headlines or content framing within minutes.

For financial publishers, this dual role of keeping current subscribers while qualifying new prospects is critical. It means that tools and strategies designed to deepen audience engagement can also improve the top of the subscription funnel.

Best way to boost engagement in digital publishing: from interactivity to gamification

So, what actually works? Industry research, combined with real-world publisher experiments, points to several approaches.

1. Real-time interactivity

Interactivity isn’t just about clicking on a poll – it’s about giving readers ways to connect financial news directly to their own decisions. During major events like earnings releases, central bank announcements, or elections, readers can do more than read headlines with modern tools:

• Track market reactions in real time alongside coverage.
• Set personalised alerts on the stocks or portfolios they follow.
• Explore related news automatically linked to their watchlists.
• Follow editorial portfolios curated by financial experts and compare performance to their own.

This blend of market analytics with journalism turns financial news from a passive experience into an actionable, personalised journey. Instead of bouncing after a quick skim, readers stay longer, return more often, and build habits around the publisher’s platform – because it becomes part of their financial life, not just a news feed.

2. Gamified experiences

Gamification is another proven driver of engagement, especially with younger audiences. According to INMA insights, Gen Z prefers participatory and interactive experiences over passive reading.

Financial news is uniquely suited for gamification:

• Investment competitions let readers simulate trading in a safe environment.
• Weekly or monthly leagues encourage habit formation, bringing users back regularly.
• Leaderboards and streaks foster community and social sharing.

For publishers, the benefits are twofold: news publishers attract new, younger audiences who might otherwise consume finance on TikTok, while also building loyalty loops that increase time-on-site and reduce churn.

3. Personalisation at scale

One of the clearest lessons from the past year is that audiences won’t engage with one-size-fits-all financial content. Retail investors, institutional readers, and casual finance enthusiasts all come with very different goals and levels of expertise. If coverage doesn’t match those needs, readers disengage — or worse, they turn to platforms that do.

That’s why personalisation has become a core revenue driver for financial publishers. According to industry research, habit formation and subscription retention are far stronger when audiences feel the content is tailored to their financial interests.

A good example is how Dagens Næringsliv (DN) integrates Pulse into its financial section, where readers can personalise their watchlists, track their own portfolios, and explore relevant news. This blend of journalism and market tools not only deepens engagement but also converts financial interest into subscription growth.

Tools like Norkon’s Pulse and Fantasy Funds make this scalable:

• Pulse allows readers to build personalised watchlists, receive market alerts, and connect news directly to their portfolios. It even enables “editorial portfolios,” where subscribers can follow the strategies of expert journalists or analysts.
• Fantasy Funds lets publishers run themed leagues, from casual investing to sector-specific competitions, aligning with audience interests and editorial priorities.
• Data collected through interaction feeds into smarter recommendations, newsletters, and subscription offers, ensuring each reader’s journey feels uniquely relevant.

Personalisation in financial news isn’t just a feature, it’s the bridge between journalism and the decisions readers care most about. Done well, it turns passive browsers into loyal subscribers.

4. Multimedia formats

Another strategy that has proven to be highly successful to drive audience engagement is when content is delivered across different formats: video, audio, interactive visuals, charts, or any other visual support.

This matters in finance because audiences often want quick updates or explainer-style content:

• Short video explainers of earnings highlights
• Interactive charts or data visualisations
• Audio clips of analyst commentary

Publishers that integrate these formats not only increase time-on-site but also become harder to replace by AI summarisation tools. Live blogs have proven to be a great tool to achieve exactly this, as used by Euroinvestor, for example.

The Payoff: Engagement Metrics That Matter

What gets measured, gets managed. But many publishers are still over-reliant on volume metrics like pageviews, while leading financial publishers are shifting toward value metrics:

• Attention time (how long readers actively engage with content).
• Quality reads (completion rates, scroll depth).
• Return frequency (how often readers come back within a set period).
• Conversion propensity (likelihood of turning into a subscriber).

As an example, Mediahuis uses subscriber attention time as a core metric, while The Times and Sunday Times track “quality reads” and “active days” as retention predictors (INMA).

These metrics align far better with business outcomes than raw traffic counts. For financial publishers, tracking how tools like Pulse and Fantasy Funds affect these metrics can directly demonstrate ROI, both in ad performance and subscription growth.

Building a future-proof engagement strategy

Here’s a practical framework financial publishers can apply over the next 90 days:

1. Reset your metrics: Move from volume to value. Add dashboards for attention time, quality reads, and return frequency.
2. Develop event playbooks: Create ready-to-launch interactive coverage packages for key financial moments (earnings, Fed/ECB decisions, elections).
3. Launch gamified loyalty products: Pilot a Fantasy Funds league to attract and retain younger readers.
4. Invest in owned channels: Strengthen newsletters, apps, and notifications as part of a “zero-search strategy,” preparing for declining referrals from Google.
5. Integrate multimedia: Experiment with short video explainers, live chats, or podcasts to diversify engagement formats.

Summary

Financial publishing isn’t about competing to break news first. It’s about creating experiences that build trust, loyalty, and community. Engagement is both the engine of retention and the filter for acquisition.

Publishers who treat engagement as their most valuable currency and leverage strategies such as user interactivity, gamification, and personalised experiences, will undoubtedly see a major lift in 2026 and beyond.

At Norkon, we specialise in innovative solutions for financial news and cater specifically to this industry segment. Our stock market gamification solution, Fantasy Funds, and our financial portal, Pulse, where personalised investor tools are coupled with journalistic content help bridge the gap between markets and news. These solutions empower publishers to engage audiences, attract new readers, and build sustainable revenue.

Are you curious to learn more? Read up on how we help drive 1/3 of DN’s total web traffic!